...I remember feeling no pain. I noticed that everything had a green tint or hue to it. My spirit began to rise off the floor towards the ceiling. The closer I came to the ceiling, the more dense the green mist became. Eventually I found myself engulfed in a green fog.
I stopped and looked about. In every direction there seemed to be floating an endless sea of agonized souls. I experienced the uttermost feelings of despair. I thought I was in hell...
Then I was in a room looking back at an arched doorway beyond which swirled the green fog so thick it was almost black. I knew I never wanted to go back through it again. Two men...helped me put on a garment I was supposed to wear. It was a loose-fitting white robe which hung midway past my knees.
Just to the right of the arched door was seated an old man at a desk. He was writing something in a large book, as if keeping tally on the number of garments that went out each day, almost like a record keeper.
Behind me and to my left stood a man waiting for me to finish my robe adjustments. I recognized him as Larry, a friend that I had grown up with who had died...just six years earlier. He said he was to be my guide until I became oriented.
The room seem to be made of crystallized marble of a soft pink hue. Another door, opposite the one I had entered, opened unto a street. Several low benches of white crystallized marble were against the wall. The doorways in the room had no doors, and the window openings had no panes.
As Larry and I left and entered the street, I was accutely aware of everything around me. I've never felt more fully alive. All my senses were increased a hundred-fold. I possessed superior knowledge and intelligence, qualities I knew I had always possessed, but had somehow been restricted or suppressed while I was in the physical world.
I felt like I had returned home. I knew where I was and where I was to go. We had only traveled a short distance down the street, when I stopped beside a building that I recognized. I had frequented it on many occasions. I told Larry I had to go inside before we could go any further.
Inside, a group of men were having a meeting. I felt it was important I talk to them. I spoke in earnest, imploring them to reconsider my premature entry into the spirit world. I knew somehow that I had died prematurely and had not finished my work upon the earth. Emphatically, I drove my point home by pounding with my fist on the corner of the desk.
After my presentation, I again joined Larry outside. We continued our journey. We came upon a large, beautiful park. A large group of people were happily awaiting us. As we came up to them, the closest member of the group approached me - a beautiful young woman dressed in the whitest most brilliant robe of the finest material I've ever seen. Her complexion was white and creamy, her hair jet black in color. She was overjoyed to see me and threw her arms around me, embracing me fondly.
She said she was my sister who had died when she was just three days old. Everyone else in the group was a relative who had died. They were all extremely happy I was there. We talked, it seemed, for hours. They thought I might be granted a second chance to go back...
When our meeting was over...Larry informed me that I was being summoned to a council meeting being held in my behalf. When we arrived I was escorted into a beautiful pavilion. It consisted of two semicircles with three-tiered stadium bleachers facing each other. These too were made of brilliantly white, crystallized marble.
In the center was a six-foot square marble platform where three people stood, their backs to me. All around the ground was soft and fleecy like the top of a cloud. It appeared we were standing on clouds.
...The trio turned to face me...I thought...they must be Peter, James and John. The one in the middle...came over and stood by my side...He squeezed my shoulder affectionately. I knew that my request had been granted...
Larry Tooley
...Bertha felt relieved. The pain was gone. She was so full of peace, that she had no particular desire to return to her body.
She was greeted by a woman who escorted her into a large room where she was greeted by many of her departed friends. One was a young man she had befriended and encouraged to develop his artistic talents. He was sitting in front of an easel, painting...
Janet Christensen about her grandmother Bertha Deusnup Elder
The mental agility I experienced, the ability to comprehend, was different than what we know in this life.
...in the mental state I was experiencing in that cloud, none of your instructions would be necessary. All you would have to do is show me [an item] and I would be able to comprehend everything about it, instantly, even if I had never seen one before. My ability to comprehend and learn had been multiplied a thousand times or more...
name withheld
...My first visual impression was the nearness of the world of spirits to the world of mortality. The vastness of this heavenly sphere was bewildering to the eyes of my spirit. Many of those I saw enjoyed unrestricted freedom of both vision and action. The vegetation and landscape was beautiful beyond description, like the rainbow, not all green, but gold with various shades of pink, orange, and lavender. A sweet calmness pervaded everything. The people I met there I did not think of as spirits, but as men and women - self-thinking, self-acting individuals going about important business in a most orderly manner. There was perfect order, and everyone had something to do...
...the wicked and unrepentant are confined to a certain district by themselves.
...The world of spirits is the temporary abode of all spirits, pending the resurrection from the dead and the judgement.
...I was surprised to find there no babies in arms. I met the infant son [of a friend] who died a few years earlier...he seemed to have the intelligence and...appearance of an adult.
...I presently approached a small group of men standing in a path lined with spacious stretches of flowers, grasses, and shubbery, all of a golden hue, marking the approach to a beautiful building.
...I was permitted to view this earth and what was going on here. There were no limitations to my vision and I was astonished at this...I saw the whole world as if it were a panorama passing before my eyes.
...this earth and persons upon it are open to the visions of the spirit only when special permission is given or when they are assigned to special service.
...The wicked and unrepentant spirits...seek pleasure about their old haunts...It is idle, mischievous, and deceptive spirits who appear as miserable counterfeits at spiritualistic scenes, table dancing, and other such things. The noble and great men and women do not respond at the call of the mediums and every curious group of meddlesome inquirers.
...Everything about me was glowing in indescribable peace and happiness which abounded in everybody and through everything. The further I went the more glorious things appeared...
Heber Q. Hale
...On my left was a chorus or a small choir...singing the most beautiful music I had ever heard...I didn't want to leave the music behind. It was so peaceful, so warming...
Elizabeth Whitehead
...there appeared a green valley with mountains on all sides, illuminated everywhere by a brilliance of light and color impossible to describe.
...everyone I had ever cared about was there to greet me...Recognition was more by personality than by physical attriibutes. They had changed ages. Some who had passed on in old age were now young, and some who had passed on while children had now matured.
...I had no awareness of time...
Arthur Ford
...We began conversing, but not with words. Communication was total and absolute and seemed to be pure thoughts communicated from mind to mind. There was no possibility of misunderstanding.
...All of them wore loose-fitting, white robes...
Kent Johnson
...I looked directly into [the nurses] eyes and said, "I'm leaving now."
...I was in a large white room. It was beautiful. The floor was amber gold, and it reflected every image like a mirror. The walls were trimmed in gold.
...As I looked at the only woman in the room...I could read her personality. Not a word was spoken, but I could instantly tell the character of her very being. She was a prostitute.
...the two large doors opened, filling the room with an even brighter, almost blinding light. A man came through the open doors. He was dressed in white and came towards me. The closer he got the more love I felt...
Robert Ashford
...I heard harps playing - and they were made of gold, so ornate, so beautiful.
The room was so bright that it hurt my eyes - at least at first. I saw men and women stading around a throne that was made of gold. I didn't see Heavenly Father sitting on the throne, but I knew it was his. I heard the most beautiful music I had ever heard.
...There was a great gulf I had to cross in order to be where Heavenly Father was, but I couldn't cross it. I knew that if I tried to cross it there would be no return...
Nancy Lee Minter
...After passing through the tunnel he came to the most beautiful park he had ever seen. The trees were in full bloom, and the sun shining. He could smell the flowers, hear the birds and a trickling brook. This was a very peaceful place.
There was a park bench, and [his] father, who had died in 1958, was sitting on it...as he was sitting down beside his father, he found his old black lunch box in his hand. He opened it and offered his father a sandwich. The father didn't accept the sandwich, nor did the old man acknowledge the presence of his son. [He] began to eat the sandwich himself...
Muriell Baldwin, speaking of her husband, Marion
...I saw a bridge. It wasn't like any bridge I had ever seen in my life. It was the most beautiful piece of architecture anyone could imagine. It...was actually made of gold, or at least part of it. The span was of pure marble and the cables were pure gold. It was suspended in mid air with clouds or fog around it...
There were people walking back and forth across the bridge. It was wide enough to allow the people to walk three abreast in both directions...
Sherida Riggs
...[love] semed to be coming from everywhere. I was also aware of pure knowledge.
...In that state you don't walk, you are propelled by your mind. In a way, you walk with your thought processes...
Ronna Lackey
...I saw my father sitting on one of the benches. I went over to him. I remember communicating with him. I don't say talking, because I don't remember hearing any sounds...
...I could feel the peace and beauty of the place. The people were calm and happy. It was kind of like a college campus...
Barbara Ross
Death is really a beautiful thing, an experience to look forward to and never to fear. I know because I died nearly forty years ago...
...I was overwhelmed with a feeling of utter blissfullness...
We didn't need words to communicate...
...I felt the spirit of the Lord with me as plainly as I feel the keys on this typewriter...
Thelma T. Huffman
...We started walking together through a place that was much like earth, but much more beautiful. It was a garden setting with many beautiful flowers of many colors and many green plants.
...We saw many beautiful homes...the size of the house one gets in paradise or heaven is determined by the quantity and quality of the good deeds performed...
Mary Hales
...No human power could describe my condition. Every action, and even every thought of my life - good, bad, and indifferent - was clearly before my comprehension...There were spiritual persons with me, and I understood that they also knew all about the nature of the deeds I had done in the body...
I discovered that I could move about without the slightest effort and with great rapidity...
Charles John Lambert, 1886
...She said there were two levels; the one she was on, above the ground, and the one on the ground level with us. The spirits on the ground level wander aimlessly, not knowing where to go or what to do until they accept the gospel, at which point they move to the upper level. The people on the upper level could see us mortals as well as the spirits on the lower level of their world. But, the spirits on the lower level could only see their level.
...Everyone [on her level] had a job to do and kept very busy...
...she said, "Sharon, Jesus' eyes really are blue."
...there were thousands upon thousands of bookshelves stuffed with books. There were books on every topic imaginable. But you didn't read them, all you had to do was open up a book and you would immediately absorb all the knowledge it contained. You could just sit down and learn anything you ever wanted to know. To learn everything would take an incredibly long time, though, because there were so many of them.
When we asked her if the people there wore white clothing, she responded that you could if you wanted to, but you didn't have to. "I'm wearing peach," she said...
Sharon McQueen, about Mara
...I had a feeling of overwhelming peace. The trauma and stress were gone. It was like I was standing beside a clear blue lake under an apple tree on a beautiful summer day, a cool breeze blowing in my face...The spirit world was more subdued in color, not bright at all...
Marc Shelton
Beyond the Veil
Volumes 1-3
Lee Nelson
(c)1988, 1989, 1990
by Cedar Fort, Incorporated
Orem, Utah