NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCES AND SACRED SCRIPTURE

This is the third book in an important trilogy that began with Transcendental Spirituality, Wisdom and Virtue, followed by Spiritual Revelations from Beyond to the Veil: what humanity can learn from the near-death experience. Using his forensic legal and analytical skills as a former Dean and Professor of Law, Douglas examines the parallel messaging to be found in sacred scriptures and the texts of near-death experiencers. The similarities are striking across the board, reinforcing perennial messages arguably even more essential in our turbulent times dominated by secular humanism – at least on the surface, while many are abandoning traditional religion to find themselves in the spiritual but not religious zone (SBNR). Douglas remarks that ‘the eternal message has not changed; only humanity.’

I can testify from my own experience that studying NDEs has a profound transformative effect in itself, supporting the statement by the Bulgarian sage Peter Deunov that when we pass into the invisible world, we will be examined on how we applied the law of love. The book covers all the big questions relating to human life, purpose and meaning. In the introduction, Douglas writes that certain divine attributes and virtues are shared across the religious spectrum: ‘unconditional love and kindness, compassion, charity and service, belief in God, the importance of prayer and its power, detachment from the material world and its delusions, courage, steadfastness in faith, gentleness, humility, living by the so-called Golden Rule’ (p. 2) and many other qualities besides. Equally, spiritual traditions warn against the opposite of these qualities in terms of negative expressions of energy. The overall perspective is that ‘there is much more to existence in reality than this life on Earth and our physical body.’

A series of 20 chapters covers topics such as God/the Source, heaven, oneness/ interconnectedness, the ultimate reality, positive and negative energy, karma, reincarnation and attraction, the Golden Rule, immortal soul-consciousness and its liberation, free will, conscience and intuition, living in the present moment (the eternal now), universal knowledge, loving all life forms, self-reflection and awakening. Such content really ought to be at the core of religious, philosophical and spiritual studies curricula as it also constitutes a philosophy of life, ethics and living – the kind of handbook we all need to live our best human life; indeed, I gave an individual copy of the second book to each of my children in September, telling them that all they need to know about life and how to live it is contained in these pages. The structure of each chapter consists of a general introduction to the theme, followed by quotations from different spiritual traditions, then corresponding NDE accounts, which themselves have strong commonalities. Readers will find that particular formulations will speak to them more directly, but there is also a subliminal effect of mutual reinforcement.

There is a strong emphasis on oneness and interconnectedness, related to the insight that God is One ‘and immanent in the sense of dwelling within each individual and connecting all that is.’ (p. 37) There is One Life and One Mind – we are coming to realise this more deeply, both through science and spirituality, but its practical application is lagging behind. I have carried out an extensive analysis of the implications of the life review in my book originally entitled Whole in One (now Resonant Mind) subtitled ‘the near-death experience and the ethic of interconnectedness.’ In my view, to impose suffering and violence on others as we see all around the world is rooted in metaphysical ignorance of universal spiritual and moral laws emanating from the premises of One Life and One Mind. There is basically no ‘other’ – we are one another, so what we do to another we ultimately do to ourselves.

Experiencers report that the spiritual realm is nonlinear and timeless, in fact everything is happening simultaneously - an impossible thought to comprehend at the physical level; and indeed, in that realm, we travel by means of desire at the speed of thought. It is important to understand the nature and expression of positive and negative energies; ‘the love and light of God/Source are vibrational energies which flow through and connect all things.’ (p. 55) Hence, ‘we are here to love and to be loved… the energy of love is the essence of life… the only thing that matters in your life is how loving your thoughts and actions are.’ (p. 58) Reincarnation is understood as the evolution of consciousness, working through karma and the law of attraction. Consistently with New Thought philosophy, experiencers write that ‘we become what we think about most… your thoughts and your feelings create your life and your own reality.’ (p. 105)

In his conclusion, Douglas brings all these themes together in a relational and integrated fashion, emphasising the creative power of our minds and the importance of awakening and ethical living in daily life. The content of this highly accessible book provides a moral and ethical compass while answering many fundamental metaphysical questions. As such, it is essential reading for our time.