The Trigger of Extreme Meditation: Joni Maggi's
Near-Death Experience
Meditation
is a technique to tune up the instrument that is our body, mind
and emotions to more clearly perceive reality. This could be
described as expanding our consciousness and understanding our
true nature. Through meditation we can realize and be aware
of many states of consciousness. Near-death experiences often
describe going into the light and this can be achieved through
meditation. A British doctor,
Sam Parnia,
who studied 63 patients who were revived after being declared
clinically dead, concluded that consciousness doesn't die and
that the brain is merely a receiving station for consciousness.
This agrees with the notion that meditation is the practice
of using your receiving station to connect with your higher
states of consciousness.
The following
is
Joni Maggi's
NDE which was triggered through meditation. Her experience is
not unique and there have been others who have had a NDE
triggered by meditation.
Her experience also appears in Kevin Williams' book,
Nothing Better Than Death.
1. Joni Maggi's Meditative
Near-Death Experience
"Close your eyes for
a moment and try to imagine that you are face to face with the
sun! What an extraordinary feeling! I thought to myself:
'How can I be face to face
with the sun and not feel the burning heat?' |
"This first thought shocked
and puzzled me - to be thinking in the way I would normally
think.
"It was literally so
bright that I could not sustain the gaze so I turned away. At
that moment I noticed a
silver cord,
attached around the navel area going down, down, down to a person
I saw lying on my bed. It was me! I had a curious non-interest
in it.
"Suddenly, I was in dark
outer space, floating as it were on my back, in what I can only
describe as total 'bliss' (one of a few words which I'll explain
later I had never understood before that point!)
"I'm not sure how long this ecstatic
feeling lasted but it was what I suppose is called Cosmic Consciousness
or cosmic bliss. I knew
that: the Universe is upheld by love (though if you ask me now
I would not be able to explain that!)
"I
knew
that the planets are alive and conscious. I knew that they would
never bump into each other on purpose or cause any damage -
there was no violence but rather a total harmony in their existence.
"I then looked down and
could see the Earth - far far away and down in this dark sky.
I knew that it was a place of violence, a realm shrouded in
darkness and difficulties, so to speak.
"At one point I saw what I can only
describe as a group of beings - perhaps Beings of Light would
describe them best. I then
zoomed
over to them - literally willed myself over to them (swoosh!)
and was there instantaneously.
"They were seated (?)
in an oval circle and there seemed to be a leader of some sort
at the head of the group.
"First of all, I felt
the most overwhelming love coming from them! It cannot be compared
to anything here on Earth. For one, I felt that it was an inclusive
group - rather than an exclusive one. (Here on Earth we seem
to have trouble letting new people into groups but there it
was as if all of them at the same time were welcoming me!)
"I heard them - in my
mind - say, 'Welcome home! You have been on such a long journey!'
"I had the feeling that
they were sharing life experiences and learning from each other,
as if in a sort of classroom.
"I didn't have time to
find out because at this point I said to the leader, again telepathically,
'I cannot stay! I have to bring up my son!' with a real sense
of urgency.
(At the time my son was
4 years old and I knew somehow that I had the absolute obligation
to bring him up and take care of him. Years later, when I thought
of this, I understood that we live in a "moral" Universe.)
"I immediately started
coming down again. And as I was coming down, I saw - as if written
on the entire dark sky - this message:
'There is nothing worth worrying
about! Not even death!' |
"And again I
knew
- or understood in an instant that death is exactly like falling
asleep.
"What happens is that you
let go
of daily consciousness and slip into another. Or for that matter,
like waking up - you let
go of sleeping consciousness
and find yourself in our recognized reality. It was an incredible
feeling of peace to know that
there is no death!"
2. The Aftermath
"All of a sudden, I was awake and
I literally ran
to my table to write everything down because I knew that the
'veils' (another new word for me) were going to fall and that
I would forget or lose the feeling of the experience. I had
the feeling that a shaft
of light had come down
through the top of my head. The top of my head was literally
tender!
"The third word I came
to know was 'grace' (which up to that point I thought meant
the prayer that Christians say at the dinner table.)
"I had been an atheist - or agnostic
- up until my experience but after that, though the veils did
fall down again, I have spent the last 20 years, trying to recapture
that feeling, that absolute
knowing.
I feel closer and closer to it all the time now.
"I felt that I had been
given a gift of tremendous value! I could not, and can not to
this day understand how that works or what that means. I only
know that I had been in a state of emotional crisis - I was
living at the time in South America and undergoing a painful
separation from my husband so I found myself alone, depressed
and with a very young child. I had also been asking myself the
question:
'What one thought gives peace?'
for a very long time. |
"Somehow, I feel that
my earnest and extremely deep need to find an answer to the
ups and downs of life was answered in that unspeakably profound
experience.
"This is the first time
I am sharing my experience so openly with others because my
family and friends, of course, at the time did not believe me
or understand me. Plus the fact that I myself had lost contact
with the light and only years later did I start to remember
it and piece it together again coherently.
"Now, it is probably
the most important thing I can do - to remember it and to share
it with others. If it hadn't been for the experience I probably
would not have pursued the spiritual path with such relentless
passion as I understand that there is a spiritual need which
cannot be filled by any other thing than ... how shall I call
it? The 'spirit.'
"I also know that it was
real!
Actually, I could say that it was the
only real
thing that has ever happened to me. At this point I cherish
sharing my experience with others and hope to learn afresh from
their experiences to continue to get a wider and wider appreciation
and understanding of this phenomenon.
"I still have many unanswered
questions:
'Why
was I blessed with this experience?' (I think it was
because without it I never would have been able to go
on, but even so, who "gave" it to me or how did I receive
it?)
'Why are other people not given the same experience,
though some search for it so longingly?'
|
"And it has only whetted
my appetite to know more - everything! - about our life purposes,
life after death, etc!
"Unfortunately I cannot - as I mentioned,
retrieve the feeling
of it and sometimes I still forget and find myself in darkness
and pain. But just remembering it and sharing it helps me -
and who knows maybe others - to know more and more about it,
especially now that these phenomena are coming more and more
to light!"
|