Impressions of Near-Death Experiences

This very valuable book resembles the work of Douglas Charles Hodgson and specifically his book Revelations from Beyond the Veil reviewed in these pages last year. It draws out a philosophy for life and living from the insights of near-death experiencers who have gained access to deeper levels of reality. This book contains longer extracts, while Hodgson gives the reader many shorter quotes illustrating the same themes. The compilation starts with out-of-body experiences, and specifically those with veridical correlates – see my review of The Self Does Not Die elsewhere in this issue. There is a strong emphasis on unconditional love and its relationship to light. The life review is covered, and there is a good chapter on distressing NDEs. As is the case with other books along the same lines, we realise that we are interconnected with all and everyone, and that everyone is important.

The contents reinforce the core of spiritual traditions in the mystical experience of cosmic love at an unprecedented level of intensity. One respondent writes that ‘love was what everything was made of, came from, and returned to.’ (p. 77) Our actions ripple out, and the effects return to us; we can live a life consciously aligned with the orchestration of the universe and collective evolution. Small things are important and we are emanating and transmitting certain frequencies of energy all the time. Bob asks why we are here on Earth, and the intriguing perspective that emerges is that we are already pure love, pure peace, and pure perfection, originating as we do from the Light. The difficulty lies in expressing these qualities on Earth, which is precisely our task and challenge – discovering unconditional love within ourselves, and then offering it to others. Rather than read academic books on philosophy and ethics, readers will find much more valuable truths in this and similar books to shed light on the path of life.