A friend of mine wrote recently about people having experiences that are spiritually transformative and confusing them with near death experiences. A near death experience is by definition when a person has an experience while either clinically dead or with death impending. Near death experiences (NDEs) can be spiritually transformation. In fact they usually are. People who have near death experiences tend to view life very differently afterward. Often they become less concerned with material things, more concerned with others, less afraid of death and more concerned with spiritual transcendence. They can pick up psychic abilities. People can have spiritually transformative experiences (STEs) without having a near death experience. Serious illness can be a spiritually transformative experience, the death of a loved one, a near miss accident, the loss of a job. Anything that causes us to really stop and examine our lives can be an STE. In the Bible, many people have spiritually transformative experiences. One of the most dramatic is the guy who wrote most of the New Testament. Paul, saw a bright light from the sky and heard the voice of a disembodied Jesus on the road to Damascus. Paul was struck blind temporarily and was so transformed by the experience, he changed his name from Saul to Paul. Now what I find funny (not funny haha) is when someone tells us today she saw a bright light and heard a disembodied voice or a light being talk to her we think she’s crazy or something evil happened. But it’s written in the Bible as with Paul, yeah that really happened. If then, why not now? I know a woman who says this happened to her twice. I tend to believe her. She’s not crazy and it wasn’t evil.
People who have NDEs, in particular, and some of us who have had STEs can come away longing for the next world. Nothing here satisfies. We have seen this is just an illusion and long for the real thing. Many people who have have NDEs report not wanting to come back from that place of beauty, unconditional love and peace. They have a very difficult time readjusting to this place. I have heard it described as being “heavy” and “thick”. It’s like walking through mud. Shayna’s passing was an STE for me, big time.
My friend who talked about STEs and NDEs pointed out that we are here for a purpose. There is a reason why people who have had NDEs were only nearly dead (or mostly dead to steal a line from The Princess Bride). There is a reason why I am still here (though I have yet to figure out what it is and I wish I could just do it and move on). What my friend pointed out and what I want to pass along to you is we must live in balance now. What I have realized is most people on Earth live our lives out of balance. For most of us we’re still walking around asleep, in the Matrix and unaware we’re in it. We think this material place, these few decades in these bodies, is all there is. Even those of us who think we are spiritual tend to live pretty much material lives. The people who have been spiritually awakened can go the other way. We eschew the material world and cannot wait to move on. This body has become a prison. This world is a burden. My life was thrown way off balance on June 24, 2015. What I have realized is I have to make it a goal to get back in balance. Again, referring to what Paul wrote, I have to learn to be in the world, but not of the world. The spiritual awakening is a good thing, but the realities of life here don’t go away. The purpose for our being here still exists or we would not be here.
In the immortal worlds of Depeche Mode, for me it’s time to Get the Balance Right. It’s easier said than done, but Kristina’s words helped me realize that’s what I have to work on. Be here, be present this with “reality” until it’s time to go back Home, but keeping my eye on the prize helps me navigate what I have to do to get by here.
