There was the sound of chimes as the tunnel spiraled toward and then around me. Soon there was nothing to be seen--no crying Sandy, no ambulance attendants trying to jump-start my dead body, no desperate chatter with the hospital over the radio--only a tunnel that engulfed me completely and the intensely beautiful sound of seven chimes ringing in rhythmic succession.

I looked ahead into the darkness. There was a light up there, and I began to move toward it as quickly as possible. I was moving without legs at a high rate of speed. Ahead the light became brighter and brighter until it overtook the darkness and left me standing in a paradise of brilliant light. This was the brightest light I had ever seen, but in spite of that, it didn't hurt my eyes in the least. Unlike the pain one might feel when walking into sunlight from a dark room, this light was soothing to my eyes.

I looked to my right and could see a silver form appearing like a silhouette through mist. As it approached I began to feel a deep sense of love that encompassed all of the meanings of the word. It was as though I were seeing a lover, mother, and best friend, multiplied a thousandfold. As the Being of Light came closer, these feelings of love intensified until they became almost too pleasurable to withstand. I had the sense of becoming less dense, as though I had lost twenty or thirty pounds. The burden of my body had been left behind, and now I was an unencumbered spirit. I looked at my hand. It was translucent and shimmering and moved with fluidity, like the water in the ocean. I looked down at my chest. It, too, had the translucence and flow of fine silk in a light breeze.

The Being of Light stood directly in front of me. As I gazed into its essence I could see prisms of color, as though it were composed of thousands of tiny diamonds, each emitting the colors of the rainbow. I began to look around. Below us were other beings who looked like me. They appeared to be lost and shimmered at a rate that was far slower than the rate at which I shimmered. As I watched them I noticed that I slowed down as well. There was a discomfort in this reduced vibration that made me look away.

I looked above me. There were more Beings, these brighter and more radiant than I. I felt discomfort when looking at them as well because I began to vibrate faster. It was as though I had drunk too much coffee and was now speeding up and moving too fast. I looked away from them and straight ahead at the Being of Light, who now stood before me. I felt comfortable in his presence, a familiarity that made me believe he had felt every feeling I had ever had, from the time I took my first breath to the instant I was sizzled by lightning. Looking at this Being I had the feeling that no one could love me better, no one could have more empathy, sympathy, encouragement, and nonjudgmental compassion for me than this Being.

Although I refer to the Being of Light as a "he," I never saw this Being as either male or female. I have gone over this initial meeting many times in my head and can honestly say that none of the Beings I met had gender, just great power.

The Being of Light engulfed me, and as it did I began to experience my whole life, feeling and seeing everything that had ever happened to me. It was as though a dam had burst and every memory stored in my brain flowed out.

This life review was not pleasant. From the moment it began until it ended, I was faced with the sickening reality that I had been an unpleasant person, someone who was self-centered and mean.

The first thing I saw was my angry childhood. I saw myself torturing other children, stealing their bicycles or making them miserable at school...
...This perspective continued through every negative incident in my childhood, a substantial number to be sure. From fifth to twelfth grade, I estimate that I had at least six thousand fistfights. Now, as I reviewed my life in the bosom of the Being, I relived each one of those altercations, but with one major difference: I was the receiver.

I wasn't the receiver in the sense that I felt the punches I had thrown. Rather, I felt the anguish and the humiliation my opponent felt. Many of the people I fought had it coming, but others were innocent victims of my anger. Now I was forced to feel their pain.

The depth of emotion I experienced during this life review was astonishing. Not only could I feel the way both I and the other person had felt when an incident took place, I could also feel the feelings of the next person they reacted to. I was in a chain reaction of emotion, one that showed how deeply we affected one another. Luckily, not all of it was bad.

One time, for instance, my great-uncle and I were driving down the road when we saw a man beating a goat that had somehow gotten its head stuck in a fence. The man had a branch, and he was hitting the goat across the back as hard as he could while the goat bleated in fear and agony. I stopped the car and jumped across a ditch. Before the man could turn around, I was pounding him as hard as I could in the back of the head. I only stopped when my great-uncle pulled me off. I freed the goat and we left in a cloud of burnt rubber.

Now, as I relived that incident, I felt satisfaction at the humiliation that farmer had felt and joy in the relief the goat had felt. I knew that in the animal's own way, he had said "thank you."

But I wasn't always kind to animals. I saw myself whipping a dog with a belt. I had caught this dog chewing on our living room carpet and lost my temper. I had pulled my belt off and let him have it without trying a lesser form of discipline. Reliving this incident, I felt the dog's love for me and could tell that he didn't mean to do what he was doing. I felt his sorrow and pain.

Later, as I thought about these experiences, I realized that people who beat animals or are cruel to them are going to know how those animals felt when they have a life review.

I also discovered that it is not so much what you do that counts, but why you do it. For example, having a fistfight with someone for no real reason hurt me far more in the life review than having one with someone who had picked a fight with me. To relive hurting someone just for fun is the greatest pain of all. To relive hurting someone for a cause you believe in is not as painful.

This became obvious to me when my review took me back through my years in military and intelligence work. ...in Vietnam...I squeezed off the round and felt the rifle kick. A moment later I saw his head explode and his body crumple before the shocked troops.

That is what I saw when the incident happened.

During my life review, I experienced this incident from the perspective of the North Vietnamese colonel. I didn't feel the pain that he must have felt. Instead, I felt his confusion at having his head blown off and sadness as he left his body and realized that he would never go home again. Then I felt the rest of the chain reaction--the sad feelings of his family when they realized they would be without their provider.

I relived all of my kills in just this fashion. I saw myself make the kill and then I felt its horrible results.

...."We are all a link in the great chain of humanity," said the Being. "What you do has an effect on the other links in that chain."....

When I finished the review, I arrived at a point of reflection in which I was able to look back on what I had just witnessed and come to a conclusion. I was ashamed. I realized I had led a very selfish life, rarely reaching out to help anyone. Almost never had I smiled as an act of brotherly love or just handed somebody a dollar because he was down and needed a boost. No, my life had been for me and me alone. I hadn't given a damn about my fellow humans.

I looked at the Being of Light and felt a deep sense of sorrow and shame. I expected a rebuke, some kind of cosmic shaking of my soul. I had reviewed my life and what I had seen was a truly worthless person. What did I deserve if not a rebuke?

As I gazed at the Being of Light I felt as though he was touching me. From that contact I felt a love and joy that could only be compared to the nonjudgmental compassion that a grandfather has for a grandchild.
"Who you are is the difference that God makes," said the Being. "And that difference is love." There were no actual words spoken, but this thought was communicated to me through some form of telepathy. To this day, I am not sure of the exact meaning of this cryptic phrase. That is what was said, however.

....I could hear the Being's message in my head, again as if through telepathy: "Humans are powerful spiritual beings meant to create good on the earth. This good isn't usually accomplished in bold actions, but in singular acts of kindness between people. It's the little things that count, because they are more spontaneous and show who you truly are."

....We began to move upward. I could hear a hum as my body began to vibrate at a higher rate of speed. We moved up from one level to the next, like an airplane climbing gently into the sky. We were surrounded by shimmering mist, cool and thick like fog off the ocean.

....Through the mist I could see mountains the color of deep-blue velvet. There were no sharp peaks and craggy slopes with jagged edges in this mountain range. The mountains were gentle, with rounded peaks and lush crevices that were a deeper blue.

....Like wingless birds, we swept into a city of cathedrals. These cathedrals were made entirely of a crystalline substance that glowed with a light that shone powerfully from within. We stood before one....it had spires as high and pointed as those of the great cathedrals of France...

....I looked to the Being of Light and thought a question: Is this heaven? I received no answer. Instead we moved forward, up a splendid walk and through glowing portals of crystal.

....After the final visions, the thirteenth Being of Light answered my questions. He was more powerful than the others, or at least I assume he was.....He then told me my purpose on earth. "You are there to create spiritualistic capitalism," he said. "You are to engage this coming system by changing people's thought processes. Show people how to rely on their spiritual selves instead of the government and churches.
Religion is fine, but don't let people be entirely controlled by it. Don't let religions and institutions replace spirituality. You must remember that you are a mighty spiritual being with tremendous skill and capability. All you need to realize is that love is powerful. All you need to realize is that love is treating others the way they themselves want to be treated."


People in psychology/psychiatry will certainly be familiar with this man, Dannion's dear friend, Raymond Moody, Father of the Near Death Experience.