A Near-Death-Like Experience—The Crystal Egg
It was the evening of September 24th 1969. The place was Chicago, Illinois. I was lying in my bed, not asleep, but very relaxed. I had a friend over. He was asleep on the bed next to me. The room was dark. I was lying on my back with my eyes closed. I was feeling very peaceful and very warm. I decided to send love to my sleeping friend. Without moving and without touching him, I felt this energy moving through my body. I directed this energy, this love, to my friend and with my mind I bathed him in it.
I became aware of nothing but this river of love. It flowed through me and sprung up through my heart like a fountain. My heart was totally open. I totally surrendered myself to the flow of love and I mingled and became one with it. I was aware of nothing but the experience of love.
The river of love became a sea of love, and I was part of it. I had completely lost awareness of my body as I floated in this sea of love, weightless, timeless, all encompassing. The next thing I knew, it was light! Light was everywhere, beautiful, breathtaking, brilliant, clear white, incomprehensible light. The sea of love was now visible as a sea of light. Everywhere was light and everything was love, one and the same, aspects of one reality.
Although I was experiencing it, I did not understand what was taking place. Part of my mind tried to rationalize what was happening. I told myself, " It must be dawn and the sunlight is coming through my window." This explanation satisfied the need of that part of my mind that wanted a familiar answer. Of course, when I thought back about it at a later time, that was a physical impossibility. It was the middle of the night and my window faced out to the brick wall across the courtyard, which made it impossible to view the dawning of the sun in the east.
My heart was completely open. It was so incredibly beautiful, so overwhelming. Everything was pure light and love. It was serene, safe and powerful. Then I became aware of a being in the light. It wasn't like anything I'd ever seen. It took up most of my field of vision. (When I think back to where it may have been in relation to my body, it was probably hovering just above the area of my heart, and I was viewing it from an area in the lower center of my forehead. I was not aware of this at the time, as my eyes were closed and I had no body awareness what-so-ever.) I was totally absorbed in the experience of all encompassing love and light, and I was experiencing overwhelming "awe" from the incredible beauty of this being that I was now aware of.
The being completely absorbed my attention. It was more alive than anything I'd ever seen before, and more visual. It emanated great love and intelligence. I felt great wonder as I examined it thoroughly. It was crystal clear and elliptical in shape. It was an incredible living radiant jewel, luminous and eternal. I looked deep into it's interior and I could see something like all the colors of the rainbow, but much more alive and vivid. It sparkled like a diamond and shimmered with an iridescence that is indescribable. I looked deep into it and there was a very fine quivering quality like gelatin.
I had never experienced so much love. The being radiated love. It communicated with me by direct impulse into my heart, instantaneous communication. I did not understand what I was seeing and I wondered what it was. It knew my heart and introduced itself, " In me is the secret of the universe." "What!?" I thought. That seemed a tad arrogant. Immediately information began to pour into me directly and spontaneously in streams of love, by impulse. I was informed about the universe, about us. Incredible knowledge was being transmitted to me, into me, and I immediately knew and understood. It was all so natural and so remarkable. I was totally absorbed in this experience, this communion.
Then it occurred to me that this was not normal. I thought there was a possibility that I was dreaming. I decided to find out. I remembered that I was in bed and decided to wake my friend up to see if he saw it, too. I opened my eyes. The room was dark. I rolled over onto my side and shook him. I said, "Leigh, Leigh, wake up! Do you see what I see?" He sleepily and somewhat angrily replied, " Go back to sleep. You're having a dream."
I was disappointed that he didn't see it. I told myself that when I closed my eyes, if it was still there exactly as it had been, then it was real! Sure enough, as soon as I closed my eyes, everywhere was light and the being was right there exactly where it had always been. I slipped immediately back into the state of all encompassing light and love, and the communication with the being continued in an unbroken stream.
I only remember two more of the communications from the being. It seems as if most of the information is presently hidden from my conscious recollection.( stricken from the record, but still on the tape in the file archives) I remember very clearly that it told me, " I am a seed that is planted within you." The last thing I remember is;" Tell no man." (That was in reference to the experience itself.) I didn't understand why I had been instructed not to tell. It was very difficult for me to keep secrets. At some point I drifted to sleep while I was still in the light and in communion with the being. When I woke up the next morning it took awhile before I remembered the experience. When I did, I was bursting inside. It was the most incredible, out of this world experience, that I had ever known. I couldn't hold it in.
I got to learn why it was that I was told not to tell. Ever since I first talked about it, I have gotten to experience what it feels like to be invalidated. If someone doesn't pass it off as a dream or a hallucination, they will usually try to tell me what they think my experience was or wasn't. They may pass a value judgment on it. I have heard things to the effect that aliens have tagged me or that I should leave it alone, inferring it was evil.
I think it is important that I mention that at that time in my life I did not drink or use any drugs. I ate a wholesome diet. I did not adhere to any religion, and I was not practicing any spiritual disciplines or meditating. I wasn't having an NDE or anything similar from ill health or stress. In fact, I was in excellent health at the time.
This was not my first spiritual experience. In May of 1966 I reunited with the source of all, the universe before manifestation. I was pure consciousness in total peace and unity with all. I experienced total knowledge and I realized that humanity was divine. That experience altered the entire course of my life at that time. But, the content of this experience was one of light and love! In fact, before this experience, I had never heard of experiences of light. It was a complete and wonderful surprise.
Before this experience I did not know much of anything about Jesus. In fact, I did not want to know. I had an aversion to it. Suddenly I found myself studying the new testament. I learned about light and love which is life, which is creation, which is the manifestation of God, which we are all a part of, and I learned about the commandment "love one another", which is a conduit for divine experience.