On the other side of the line is the afterlife
American psychologist and physician Raymond Moody reports that “there have been cases in which patients told how, during their near-death experience, they approached something that could be called a border or some kind of limit (water space, gray fog, door, fencing across the field, simple line). The following evidence is given:
“I died of cardiac arrest. As soon as this happened, I immediately found myself in the middle of some kind of disturbing field. It was beautiful and everything was bright green; such a color I have never seen on earth. Everything around me was in light, beautiful, wonderful light. In front of me I saw a hedge stretching across the field. I went to this fence and saw from the other side of it a man moving towards me, as if to meet me. I wanted to go up to him, but began to feel how I was irresistibly pulled back. I saw that this man also turned and began to move away from me and from this hedge."
“I was hospitalized in a very serious condition, coma lasted for almost a week. The doctors already doubted whether I would live. And so, when I was unconscious, I suddenly felt myself being lifted up, as if I had no physical body at all. A bright white light appeared in front of me. The light was so bright that I could not see anything through it, but at the same time in the presence of this light it was so calm, so amazingly good. I have never felt anything like this in my entire life. A mental question came to my mind: "Do you want to die?" I replied “I don’t know, because I don’t know anything about death”. Then this white light told me: "Cross this line and you will know." I felt that there was some feature in front of me, although in fact it was not visible to me. As soon as I crossed this line, even more amazing sensations of peace, calmness, no concern came over me."
“I had a heart attack. I suddenly found myself in a black vacuum, and I realized that I had left my physical body. I knew I was dying, and I thought, “God, I would live better if I knew this would happen now. Please help me . And immediately I began to emerge from this blackness through something pale gray and continued to move, sliding in this space. Then I saw a gray fog in front of me and headed towards it. It seemed to me that I was not moving towards him as fast as I would like, because I realized that by getting closer, I could see something through him. I saw people behind this fog. They looked the same as on the ground, and I still saw something that could be mistaken for some kind of structure. Everything was permeated with amazing light: life-giving, golden yellow, warm and soft,not at all like the light that we see on earth.
As I approached, I felt that I was going through this fog, it was an amazing, joyful feeling. In human language, there are simply no words that could describe this. In front of me I saw my uncle Karl, who had died many years ago. He blocked my way, saying: “Go back, your work on earth is not finished yet. Go back now. " I didn't want to go back, but I had no choice, and I immediately returned to my body. I again felt this terrible pain in my chest and heard my little son crying and shouting: "God, return mommy!"
What in our time the reanimated perceived after their death as a certain limit, we find in ancient sources. So, on the clay tablets of Ancient Babylon, cuneiform signs preserved the story of Gilgamesh (III millennium BC). It describes the path of Gilgamesh in the kingdom of the dead. There are these words:
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“… Hard road.
The waters of death are deep, that it is blocked.
A later Babylonian tradition of these waters is the Khubur River.
“Yes, our fathers leave us, they leave the road of death, they cross the Khubur River, as they say from ancient times.”
In the ancient Egyptian texts of the pyramids, there are also references to the river on the path of the soul, which is sent to the afterlife. In ancient sources, this river is called by various names - Leta, Styx, Acheron. In Virgil's Aeneid, this river appears to Aeneas when he descends into the underworld. There are lines like this:
“Dense crowds flock to the bank of the terrible river, husbands and heroes are walking as well as husbands.” Actually, even earlier, on the sarcophagi of the Etruscans there are images of a water barrier, which the soul needs to cross on its way. Thus, all the facts speak for the fact that this image of an obstacle, limit, river, etc. on the path of the soul from this world to that, the world of the dead, is present in different cultures, among different peoples, at different times. Like many thousands of years ago, such an obstacle is encountered by modern people who have experienced out-of-body experiences. Thus, the souls of the righteous in China can reach the islands of the blessed only after overcoming the waters. Japanese Buddhists also mention the afterlife Sanzu River. Among the Dayaks (Indonesia), the path to the land of the dead also passes through the waters of the afterlife river. In Australia, Aboriginal people believe that the souls of those who have diedwaiting for "endless waters (river)". By the way, this term they call the Milky Way. The Aztecs believed that the world of the departed was surrounded by a river. In order to reach this world, one must overcome the waters of this river.
The same image is seen in shamanism. When a shaman goes to the world of his ancestors, he needs to overcome the waters of the river, and twice - when he gets to the world of the dead and on the way back, when he comes back. The image of a river on the way to the afterlife is also present in the funeral customs of the Slavic peoples. In Russian folk lamentations, a river is mentioned, which the soul must overcome in its posthumous path. The expert on these issues V. Propp, analyzing this image in Russian folklore, came to the following conclusion: "All types of crossing point to a single area of origin: they come from the idea of the deceased's path to another world, and some quite accurately reflect the funeral rites." …
Thus, we can conclude that the image of the river and the crossing over it is a stable element of posthumous experiences, which is present in the representations of cultures and peoples far from each other. Moreover, as we have already said, the modern reanimated people describe the same image. It is absolutely obvious and natural that the specific embodiment of the image is determined by the life experience of those who are experiencing out-of-body experience. The modern reanimated woman later recalled:
“I was in a narrow tunnel … I started to enter this tunnel head first, it was very dark there. I moved down through this darkness … . The Ingansans living in the Turukhansk Territory report approximately the same. They are familiar with the practice of shamanistic travel to the afterlife. They also talk about the path through a completely dark, narrow passage, along which the soul is taken by the team to the world of the ancestors. Interestingly, in this case the soul is carried by deer, and the walls of the dark, narrow tunnel are made of snow.
In the same spirit: the long posthumous journey of the souls of the ancient Babylonians passes through the deserts. The souls of Russians make their way into the world of their ancestors “through forests, but through dense forests, through swamps, through rippling ones, along streams, along rough …“.
Thus, the form depends on the faith or the cultural system, although, without a doubt, the very experience of the posthumous state does not depend on them. In principle, the main features, representatives of all peoples and times describe the posthumous state in the same way. This is something single, universal, having the same meaning, the same idea that the soul crosses a certain line, a limit, after which everything becomes irreversible, irrevocable. The Babylonian texts say that whoever crosses the gloomy river Khubur, he finds himself in a country "from where there is no return." The rivers of the ancient underground world - Leta, Styx and Arekhon - carry the waters of oblivion, which erase the memory of the past, the memory of the individual. In shamanistic tradition, it is also believed that a person absolutely dies when his soul passes over the "waters of death."
More than half of those who have experienced clinical death, according to the American Journal of Psychiatry, mention the proximity of the line, after which there is no return.
Analyzing this issue in a historical aspect, experts have come to very interesting conclusions. It turns out that in the cultural monuments of various countries and peoples over the past 7,000 years, the sign of a boat in the other world has certainly been found. They prove that "the boat of the dead is present in all civilizations." The German researcher believes that "it is hardly possible to find a large part of the Earth's population" where there would be no faith in the ship of souls."
The oldest, the earliest boats are Egyptian burial boats, which were created about 7,000 years ago. Actually, the clay models of the funeral boats of the ancient Egyptians have survived to this day. "Judging by the shape of the shuttles, they were probably always used for some kind of cult or religious purpose." This is the opinion of experts. It is interesting that later on the drawings of boats appear mummies sitting under a canopy, or a sign of the soul is depicted, which makes "the last journey in the afterlife."
Of course, boat models or their drawings were represented only as symbols, and not as real operating means of transportation on water. Such ritual boats were found in the Egyptian pyramids. One of them is 4,500 years old.
It is very interesting that even at a time when it seemed that civilizations on different continents were divided, funeral boats are found everywhere. They were found in Babylon, on the American continent (in the Moche culture), in China (the sarcophagus is made in the form of a boat, III century BC). According to the testimony of Flavius Philostratus, a ship is also depicted on Hellenic tombstones. In Madagascar, in ancient times, they also buried in boats. Even the Slavs of Kievan Rus buried the dead in boats. The Scandinavians laid out a rook of stone at the place where someone was buried. In Indonesia, Oceania, Malaya, as well as the aborigines of Australia, a boat or model of a boat is required in the funeral rite. This custom is also found among other peoples (for example, among the peoples of the North).
Of course, I would like to understand where this custom comes from, which is accepted by almost all people. No answer. But there is such a judgment on this score: “Perhaps this image - of a river and a crossing in the afterlife - was introduced by someone who happened to be on the other side of the line, and then came back or was brought back to life. Memories of his posthumous state, taken as eyewitness testimony, entered the system of symbols of that era. Subsequently, this experience was confirmed, one must think, within the framework of other cultures."
But is it?
Yu Mizun