On the Wholeness of Darkness and Light

The essay below is being posted because it may be useful for newer readers. I wrote it in 1992 for the IANDS publication Vital Signs, so although regular readers of the blog will find nothing much new here, it may be of some mild historical interest. I have edited it slightly to remove anachronisms and simplify overly wordy writing.

A woman has written to say that she had heard about distressing near-death experiences at an IANDS conference. “It sounded weird,” she said. “Are these just nightmares?”

Well, the experiences appear to share something of the same space as the pleasurable NDEs, and they no doubt do sound weird; but then, so does just about everything in this field when looked at from the perspective of ordinary consciousness. Nevertheless, as we come closer to the fortieth anniversary of Raymond Moody’s first accounts of light-filled, love-filled, rapturous consciousness at the edge of death, it is clear that Life After Life touched a nerve that still quivers. [Read more…] about Darkness, light, and near-death experience revisited