I have split this from the Hell thread because it deserves it's own thread, and it was hardly noticed on the other thread.- CF

Quote Originally Posted by sleeper
what did you experience? please post it.
Let's see. This was over twenty years ago and yet I remember it with absolute clarity. I was not particularly spiritually aware, although I've always had a fair degree of natural awareness (didn't know what it was or what it meant, though). I have, however, always been aware of (that which I perceive as being) God.

I was lying in bed, drifting off to sleep, probably praying, which mostly means talking casually to God about whatever. At that time in my life, it probably wasn't anything very enlightened (I was young and fairly material-bound). All I can say for sure is that I definitely was in bed and drifting in that "in between" state.

Next thing I knew, I was... elsewhere. There was no passage of time, it was "eternity in a moment". It's a very strange sensation the first time you experience it, the knowledge that time doesn't exist (I think it might be a bit like being weightless; the absence of something you've felt all your earthly life is very hard to describe).

Anyway, there was a golden white light, just a sort of sphere of light. Very bright, but in no way blinding. No heat. In fact, the quality of "light" is not even the right word, because "light" is something that exists in the material world. This was "like" light, and that's the closest approximation there is in material terms. I knew it was God, the Source, Brahman, whatever name you care to use. There were others around, sort of in an orbit around the light. We were aware of each other, but it didn't matter that they were there. There was no interaction between us, though I suppose there could have been if we'd wanted to communicate....

The thing is, facing the Light was pure bliss. It was like being bathed in peace, in love, in anything good you can imagine. Nothing mattered but the Light, and being in Its presence. (Which is why any others around weren't interested in communicating with each other; gazing on the Light, basking in the glow, was completely and perfectly satisfying in all ways and there was no need to communicate with anything or anyone else.)

There was communication with the Light, in a way I can't describe. A little like ripples of... sort of like thought, but nowhere near as crude as that. It was almost like... a bit like telepathy, but again, that's too crude a word. It was instantaneous, effortless, no words or emotions in the way. Perfect understanding, a perfect exchange.

I don't know how long I was there. It could have been hours of material time, or only a few seconds. Time didn't really matter, wasn't a factor at all. It was eternity in a moment.

I also don't know why I had the experience. I think there was some communication exchanged that my "true self" (higher self, soul, whatever) to which my ego was not privy. What that might be, I don't know.

Some people have said that I had an NDE, but there was absolutely no reason why that would have happened. I wasn't even ill, and the next morning I woke up like normal. I didn't "nearly die". I'm sure it was an OBE, and it was not initiated by me. At that time in my life, I didn't have even a clue what OBE was, astral projection, any of that. I was young and dysfunctional and while I was spiritually somewhat aware, I was really pretty clueless and material-bound, as I said. I can only assume that God had a reason for giving me that experience and making sure I remembered it. (For all I know, I've been there since and just don't recall it.)

So my personal view of "heaven" is simply that it is the presence of the Source. That is more satisfying and perfect than anything people can imagine with their egos. I long to go back there. I sometimes come close when I meditate, and I get flashes of bliss in my everyday life (that's a new development, and I absolutely love it and am deeply grateful), but I've not had another conscious return to that Presence. One day...

This, by the way, is another reason I don't fear death. There's nothing to fear.