from any other physical cause. If death is the dissolution of the link between physical body and etheric body, it stands to reason that any loosening of this link is likely to allow the etheric body to move away from its physical shell, although still tied to it either by an invisible silver cord or by some form of invisible tie that we do not as yet fully understand. Otherwise those who have returned from the great beyond would not have done so.
Mrs. J. M., a resident of Canada, was expecting her fourth child in October 1956.
“Something went wrong, and when I had a contraction I went unconscious. My doctor was called, and I remember him telling me he couldn’t give any anesthetic as he might have to operate. Then I passed out, but I could still hear him talking and myself talking back to him. Then I couldn’t hear him any longer, and I found myself on the banks of a river with green grass and white buildings on the other side. I knew if I could get across I’d never be tired again, but there was no bridge and the water was very rough. I looked back and I saw myself lying there, back in the hospital, with nurses and doctors around me, and Dr. M. had his hand on the back of my neck and he was calling me, and he looked so worried that I knew I had to go back. I had the baby, and then I was back in the room and the doctor explained to my husband what happened. I asked him why he had his hand on my neck, and he replied that it was the only place on my body where he could find a pulse and for over a minute he couldn’t even feel one there. Was this the time when I was standing on the riverbank?”
Deborah B. is a young lady living in California with a long record of psychic experiences. At times, when she’s intensely involved in an emotional situation, she undergoes what we parapsychologists call a disassociation of personality. For a moment, she is able to look into another dimension, partake of visionary experiences not seen or felt by others in her vicinity. One such incident occurred to Deborah during a theater arts class at school. She looked up from her script and saw “a man standing there in a flowing white robe, staring at me, with golden or blond hair down to his shoulders; a misty fog surrounded him. I couldn’t make out his face, but I knew he was staring at me. During this time I had a very peaceful and secure feeling. He then faded away.”
Later that year, after an emotional dispute between Deborah and her mother, another visionary experience took place. “I saw a woman dressed in a long, blue flowing robe, with a white shawl or veil over her head, beckoning to a group of three or four women dressed in rose-colored robes and white veils. The lady in blue was on the steps of a church or temple with very large pillars. Then it faded out.”
One might argue that Deborah’s imagination was creating visionary scenes within her, if it weren’t for the fact that what she describes has been described by others, especially people who have found themselves on the threshold of death and have returned. The beckoning figure in the flowing robe has been reported by many, sometimes identified as Jesus, sometimes simply as master. The identification of the figure depends, of course, on the religious or metaphysical attitude of the subject, but the feeling caused by his appearance seems to be universally the same: a sense of peace and complete contentment.
Mrs. C. B. of Connecticut has had a heart problem for over 25 years. The condition is under control so long as she takes the tablets prescribed for her by her physician. Whenever her blood pressure passes the two hundred mark, she reaches for them. When her pulse rate does not respond to the medication, she asks to be taken to the hospital for further treatment. There drugs are injected into her intravenously, a procedure that is unpleasant and that she tries to avoid at all costs. But she has lived with this condition for a long time and knows what she must do to survive. On one occasion she had been reading in bed and was still awake around five o’clock in the morning. Her heart had been