This description is virtually identical, point-by-point, with Dr. Moody’s “model” of after-death experiences (Life After Life, pp. 23-24). This identity is so precise that it can only be one and the same experience that is being described. If this is so, it is finally possible to define the experience that Dr. Moody and other investigators have been describing, and which has caused so much interest and discussion in the Western world for several years now. It is not precisely an “after-death” experience; it is rather the “out-of-body” experience which is only the antechamber to other much more extensive experiences, whether of death itself or of what is sometimes called “astral travelling” (on which see below). Although the “out-of-body” state might be called the “first moment” of death — if death actually follows — it is a gross mistake to conclude from it anything whatever about the “after-death” state, unless it be the bare facts of the survival and consciousness of the soul after death, which hardly anyone who actually believes in the soul’s immortality denies in any case.25 Further, because the “out-of-body” state is not necessarily bound up with death at all, we must be extremely discerning in sifting the evidence supplied by extensive experiences in this realm; in particular, we must ask whether the visions of “heaven” (or “hell”) which some are undergoing today have anything to do with the true Christian understanding of heaven and hell, or whether they are only an interpretation of some merely natural (or demonic) experience in the “out-of-body” realm.
Dr. Crookall — who has been the most thorough investigator in this field up to now, applying to it the same caution and concern for detail that characterize his earlier books on the fossil plants of Great Britain — has gathered much material on “paradise” and “hades” experiences. He finds them both to be natural and virtually universal experiences in the “out-of-body” state, and he distinguishes them as follows: “Those who left their bodies naturally tended to glimpse bright and peaceful (‘Paradise’) conditions, a kind of glorious earth; while (those who were) forcibly ejected ... tended to be in the relatively dim, confused, and semi-dreamlike conditions that correspond to the ‘Hades’ of the ancients. The former met many helpers (including the ‘dead’ friends and relatives already mentioned); the latter sometimes encountered discarnate would- be hinderers” (pp. 14-15). Persons who have what Dr. Crookall calls a “mediumistic bodily constitution” invariably pass first of all through a dark, misty “Hades” region, and then into a region of bright light that seems like Paradise. This “Paradise” is variously described (by both mediums and non-mediums) as “the most beautiful scenery ever seen,” “a scene of wondrous beauty — a vast parklike garden and the light there is a light that never was seen on sea or land,” “lovely scenery” with “people dressed in white” (p. 117), “the light became intense,” “the whole earth was aglow” (p. 137).
To explain these experiences, Dr. Crookall hypothesizes the existence of a “total earth” which comprises, on the lowest level, the physical earth which we know in everyday life, surrounded by an interpenetrating non-physical sphere with “Hades” and “Paradise” belts at its lower and upper boundaries (p. 87). This is, roughly, a description of what in Orthodox language is known as the aerial realm of fallen spirits of the under-heaven, or the “astral plane” of Theosophy; Orthodox descriptions of this realm, however, make no “geographical” distinctions between “upper” and “lower,” and emphasize more the demonic deceptions which are an integral part of this realm. Dr. Crookall, being a secular researcher, knows nothing of this aspect of the aerial realm, but he does testify, from his “scientific” point of view, to an extremely important fact for the understanding of “after-death” and “out-of-body” experiences: the “heaven” and “hell” seen by persons in these experiences are only parts (or appearances) of the aerial realm of spirits and have nothing to do with the true heaven and hell of Christian doctrine, which are the eternal dwelling-places of human souls (and their resurrected bodies) as well as of immaterial spirits. Persons in the “out-of-body” state are not free to “wander” into the true heaven and hell, which are opened to souls only by the express will of God. If some “Christians” at “death” see almost immediately a “heavenly city” with “pearly gates” and “angels”, it is only an indication that what is seen in the aerial realm depends to some extent on one’s own past experiences and expectations, even as dying Hindus see their own Hindu temples and “gods.” True Christian experiences of heaven and hell (as we shall see in the next chapter) are of a different dimension altogether.
5. “Astral Travelling”
Almost all of the recent “after-death” experiences have been extremely brief; if they had been longer, actual death would have resulted. But in the “out- of-body” state that is not bound up with near-death conditions, a longer experience is possible. If this experience is of sufficient duration, one can leave one’s immediate environment behind and enter an entirely new landscape — not merely for a brief glimpse of a “garden” or a “bright place” or a “heavenly city,” but for an extended “adventure” in the aerial realm. The “astral plane” is evidently quite close to every man, and certain critical experiences (or mediumistic techniques) can “project” one into contact with it. In one of his books, Dr. Carl Jung describes the experience of one of his patients, a woman who had an “out-of-body” experience while undergoing a difficult birth. She saw the doctors and nurses around her, but behind her she was aware of a glorious landscape which seemed to be the boundary of another dimension; she felt that if she turned toward it, she would leave this life — but she returned to her body instead.26
Dr. Moody has recorded a number of such experiences, which he calls the “border” or “limit” experience (Life after Life, pp. 54-57).
Those who deliberately induce the experience of “astral projection” are often able to enter into this “other dimension.” Just in recent years one man’s descriptions of his “journeys” in this dimension have achieved a certain fame, which has allowed him to establish an institute for experiments in the “out-of-body” state. One of the students of this institute has been Dr. Elizabeth Kubler- Ross, who agrees with Monroe’s conclusions regarding the similarity of “out-of-body” experiences and the “after-death” state. Here we shall summarize the findings of this experimenter.27
Robert Monroe is a successful American business executive (president of the board of directors of a multi-million dollar corporation) and an agnostic in religion. His “out-of-body” experiences began in 1958, before he had any interest in occult literature, when he was conducting his own experiments in data-learning techniques during sleep; this involved exercises in concentration and relaxation similar to some techniques of meditation. After starting these experiments, he had the unusual experience of seeming to be struck with a beam of light, which caused temporary paralysis. After this sensation had been repeated several times, he began “floating” out of the body, and then began to experiment with inducing and developing this experience. In this beginning of his occult “journeys,” he reveals the same basic characteristics — a passive meditation, an experience of “light,” a basic attitude of trust and openness to new and strange experiences, all in conjunction with a “practical” outlook on life and a lack of any profound awareness or experience of Christianity — that opened Swedenborg to his adventures in the world of spirits.
25
Only a few sects far from historical Christianity teach that the soul “sleeps” or is “unconscious” after death: the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventists, etc.
26
C. G. Jung,
27
Robert A. Monroe,