First question, how can I prevent not needing the aid of a helper/guide in the afterlife? I don't want to become lost like some, waiting in the afterlife for an eternity. Of course, I realize the best way is probably to explore the afterlife like those on this forum, but I am not that experienced yet and have only just begun learning.

Second, have any you all have talked to in the afterlife, or in direct experience yourself, encountered the "creator"? That is, "God"?

-Sven

Here is a partial story of one man's experience that I pulled from the www.nderf.org site:

Estaban FR wrote:

"I had gone up to Madrid on work-related business and there, in my hotel, I started feeling ill.  I had never been sick (expect for the classic flu and colds) but I knew from the first moment that my heart wasn't working right.  Pressure in my chest and rapid pulse.  I took an aspirin and felt better, but I decided to go to a specialist as soon as possible when I would be home the next day...  But when I returned to my office in Granada, at about noon, I started feeling ill again.  They took me to the emergency room and hospitalized me right away because they diagnosed me as being on the verge of a heart attack.  Because of the apparent seriousness they took me to the ICU at the Riz de Alda hospital and it was around 6 in the evening when neither the Nitro drip nor anything else helped me.  It wasn't an intense pain, it was acute distress and my heart was firing in increasingly rapid bursts.  I remember having to shift around in the bed to get comfortable...but I immediately realized that the time they had warned me about had arrived and the heart attack was happening.  When I realized I was going to die, those first moments were painful thinking about the grief my family would experience at such an untimely end.  But I am a man of faith and I began thinking that the serious moment of death had arrived and I centered my thoughts on my inner self.  I was afraid of the unknown because although, as I said, I am a man of faith, faith is not certain and there is always a degree of worry about what is going to happen after this life.  At a time of intimacy with God, something that helped me at that moment, I noticed that the heart attack had arrived and my heart stopped...and I wasn't even aware when this happened as I fell back on the bed and my back hit the mattress.

At that precise moment, at an instant so brief it can't be measured, I disconnected from my body and was overflowed with a sense of fulfillment  and weightlessness.  I clearly understood that I had died and that I was free from all  bother and heaviness, and I found myself alive and feeling wonderful with a sense of peace and incredible well being.  I was in a place of calm where I felt happy and euphoric to find that, yes, there is another life where death is no more.  When images of my wife and children came to me, I wasn't bothered by them, neither did I feel sorrow nor anything...because if what awaits them is this eternal wonder, of what importance is pain and suffering in this life if afterwards there is only peace and well being?  Such earthly problems and joys are seen as very insignificant from that realm.  There is nothing to disturb the peace, and one feels love for all beings since there is no possibility of any rancor.  It's a perfect state.  So there I was, happy and awaiting events knowing that someone would come to get me to enter into this eternal life, when I felt that I was returning to connect with my body and I began feeling the illness I had forgotten about.  The first thing I heard was a woman's voice with a Valencian accent saying, "He's coming back, he's coming back!"

"I know I'm coming back," I said to myself, and felt both grief and courage on returning here once again.  It was clear that I had returned!  If I left with much pain, I returned to my body with much more anguish.  I didn't want to return, and I was filled with sorrow for having left that marvelous state where I had been immensely happy!

When I regained the ability to see with my eyes, I observed that I was surrounded by doctors and machines, among them the defibrillation paddles used to bring people back to life.  But I didn't feel anything.  I returned to my body through the paraphernalia of instruments and medical personnel surrounding me.  And here I am describing this, "my great experience," that happened 11 years ago although it seems like I am reliving it anew it is so fresh.

I wrote a little book about this experience but it won't fit in the space allotted here, although I have no problem sending it to supplement my story since my only objective is to make known what there is in the next life before leaving this one.

Was the kind of experience difficult to express in words?          No    

At the time of this experience, was there an associated life threatening event?          Yes    They put me in the ICU because they suspected a heart attack.

At what time during the experience were you at your highest level of consciousness and alertness?  During the whole time I felt lucid and awake like I have never felt here.

How did your highest level of consciousness and alertness during the experience compare to your normal every day consciousness and alertness?          More consciousness and alertness than normal

If your highest level of consciousness and alertness during the experience was different from your normal every day consciousness and alertness, please explain:        I knew what was happening to me at every moment and I understood my condition with absolute clarity.  I awaited events that were going to happen next.

Did your vision differ in any way from your normal, everyday vision (in any aspect, such as clarity, field of vision, colors, brightness, depth perception degree of solidness/transparency of objects, etc.)?          Yes    I waited completely at peace to see something concrete since I had heard about the "tunnel."  But as a professor of physics (I'm a theoretical physicist) what surprised me most of all was having the sensation of not being connected either to space or time.

Did your hearing differ in any way from your normal, everyday hearing (in any aspect, such as clarity, ability to recognize source of sound, pitch, loudness, etc.)?
         Yes    As I said, my senses were of no use to me...  It's like floating outside time-space.  It's a new and strange situation.

Did you experience a separation of your consciousness from your body?          Yes

What emotions did you feel during the experience?          Incredible peace and well being, moved by immeasurable love for everything and everybody, bound by enormous joy and confirming the existence of another life.  It is now knowledge where before it was only faith.  It is by far the most powerful experience of my life.  I now have no fear of death."

Quote:



Not mistrust.. I just didn't want to spend thousands of years stuck like some people I have read about in retrieval accounts.

Excellent insight, Cosmic_Ambitions

Yeah,
         I think the Rev's right; most people don't get stuck. Nothing wrong with having friends by your side though. Just to be there with you, not to 'save' you or anything. So my advice is... look for friends immediately after you realise you've transitioned. Death can sometimes be stressful and having friends with you can help it be friendly.

                  Tim F.

           

           

Sven,

You are never alone and will never be alone.  There is no separation and you can never be lost.

I think Tim speaks to this subject beautifully and I agree with all he has said.

I was with my father when he transitioned.  He did not want to die and was terribly afraid to die.  Just before he let go of his body I heard a voice calling his name.  Someone had come to him to help him with this transition.

I also have been able to see the human energy field that surrounds and interpenetrates our bodies for many years now.  Our energy field is made up of interpenetrating layers that come from the spiritual and penetrate downward and into the body.  When my father let go of his body I saw the lower layers of his energy field dissolve.  All that remained were the higher layers.  In only a few seconds these, too, disappeared from my view.  I suspect these disappeared because from my human consciousness of perception I was unable to view the higher frequency of vibration that occurred after the transition.

Time and time again I have seen this type of thing occur.  We all have a strong belief in our body being something that is separate from our higher spiritual self.  In truth, we are not separated from the higher aspects of our being.

Much love and many blessings to you as you enter your own journey of exploration.

Kathy