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THOSE WHO HAVE NEAR-DEATH BRUSH OFTEN RECALL JUDGMENT AND TRIP THROUGH SPACE

[adapted from The Other Side]

Love God. Above all, love Him. Love others. That is the most consistent lesson from those who say they have glimpsed eternity. If you do nothing else, heed those words.

While such witnesses can veer into strange dogmas -- including occult concepts like reincarnation (which, our faith tells us, must be strictly avoided), we can take from near-death experiences what is worthwhile and forge ourselves with the sacraments.

Forge forth. Press yourself into conformance with Christ. Watch even what you think. Follow His rigors of discipline. Watch bodily desires. Even be fit like Him.

But expect the best. This is our "word" this week. Love. Watch what you expect. Grow into the noblest of expectations.

Turn a season of blessings into a lifetime of them and then sail toward an afterlife that is beyond what we can fathom because it is more distant (and different) than the farthest planet!

Indeed, after the tunnel – or instead of the tunnel – many who have near-death episodes say that they found themselves journeying through clusters of stars, past planets, past galaxies, on the way to a distant light, which in most cases is Jesus (beware of ones that are not).

As authors Lionel C Bascom and Barbara Loecher recounted in the case of one man: "He began traveling at an incredible speed away from the earth. When he'd traveled a vast distance, he saw it, a blue marbelized ball floating in black space. It looked as it had in the first photos he had seen of earth from the moon, photos shot by the Apollo astronauts."

Others say that a "wall" or veil scrolled up while they were in the eternal, and they could glimpse earth rotating beautifully -- majestically -- in the distance. For your discernment!

After traveling through "eternities," some say they saw distant "cities" of light -- various levels of the afterlife. Some they could approach. Others they were not allowed near (because they were too sacred). It is interesting that space figures into these reports of the eternal. Is this why space is so incomprehensible? And is this why there often seem to be spiritual images or configurations in telescopic photos of stars, galaxies, and nebulae (outlines, for example, of angels)? Is space something beyond what we imagine (and far beyond what astronomers can measure)?

One day, we'll know. Like earth, it is probably just the flip side of eternity (the underside). One thing we can be sure about: Where Jesus is, so are lessons.

Through the walls of a celestial "building," said another, she saw earth suspended in space.

Bizarre? We can attempt to discern. How can we be sure that those who die and return are not an imagining, or encountering a deception?

"While I was enveloped by the Light, I knew the answers to the questions that had formulated in my mind," is another testimony. "I knew the answers to the questions that had formulated in my mind. Secrets from the beginning of time to infinity were clear to me. Myriads of things were understandable. I understood, for example, that when I left earth I would leave with whatever spiritual growth I had attained there, and I would take that spiritual growth with me into this new world."

"As I was thinking about my state and condition a thought came to me that was more like a question posed by my mind," a witness testified to a group of researchers three years ago, about her life review upon dying, amid the stars. "It was: 'What have you ever done in your life that was totally selfless?' A deed or action done that didn't have a selfish motive.

"As I thought about that question I realized that I had always acted to please myself. I had never said a kind word or done a kind deed that wasn’t motivated by personal gain. As I fully comprehended how selfish I was I felt a deep regret even remorse that I hadn’t ever done one good or kind or selfless thing."

"I saw a multitude of opportunities to help people and be loving and kind, but in most instances focused solely on myself," said that witness.

Everything about us is known by everyone else – but with total understanding.

Condescension is missing. Pretense is non-existent. Secrets of earth -- of the universe -- are shown.

Those from whom secrets were kept hold no grudge. Empathy transcends everything. If one has remarried after the death of a spouse, the spouse totally understands. It is not an issue. She or he is still there for you. Those against whom you have sinned have long before forgiven everything – totally purging it before they entered this realm. Everything you have ever said or done is known to everyone without judgment.

On the other side, we are given robes, and their purity will reflect our purity.

In front of the Blessed Sacrament, we see the white, the bright, of such cleanliness, and it is there – not with paganism, or the New Age, or other esoteric beliefs into which near-death people often find themselves diverted – that we see not only the immaculate nature of what we will wear, but also find our missions.

On the "other side," we will find the largest globe to be the Light of Jesus. After all, He was there at the creation of the cosmos! So many come back and report His Light.

It shines here on earth also -- through the Blessed Sacrament.

Once encountered -- truly -- there is no fear of death again.