Kenneth Ring’s main focus in Lessons from the Light is on the after effects experienced by NDE survivors. He writes: “These studies show that whatever the nature of the NDE, it is real in its effects.” NDE survivors often “say that following their experience, they did not become more religious, but more spiritual. By this, they seem to mean that the formal aspects of religion—in the sense of organized religion—become less important to them and a more universal and inclusive spirituality that embraces everyone comes to exert a deeper hold on their allegiance.
“Many NDErs afterward tell us that they find they have become unusually sensitive to light, sound, humidity, and a variety of other environmental stimuli or conditions. Taste sensitivity increases, and one’s tolerance for alcohol and pharmaceutical drugs diminishes. Not surprisingly, NDErs report more allergies. Also, a large proportion of these persons discover, for instance, that digital wristwatches will no longer work properly for them, or they ‘short out’ electrical systems in their cars, or computers and appliances malfunction for no apparent reason." (126-30)
What is known as “the life review” has a significant effect on many NDE survivors. Ring writes: “While it is true that there is an aspect to the life review in which one watches the scenes of one’s life like a spectator, many persons report that at the same time they are in these scenes and are living through them as if they are actually experiencing them again.
One NDE survivor recalls: What occurred was every emotion I have felt in my life, I felt. And my eyes were showing me the basis of how that emotion had affected my life. What my life had done so far to affect other people’s lives, using the feelings of pure love that was surrounding me as the point of comparison. And I had done a terrible job. God, I mean it! Looking at yourself from the point of how much love you have spread to other people is devastating’. (Ring, Heading toward Omega, 71.)
“For the experiencer, the life review is not only a personal revelation or an insight into principles of cosmic relevance, but also a healing. Not just what you see about yourself, but how you come to see and understand it is what heals you of what may be long-standing feelings of inadequacy and patterns of self-defeating behavior. The result is a kind of forgiveness of oneself and others that returns you to your authentic self." (147-98)
Finally, Ring writes, NDE survivors have no fear of death. “Those facing death do not fear it; they know the Light awaits them. Those who wish to take their own life learn that it is impossible to do so; there is only life. Those who grieve are comforted and sometimes even transformed. And those blessed with a vision of a loved one who has left them know with certitude that their beloved still lives and that the connection has not been broken.
I looked further down the tunnel and saw the light. I realized immediately where I was. The light was home. I knew that I could only return here. There was no question of losing this place. It was home, and I, and everyone else, came here and there was no possible way to avoid it or miss it. It was the only thing that was guaranteed, returning here.
Ring concludes, by affirming: “the true promise of the NDE is not so much what it suggests about an afterlife—as inspiring and comforting as those glimpses are—but what it says about how to live now." (248-82)
Kenneth Ring and Evelyn Elsaesser Valarino, Lessons from the Light: What We Can Learn from the Near-Death Experience (Insight Books, 1998; Moment Point Press, 2006).
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