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I don\u2019t know how much longer this can or will go on, but he is, quite simply, astounding:<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Russell M. Nelson Celebrates 98th Birthday: Prophet spends the day participating in meetings at Church headquarters in Utah\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019ve just completed reading William J. Peters<\/a> (with Michael Kinsella<\/a>), At Heaven\u2019s Door: What Shared Journeys to the Afterlife Teach About Dying Well and Living Better<\/em> (New York City: Simon and Schuster, 2022).\u00a0 I picked it up last Saturday at the annual meeting of the International Association for Near-Death Studies.\u00a0 Here are a few of the passages that I marked during my reading:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n shared death experiences.\u00a0 These are experiences that occur when an individual feel that they [sic<\/em>] have somehow shared in a dying person\u2019s transition from this life to whatever lies beyond.\u00a0 (233, italics omitted)<\/span><\/p>\n Then I found myself hurtling toward a brilliant, luminous gold light. . . .\u00a0 I pleaded with the light, which I identified as God . . .this warm, loving, all-knowing, living light (11)<\/span><\/p>\n In that moment, the building seemed to open from above, and he watched as a silhouette of Randy\u2019s body rose through a column of light.\u00a0 The nonphysical Randy looked back at them, younger, healthier, and more vibrant than the newly deceased body below, and thanked each of them.\u00a0 Then he ascended into the light and was gone.\u00a0 As he disappeared, the cascading cylinder of light dissipated.\u00a0 (15)<\/span><\/p>\n Transcendent Light: Bright, illuminating light that appears to be significantly different from either sunlight or the artificial light of a light bulb.\u00a0 It takes many forms \u2014 experiencers frequently describe it as luminous \u2014 and it doesn\u2019t have a single, identifiable point of origin.\u00a0 (45)<\/span><\/p>\n And I saw her go toward this bright light.\u00a0 (55)<\/span><\/p>\n That\u2019s when an amazing thing happened.\u00a0 I woke up and the room was just filled with light, extreme light.\u00a0 I looked over at my husband.\u00a0 I was sure that he must\u2019ve woken up because of this light.\u00a0 I thought maybe there were road workers outside putting lamps on our windows, but then it dawned on me that this was a light that I\u2019d never seen before, not even at a concert with the lights all shining on you.\u00a0 It was very strong.\u00a0 It was like it was there to tell me, \u201cYou have to wake up and take notice.\u00a0 This is serious stuff.\u00a0 Just wake up.\u201d . . . She slowly went upward.\u00a0 Behind her, I could see this being of light that was shining in the room, that was making the room shine. . . .\u00a0 [There was] an overwhelming feeling of love.\u00a0 I felt it was just a being of complete love, complete knowledge, complete compassion.\u00a0 It was all those things.\u00a0 This love that I felt in this room with these two, it was immense.\u00a0 It was filling up every pore in my skin.\u00a0 I acknowledged that it must be a divine being of some kind.\u00a0 For me, it was God.\u00a0 (59-60)<\/span><\/p>\n There was this blinding light that filled the room for me.\u00a0 It was so bright, I couldn\u2019t open my eyes.\u00a0 And I felt an incredible sense of light and peace and love.\u00a0 (70)<\/span><\/p>\n Scott describes the light as an \u201call-encompassing, hugely bright light.\u00a0 Everything around you just exudes the light of the universe.\u201d\u00a0 (81)<\/span><\/p>\n And so we\u2019re walking side by side, and I took him to the light.\u00a0 And as we got close to the light, there was like a doorway with the luminosity coming out, it was unbelievable.\u00a0 (91)<\/span><\/p>\n And in the nothingness was this glowing archway of light.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t hurt to look at.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t painful.\u00a0 It had depth and it had character to it.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t like just one constant sort of brightness.\u00a0 It felt like there were different qualities to the light, parts of it were whiter, and parts of it were yellower, and it was definitely not static at all.\u00a0 It was very dynamic the way this light was moving. . . .\u00a0 I think . . . the defining characteristic that really stands out to me is the feeling of awareness.\u00a0 That that light was conscious.\u201d\u00a0 (92-93)<\/span><\/p>\n She recalls, \u201cWe were in that white light, incredibly bright light, stronger than any light that you\u2019d look at from the sun, but you could see it.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t hurt your eyes.\u201d\u00a0 (97)<\/span><\/p>\n And I remember seeing the tunnel, and out of the corner of my eye, I could almost see this incredibly intense white light.\u00a0 And I knew that white light was really good.\u00a0 I knew everything was okay, because of this intense white light.\u00a0 (179)<\/span><\/p>\n the appearance of a brilliant and transcendent light (237)<\/span>\u00a0 [25% of those reporting shared death experiences claim to have seen \u201ctranscendent light\u201d (238)]<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In reading such passages, I couldn\u2019t help but think of some of the Prophet Joseph Smith\u2019s descriptions of his own experiences, which seem to me to be strikingly consistent with those related above:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 1832 account of the First Vision:<\/p>\n a pillar of light above the brightness of the sun at noonday came down from above and rested upon me. I was \ufb01lled with the spirit of God, and the Lord opened the heavens upon me and I saw the Lord. . . .\u00a0 My soul was \ufb01lled with love, and for many days I could rejoice with great joy. The Lord was with me, but I could \ufb01nd none that would believe the heavenly vision. Nevertheless, I pondered these things in my heart.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 1835 account of the First Vision:<\/p>\n A pillar of fire appeared above my head. It presently rested down upon me and filled me with joy unspeakable. A personage appeared in the midst of this pillar of flame, which was spread all around and yet nothing consumed.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 1838 account of the First Vision (Joseph Smith \u2013 History 1:16-17):<\/p>\n I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. . . .\u00a0 When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air.<\/span><\/p>\n \n<\/p> 1838 account of the appearance of the angel Moroni (Joseph Smith \u2013 History 1:30-32, 43):<\/p>\n I discovered a light appearing in my room, which continued to increase until the room was lighter than at noonday, when immediately a personage appeared at my bedside, standing in the air, for his feet did not touch the floor.\u00a0 He had on a loose robe of most exquisite whiteness. It was a whiteness beyond anything earthly I had ever seen; nor do I believe that any earthly thing could be made to appear so exceedingly white and brilliant. . . .\u00a0 Not only was his robe exceedingly white, but his whole person was glorious beyond description, and his countenance truly like lightning. The room was exceedingly light, but not so very bright as immediately around his person. When I first looked upon him, I was afraid; but the fear soon left me. . . .\u00a0\u00a0After this communication, I saw the light in the room begin to gather immediately around the person of him who had been speaking to me, and it continued to do so until the room was again left dark, except just around him; when, instantly I saw, as it were, a conduit open right up into heaven, and he ascended\u00a0till he entirely disappeared, and the room was left as it had been before this heavenly light had made its appearance.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Account of the First Vision in the 1842 Wentworth Letter:<\/p>\n I was enwrapped in a heavenly vision and saw two glorious personages who exactly resembled each other in features and likeness, surrounded with a brilliant light which eclipsed the sun at noonday.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 \u00a0 I don\u2019t know how much longer this can or will go on, but he is, quite simply, astounding: \u201cPresident Russell M. Nelson Celebrates 98th Birthday: Prophet spends the day participating in meetings at Church headquarters in Utah\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0 I\u2019ve just completed reading William J. Peters (with Michael Kinsella), At Heaven\u2019s Door: What […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[31225,29971,56,1809,1104,5817,4985,27918,1008,27921,31219,2905,1812,1815,7113,1011,16257,2193,31216,788,55,1667,1221,903,9916,21144,1215,20332,4267,12827,31228,31222],"class_list":["post-96622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-at-heavens-door","tag-being-of-light","tag-book-of-mormon","tag-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints","tag-death","tag-eternal-life","tag-first-vision","tag-iands","tag-immortality","tag-international-association-for-near-death-studies","tag-kinsella","tag-latter-day-saint","tag-latter-day-saints","tag-lds","tag-lds-church","tag-life-after-death","tag-life-after-life","tag-light","tag-michael-kinsella","tag-mormon","tag-mormonism","tag-mormons","tag-moroni","tag-near-death-experience","tag-near-death-experiences","tag-president-nelson","tag-russell-m-nelson","tag-russell-marion-nelson","tag-russell-nelson","tag-shared-death-experience","tag-wentworth-letter","tag-william-j-peters"],"yoast_head":"\n<\/a>
I have, incidentally, made an effort to discover the copyright status of this image, but have been unable to be certain of it. I\u2019m assuming that my employment of it here constitutes an example of \u201cfair use.\u201d Authoritative communications to the contrary would be welcomed. I would like Jorge Cocco\u2019s work to be better known in the Latter-day Saint community.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n