I am going to start this Near Death Experiences (NDE) section by introducing some material written by “Bernard“. He was the person who created the Thought Bricks material that you can find elsewhere on the site.
Bernard had a whole range of remarkable experiences; he would get ill, or have an accident, and then have a series of “visions”, or “waking dreams”, as he called them, of what it was like in the Afterlife. This is well before NDE’s were named as such.
What makes Bernard’s Near Death Experiences especially amazing as that he had multiple sequence of them over an extended period of time. Each of his NDE experiences would have a theme or a lesson. The lessons would come as part of an overall theme which developed into a story. When that story was complete, he would later have another series of NDEs which built on the previous sequence. We don’t know whether he experienced more than one “story” during a particular NDE, but all of them became written up in what he called “The Heaven Books”. Like all NDEs the stories are a reflection of the needs and the disposition of the experiencer, and so others may well have very different experiences which are just as valid and authentic. (It is hardly surprising that people’s experiences in the Afterlife are even more varied than people’s life on Earth. We have different needs.)
Bernard talked with Angels, helped some new arrivals in the afterlife find their feet, experienced the presence of Jesus, and so on. Bernard’s NDE stories have brought inspiration and comfort to many. I hope they do the same for you.
There are nine in the series of “Heaven Books”. They were written and published in this order:
Dream Journey to Heaven
Purple Gowned
Death and Life of a Soldier
In the King’s Service
In Search of Wisdom
One Step Higher
Heaven is Fulfilment
The Radiant Way
Wisdom of Angels
Below is what Bernard had to say about them and how they came about.
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One reader wrote of these ‘Heaven Books’:
“I write with a truly joyful heart. The book is manna from Heaven indeed. I gobbled it up the first reading (being very hungry) then a second time with slow relish, absorbing every perfect detail; thrilled, speechless, spellbound. A priceless treasure. The other book is magnificent and of the same quality as the rest. Quite beyond description. Wonderful is as near as I can manage! Count me in on each edition as they are available.”
Another wrote: “I have enjoyed reading them so much. Beautiful indeed. I have never read anything so lovely. My one desire is that I may purchase all your books for my very own, for I love to read them over and over again. So many things have been explained to me in the reading of your books and they have given me great happiness.”
My reply to the Questions:—
“How did you come write the series of ‘Heaven’ books?”
“Are the books written as fiction or did they spring from actual experience?”
“Are you a Spiritualist and did you receive these books through a ‘guide’?”
“When were the books written?”
“Do you know, in your everyday life, the people who are with you in these books?”
These are very natural questions and I am pleased to be able to answer them for you all, as well as I am able. It was like this. I am not a Spiritualist and have no ‘guide’ other than the Master who is the Guide of all of us. (“Lo, I am with you always,” He said, “even unto the end of the world.”) Nor have I ever studied of practised psychic matters or consciously sought spiritual experiences. Nevertheless, the series of “Heaven” books were the result of some kind of spiritual experience and each was “born in pain”. Normally, I am an exceedingly healthy person (though I used to be an invalid before I discovered Divine Truth) yet each of these books came as a direct consequence of some brief illness or accident. Looking back, I think the pain loosened my hold on the outer world, turning my consciousness within, where I was able to make contact with unseen realms. (That is only a theory; as I say. I do not know about such things as I have never studied or sought them. In very rare cases, illnesses or pain may be used in this way, though normally, perfect health should be the goal. Of course, such accidents or illnesses are not “sent” by God. The individual must attract them because of some need for additional learning which is present.)
The experience described in each of the nine books came to me while I was awake and conscious, so all I can do is to call it a “waking dream”.
It occupied about three to five minutes in each case, so that all that is described in the nine books, while seeming at the time to cover a vast period, actually occupied no more than thirty to forty minutes. Immediately I had had the experience I was filled with such joy that I could hardly wait to get it all down, writing on and on at top speed for hours each day, despite the fact that I was ill and in much pain. On one occasion I was lying helpless on my back with a cracked bone in my spine; on another I was stiff and sore with many bruises, having fallen down a flight of stone steps; another time I was prostrate with migraine, with the blinds half-drawn—the only time I have ever had it in my whole life, before or since. Yet I could not wait, but wrote on and on, scarcely stopping for food—and immediately each book was finished I was well again, and have remained so ever since. No other book has ever come to me in quite this way, though I have written a number of them, and no other book has ever given me such indescribable joy as these. In fact, I have only to open one now, and read a few words, to feel caught up in the ecstasy again—and I find that many of my readers experience this too.
I do not know, with my conscious mind and in my everyday life, any of the people who are mentioned in these books.
As for the date—it was, as far as I can remember, about 1943.
–Bernard