Part One

It's quite a few years since I first picked up the book 'The Wisdom of Near-Death Experiences' by Penny Sartori. I was curious to see what she had to say on the subject. As a former nurse in intensive care, she had ample contact with those close to death, and her book is solidly based on the reports from those who had near-death experiences. She comes across as a warm-hearted and compassionate person.

What happens just before, during, and after we die seems an important topic to me. It's one of the very few things that all humans hold in common: dying. I am rather surprised when people, especially those not so young, tell me that they don't think about death. Maybe, over recent years, my own fear of death has diminished somewhat, so I feel more able to approach the subject with a degree of tranquility.

From my years of Buddhist training, I learnt something about rebirth. The notion is common to all schools of Buddhism traditionally, though they differ in detail. Some report that the transition from one life to the next is more-or-less instant. Others, most notably exemplified in the Bardo Thodol, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, view the entire process as taking place over a certain period of time, and going through various stages.

'Bardo' is the gap between one state of being and another, in this case between one physical embodiment and the next. The text is instructive and inspirational, laying out not only the different stages of the process of dying and being reborn, but also explaining how being in the bardo is an excellent time for liberation; for getting the hell out of the entire life-death-rebirth loop.   

One of the issues with the Bardo Thodol, in my view, is the difficulty in seeing beyond the Tibetanese to the experience which might manifest to anyone whatever their culture. Chogyam Trungpa has a good go in his commentary to 'The Tibetan Book of the Dead' (Shambala, 1975), but he doesn't quite nail it.

Part Two

Penny Sartori mainly investigates the experiences of people living in modern western cultures. There are differences between them, but certain themes crop up again and again. Here are short excerpts from quite a long but typical report from one of the people questioned:

"I was in a very bad way, in the A and E unit, it was summer 1987...... I remember the doctor's voice saying 'There's nothing else we can do'...... I realised I had somehow floated upwards, out of my own body.... Next thing I knew, I was floating/flying down a very long tunnel ..... I felt incredibly calm and peaceful....... "

She reaches the end of the tunnel, and encounters a brilliant white light, after which:

".... There was my maternal grandmother, bless her soul ...... There she was, real as anything..... She smiled such a warm and loving smile..... She gave me the most warm and loving cuddle ever...... She gave me a very clear message..... 'You have to go back...... There is something you have to do....... Your purpose....."

I quote this example, since it incorporates many of the themes typical of near-death experiences. In particular, there is passing along a tunnel, encounter with a brilliant white light, meeting a deceased loved one and/or saint or other religious figure, and being told to return, that their time is not yet up. For most (not all) people, the entire experience is one of calm, peace, happiness, entering a paradisical world until being ejected back into the pain and turmoil of their physical existence.

The effects of near-death experience of people are invariably positive. Their fear of death is gone, and they engage with what remains of earthly existence with a newfound sense of fulfilment and purpose.

You can't knock that, can you? Can you.....?

Part Three

I found these reports from the periphery of physical existence fascinating. Yet an uneasy feeling remained, on the periphery of my own existence. It's all a bit like a big psychedelic trip; nothing wrong with that, except I sensed a plasticky quality to the visions and experiences, something that I failed to explain. And, significantly, there seemed to be a disconnect between what the consciousness experienced in 'life' and in 'near death'. Consciousness is consciousness, and there is a continuity, no matter what circumstances it finds itself in. So what's this little interlude of paradise doing in a life that has been tough, conflictive, confused, and the rest? 

As if that's not enough, the question inevitably arises: what are these loved ones doing waiting for you? Given, time and space may not work in the same linear fashion as in 3D physical existence, but still...... they're dead ages ago, moved on to other pastures.

I let it all go. But then I began to come across warnings in a number of places: 'Do not follow the Light!' I was tempted to give in to despair. Tunnels and loved ones was difficult enough to get my head around, let alone the advice that entering the tunnel was a one-way corridor to disaster.

David Icke's most recent book is 'The Trap'. It only appeared a few weeks ago, but I knew that I had to read it, and quick. 'The Trap' is the entirety of Matrix fake reality, but central is exactly what I had been reading about in near-death experiences. 

The tunnel, the loved ones, the 'go to the light': all is explained clearly as a great recycling trap. Just as our 'physical life' is subject to the Matrix, a fake or simulated version of the real thing (a bad copy, as Icke calls it), so is the time after death subject to the very same forces. A 'true paradise' is replicated in the after-death state to entice consciousness into it, and then straight out into rebirth or reincarnation into a subsequent life.

It is a trap because this is the way that the whole Matrix life perpetuates. It goes round and round and round again, simply because consciousness decides to do it. And it does it because it is enticed into doing so, by a trick; in the same way that people are enticed into doing all sort of silly things in 'physical existence' by lies, tricks. 

The greatest fear of the Matrix and its upholders is that consciousness wakes up to what is really going on, and escapes its dark and desperate clutches. The whole Matrix shitshow is designed precisely with this aim, to keep 'souls' in blindness and ignorance. 

David's attitude is summarised in this quote: "Near-death experiencers report how 'loved ones' or 'spiritual beings' at the end of the 'tunnel' tell them their time 'on Earth' is not finished and they must go back. My response is fuck off, mate, I'll decide where I go next not some AI projection thank you." 

Brilliant. 

I'm with David on this one. I'm outta here when this physical life comes to a close. It's time to get out of this place.

Part Four

Nowadays I find this not-so-merry-go-round - the Wheel of Life or of Samsara in Buddhism - very tiring, very boring. It's a feeling that really kicked in near the beginning of the convid era. I was out walking during those weeks when everything had become surreal. No shops, no cars on the road; no socialising, and the only people you happened to see would jump into the nearest hedge to get out of your way as they saw you approaching from afar. 

Something gave, and the realisation, as we could call it, came suddenly. 'This is not my place, this is not my home. This is not for me. I do not belong here, amongst all this.' 

No sense of 'being superior' or 'better'. It was simply a case of difference - absence of frequency or vibration resonance, if you go for that way of looking at things. A disconnect.

A starseed is the name given to somebody currently inhabiting planet Earth, but who comes from elsewhere. I know starseeds who have no doubt about their origins: Orion, the Pleiades, wherever. Personally, I have no particular sense of 'home'. Maybe I am simply a wanderer throughout the Universe, touching down wherever seems appropriate. All homes are temporary, after all. The only true home is the infinity of Everything, One, the non-dual.

Simultaneous with this sense of not belonging here, and that I shall be outta here, was a knowing that I'm not finished here yet. I intend to stick around for quite a while longer. What I picked up was that I have things to do, a job. Nothing defined, but a sense of being here with intent. To do what I can in the mess of today, maybe. To try and communicate something; or simply to be here and not comply with the lies, negativities, and distortions has an effect. I have things to do, and will be here for a while. Sorry, Mr Schwab and fellow assorted psychopaths.  

Getting off the wheel is possible: that's what I have come round to. Buddhism admits of this possibility, and teaches the methods for leaving it all behind. The process is stretched over lifetime upon lifetime, however, chipping away at your karma, elevating your rebirths bit by tedious bit. In the end, it seems to be delaying the exit, as if it has a stake in perpetuating the Matrix.

A number of more modern threads all lead to the same conclusion: it doesn't have to be like that. Leaving the Matrix, or matrices, is far more achievable than the old traditions present. It requires training, discipline, courage and fearlessness; a vivid experience of yourself as consciousness, not as a physical being with a bit of consciousness located in the top of the skull, as much of the mainstream would have you believe. It also demands familiarity with the manipulations and machinations that the Matrix, the simulation, will play, in order to recycle you for another turn on the vicious wheel.

The Matrix doesn't want your exit: once you're gone, you're gone. This is portrayed in the traditional story of Buddha, when Mara, 'the evil one', chucks everything he's got at Buddha-to-be in order to entice him back. Scary entities, seductive and delicious dancing girls, the whole show. Buddha just sits there and watches. And that's that.

'Exiting the Matrix' does not necessarily mean no return. But it means returning as a choice, as a Matrix Buster in some part of the infinite Universe that needs it, maybe. But it means release from the endless loop of rebirth. 

Not a bad basic summary about starseeds: https://www.starmagichealing.com/are-you-a-starseed-2/         

Footnote

'The Trap' is an exceptional book in my view. It is more concise than much of Icke's work - "That's a thin book!" my wife remarked when she saw me brandishing if for the first time. It summarises a lot of what David has been writing about over the years, so is suitable as an introduction to how he sees things. But it also contains lots of new information, and has a strong autobiographical angle. 

To grasp Icke's view, you need to read him, really. In particular, to understand the metaphysical foundation on which his 'conspiracy theories' and all else are built. Without that, you are a bit lost.   

And here's the book: https://shop.davidicke.com/product/the-trap/