As nurses and doctors ran into the room I realized I didn’t want to be there anymore, so I traveled up and out of the building into the night sky. I felt free and unencumbered, and was drawn toward the stars. I realized I could just float over the treetops and go home to visit my family. But the call of the night sky was stronger. I wanted to soar into space and be free.
I realized I was traveling at the speed of thought. All I had to do was think upward and I would be moving until I changed my thought, or altered it. That was amazing, and it took some getting used to. I felt the way my old belief systems severely limited me. I realized my thoughts were instantly creating my reality, so I’d better be clear.
I turned, looked back and saw Earth. She was a jewel suspended in space, so beautiful! I loved Earth; in fact, I was more attached to it than I had been to my own body. I felt bereft to be leaving Her, and I now understood what was meant by the saying, “The Earth is our Mother. She is a living organism.” I had been too self-absorbed to notice.
As I was translating it for the Spanish version of this site, I was getting as emotional as the first time I read it, for several reasons.
First, because it reminds me very much of the regression I described here not long ago, in which I saw myself right after my death as James in my Royal Navy life, floating above the ship in the middle of the battle. I will never get tired of saying that NDE’s accounts and life-between-life regressions have a lot of similarities, and the phase of out-of-body experience is always one of the most impressive. I know dozens of people who have recalled spontaneously the moments following death. Even though the majority of them haven’t practiced the conscious separation of the body, as I have done, they are familiar with the feelings you get once you are free of your physical sheath. It is unbelievable, but very few researchers have realized this and they seem to take NDE’s accounts more seriously than reincarnationists’ accounts.
I don’t understand why some people talk of “spiritual connection” but when they do it they seem to refer only to human beings (usually a close relative or a hyper-romanticized “twin soul”) and however, they forget about the rest of living beings that inhabit the Earth and about the Earth herself. The connection takes place not only with what we choose, but with EVERYTHING. As happens with many other things, it is very beautiful to say everything is connected, we all are one and what you do or do not do affects the others. It is very beautiful to believe it, but very few truly internalize it, very few turn that belief into a true knowledge that guides their actions. Very few understand that, if that connection is real, it is our responsibility to stop doing things that harm Gaia and her inhabitants. And now it is the turn of excuses, and of course I am included. Perhaps it is not in our hands to stop or avoid the wars that are occurring right now in many places of the world (or perhaps it is?), but it is indeed in our hands to do little things so that there is a bit less violence. And yes, no matter how much some will rebel, get angry or insult us, I am referring in particular to practice veganism and make everything we can to take care of the planet, doing the least possible damage to those who live in it. It is not difficult. Seriously, it is not. Regrettably, for most people, the notion just remains empty words.
Third, in this NDE account I also found a parallelism with my way of thinking. I recently said in one of my entries in my other blog Soy reencarnacionista that it is very likely one of the main reasons we reincarnate again and again is simply that we love to feel emotions. I always use to say that when we are in the spiritual state everything must be fantastic: we know death doesn’t exist, we can relax and commit ourselves to other tasks. However, there are things we can’t do, there are things we will undoubtedly miss. It is obvious that being dead can’t be the same as being alive in a physical body. Long before remembering past lives, one of the scenes from The Lord of the Rings that always moved me is when Sam tells Frodo, in the middle of Mordor’s desolation, that he would love to return to the Shire to eat strawberries with cream in the spring. Strawberries with cream (now coconut cream, of course, with no animal suffering at all) have always been one of my favorite earthly pleasures.
“Do you remember the Shire, Mr. Frodo? It'll be spring soon. And the orchards will be in blossom. And the birds will be nesting in the hazel thicket. And they'll be sowing the summer barley in the lower fields... and eating the first of the strawberries with cream. Do you remember the taste of strawberries?”
“No, Sam. I can't recall the taste of food... nor the sound of water... nor the touch of grass. I'm... naked in the dark, with nothing, no veil... between me... and the wheel of fire! I can see him... with my waking eyes!”
“Then let us be rid of it... once and for all! Come on, Mr. Frodo. I can't carry it for you... but I can carry you!”
In addition, I learned it is truly marvelous to be in spirit form, to be in my light body, unlimited, all knowing, unencumbered. But it is only in our human bodies that we can hold a newborn baby to our breast, walk on a beach at sunrise, make love, smell a rose, or taste a strawberry. It is here in our bodies that the lessons of love are made manifest. It is on this marvelous human adventure that we actually increase the God Consciousness, as co-creators... whenever we choose Love... knowing of course that there is Free Will... there is rejoicing in Heaven every time I take a deep breath, with consciousness, I am remembering and renewing my spirit, my connection to Spirit, and the privilege of being alive.