100 Places to See After You Die by Ken Jennings;

Author:Ken Jennings;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2023-06-13T00:00:00+00:00

Shuffling Off This Mortal Coil

THE THIRD SPHERE

What Dreams May Come

Sci-fi fabulist Richard Matheson dreamed up some of the most vivid fantasy landscapes of the twentieth century, from the urban zombie wasteland of I Am Legend to the claustrophobic airplane cabin of The Twilight Zone’s “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.” But only his 1978 afterlife adventure What Dreams May Come comes packaged with an earnest vow that the story is completely factual—in Matheson’s italicized words, “derived exclusively from research.”

In What Dreams May Come, Matheson describes the death and afterlife of TV writer Chris Nielsen, an account that supposedly comes to light when a psychic delivers a convenient postmortem manuscript to Nielsen’s cousin. This never actually happened, of course. When Matheson brags about his research, that doesn’t mean he actually died. He just got really into Theosophy and read a lot of 1970s paperbacks about the paranormal and near-death experiences.

What Dreams May Come warns that becoming “disincarnate” (the book’s preferred euphemism for “dead”) is a difficult transition. Some people spend years or even centuries in the murky borderland between life and death before their astral self finally breaks the binding to its physical and etheric bodies. The best way to “move upward” is to visualize an ideal place in your memory. In Nielsen’s case, a peaceful glade in the California redwoods does the trick.

At that point, you’ll find yourself in a real ideal locale: the Third Sphere, one of perhaps seven concentric realms radiating outward from our earthly reality. Residents call it Heaven, Homeland, Summerland, or (because you reap the results of earthly life) Harvest. Harvest will be your own conception of perfect happiness; to Nielsen, it looks a lot like New England in early summer. A guide—your guardian angel from back down on earth—will show you the amenities. Everything here is a little better than life: sunlight has no shadows, meadows have no weeds, the oceans are tideless fresh water, nights are dim and restful but not dark. In the 1998 Robin Williams movie adaptation of What Dreams May Come, the deceased’s wife is a painter, and so the jewel tones of the afterlife are made to look like one of her impressionist landscapes come to life. Everything around you will glow with a refreshing energy.

You’ll be glowing yourself, with a colorful aura visible to all the other “disincarnates” but not to yourself. Materialists have a red aura; those who mourn have a pale yellow one. (Shoot for lavender, the color of spiritual enlightenment.) The state of your aura also informs your new wardrobe—typically a robe-and-sash combo with a style reflecting your own growing spiritual advancement. Your astral body can appear any age you choose, but most prefer to look about twenty-five, for obvious reasons.

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