Time and the Near-Death Experience 

After death when we enter the spirit realm, it feels as though we were there just a moment ago. Our time on earth seems like only a brief instance. Time in the spirit realm does not exist. By getting rid of the illusion of time from our minds, we have the power to expand our consciousness. We will realize that we are already living in timelessness right now. This means a person can remain in heaven for eternity if they desire before deciding whether to return for another earth life. In the spirit realm, if we desire, we can travel instantaneously from the beginning of earth history to the end. We have the power to grow forever. We are powerful spiritual beings.

  "The fact of a pre-earth life crystallized in my mind, and I saw that death was actually a "rebirth" into a greater life ... that stretched forward and backward through time." (Betty Eadie)

  "It does not matter that we leave family and friends behind because time becomes irrelevant. It is certain that once we enter the spirit realm, it will be just a blink of the eye before they join us." (Mac Wright)

  "Before we're born, we have to take an oath that we will pretend time and space are real so we can come here and advance our spirit. If you don't promise, you can't be born." (Jeanie Dicus)

  "Space and time are illusions that hold us to the physical realm; in the spirit realm, all is present simultaneously." (Beverly Brodsky)

  "Time did not make any sense. Time did not seem to apply. It seemed irrelevant. It was unattached to anything, the way I was. Time is only relevant when it is relative to the normal orderly sequential aspects of life. So I was there for a moment or for eternity. I cannot say but it felt like a very long time to me." (Grace Bubulka)

  "During an NDE, you can't tell if you were in that light for a minute of a day or a hundred years." (Jayne Smith)

  "Earthly time has no meaning in the spirit realm. There is no concept of before or after. Everything - past, present, future - exists simultaneously." (Kimberly Clark Sharp)

  "From the onset of this rather superconscious state of the darkness of the tunnel, there was something that was totally missing, and that was what we call time. There's no such thing as time in heaven! As I thought of and formulated a desire or a question, it would already have been recognized, acknowledged, and therefore answered. And the dialogue that took place, took place in no time. It didn't require a fifteen-minute duration in time; it simply happened." (Thomas Sawyer)

Albert Einstein's theory of relativity allows for the possibility of time travel. During an NDE, some people have reported traveling back in time and some have reported traveling into the future.

  "Everything in this experience merged together, so it is difficult for me to put an exact sequence to events. Time as I had known it came to a halt; past, present, and future were somehow fused together for me in the timeless unity of life ... I could be anywhere instantly, really there ... I felt it necessary to learn about the Bible and philosophy. You want, you receive. Think and it comes to you. So I participated, I went back and lived in the minds of Jesus and his disciples. I heard their conversations, experienced eating, passing wine, smells, tastes - yet I had no body. I was pure consciousness. If I didn't understand what was happening, an explanation would come. But no teacher spoke. I explored the Roman Empire, Babylon, the times of Noah and Abraham. Any era you can name, I went there." (Dr. George Rodonaia)

  The light replied, "Let us go back in time, as far back as possible, and tell me how far back we should go". I was thinking for some time. Eventually I blurted out, "Stone Age?" I did not have much time to think about all this, because, all of a sudden, I saw human beings back on earth. I was looking down on a group of people, men and women, who were dressed in furs, sitting around campfire. (Guenter Wagner)

  "The box opened to reveal what appeared to be a tiny television picture of a world event that was yet to happen. As I watched, I felt myself drawn right into the picture, where I was able to live the event. This happened twelve times, and twelve times I stood in the midst of many events that would shake the world in the future." (Dannion Brinkley)

  Going through the tunnel during an NDE means traveling through the various afterlife realms. One of the realms that you can see on either side of the tunnel, is an outline of houses, walls, trees, etc., but everything is motionless. As you travel further up the tunnel, you can see more light and movement in what appear to be normal cities and towns. (Edgar Cayce)

(Webmaster's note:  Cayce didn't mention it, but the motionless realm he saw, I believe, is the physical realm. If it is, then it shows how time stands still in the physical realm when entering the spirit realm.)

  "An expansion of consciousness can be achieved through meditation. With this expansion comes the realization that we are in eternity now." (Edgar Cayce)

  "There is no time and space in the spiritual world. If one is in the highest realms, love reigns. And where there is love, there is happiness. Where there is happiness, there is no awareness of time. Therefore, there is no time as we know it there. In the lower realms, because people are very unhappy, time seems to drag forever. There is space, but it is a reflection of the qualities of the people who live there. Where love reigns, there is no distance between people." (Nora Spurgin)

  "The occupants in outer darkness are there for various lengths of time. It is peculiar to discuss length of residence by a measure which does not exist in that dimension. For most of us it is very difficult to relate to a timeless condition, so the use of finite terms helps us to better understand. Some residents feel they have been in outer darkness for weeks or months, others for eons. No doubt all are correct in their assessment of length of time spent in this realm. In a reality of pain and torment, even a moment can seem like an eternity and there is no way to judge length of stay until after one has long departed. Some souls have occupied outer darkness for what we would measure as hundreds, even thousands of years. But it is more likely that most stay for a considerably shorter period. It is not possible for souls to be forever confined to outer darkness, since in such a case there would be no hope of redemption." (Harvey Green)

  "In the void during an NDE, there is a profound stillness, beyond all silence. You can see or perceive FOREVER, beyond Infinity, in pre-creation, before the Big Bang, in the Eye of Creation. It is like toughing the Face of God and being at one with Absolute Life and Consciousness. You can experience all of creation generating itself. It is without beginning and without end. You realize the Big Bang is only one of an infinite number of Big Bangs creating Universes endlessly and simultaneously. The only images that even come close in human terms would be those created by supercomputers using fractal geometry equations. You learn that you are an immortal being and a part of a natural living system that recycles itself endlessly." (Mellen-Thomas Benedict)

  "Time and space exists only in the physical realm. When you leave the physical realm, you leave such constraints. Existence there is never ending and ongoing, forever and ever eternal. The only true movement is without the distortion of time and space. It is expansion and contraction, as if the existence that exists were capable of breathing. What appears as a progression, a time-line of starts and stops and ever-changing variations, is but an overleaf, an illusion, that helps us to focus on whatever realm we currently inhabit so that we will accomplish what we set out to do (or at least have an opportunity to), and not be distracted by The Truth that under-girds reality. Using radio as an analogy, dying to this physical realm and entering a spirit realm is comparable to having lived all your life at a certain radio frequency when all of a sudden someone or something comes along and flips the dial. That flip shifts you to different frequency. The original frequency where you once existed is still there. It did not change. Everything is still just the same as it was. Only you changed, only you speeded up to allow entry into the next radio frequency on the dial. You then fit into your particular spot on the dial by your speed of vibration. You cannot coexist forever where you do not belong. (P.M.H. Atwater)

  "When you die, you enter eternity. It feels like you were always there, and you will always be there. You realize that existence on earth is only just a brief instant." (Dr. Kenneth Ring)

  "After death, you can literally travel at the speed of light and see all of the people on earth simultaneously in one moment. You can see people in all manner of activity instantaneously. You can see people praying in mosques and temples, synagogues, and churches. You can see people individually expressing their own silent prayers. You can see indigenous tribes in all different parts of the world drumming and chanting. You can see God sending multitudes of angels to earth to assist in answering all of the countless, millions of prayers being offered up at that single moment." (Dr. Liz Dale)

  "When you die, everything stops and you enter eternity. It is like finally getting to the nanosecond, where time stops. Like a watch, our body stops at that time. Yet our spirit and consciousness continue to live on in a dimension beyond sequential time. We go beyond nanoseconds into a space-time measurement we cannot know here on earth. It is the eternal now where past, present, and future are all merged into one. Eternity is the present, the now that never ends." (Dr. Gerard Landry)

  "After death, you can go through the end of time all the way back through the beginning of time, then back into the present time where you started. It lasted forever, and was over in an instant. It is a paradox." (Dee Rohe)

  "After death, you can view one afterlife realm as if it was first grade. People stay there until they were ready to go to the next afterlife realm. This is the eternal progression, from one realm to the next." (Cecil)

  "The sense of timelessness after death makes you feel unaware of how long things last, but it can feel like a long time - maybe days or maybe weeks." (Rev. Howard Storm)

  "Everything in the spirit realm is kept in place by an all pervading Master-Vibration which prevents aging. Things don't get dirty or wear out. Everything looks so bright and new. You can then understand how heaven is eternal." (Arthur Yensen)

  "In the spirit realm, travel takes no time at all. Any experience can seem like eons. But that same experience also seems like seconds." (Dr. George Ritchie)

  "In the spirit realm, It can take eons of time as we understand it before some people go into the light. It depends on the person. You're in control. You hold the reins. Those who've come through those darker levels have said that they've had to face themselves and realize that if they don't shape up, in other words, learn more about themselves, they're not getting anywhere." (George Anderson)

  "Space and time are illusions that hold us to this physical realm. In the spirit realm, all is present simultaneously." (Beverly Brodsky)

  "After death, each person shapes their own eternity to correspond with their real inner nature. Some are taught by their friends about the state of eternal life." (Emanuel Swedenborg)

  "One experience in the spirit realm can feel like forever. Time no longer seems to apply and seems irrelevant. Time is only relevant when it is relative to the normal orderly sequential aspects of life. The experience can feel like a moment and an eternity. You realize that you are eternal and indestructible. You realize that you have always been, that you always will be, and there was no way you could ever be lost. It is impossible to fall into a crack in the universe somewhere and never be heard from again. You are utterly safe and always have been forever and ever." (Jayne Smith)

  "Life is about having experiences forever and ever and ever. As we bring this awareness permanently into our consciousness, our connection with God will be there and not somewhere in our unconscious. We will be consciously aware of who we are all the time." (Jayne Smith)

  "The experience lasted for hours or eons and now it seems that eons passed in only moments." (Virginia Rivers)

  "We wandered in this beautiful place for what seemed an eternity." (Karen Schaeffer)

  "The experience was a few seconds, but it seemed like an eternity." (Rev. Kenneth Hagin)

  "In the spirit realm, time and space becomes nothing more than attenuated wisps of human invention. Both were webs of light created in my consciousness." (Lynnclaire Dennis)

  "The human spirit is eternal and we are not alone in the cosmic scheme of things." (Brad Steiger)

  "In the spirit realm, people don't talk about time. They talk about opportunity. People don't think about time because it is not measured off in days and nights and months and years." (Margaret Tweddell)

  "Our souls are immortal and eternal." (Sandra Rogers)

  "Many events of eternity can pass through you. You can bathe in them and become them. They can be infused into your soul." (RaNelle Wallace)

  "We are intricately connected to all that exists throughout eternity." (Jan Price)

  "On the other side, one event follows another just like on earth. But looking at it another way, time on the other side doesn't pass at all because there is not enough change to make the passage of time evident. From another viewpoint, time in the afterlife stands still because it is always now. The past and future are of equal length because there never was a beginning and never can be an end. This flexibility of time on the other side can be compared to the earth experience when a person is enjoying themselves and time just seems to fly by. But another person having the same experience but who is absolutely miserable, time can seem to last forever. As Einstein discovered, time is a factor that is relative to a person's own experience." (Kevin Williams)

  "I glanced at my wrist to note the time, since there was no sun in the sky. My wrist had no watch on it, nor was there any telltale evidence of a watchband ... A strange sense of timelessness gripped me. It was simply awesome! ... We exist here in that timelessness, the eternity of God, the kind of life that does not perish! It is our gift of love, eternal life!" (Dr. Richard Eby)

  "There is an overall awareness of the earth's future as it will be in six weeks, six months, or perhaps two years ahead. It is like being in an airplane looking down, and you can get a prevision of what is going to happen, due to being able to see things in broader perspective. However, there is not a complete vision of the entire future of earth. But there are souls in the spirit realm who, through much tribulation and service, have been permitted to see the earth's future in a more extended way." (Margaret Tweddell)

  "Time is not linear. Energy moves in a continuum and if we would consider the past as a time passed we would release pain from the body. We get stuck because we stay in the past, instead of realizing that we have passed!" (Lynnclaire Dennis)

One day, without any warning, John Star found himself face to face with the fact that life in this world is terminal. He was swimming in Lake Michigan about half a mile offshore when he got in trouble. He was swimming free style, like he had done at swimming competitions, when he turned his head to breathe and inhaled water from an oncoming wave. His lungs were full of water when he wondered if he could swim half a mile at top speed without breathing. He tried. What resulted was an extraordinary near-death experience and a miraculous return to life. Here is the account of his near-death experience.  

"I raised my head to see what was making that sound. It was tiny wavelets breaking along the edge of a mirror-still lake, rattling the small pebbles that lined the shore. I was laying in the sand on the shore of Lake Michigan, just a few inches from the water. I felt good, like I just had the best rest that I had ever had."