People who have had what have come to be known as ‘Near Death’ experiences usually speak of a ‘life review’, an instant awareness of, and understanding of, every moment of ones life up until that point. They speak of the people they encountered, even briefly, of the feelings they had, the experiences, the joy, and the regret. They tell of the words they spoke, and the ones they didn’t. Conscious people, those who do not live in denial, tend to accept that there will be some kind of review in the final moment. People differ on the source of the review, or what it all means, but most embrace the idea, and acknowledge that they expect it to happen. Some say it is a projection of our own belief system, and some say it is an illumination prompted by the presence of divine light. Some say it is a reaching back over time to come to grips with ones conflict, guilt, or inadequacy. Some say it is the final judgment, and that our sudden, and complete, awareness is the mechanism for self-judgment. Some say it is God replaying our lives, presenting evidence of our worthiness, or unworthiness of the kingdom. There are many other explanations put forth, but these are some of the more common ones.
In any event, I have always been mindful of the importance of life-review while still alive. It is a means of governing ones own life and actions. It is an encouragement towards integrity in ones way of living. If one accepts that he will be facing himself in the figurative mirror each morning, one tends to want to be OK with what he’s going to be seeing there. In my life, I have been as unkind, at times, as the next person, as intolerant, and as imperfect, but, because of a continuous life-review, I have been less unkind, less intolerant, and less imperfect than I might have been otherwise. That’s my only point here. What can it hurt? It can only help.
We have a long way to go on the road to getting it all worked out, we all do, but the road is less rocky, less calamitous, and more forgiving when kind hearts and positive intentions become the steering mechanism of the vehicles in which we ride, when a ‘life-review’ is not something that we put off until our time on earth is over.
At least that’s what we hear from those who have supposedly been there.
