Orbs and the Near-Death Experience
Many
near-death accounts describe encounters with orbs. An "orb"
is defined in the dictionary as: "a sphere, a spherical
body, a globe." NDE orbs are often spherical representations
of souls. They have been described in many various ways.
The following
is a list of descriptions of the orbs described in near-death
accounts profiled on this website:
Red and yellow;
beach-ball sized of lavender-purple light; tiny balls
of light, glowing with light and color and bouncing
like bubbles in a glass of carbonated water; five balls
of light with different hues such as shades of rose
petals, bluish hue, pinkish, and deeper shades of red
and orange; millions of them joining with creatures
on planets like bees flitting from flower to flower;
a shimmering, luminescent, crystal globe; millions of
spheres of light flying about and entering and leaving
a great being-ness at the center; a giant sphere of
light which Jesus and angels transformed into; a globe
of infinite dimensions whose center is full of light,
the purest of God's creations; and a bright, warm, loving
orb of understanding.
 In
the outstanding book by
Robert J. Grant about mystical experiences, near-death
experiences, and the Edgar Cayce material,
Universe of Worlds,
he documents the testimony of a woman named Jan Manette
who had a very interesting mystical experience concerning
the September 11th terrorist attack.
Jan was two weeks
into her new job as a Pentagon consultant and was late
for work on that fateful morning of September 11th.
For some strange reason she didn't hear her alarm clock
go off which made her late and in a panic. She was under
stress because of her new job and on top of that now
she was late which made her even more stressed. Being
late for anything is her biggest pet peeve and she always
prides herself as being a person who is always punctual.
But being late that morning also made her very perplexed
because she always hears the alarm go off and usually
woke up before it went off.
As she was fighting
the Washington DC traffic, she became relieved when
she finally saw the Pentagon building. But she immediately
became afraid when she saw something hovering over the
building that also brought her a feeling of dread over
her. She saw what looked like a huge, black, oval mass
or cloudlike thing on top of the Pentagon building.
She knew that it wasn't a cloud or smoke because of
its shape. It was oval, symmetrical and perfectly still
and looking at it made her feel awful because, more
than anything, it appeared to be evil. Stranger still,
above this black oval mass was a brilliant oval white
mass which made the whole thing look a little like the
Chinese yin-yang symbol. What Jan saw before the plane
crashed into the Pentagon was "the most powerful,
unexplainable thing I've ever seen."
Within a minute
of seeing this evil black mass over the Pentagon, she
saw the plane that was filled with innocent people and
being flown by some terrorists heading straight for
the Pentagon. She said that it was like seeing something
totally incomprehensible. Before the plane crashed,
she felt as if everything went into slow motion, literally,
as though she was watching a movie in slow motion. The
plane was still some distance from the Pentagon when
all at once she saw these round sphere-like orbs of
light rising up out of the plane. Dozens of them came
out of the plane, and then it seemed as if hundreds
of them rose out of the roof of the Pentagon. Everything
was in slow motion except those round lights. Then they
zoomed upward in a sort of spiral motion - all of them
together - upward through that awful blackness and then
they disappeared into the whiteness.
In a flash of
instantaneous knowing, she was divinely reassured that
those orbs of light were the souls of those who were
about to die in the terrorist crash. She said she knew
that their souls were removed from their bodies before
the actual crash into the Pentagon.
Jan talked with
other witnesses to the terrorist attack and no one seems
to have seen what she witnessed. Nevertheless, Jan believes
there was a spiritual reason for her having this experience.
Had she not slept in that morning she would probably
be dead. That day was the beginning of her spiritual
life. Although she was glad she wasn't killed, dealing
with the profound survivor's guilt and post-traumatic
stress of witnessing the plane crash, sent her into
bouts of depression. Yet the thing that brought her
peace about it was seeing the souls of the victims leave
for heaven before the plane crashed. She believes that
despite the fact that God is unable to stop the terrible
things that people do to each others, God is present
at the darkest times of traumatic situations. She now
knows that God takes care of the souls involved behind
the scenes.
Perhaps Jan survived
and witnessed what she did so that this message might
be told - although we grieve over the loss of our loved
ones who died like this, we can be assured that God
provides a safe passage for their souls before the horror.
Although what she witnessed didn't take the horror away,
it awakened her to a new understanding that, to the
soul, death does not exist. She had seen it with her
own eyes.
[Webmaster's
note: In my opinion,
the black oval shape Jan saw the orbs fly through is
most likely the tunnel seen during near-death experiences.
Seeing souls as orbs of light during a NDE has been
documented many times.]
There
are a number of references to orbs in the near-death
experiences that are profiled on this website. Here
they are:
"My
first OBE was when I was about 20 years old and was
in a cabin on a oil rig 100 miles off the coast of Scotland.
I was aware of a spinning orb of red and yellow. I left
my body and entered the orb. I watched myself struggling
to call out to my mate. He was on the bottom bunk. I
returned to my body and told no one of the experience
for fear of ridicule." (Chris
Taylor)
Dr. Eben Alexander's NDE
Orb Experience: "Then everything changed
and the scene stayed the same but I became aware. Again
in looking back on it, that was my awareness of a Divine
presence of incredibly indescribable, kind of a superpower
of divinity. Then we went out of this universe. I remember
just seeing everything receding and initially I felt
as if my awareness was in an infinite black void. It
was very comforting but I could feel the extent of the
infinity and that it was, as you would expect, impossible
to put into words. I was there with that Divine presence
that was not anything that I could visibly see and describe,
and with a brilliant orb of light. [Note:
Here Dr. Alexander begins to call his female companion
the "Orb," as she was transformed into an orb of light
which guided him to the presence of God].
There was a distinct sensation
from me, a memory, that they were not one and the same.
I don't know what that means. In my awareness, when
I say I was aware, this goes far, far beyond the consciousness
of any one - this is not Eben Alexander's consciousness
aware of being in that space. I was far beyond that
point, way beyond any kind of human consciousness, and
really just one consciousness. When I got there they
said that I would be going back, but I didn’t know what
that meant. They said there were many things that they
would show me, and they continued to do that. In fact,
the whole higher-dimensional multiverse was that this
incredibly complex corrugated ball and all these lessons
coming into me about it. Part of the lessons involved
becoming all of what I was being shown. It was indescribable.
(Dr.
Eben Alexander)
Louis Famoso's NDE with
Orbs: "Structures and landscapes sprung from everywhere
all in a crystalline state, all inhabited by these lesser
light beings - some winged, most not - some fully formed,
others not - yet even others appeared only as glowing
orbs of light and color, bouncing as would bubbles in
a glass of carbonated water ... Just then I saw five
orbs of light. They seemed to be playing, swirling round
and about the being and myself. They had appeared from
the outlying landscape and I noticed they were all the
same size and shape but of different hues as subtle
as shades of rose petals, save one which had a bluish
hue. Two of the pinkish ones seemed exactly alike, the
other two were yet deeper in shades of red and orange.
Before I could ask, IT spoke and said, "They, like all
here are of you, who are of me, but these will come
to you and you will care for them more. They will fly
apart but come together at the time of the Gathering
... I watched as millions of orbs
systematically entered
the many planets before me. They appeared as bees flitting
from flower to flower, pollinating each, one after another.
Michael took me closer and I could now see that so many
of these planets had life on them. The orbs
were joining with the
creatures of these planets. Not every creature was the
same on every planet but they all had some commonalities,
a head, a body, extremities and the light beings would
animate them for a time ... I was now before the light
being of gold again. Those five orbs
were still darting about.
I wanted to stay and explore this realm with all the
other light beings but I was told I could not." (Louis
Famoso)
Edgar Cayce felt himself to
be a bubble
traveling through water to
arrive at the place where he always got the information
... In another instance, he went up and up through a
very large column, passing by all the horrible things
without coming in contact personally with them, and
came out where there was the Hall of Records. (Edgar
Cayce)
"We
saw that the sparkling lights were tiny, transparent
bubbles that drifted in the air and sparkled on the
grass. We realized that each tiny sparkle was a soul."
(May
Eulitt)
Ned Dougherty's NDE with
Orbs: "All attention seemed to be directed to the
celestial field around me, and a shimmering, luminescent
sphere enveloped me, making me feel as if I had stepped
into a crystal globe. Although I was aware that the
crystalline sphere was suspended on the celestial field
in view of all the spiritual beings in attendance, I
found myself in a different celestial realm. Somehow
the spiritual beings were still observing me inside
this crystal sphere. I realized why the hush of silence
had fallen over the crowd: My life review was about
to begin in public, it seemed. I was aware that I was
about to review every event, thought, emotion, and experience
of my life. I became aware that the purpose of the review
was for me to evaluate my life in terms of my intended
mission as a human, to review my life in a manner that
permitted me to focus on the areas that provided the
most important experiences in terms of my spiritual
growth and development.
Although I was alone in the
crystalline sphere, I was aware that I was in the presence
of God and watched over by the many spiritual beings
in the amphitheater who were encouraging me with their
love and support. Nothing about my life was a secret
to God, nor to the spiritual beings, yet I did not perceive
that I was being judged. I realized that all who were
part of God's spiritual creation had fallen from God
and had made mistakes in their own journeys. There was
no one among the assemblage of spiritual beings who
was about to cast the first stone at me." (Ned
Dougherty)
A near-death experience with
orbs:
"I died as a result
of injuries received in a car wreck. Brief recollections
of rising above the scene and seeing my mortal
body on the ground below are remembered. Again,
brief recollections of travelling at great speed
through a tunnel with the light at the end also
are remembered. The most poignant, vivid reality
I recall is when I reached the light. I was
standing on a grassy hill, to my left was a
pulsating orb of pure white and golden light
in the sky. I looked ahead and saw a wide valley
filled with millions of people dancing and singing
and filled with joy. I felt a presence behind
me and a hand was placed on my right shoulder
pressing me forward. I asked where I was and
was answered. My voice seemed to come from within
me and the answer also from within. When we
reached the bottom of the hill I could see figures
surrounding the outside of the valley. They
were facing away from all the people in the
valley and spaced about ten feet apart. The
people in the valley were bathed in this great
light and in total contrast to them were these
figures, like tortured statues. Dark, cold,
immobile. I was led up to one of these figures
and the hair stood up on my head in terror.
Immediately I turned and clung to the person
who had led me, for all I was worth. I then
woke up in the hospital a day after the accident.
This person I believe was Christ and He has
allowed me to return to my life to grow spiritually
and discover Him in all things." (A
person named "B")
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"We
started going faster and faster, out of the darkness.
Embraced by the light, feeling wonderful and crying,
I saw off in the distance something that looked like
the picture of a galaxy, except that it was larger and
there were more stars than I had seen on Earth. There
was a great center of brilliance. In the center there
was an enormously bright concentration. Outside the
center countless millions of spheres of light were flying
about entering and leaving what was a great being-ness
at the center. It was off in the distance." (Rev.
Howard Storm)
"Jesus, the angels and platform,
disintegrated into a giant sphere
of light once Carter
no longer needed their shape or form to put him at ease.
As the sphere
grew it absorbed him, infused
him with the ecstasy of unconditional love." (Carter
Mills)
"While
I was talking to her, a light appeared. It appeared
as a circular shape and then came down as a long oval."
(Sarah
Powell)
"When
the Father spoke, each of his words exploded into a
complex of meanings, like fireworks, tiny balls of light
that erupted into a billion bits of information, filling
me with streams of vivid truth and pure understanding."
(Angie
Fenimore)
"I
felt at that time that I might be dying. Not much later,
my hands and feet were gone altogether and my midsection
was getting sparse. The feeling was very peaceful. More
peaceful than I had ever known. I seemed to be shrinking
to a ball shape centered near my throat. Would I lose
consciousness as the ball of active nerves shrank past
the boundaries of my cranial cavity. As I pondered the
idea, I fell through the surface of the operating table
... Still closer and brighter the light came. I strained
to detect its surface but could not. It was about the
size of a beach ball, with no discernible surface ...
The one who had been doing my life review was no longer
a ball of light but now a hooded and robed figure."
(Hal)
"There was a sudden whoosh, and I saw a large glowing
red ball approaching me, almost like the light on the
front of a train. In that instant, as the red ball rushed
toward me, I knew terror like never before. As it approached,
I realized that it was really a large, eerie red eye.
It stopped when it got close to me, and then began traveling
alongside me through the tunnel. I could hardly stand
to look at it, its gaze was so piercing. It felt like
it was looking right into my mind, into my very soul.
The eye - suddenly I realized that I was seeing the
hospital room through the red eye. It was absurd to
me that I hadn't realized this before - and yet I could
hardly process my thoughts. It was all too bizarre.
Panic started building in my mind as it began to dawn
on me where I was, suspended in this dank tube. As the
red eye glowered at me, the thoughts began to arrange
themselves, coalescing slowly. Suddenly, the idea was
undeniable." (Don
Brubaker)
"Then, just like that (clapping
her hands), I became a ball
of light or energy in the
midst of this crowd that was circling a body. I became
massively aware, unlike any awareness I had had during
physical existence. I was not really aware of myself.
I was aware of everyone around me. I was aware of my
mother and my neighbors, and my friends and the firemen
and what they were thinking and what they were feeling
and what they were hoping and what they were praying.
This was such a pummeling input of emotion and information
that I was all at once overwhelmed and confused, and
rather disoriented. I tried to communicate this to them
over and over again and I realized that I had no mouth.
I had no body. They could not hear what I was saying
to them. I would have to leave them in the same hands
I had left myself in the process of dying. With that
I turned away, just sort of like a ball, just turned
away." (Reinee
Pasarow)
"To go a little further with
this, most adult experiencers describe God as a powerful,
almost blinding sphere
of light, that is ecstasy
itself. Young children do not use such terms, saying
instead that God is like a loving father or grandfather."
(P.M.H.
Atwater)
The human being, created in
God's image, is composed of a body, the outer shell
of which originated in clay, and spiritual breath, which
can communicate with God and which is located at the
center of the body. This is the microcosmic reflection
of the Islamic macrocosm, which is viewed as a globe
of infinite dimensions whose
center is full of light, the purest of God's creations.
Its outer shell is made of clay, which represents darkness.
The human soul (nafs) resides within the human being
somewhere between these two opposite principles - light
and darkness - and is a mixture of the two, unique to
each individual, while the spirit that resides at the
center (being of godlike nature) is the same for everybody.
(Muslim
NDEs)
One near-death experiencer,
Linda Stewart,
is profiled on the website
Coast to Coast AM with George
Noory. Linda's
friend sent her story concerning orbs to the website.
Linda's story is described in the words and interpretation
of her friend. The photo shows Linda pointing out new
cactus flowers. When the photo was developed, five orbs
of different sizes can be found in the photo surrounding
Linda.
Orbs can also be found in
the UFO and UFO/NDE phenomena. The following are some
of accounts involving this phenomenon.

The near-death account of Brian Krebs involving orbs
and extraterrestrial aliens: "My
memories of it were of seeing my body below me. I remember
seeing a bright, warm, loving orb
above me ... I was
there with this orb
of glowing love and understanding.
It didn't seem foreign to me. It was not frightening.
It was totally assuring and there was no feeling of
anything but my awe and the love and knowledge and wisdom
that this orb projected. In size, it would be not like
looking at the sun, but looking at the Earth when you
are on it. It was immense and total, and its power was
love ... I then went to twelve beings of greater knowledge.
They were in front of me and stood in a row. They were
not human. They had no feelings of anything like judgment
or authority, but seemed strong in themselves. They
seemed taller than me and they wore silver white robes.
They had white skin, large heads and large eyes. I do
not remember them having mouths. Above them was a spirit.
It was like a star as we see one from Earth, but in
size it appeared the same size as the heads of the beings."
(Brian
Krebs)
The NDE / UFO experience
of Betty Andreasson: "Three more elders stepped
into the circle, and they all began chanting "Oh." Three
more beams of light appeared, forming a perfect hexagram.
A larger circle
of light formed around
the heads of the elders. Then this light-ring moved
upwards, shrank to the same size as the ring in the
center, and floated down and interconnected with it,
forming a revolving spherical object which finally condensed
into a beach ball-sized orb
of lavender-purple
light. This was then taken and placed in a four-pronged
stand which had obviously been designed specifically
to hold such spheres. The term elders is Betty's name
for these beings. When on an earlier occasion she had
asked them who they were, they had answered that they
are "the ambassadors of Oh, masters of rings, cycles,
and orbs." Now, after witnessing the creation of
this magical orb, Betty asked an elder: 'Who is Oh?'
He replied that Oh is 'the internal, external, eternal
presence.' The next thing that happened, to Betty's
extreme startlement, was that the elders induced an
out-of-body experience in her. This is similar to what
happened in her experience at age 13, before she entered
the great door and saw the "One." Now, on
the mother-ship, as soon as she emerged in her subtle
body, one of the elders handed her the orb
of purple light, and
another led her through a portal made of rippling waves
of energy. On the other side of the portal, Betty and
the elder seemed to be on Earth, in a woods at night.
Some hobos were sleeping on the ground. One of them
awakened and approached the two visitors; he glowed
with light. The elder wore little rings of light on
his fingers. He allowed the hobo to take some of them,
and they turned into a single tiny ball
of light, which the
man kept. Meanwhile, the larger orb
in Betty's hands changed
color momentarily, evidently in resonance with the transaction.
Every once in awhile, Betty's attention was drawn into
the ball: "Oh," she said, "it's just so beautiful! Something
in it keeps on moving ... Now the elder touched
Betty's shoulder. There was a little explosion of white
light, and then they were in a different place: a hospital
room, where a very old man lay in a bed, with a nurse
keeping vigil beside him. And there was more: two small
entities which seemed to be made of darkness where tugging
at the man, as if trying to pull his soul out of his
body - this was Betty's impression. But there was also
present a light-being; this was a type of entity Betty
had encountered before in her experiences - it had no
visible human features, but appeared as a bodily form
made of white light. This being was also tugging at
the dying man; it was clearly a battle for his soul
between these opposing entities. The elder resolved
the conflict: he threw two tiny balls of light at the
black entities, and they flew away. The elder and Betty
next transported to a woods again, where a small saucer
and two of the grays awaited them. They went on board,
and evidently flew up into the sky. Betty asked where
they were going now, and the elder replied that they
were going to see the One. Betty had to give the purple
orb
to one of the grays; she was
very reluctant and sorrowful to give it up. The craft
came to a stop, and they emerged into a place filled
with bright light. Above them was the great door, which
was the source of the light. The elder touched one of
the grays on the shoulder and spoke to him, and he came
along with the elder and Betty as they walked toward
the light. Their walk turned into a run, as they moved
swiftly into the pure radiance. Betty was overwhelmed
with the ecstasy of the One, which she re-experienced
on the hypnotist's couch, and the several people in
attendance were all profoundly moved by the visible
effects of her transformation. Betty, the elder, and
the gray all turned into light-beings as they went into
the One. Each was a different hue: the elder's light-body
was pure white, the gray alien's was light blue, and
Betty's was golden. Betty said, 'Oh, there is such love
... Oh, there is such peace ... I'm just engulfed in
light and blending into that light. Oh! ... Oh, this
is everything, everything, everything ... I cannot explain
the wonder and beauty and love and peace.' And then
came a heartbroken cry as Betty realized that she would
have to leave this beatific state of Oneness: "Oh, I'm
going to have to go back. I have to go back for others
so that they too will see, will understand and know
..." And Betty, the elder, and the gray emerged back
out of the light, turning back into their normal forms
in the process.
The elder gave three of the
tiny balls of light to Betty; then she was escorted
into the saucer and taken home by the grays. She found
her physical body sitting up on the side of her bed
next to her sleeping husband, and re-entered it. The
experience had ended." (Betty
Andreasson)
"In
the late 1990's, several crop circle enthusiasts and
cereologists (those who study crop circles) captured
on videotape the creation of crop circles as described
in the above text. What they had observed and recorded
showed two balls of light, each approximately the size
of a grapefruit, appearing above a field of crops, usually
at night, moving very rapidly in circular patterns,
causing the crops to lay over and forming complete designs
in the course of 6 - 12 seconds. Then, these balls of
light quickly vanished in the sky. This has been recorded
repeatedly. Some of the video footage has been lab-tested
in the US and UK, verified as authentic and unmolested,
and can be viewed on video copies available commercially."
(Phillip
Mitchell)
According to the website
Crop Circles 2002,
UFO orbs are described this way:
"Orbs are electromagnetic
energy fields - circular as most things move
in circles/cycles - in our 3D EM reality. There
is a growing interest in orbs and aliens - in
some cases the same entity! ... Orbs can be
entities - such as spirits or ghosts or other
extraterrestrial life forms - reduced to electromagnetic
frequencies. There are electromagnetic orbs
created by the grid itself. They are seen when
authentic crop circles are formed, usually accompanied
by tones, as all things in our EM (electromagnetic)
reality are created by sound, light, and color
- and the grid - EM energies - from crop circles."
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"We saw that
the sparkling lights were tiny, transparent
bubbles that drifted in the air and
sparkled on the grass. We realized that
each tiny sparkle was a soul."
- May Eulitt
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Copyright 2013 Near-Death
Experiences and the Afterlife
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