In This Article You’ll Discover
- Near-death experiences can reveal profound spiritual truths
- Soul can experience life beyond the physical body
- Encounters with spiritual guides are possible
- The memory of divine love can stay with a person for life
- Spiritual practices can help reconnect with higher states of awareness
By Harold Klemp
A Lightning Strike and a Miracle Recovery
Lenny was a seeker.
Years ago, Lenny had gone hunting in a neighbor’s field with his father, brother, and a neighbor friend.
Tragedy was to change Lenny’s life. Lightning struck both him and his neighbor, who died immediately. Lenny himself went into cardiac arrest. His brother revived him en route to the hospital.
In the emergency room, however, Lenny’s heart failed again. The medical staff tried everything in its power to revive him, but without success. Grave, hopeless seconds flew away like falcons upon the wind.
Unable to make out a sign of life, the doctor signaled a nurse to pull the plug. As she bent over to disconnect the monitors, the faintest bleep sounded from the EKG.
Life!
Lenny’s Awakening in the Inner Worlds
The team sprang into action, reviving Lenny.
He lay in a coma for six hours. But seemingly unconscious, he’d awakened out of the body, in the inner worlds.
A realm of stunning beauty greeted him. There he found delightful rest and peace. His was a flood of bliss and ecstasy.
In that place of unspeakable love, Lenny caught sight of his neighbor, who’d been struck by lightning and translated (died). The man was lingering near a stairway leading to an even greater light. He motioned for Lenny to join him; they’d ascend the stairs together.
But Lenny shook his head. No, there was still plenty to see and do on earth.
Then a man with a snowy beard and in a long white robe addressed him. Was this God? (Lenny was to learn later that this exalted being would never, ever make a pretense of being God.) The old man spoke of the changes to come for Lenny: his future.
Lenny met other beings too. One especially striking man had a gleaming bald head, but more about that later. Lenny could recall only fragments of his inner conversations with those beings, though the beauty and tranquility of that world were like an exquisite script engraved upon his heart. His remembrance of that celestial place enfolded him in an aura of peace and contentment. So profound and pure, in fact, was this recollection that he would spend many fruitless years trying either to recapture or escape its memory.
The Lingering Memory of Divine Love
Lenny regained consciousness. Later Lenny’s doctor would confide to him what a miracle his recovery had been. Such things did not happen; it was simply unheard of. The doctor, badly shaken by Lenny’s amazing recovery, could not understand how he ever survived. It defied all reason.
Two Decades of Spiritual Isolation
For the next twenty years Lenny tried to blot his near-death experience from memory. He desperately wanted to get on with living, yet the exquisite splendor of that divine love continued to haunt him. So Lenny felt like a misfit in society.
Ten years after leaving the hospital, tragedy struck again.
Lenny’s best friend suffered a massive heart attack and died in his arms. The shock of it brought to mind memories of his own near-death experience. No question about it, his friend was rejoicing in the very love and peace that Lenny had once enjoyed too. Every waking hour since his best friend’s death, Lenny tried to recapture that elusive feeling of total love and acceptance.
The Breaking Point: A Cry for Help
A few years ago, Lenny’s own life began to unravel. For one thing, his marriage crumbled. Then, his career went up in smoke. He‘d lost everything worth living for. Gone. Everything was gone. Yet even during this storm of pain and turmoil, Lenny could feel a guiding hand directing his affairs.
Who or what was this silent presence?
One day, seized by despair while out driving, Lenny cried, “What’s going on? Help me! I give up! Do with me what you will. I need help!”
At that very moment, a white car swerved in front of him. Its bumper sticker read: “ECKANKAR 1-800-LOVE GOD.” Curious, he thought.
Soon he began seeing those bumper stickers everywhere.
Tossing and turning one night, Lenny realized he was spiritually on the edge of a precipitous cliff. He crawled from under his covers and switched on the TV. On the screen was an ad for the ECK Worldwide Seminar in Minneapolis, Minnesota. A voice inside him said, “Call the number.” Lenny hesitated.
“Call the number.” So he dialed 1-800-LOVE-GOD.
A Visit to the Temple of ECK
A short while later, a mailing arrived from Eᴄᴋᴀɴᴋᴀʀ. Inside it was a free book, Eᴄᴋᴀɴᴋᴀʀ—Ancient Wisdom for Today. He skimmed it; he liked it. All right, then, it was time to visit the Temple of ECK in Chanhassen, Minnesota.
Lenny, a Minnesota resident, had driven past the temple for ten years. He’s always known he’d stop in someday, but a certain timidity kept him from it.
He finally overcame his reluctance and went to the temple. Inside, a genial host offered him a tour, to which Lenny agreed. The tour coursed along a corridor to a chapel near the main sanctuary. There, on a wall, hung color portraits of ECK Masters.
Recognition and Validation of the Journey
Lenny stared at them. For the first time since his near-death experience, he finally understood his out-of-body journey. He recognized the ECK Master Fubbi Quantz. He was the man with the white beard and long white robe. He was the very one Lenny had once mistaken for God, the one who’d told him things about his future.
And there, too, was a portrait of Yaubl Sacabi, the bald-headed man who’d offered guidance in times of trouble.
For the first time in twenty years, Lenny knew with absolute certainty that his experience had been real. He wasn’t crazy; in fact, he was blessed.
In good time, Lenny learned about karma, reincarnation, and past lives, and he also found answers to a lifetime of questions. Best of all, he discovered the way to again enter those worlds of light, love, and infinite beauty he’d seen so many years ago. It is through the Spiritual Exercises of ECK.
FAQs
Q: What are “inner worlds?”
In Eᴄᴋᴀɴᴋᴀʀ, the inner worlds are higher planes of existence where Soul experiences love, wisdom, and divine truth beyond the physical realm.
Q: What is a near-death experience?”
A near-death experience is when Soul temporarily leaves the physical body and may enter inner worlds filled with light, love, and expanded awareness.
Q: Can you return to the joy and peace felt in a near-death experience?
Yes. Spiritual practices such as the Spiritual Exercises of ECK offer a way to consciously explore inner worlds and reconnect with that joy and peace.
Q: Are the beings seen in near-death experiences real?
Many people report meeting spiritual guides. In Eᴄᴋᴀɴᴋᴀʀ, these are often understood to be the ECK Masters or spiritual helpers.
Q: Why do near-death experiences change people so deeply?
They give direct experience of divine love and life beyond physical death, which can permanently transform one’s understanding about existence.
Q: What are the Spiritual Exercises of ECK?
They are creative, spiritual meditation techniques that can help anyone explore inner awareness and experience a higher state of being.
