Powerful Near-Death Awakening Provides Inspiring Mega-Perspective

[Guest guest]

Mellen-Thomas Benedict is an artist who survived a near-death experience

(NDE) in 1982. He was dead for over an hour and a half. During that time, he

rose up out of his body and went into the light. Curious about the universe,

he was taken far into the remote depths of existence, and even beyond, into

the energetic void of nothingness behind the Big Bang. Eminent near-death

experience researcher Dr. Kenneth Ring

<http://www.near-death.com/experiences/experts04.html> has said, "His story

is one of the most remarkable I have encountered in my extensive research on

near-death experiences."

 

 

The Near-Death Experience of Mellen-Thomas Benedict

 

In 1982, I died from terminal cancer. My condition was non-operable. I chose

not to have chemotherapy. I was given six to eight months to live. Before

this time, I had become increasingly despondent over the nuclear crisis, the

ecology crisis, and so forth. I came to believe that nature had made a

mistake-that we were probably a cancerous organism on the planet. And that

is what eventually killed me.

 

Before my near-death experience, I tried all sorts of alternative healing

methods. None helped. So I determined that this was between me and God. I

had never really considered God. Neither was I into any kind of

spirituality. But my approaching death sent me on a quest for more

information about spirituality and alternative healing. I read various

religions and philosophies. They gave hope that there was something on the

other side.

 

I had no medical insurance, so my life savings went overnight on tests.

Unwilling to drag my family into this, I determined to handle this myself. I

ended up in hospice care and was blessed with an angel for my hospice

caretaker, whom I will call "Anne." She stayed with me through all that was

to follow.

 

Into the Light

 

I woke up about 4:30 am and I knew that this was it. I was going to die. I

called a few friends and said good-bye. I woke up Anne and made her promise

that my dead body would remain undisturbed for six hours, since I had read

that all kinds of interesting things happen when you die. I went back to

sleep. The next thing I remember, I was fully aware and standing up. Yet my

body was lying in the bed. I seemed to be surrounded by darkness, yet I

could see every room in the house, and the roof, and even under the house.

 

A Light shone. I turned toward it, and was aware of its similarity to what

others have described in near-death experiences. It was magnificent and

tangible, alluring. I wanted to go towards that Light like I might want to

go into my ideal mother's or father's arms. As I moved towards the Light, I

knew that if I went into the Light, I would be dead. So I said/felt, "Please

wait. I would like to talk to you before I go."

 

The entire experience halted. I discovered that I was in control of the

experience. My request was honored. I had conversations with the Light.

That's the best way I can describe it. The Light changed into different

figures, like Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, archetypal images and signs. I asked

in a kind of telepathy, "What is going on here?"

 

The information transmitted was that our beliefs shape the kind of feedback

we receive. If you are a Buddhist or Catholic or Fundamentalist, you get a

feedback loop of your own images. I became aware of a Higher Self matrix, a

conduit to the Source. We all have a Higher Self, or an oversoul part of our

being, a conduit. All Higher Selves are connected as one being. All humans

are connected as one being.

 

It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. It was like all the love

you've ever wanted, and it was the kind of love that cures, heals,

regenerates. I was ready to go at that time. I said "I am ready, take me."

Then the Light turned into the most beautiful thing that I have ever seen: a

mandala of human souls on this planet. I saw that we are the most beautiful

creations-elegant, exotic...everything.

 

I just cannot say enough about how it changed my opinion of human beings in

an instant. I said/thought/felt, "Oh, God, I didn't realize." I was

astonished to find that there was no evil in any soul. People may do

terrible things out of ignorance and lack, but no soul is evil. "What all

people seek-what sustains them-is love," the Light told me. "What distorts

people is a lack of love."

 

The revelations went on and on. I asked, "Does this mean that Humankind will

be saved?" Like a trumpet blast with a shower of spiraling lights, the Light

"spoke," saying, "You save, redeem and heal yourself. You always have and

always will. You were created with the power to do so from before the

beginning of the world." In that instant I realized that we have already

been saved.

 

I thanked the Light of God with all my heart. The best thing I could come up

with was: "Oh dear God, dear Universe, dear Great Self, I love my Life." The

Light seemed to breathe me in even more deeply, absorbing me. I entered into

another realm more profound than the last, and was aware of an enormous

stream of Light, vast and full, deep. I asked what it was. The Light

answered, "This is the River of Life. Drink of this manna water to your

heart's content." I drank deeply, in ecstasy.

 

The Void of Nothingness

 

Suddenly I seemed to be rocketing away from the planet on this stream of

Life. I saw the earth fly away. The solar system whizzed by and disappeared.

I flew through the center of the galaxy, absorbing more knowledge as I went.

I learned that this galaxy-and the entire Universe-is bursting with many

different varieties of life. I saw many worlds. We are not alone in this

Universe. It seemed as if all the creations in the Universe soared past me

and vanished in a speck of Light.

 

Then a second Light appeared. As I passed into the second Light, I could

perceive forever, beyond Infinity. I was in the Void, pre-Creation, the

beginning of time, the first Word or vibration. I rested in the Eye of

Creation and it seemed that I touched the Face of God. It was not a

religious feeling. I was simply at One with Absolute Life and Consciousness.

 

 

I rode the stream directly into the center of the Light. I felt embraced by

the Light as it took me in with its breath again. And the truth was obvious

that there is no death; that nothing is born and nothing dies; that we are

immortal beings, part of a natural living system that recycles itself

endlessly.

 

It would take me years to assimilate the Void experience. It was less than

nothing, yet greater than anything. Creation is God exploring God's Self

through every way imaginable. Through every piece of hair on your head,

through every leaf on every tree, through every atom. God is exploring God's

Self. I saw everything as the Self of all. God is here. That's what it is

all about. Everything is made of light; everything is alive.

 

The Light of Love

 

I was never told that I had to come back. I just knew that I would. It was

only natural, from what I had seen. As I began my return to the life cycle,

it never crossed my mind, nor was I told, that I would return to the same

body. It did not matter. I had complete trust in the Light and the Life

process.

 

As the stream merged with the great Light, I asked never to forget the

revelations and the feelings of what I had learned on the other side. I

thought of myself as a human again and I was happy to be that. From what I

have seen, I would be happy to be an atom in this universe. An atom. So to

be the human part of God ...this is the most fantastic blessing. It is a

blessing beyond our wildest imagination of what a blessing can be.

 

For each and every one of us to be the human part of this experience is

awesome, and magnificent. Each and every one of us, no matter where we are,

screwed up or not, is a blessing to the planet, right where we are. So I

went through the reincarnation process expecting to be a baby somewhere.

 

But I reincarnated back into this body. I was so surprised when I opened my

eyes, to be back in this body, back in my room with someone looking over me,

crying her eyes out. It was Anne, my hospice caretaker. She had found me

dead thirty minutes before. We do not know how long I was dead, only that

she found me thirty minutes before. She had honored my wish to have my

newly-dead body left alone. She can verify that I really was dead.

 

It was not a near-death experience. I believe I probably experienced death

itself for at least an hour and a half. When I awakened and saw the light

outside, confused, I tried to get up to go to it, but I fell out of the bed.

She heard a loud "clunk", ran in, and found me on the floor. When I

recovered, I was surprised and awed about what had happened. I had no memory

at first of the experience. I kept slipping out of this world and kept

asking, "Am I alive?" This world seemed more like a dream than that one.

 

Within three days, I was feeling normal again, clearer, yet different than

ever before. My memories of the journey came back later. But from my return

I could find nothing wrong with any human being I had ever seen. Previous to

my death I was judgmental, believing that people were really screwed up.

Everyone but me.

 

About three months later a friend said I should get tested for the cancer.

So I got the scans and so forth. I felt healthy. I still remember the doctor

at the clinic looking at the "before" and "after"scans. He said, "I can find

no sign of cancer now.A miracle?" I asked. "No," he answered. "These

things happen...spontaneous remission." He seemed unimpressed. But I was

impressed. I knew it was a miracle.

 

Lessons Learned

 

I asked God: "What is the best religion on the planet? Which one is right?"

God said with great love: "It doesn't matter." What an incredible grace. It

does not matter what religion we are. Religions come and they go. They

change. Buddhism has not been here forever, Catholicism has not been here

forever, and they are all about to become more enlightened. More light is

coming into all systems now. Many will resist and fight about it, one

religion against the next, believing that only they are right.

 

When God said, "It doesn't matter," I understood that it is for us to care

about, because we are the caring beings. The Source does not care if you are

Protestant, Buddhist, or Jew. Each is a reflection, a facet of the whole. I

wish that all religions would realize it and let each other be. It is not

the end of separate religions, but live and let live. Each has a different

view, and it all adds up to the big picture.

 

I went over to the other side with a lot of fears about toxic waste, nuclear

missiles, the population explosion, the rain forest. I came back loving

every single problem. I love nuclear waste. I love the mushroom cloud; this

is the holiest mandala that we have manifested to date, as an archetype.

More than any religion or philosophy on Earth, that terrible, wonderful

cloud brought us together all of a sudden, to a new level of consciousness.

 

Knowing that maybe we can blow up the planet fifty times, or 500 times, we

finally realize that maybe we are all here together now. For a period they

had to keep setting off more bombs to get it into us. Then we started

saying, "we do not need this any more." Now we are actually in a safer world

than we have ever been in, and it is going to get safer.

 

So I came back loving toxic waste, because it brought us together. These

things are so big. Clearing of the rain forest will slow down, and in fifty

years there will be more trees on the planet than in a long time. If you are

into ecology, go for it; you are that part of the system that is becoming

aware. Go for it with all your might, but do not be depressed or

disheartened. Earth is in the process of domesticating itself, and we are

cells on that Body. Population increase is getting very close to the optimal

range of energy to cause a shift in consciousness. That shift in

consciousness will change politics, money, energy.

 

The Great Mystery of life has little to do with intelligence. The Universe

is not an intellectual process. The intellect is helpful; but our hearts are

the wiser part of ourselves. Since my return I have experienced the Light

spontaneously. I have learned how to get to that space almost any time in my

meditation. You can also do this. You don't have to die first. You are wired

for it already. The body is the most magnificent Light being there is. The

body is a universe of incredible Light. We don't need to commune with God;

God is already communing with us in every moment!

 

 

For the full text of this near-death experience:

www.near-death.com/experiences/reincarnation04.html

For Mellen-Thomas Benedict's personal website: www.mellen-thomas.com