Otherworldly experiences by the departed

3 This astral body has a “memory cache” at its disposal wherein all memories of our terrestrial life are stored the way they are stored in our physical brain . The astral body irretrievably separates from the physical body at its physical death, but it can also temporarily separate from an unconscious, physical body in life-threatening situations without the connecting cord, the so-called “silver cord” being severed. When this occurs the “experiences” of the astral body often enter the consciousness of terrestrial people after they have been “resuscitated”. Such incidences have been published in a series of books in recent years. They deal with the death experience of patients that were temporarily, clinically dead, that were very close to their physical demise but were able to be brought back to continue their physical existence. Some of these patients were able to recount experiences after, in spite of their temporary physical unconsciousness, that have a certain relationship to the world of the hereafter, ergo the beyond-death regions. Doctors Dr. Raymond Moody and Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross are two publishers that caught the world’s attention. Their reports convey the impression that our terrestrial death is a relatively pleasant experience. Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross writes in the preface of Dr. Raymond Moody’s book (“Life after Death”, Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbeck 1977, page 10): “All of these patients experienced being carried out of their physical shell and having had a deep sense of peace and wholeness during the process. Most of them perceived another person that helped them cross to another form of existence. Most of them were welcomed by deceased relatives , those they felt close to, or by some religious entity that played a major role during their life and that naturally conformed to their religious convictions.” Dr. Kübler-Ross writes about the process of one’s final departure from this Earth in her own book “Über den Tod und das Leben danach” (About death and the life after) (Verlag: Die Silberschnur, Melsbach/Neuwied, 10. Issue 1988, page 76): “After we had been welcomed by our otherworldly relatives and friends and also by our spirit guides and guardian angels, we underwent a symbolic transformation that is often described as a kind of tunnel. This transformation is expressed through a river with some and through a portal with others, all according to their individual relationship with symbolic values.” When one collectively assesses the death experiences published by Moody, Kübler-Ross and other authors and accepts their real background, ergo not regards them as delusions, one could come to the conclusion that the death experience of everybody only brings inner peace, joy and reunion with deceased relatives. But this does not necessarily have to be the case. There are also cases where the dying, or those close to death, have very unpleasant experiences . They are sometimes simply called “visions of hell”. The American heart surgeon Dr. Maurice Rawlings reports in his book “Beyond Death’s Door”, (Sheldon Press, London 1978) about a large number of unpleasant experiences by patients that were either unconscious or close to death. There were cases amongst them that had been in severe accidents or had unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide. An engineer who had fallen into the water from a scaffolding for instance mentioned in a detailed account (S. 103) that he had stood next to a large sea of fire and he literally stated: “I remember every detail more clearly than any other event that had ever happened in my life. What happened during that hour and what I saw was that I had left this world behind. I stood at some distance from this burning, whirling, circling mass of blue flames. As far as my eyes could see, the same scene everywhere: A sea of fire and sulphur. Nobody was inside of it and neither was I.”