All posts by Dr. Robin Starbuck

About Dr. Robin Starbuck

Professor of English 1973 M.A., New York University 1989 Ph.D., New York University Linguistics

Anita Moorjani’s NDE experience

Near Death NDE & Afterlife

At the end stage of cancer, Anita Moorjani’s organs had completely shut down. She weighed 80 pounds, lost all ability to move and eventually fell into a coma. She had tumors the size of lemons throughout her lymphatic system, from the base of her skull to below her abdomen. Her brain was filled with fluid, as were her lungs. Her skin developed lesions that were weeping with toxins. The doctors were sure she wouldn’t make it through the night.
This is what she experienced – in her own words:

“In the near-death state, I was more acutely aware of all that was going on than I’ve ever been in a normal physical state. I wasn’t using my five biological senses, yet I was keenly taking everything in, much more than if I’d been using my physical organs. It was as though another, completely different type of perception kicked in, and more than just perceive, I seemed to also encompass everything that was happening, as though I was slowly merging with it all.
I knew when people came in to see me, who they were and what they were doing, although my physical eyes were closed. The sharpness of my perception was more intense than if I’d been using my physical senses. I seemed to just know and understand everything – not only what was going on around me, but also what everyone was feeling, as though I were able to see and feel through each person.
I was extremely aware of every detail, but I couldn’t physically feel anything – except a release and a level of freedom I’d never known before. I felt no emotional attachment to my lifeless body as it lay there on the hospital bed. It didn’t feel as though it were mine. I felt free, liberated and magnificent. Every pain, ache, sadness, and sorrow was gone.
I began to feel weightless and to become aware that I was able to be anywhere at any time… and this didn’t seem unusual. It felt normal, as though this were the real way to perceive things.
I started to notice how I was continuing to expand to fill every space, until there was no separation between me and everything else. I encompassed – no, became – everything and everyone.
I was fully aware of every word of the conversation that was taking place between my family and the doctors, although it was physically some distance away, outside my room. I saw the frightened expression on my husband’s face and could feel his fear. It was as though, in that instant, I became him.
Simultaneously I became aware that my brother was thousands of miles away on an airplane, coming to see me. I saw him and his worried look.
Each time my emotions took over the situation and I felt myself being drawn into the drama of the physical realm, I discovered myself starting to expand again, and I felt a release from all attachment.
I continued to be fully aware of every detail of every procedure that was being administered to me, while to the outside world I appeared to be in a coma.

I felt a sense of freedom and liberation that I’d never experienced in my physical life before. I can only describe this as the combination of joy mixed with a generous sprinkling of jubilation and happiness. A superb and glorious unconditional love surrounded me, wrapping me tight as I continued to let go.
I didn’t feel as though I’d physically gone somewhere else – it was more as though I’d awakened. Perhaps I’d finally been roused from a bad dream. My consciousness was finally realizing its true magnificence and in doing so, it was expanding beyond my body and this physical world, until it encompassed not only this existence, but continued to expand into another realm that was beyond time and space, and at the same time included it. Love, joy, ecstasy and awe poured into me, through me, and engulfed me. I was swallowed up and enveloped in more love than I ever knew existed. I felt more free and alive than I ever had. As I described, I suddenly knew things that weren’t physically possible, such as the conversations between medical staff and my family that were taking place far away from my hospital bed.
The overwhelming sensations were in a realm of their own, and words don’t exist to describe them. The feeling of complete, pure, unconditional love was unlike anything I’d known before.
To my amazement, I became aware of the presence of my father, who’d died ten years earlier. There were no words, but I clearly understood. And then I recognized the essence of my best friend, Soni, who’d died three years prior. I felt what I can only describe as excitement as their presence enveloped me like a warm embrace, and I was comforted. I was also aware of other beings around me. I didn’t recognize them, but I knew they loved me very much. It was tremendously comforting for me to reconnect with Soni’s essence. I felt nothing but unconditional love, both from her and for her. And then, just as I experienced that, it was as though my essence merged with Soni’s and I became her. I understood that she was here, there, and everywhere. She was able to be in all places at all times for all her loved ones.
Although I was no longer using my five physical senses, I had unlimited perception, as if a new sense had become available, one that was more heightened than any of our usual faculties. I had 360-degree peripheral vision with total awareness of my surroundings. And as amazing as it all sounds, it still felt almost normal. Being in a body now felt confining. Time felt different in that realm, too, and I felt all moments at once.
My awareness in that expanded realm was indescribable, despite my best efforts to explain it. The clarity was amazing. And then I was overwhelmed by the realization that God isn’t a being, but a state of being… and I was now that state of being!

In that state of clarity, I also realized that I’m not who I’d always thought I was: Here I am without my body, race, culture, religion, or beliefs… yet I continue to exist. I certainly don’t feel reduced or smaller in any way. On the contrary, I haven’t ever been this huge, this powerful, or this all-encompassing.
I felt eternal, as if I’d always existed and always would without beginning or end.
I was transformed in unimagenable clarity as I realized that this magnificent essence was really me. It was the truth of my being. The understanding was so clear: I was looking into a new paradigm of self, becoming the crystalline light of my own awareness. Nothing interfered with the flow, glory, and amazing beauty of what was taking place.
I realized that the entire universe is alive and infused with consciousness, encompassing all of life and nature. We’re all facets of that Unity – we’re all One.
Even though I hadn’t always been close to my father while I was growing up, all I could feel emanating from him now was glorious, unconditional, pure love. The cultural pressures he’d put on me during life had all dropped away, because they were all only part of physical existence. None of that matters after death; those values didn’t carry through into the afterlife. It truly felt amazing, as though I’d finally come home! Our communication wasn’t verbal, but a complete melding of mutual comprehension. It wasn’t just that I understood my father – it was as though I became him.
Not to mention that the state of unconditional love was just so blissful, I couldn’t bear the thought of returning. I wanted to stay where I was forever and ever. The unconditional love and acceptance was incredible, and I wanted to cross the threshold in order to continue to experience it for eternity.
It was though I was enveloped in the oneness, the pure essence of every living being, without their pains, dramas, and egos. I understood that at the core, our essence is made of pure love. We are pure love – every single one of us.
As though to confirm my realization, I became aware of both my father and Soni communicating to me: Now that you know the truth of who you really are, go back and live your life fearlessly!”

After her NDE Anitas condition improved so rapidly that she could be released from the hospital within weeks… without a trace of cancer in her body.

W-a-a-a-ah !

Nonsense

William Samuel

Absolute, Awakening

First, harking hack to China, Mr. Shieh and I, with five American teammates, were being pursued by a Japanese combat patrol. We were “retrograding;” bringing up the rear of our little patrol, trying to get back to the safety of friendly lines. We were close to being captured. In those days, neither the Japanese nor Chinese “gave quarter.” That is, we took no prisoners. I knew that if I were taken by the pursuing Japanese, it meant certain death. On the other, hand, Mr. Shieh might successfully pass himself off as a Chinese peasant. Oh, I cannot write this story! At this minute it is enough to remember Mr. Shieh seeing and pointing out the beauty of those purple blooms on the distant mountain we had yet to climb. I marveled at a man who could see beauty under such oppressive circumstances. I marvel more that he helped me learn to do it. * During the Korean War, an artillery round burst among my men on the left flank. Several bodies were hurled about and I ran to see the extent of the damage and whether the platoon leader was still effective. Sick to my stomach at the sight, I sat down among three of the bodies sprawled along the slope. I became aware of a visual “Presence” hovering beside them. A misty, blue-white light of sorts. A different kind of light, primal, persuasive and powerful. I could not explain what I saw then, nor can I now, but with the sight, and because of the sight, I was absolutely certain within myself I was being shown evidence of the deathlessness of Life—the survival of the Child, the Soul of men. I felt a marvelous sense of relief, almost gratitude, concerning those men and everything happening that day. Within a few minutes of that incident, my regiment, and my part of the line in particular, was hit by an enormous wave of shell fire and oncoming Chinese troops. Hell erupted in a manner that no one can sufficiently describe or picture for another. One simply must experience something like that to fully understand. But, to the ongoing Glimpse I’d like to write here if I can. In the early moments of that terrible onslaught wherein everything that moved was slaughtered ten times over—advancing troops, men, women, children, dogs and chickens and every moving creature caught at that place at that time—I was suddenly unable to hear. My world went silent and I was enveloped in an immeasurable calm. In the midst of that horrendous din of exploding bodies and shells, I could hear nothing but my own voice. In some marvelous way, I was caught up in a quiet, tranquil dimension, separate, but attached to the carnage at hand, I had not been wounded. I felt as well as one could be expected to feel under such circumstances. I could hear my own voice and even my breathing quite clearly, I went from gun position to gun position and heard myself giving calm encouragement to my troops. I could see their mouths move in reply and gratitude—and terror—but I couldn’t hear them. I heard myself but couldn’t hear the shells bursting in my face. I was beset with a wonderful enwrapping calm that let me move fearlessly to do whatever the moment asked me to do, as hideous as those moments were. Perhaps a man can so detest a situation that his body produces the chemicals which, in turn, erect a barricade between himself and the galling situation. But as this was happening for me on that long day in Korea, there was a clear perception that a superlative Reality stood just behind the events: that there is another Scene just above this one, surrounding it; that Reality was bursting through that corridor of chaos into my own conscious recognition. I walked with a detached courage, as if the mortal body couldn’t be and wouldn’t be hurt. I ran from soldier to soldier, gun to gun. I was knocked down, spun around and stung with rocks and earth, feeling nothing but a calm, clear sense of Life’s dominion over the sights and sounds of the world; as though, with the Presence I had sensed and seen moments earlier among the first bodies felled, I was SEEING and FEELING Life, eternal Nature, even in the face of death. Perhaps this was the beneficent calm Mr. Shieh had felt those years earlier when he saw the blossoms on the distant mountain. That particular hellfire and damnation in Korea lasted four nights and three days without sleep for my troops and me. I have never forgotten the different time frame and the enwrapping inner peace nor how I was held and supported during that time—or non-time. More significant, that Peace has not forsaken me since those days, at least not when I was mindful of It nor when the chips were down and I called for It. How do I call for It? I bring forth the Child of Me. Why I write this now after all these years, I really don’t know, but on this Memorial Day when I feel everything necessary for the book has been written, I sit me down and write something that might tell others, like Janice and Bill, that there are times when the anguish of the lesson is absolutely necessary—that leaving the anguish may not be the answer. Now, with absolute assurance, I can tell people, old and young, their lessons can be learned under the most difficult and trying circumstances. Better that we leave our nets after we’ve learned their lessons. Better that we call on the Child because the Child knows what to do. The Child and the Presence are the same one Presence and It is right here where we are, transcending this world’s time and space. The final tone in this Overtone: The day I moved King Company onto line in Korea, I was given the Order of Battle of the “enemy” opposing me just across the valley on the next mountain. Facing my regiment, and me in particular, was the Chinese 60th Army, the same troops I had lived with and trained for two wars in China. We met again, eight years later, in a terrible and senseless slaughter. In the apparent world, our friends and enemies are the same—and, sometimes, needlessly, insanely, we try to destroy one another, thence to find that Life is eternal. Like Arjuna, in awful combat, I was instructed in certain of the Mysteries and learned the sense of senselessness. Memorial Day, 1985 Making sense of this world