More

This is part two of a five-part account.  For the full reading please wait until July 13th.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

It sounded weird to me too when I heard about it, so I pushed Fred a little harder when I spoke with him. Carl had backed off and “humored” him. So he never got the whole story.

Fred was “dead” for only a few minutes. At least that was the way it seemed in our terms. But when I asked him about the experience, he had an entirely different perception.

“It was just like the way everyone describes it – that is, not really everyone, but the ones who have been through it like me. There was a tunnel and a very bright light at the end. A hand took me and brought me into the light. It was wonderful, but I can't describe it more specifically than that. I know that I was in whatever place it was for a long time, but I'm sure of that only because so much happened. There was no feeling of time passing, so I can't judge it that way.”

I don't pretend that he convinced me. You read stories of “near-death experiences” all the time. They seem to be simply expressions of what people want to believe. They're afraid of death and the “dream” they had during their coma (or whatever it is) serves to provide them with something to believe so that when they awaken they're immunized against that fear for ever after. And that's the way I understood Fred's story. Until he started going into particulars.

“The place was filled with ethereal figures, but it wasn't crowded. The whole thing didn't seem to make much sense. It was,” and he paused for a moment, “kind of like a dream.”

That was what I had assumed. It wasn't real – only repression, regression, or one of those psychological defense mechanisms. Dismissing what he said was easy. At least at the beginning.

“One of the first people – no angels – I met was Bernie.”

I nodded and smiled.

“I know this sounds bizarre, but this is exactly what happened.”

Right.

“Anyway, Bernie introduced me to some of the others, but he was the one whom I found most interesting. He had died a few hundred years earlier. Told me his whole story. Before his heart attack he had been a banker in Germany. Even though I don't know German I understood him completely. No accent. And he understood me too. As a matter of fact everyone understood everyone else. It didn't seem to matter where you came from, or when. In fact he introduced me to some old Egyptian Pharaoh and we had no trouble communicating. He told me all about all the things buried with him and how much he enjoyed them. There were lots of others there too. And they all seemed to be happy.

“I wondered how they kept busy and was fascinated when Bernie told me that most of them were entrepreneurs. He got my attention. The time at Stanford was great, but it hadn't prepared me for this. When I pressed him a little on the subject he said that his work was actually something that I might know a little about. He had long ago perfected 'cloud' technology and 'virtual reality,' and could use the latter to inform earthbound techies about the latter – or anything else for that matter. When the time was right he'd simply 'invade' every computer. He had me.”

Now I was starting to get bizarre ideas.

“The next day ...”

“You were only unconscious for a couple of minutes.”

He ignored me and just continued.

“I found the Pharaoh and asked him a few more questions. I got most of my information from him, but he underlying idea was also based on what I learned from Bernie. And it's Bernie who's implementing it.”

Next episode: “Still More” – In which many questions remain unanswered.