The “Baby and the Buddha” raises some interesting issues about survival after death. The “Tibetan Book of the Dead” describes death as a moment of luminosity, or brilliant light, before the soul begins its journey towards rebirth or liberation. The West is slowly catching up to the East in probing the mystery.

People interested in the subject should study the research of Ramond A. Moody, the American physician who studied many cases of near-death expeperiences (NDE’s). Here is a passage from his excellent book “Life After Life.” Moody writes:

“A man is dying and, as he reaches the point of greatest physical distress, he hears himself pronounced dead by doctors. He begins to hear an unconfortable noise, a loud ringing or buzzing, and at the same time feels himself moving very rapidly through a long dark tunnel. After this, he suddenly finds himself outside of his body, but still in the immediate physical environment, and he sees his own body from a distance, as though he is a spectator. He watches the resuscitation attempt from this unusual vantage point and is in a state of emotional upheaval.

“After a while, he collects himself and becomes more accustomed to his odd condition. He notices that he still has a “body,” but one of a very different nature and with very different powers from the physical body he has left behind. Soon other things begin to happen. Others come to meet and to help him. He glimpses the spirits of relatives and
friends who have already died, and a loving, warm spirit of a kind he has never encountered before — a being of light — appears before him. This being asks him a question, nonverbally, to make him evaluate his life and helps him along by showing him a panoramic, instantaneous
playback of the major events of his life. At some point he finds himself approaching some sort of barrier or border, apparently representing the limit between earthly life and the next. Yet, he finds that he must go back to the earth, that the time for his death has not yet come.”

You got to admire Moody for this fine summary. Those interested in visiting a supporting website can visit mine: http://www.tarotforum.webs.com. — Stephen Contrado, B.A., Th.M.