The Being of Light
What is it like to encounter the Being of Light?
One of the more common characteristics of many NDEs is the encounter with The Being of Light. This frequently comes after the person has traversed the Tunnel. The encounter often begins with an awareness of a small dot of light, which increases in size until it is experienced as being infinite, extraordinarily bright (brighter than sunlight) but not harmful to the "eyes" (apparently no harm can come to the spirit which perceives without the physical organs), and, perhaps most remarkable of all, as a person rather than an object. It appears that the NDEr, being at that time a spiritual being separated to a degree from the physical body (no pain, and not using the physical organs to see, hear, or feel), can identify another spiritual being, including the Being of Light. Along with the visual effect, the encounter almost always (perhaps always) includes the sensation by the NDEr of being loved by this being, and loved to such an extent that the feeling can be overwhelming, as if the NDEr could explode from the sensation.
So, the Being of Light is also the Being of Infinite Love. Let me propose a theory about this. I believe that love is the substance of all things, both spiritual and physical, both created and uncreated. There is one Uncreated Being, who we refer to as God. This being alone is infinite in every dimension. The one Uncreated Being is Goodness, Truth, and Beauty, the so-called Transcendentals. All other beings are created and finite, having the qualities of goodness, truth, and beauty in a limited fashion as gifts from the Creator. If created beings were infinite, they would be God. If the substance of all things is love, that implies consciousness, intelligence, and will, properties of both the one Uncreated Being, as well as all Created Beings. As we become more loving, we identify more closely with the core substance of our being, love, which allows us to experience our oneness with all other beings whose substance is love. What about the non-beings? Other living things seem to have a share in the qualities of consciousness, intelligence, and will to lesser degrees, but even they are at core made of love (as anyone who has a dog can tell you). And the non-living things in the physical world, I believe, are also made of love. Physicists split the atom, seeking the highly elusive "God-particle". Since all matter is primarily a different form of energy (E = mc^2), I believe that the primary energy of the universe, both spiritual and physical, is love. Perhaps physicists will someday be able to detect this. I believe this is what Nikola Tesla was implying when he said this: "The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence".
Who is the Being of Light?
Many different words are used to describe the Being of Light. Often people identify the Being as God or Jesus, but for many it seems that the word "God" is inadequate to properly describe this being, and they frequently use the word "Source". I suspect one reason that the word "God" seems inadequate is that it may not match the NDEr's expectation of what it would be like to meet God. Far too many expect a very judgmental encounter.
Why would someone describe The Being of Light using the word "Source"?
Things that flow, such as rivers and thoughts, flow from a source. So why would someone use the word Source for the Being of Light?
There are three ways to describe a divine being. One school of thought is called "pantheism", in which all things are mere manifestations of God, not distinct from God. In pantheist thought, the human spirit will eventually return to the one God as a drop of water becomes one with the ocean, losing its individuality in an inevitable oneness. The second way to describe God is called "deism". The God of deism creates the universe like a clockmaker makes a clock and then lets it run without any further participation. The third description is called "theism", the description used by the Judeo-Christian religions. This God is outside the universe he created, but his activity within creation continues. Source could be a very apt description for this idea of God.
What if we thought of all creation, and all parts of creation (including ourselves), as being like eternal flames rather than static objects (like clocks). An eternal flame lamp is created and lit, but it requires a continuous flow of energy to remain lit. This seems to be the description of the created worlds which most closely matches what NDErs encounter in The Being of Light. Many times NDErs encounter not just the Infinite Being of Light, but many smaller star-like beings. And NDErs sometimes also see themselves as beings of light, with their being coming from the Source. If our core substance is love, that energy flows constantly from a Source, and that energy is the essence of everything, providing the means for us to realize our oneness.
Someone actually once told this joke to the Dalai Lama. One day, the Dalai Lama went into a pizza shop and ordered a pizza. He told the clerk, "Make me one with everything!". The Dalai Lama immediately got the joke and laughed.
