Illustration of a man walking into a beam of light overlaid with an image of the cosmos
Near-death experience accounts of visiting the afterlife can be viewed as qualitative, as similar themes occur across cultures and age ranges. These themes often include pure, unconditional love beyond anything we have experienced in this world. The themes also involve beautiful colors more stunning than any color on Earth and sometimes beautiful music, where everything from the people to the rocks vibrates, resonating with the most beautiful music imaginable. We are all one; we are all interconnected. In the documentary styled After Death, a pilot who went into the heaven realm saw beautiful streams of light shooting down to Earth, and these magnificent lights weren’t lights; they were souls—they were us. After absorbing all these near-death experience accounts, I’m convinced we all come here with missions, and they are all best fulfilled by giving unconditional love.
However, this past Christmas, I had devastating alienation from part of my family, mainly arising from being an introvert in a highly extroverted family. So I watched Howard Storm in the movie After Death, where he said he temporarily died and went into the hell realm, crying out for Jesus, who appeared, taking Howard into the light. (A friend who had four near-death experiences says that she saw both Christian and Muslim faith practitioners in her experience of heaven. She is convinced heaven is here for every religion, faith, and soul.) Howard Storm said he was banished to hell because of his bad family relationships. And then I started worrying that I was going to hell, too, because of my bad family relationships.
I see near-death experience stories where the person goes to hell, and an angel, sometimes a child, approaches the hell-banished person, who is in unbelievable agony. The child then tells the banished person, “There is still time,” heralding the person’s return to Earth. When these hell-bound near-death experiencers return to Earth, but with this horrific experience they can’t shake, they often become ministers and priests, just like Howard Storm.
Today, after some conflict, I confirmed I want to be unconditionally loving toward everyone, even during hellish experiences such as war. I also thought it might be my calling to be like a guardian angel who helps people in hell escape the terror, ideally guiding them return to Earth or ascend to heaven. However, if they exist, I’d prefer to go straight to heaven and then to the higher and higher realms.
I saw a Far Side cartoon long ago with a person smiling and whistling happily in the hell realm. In the cartoon, the demons speculated, “He’s just not getting it.” To be in that state of joy, even during the worst circumstances, such as war times, I must view with empathy and love other people’s acts that are not representative of unconditional love (such as anger, jealousy, fear, violence, etc.). However, I must view my transgressions from unconditional love with the aim of correction. That is one way to describe my understanding of how to give selfless, unconditional love.
But mostly, I want to be in the libraries of heaven, reading everybody’s book of life, yours especially, in a way that can influence joy for everyone. I see a theme in near-death experiences that, when we leave our bodies, we see or go to what we think of. So, we should set our sights on the pure, unconditional love in heaven. And I’ve even heard near-death experience reports that the layers of heaven, the opposite of the layers of hell in Dante’s Inferno, grow profoundly more incredible. So, perhaps our potential for spiritual growth is unlimited. Our Sikh friends might agree.
The hell realm is the absence of love, just like the dark is the absence of light. To state it bluntly, hell is simply a place without love. So, the argument is God didn’t create hell; God created love, and hell is merely its absence, just like the dark is without light. The argument goes further, saying we can’t measure dark, but we can calculate the amount of light. I saw this on a Facebook post by my friend, who had multiple near-death experiences. The quote was attributed to Albert Einstein, although I’ve yet to confirm this.
