My 9/11 Experience

I woke from a restless night’s sleep, sauntered to the breakfast table and was greeted by my wife as she stunningly gazed at the television. The commentator was screaming, “they just flew an airplane into the World Trade Center and another one is heading for the other building”. A thick cloud billowed from a collapsed structure and people were crying and screaming as they were running. The evening news media portrayed that some passengers phoned their relatives who confirmed that the attacks had been carried out by Muslim terrorists who commandeered the planes and repeated the phrase “God is great” before the planes flew into the buildings.

I had prior business dealings with several Muslims. They, like my departed father were deeply religious. Malik the electrician had spent some time with me explaining how the Islam religion requires prayer five times daily and forbade the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Now I was puzzled, “How can devout religious people kill others while claiming that God is great?” I stopped by at the local bookstore and picked up a copy of ‘Muhammad’ by Karen Armstrong. It explained about how Muhammad had formed the Islam religion. I read the book deep into the night and again for the next two days until I was finished with it.

As I lay next to my wife that night, the television clock showed it to be 12:35 A.M. My wife was sleeping peacefully but my spirit was restless. The words, “How this is possible” kept repeating themselves in my mind as my mind went into deep meditation. One and a half hour went by, it was now 2:05 A.M. as I felt a sharp pain in my head, I closed his eyes momentarily and when I opened them I was staring down at myself looking at the clock with my wife sleeping next to me. I felt surrounded by a beautiful, pleasant bright light.

I felt an exhilarating burst of energy, I experienced my spirit being transmitted, whisked at a powerful speed as if through a light tunnel and being united with a receiver at the other end, with a spiritual unity. My whole life was revealed to me during the seemingly long journey.

“Am I in Heaven, am I with God?” I wondered as I experienced being in a place with a gathering of spirits. I felt the greatest peace, tranquility and ecstasy. I felt a rapture that was beyond a person’s imagination. I felt as if he was a part of ALL, a part of God. I was mentally communicating and in sync with everyone. There were many of the prophets of the Bible and historical people; there was Jesus, Abraham, Moses, and even Muhammad whom I just read about. I saw my father and some of my deceased acquaintances and relatives. I felt an engulfing love and support from everyone as they surrounded and embraced me. I again looked around for God and though I felt as if I was with God, there was no dominant force, no forceful leader. I somehow knew who everyone was; my thoughts interacted with the entire community, it was like “Tapping Into the Mind of God“.

“But which is the true religion?” my thoughts momentarily queried.

A scenario rapidly unfolded that was like a staged play with actors situated in their respective positions.

A Rabbi, a Christian minister, and an Islamic cleric appeared at an area that was marked “The Gates of Heaven”. They eyed each other suspiciously. Peter (the gatekeeper) asked if there was a problem.

The Rabbi told Peter, “Ours is the true religion. We have the word of God that this is so and it is written in the Torah that God said we are the chosen children of God, not the Christians or the Muslims.”

The Christian minister said, “Jesus told us that he is the Son of God and that the only way to God was by following his teachings and that unless one is born again, one would not get into heaven. What Jesus said is the word of God and it is written in the Holy Bible”.

The Muslim cleric said, “God has told Muhammad that he was the last true prophet and that everything that God told him was written in the Koran and that those who did not follow what was written there, would not get into heaven”.

Other souls appeared and some sided with and gathered around each of their leaders, while some other souls who sided with no one entered directly through the gates of heaven.

Eventually Peter told the souls who had gathered around the souls of their clerics, “In heaven there can be no disagreement and until you all are in agreement, you have to move to the Purgatory area”. No agreement was reached and eventually those souls seemed to fade away.

A sweet gentle voice seemed to relay:

“The lesson is that having tunnel-vision or being closed-minded, without compassion for the belief of others around you can be bad for the body and the soul. Most religions have the same goals and all who live righteously will be with us”.

In a flash, as if in a recreation, I was taken back to 1956 when I was fifteen years old. My father took me to a doctor who diagnosed it to be double pneumonia, gave me a penicillin injection and recommended immediate hospitalization. I thought that I was going to die. My father was temporarily out of work and our family had no medical insurance or money, so my father took me home to recuperate. I remembered the drive home vividly. Every breath was painful and my chest felt as though a great weight was upon it. I watched the cars and trucks drive by and I wondered how people could make long-term plans when life was so unpredictable.

While I was recuperating I read the Bible diligently, then one night I had what seemed like a puzzling experience of my spirit interacting with a spiritual existence. As the years passed, I thought that this spiritual interaction probably had been a dream. I didn’t think about it much afterwards and lived my life normally, but I had no fear of death after that because I felt that the afterlife would be much better than the present one.

A week after the dramatic experience following 9-11-01, I had another spiritual experience that was in a progression that seemed to last throughout the entire night. My spirit was weightless, uninhibited by any resistance or external influences; I could travel to any star or planet instantly, explore the beauty of the universe, and still be in sync with what I considered to be God.

My spirit witnessed the universe stretched out like a vast expanse with spirits engaged in mental interaction, much like master craftsmen contemplating the creation of a new frontier. My spirit observed the entire history and the evolution of the universe and peoples varying perceptions of Jehovah, Allah and God; as if in a fast-forward film. My spirit witnessed the beginning of life and then physical rational life in the universe, and the bonding of the first two souls that was the beginning of a spiritual unity. My spirit witnessed the development of mankind and man’s first perception of God from the story of Adam & Eve. My spirit witnessed Abraham & Moses, their quest into spirituality, their interaction with God and the beginning of Judaism. My spirit witnessed God’s interaction with Jesus and his life and physical death. My spirit witnessed the beginning of Christianity & the senseless killings in the Crusades; also God’s interaction with Muhammad, the beginning of the Islam faith & the Arab struggles. My spirit witnessed the senseless New York Twin Towers tragedy of 9-11-01.

My spirit understood that our life on earth was to prepare us and to give us examples of the hereafter, that everything is progressive and accumulative. We exist on earth to accumulate experiences of feelings, the beauty of every organism that surrounds us, the landscape that adds to our perception and then, when our life on Earth ends, we would begin our next spiritual journey.

I understood that we should live our life to its fullest. One hundred years from now, almost every single person alive today will have died. Several billion people wiped off the face of this earth. Our life is but a blip on the radar screen of time. We are the most important person responsible for whether our soul will live to attain continuity with God. Here we learn how to intertwine with a community, there we can experience anything that the imagination can perceive.

Envision yourself as a spirit that is uninhibited by any resistance or external influences; you can travel to any star or planet instantly, explore the beauty of the universe, and still be in sync with God. As an example: Imagine the most advanced form of Virtual Reality that can access a super-computer and place you in whichever setting you desire; you can play with the animals, be with your loved ones, listen to the greatest opera, stage or musical performances, or simply relax next to a bubbling brook and enjoy the scenery. You feel no pain, despair, heartache, or negative emotions, you are with God.


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