A Passage to Eternity
                TABLE OF CONTENTS ChapterOne:    THEJOURNEY HOME..........................          1          The light shone out like a beacon. I felt like awingedmoth relentlessly drawn          towards the bright glow of a soli­tary lamp. Just for that split-second of a         moment, it was as though time itself stood still. I could almost taste eternity ... ChapterTwo:    ARUDE AWAKENING.............................       16          My heart sank as I made the earth-shattering reali­za­tion that this was not a           dream. It slowly dawned on me that what I was experiencing was, indeed, the          real thing, and that I was well and truly dead ...ChapterThree:    COUNCILOF ELDERS..........................      38          One of the Elders seated in front of me was holding out a piece of legal-          looking paper and explaining to me - not through the medium of words but           telepathically, that it was my 'life contract,' one that essentially granted me a           new lease on life ...ChapterFour:    GOD'S MAGIC KINGDOM......................     53          Immediately ahead was a broad beam of light that was beginning to descend           slowly downwards and fuse with the upper stratosphere of space above me.           Then from within that solitary ray of brilliance, I saw several of God's          Messen­gers manifest themselves before me in all their shining glory ...ChapterFive:    THEEMOTIONALSELF............................     71          As images flashed randomly through my mind, I found myself reliving moments           of intense emotional highs and lows from my many lives lived on Earth. I was           both male and female, an agnostic, a God-fearing Christian, Hindu, Muslim,           Buddhist and a Jew ...ChapterSix:    CITYOFLIGHT........................................       91          It was like being swept into a great big Ocean of Light. I felt like a tiny leaf           being tossed about in a tempestuous sea. As I surrendered myself to the Ocean,          I realized that 'I' - or that part which used to be 'me,' no longer existed separate           and apart from the mighty Ocean ...ChapterSeven:    BAPTISMBYFIRE ...............................      118          I had to keep reminding myself that just as the purity of a precious metal is           tested in fire, so is the human spirit tested in the fire of suffering. And like that           immortal and legendary phoenix, I would once again rise from the fire and          ashes of my own destruction ...ChapterEight:    AREASONTOCELEBRATE .....................     131          Transferring out of Intensive Care was a reason in itself for me to celebrate. It           felt good to be alive and breath­ing on my own. But it was also the day of Idd-ul-          Fitr, a day of great festivity and celebration that marked the official end of           Ramadan ...ChapterNine:    HOME SWEETHOME ..............................   148          As a great inner calm started to slowly pervade my life, I began to feel a sense          of joyous exhilaration that I had not known for some time. I began to feel          increa­singly more at home in my own skin and outer world that had been so           abruptly turned upside down ...ChapterTen:    REFLECTIONSOFADREAMER ..................    165          There were times when I questioned the validity of my own experience, and even           wondered if I had perhaps dreamed it all up. And in order to seek out my truth, I           knew I would have to ask myself that tough question: 'Was it all a magni­ficent           dream or the grandest reality that I was ever likely to encounter?'             --This text refers to an alternatePaperbackedition.