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Father Len wrestles with his lifelong fascination with near-death experiences and how what they reveal should challenge all of us to examine how we’re living our lives.

Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom

• Father Len shares Plato’s analogy of life as a cave where we experience only a dim reflection of true reality and the scientific and philosophical revolution it sparked.
• “The Republic” by Plato
• “Life after Life” by Raymond Moody Jr, MD
• “Near-death experiences are a type of evidence of heaven and gifts from God to color in the picture revealed by prophets and mystics.” – Father Len
• There have been thousands and thousands of near-death testimonies from adults and children in every country and culture in the world since the beginning of time.
• Father Len shares the stories of religious and nonreligious doctors who believed near-death experiences to be nonsense until they began to study the experiences of their own patients.
• “Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife” by Eben Alexander, MD
• “Recollections of Death: A Medical Investigation” by Michael Sabom, MD
• Modern medicine has increased the number of near-death experiences revealed because of its ability to bring back more people from apparent death.
• Strikingly similar near-death experiences have been reported by people of all ages who speak different languages, in all countries and cultures.
• Here are the similar patterns of near-death experiences reported everywhere:
  • Phase 1: All pain, anxiety, and fear are gone. There is just peace.
  • Phase 2: People report popping out of their bodies and floating above themselves able to describe what was happening, where they went, what they did while apparently dead.
  • Phase 3: People, both religious and nonreligious, describe complete darkness going through a tunnel.
  • Phase 4: A light begins to shine accompanied by beautiful music or a feeling of unconditional love with beautiful colors all around. Suddenly a person’s entire life, from beginning to end, unfolds before them. They can not only see, but feel everything they caused other people. Joy, pain, anger, they feel it all. Half of the people in this last phase report being sent back to life because their mission in life was incomplete.
• The most common denominator of near-death experiences is that life and life after death are all about love.
• Surprisingly, near-death experiences for the blind and sighted people are very similar. For the blind, the light speaks to them in just the right language and just the right tone. The light speaks at the speed of light. The blind feel the same love as the sighted and also see beautiful colors all around, many for the first time.
• The light experienced in near-death experiences frequently causes profound changes in people’s lives and religious beliefs. Religion becomes extremely important. The love, community, and joy they encounter in life after death inspires them to practice this life when they return to life.
• Knowledge of near-death experiences should challenge us all to wrestle with the truth about God and life.
• Emanuel Swedenborg visions of heaven.