Light and shadow

This is Dannion Brinkley's controversial “Saved by the Light”, first published in 1994. Brinkley is a Vietnam War veteran who had a dramatic near death experience (NDE) after being struck by lightning near his home in South Carolina in 1975. At the time, Brinkley worked for the CIA in various black ops operations in Central America. The lightning strike forced him to quit, and made him handicapped for years. Somewhat later, Brinkley began working for none other than Raymond Moody, the pioneer researcher into the NDE phenomenon. “Saved by the Light” contains a detailed description of Brinkley's NDE, during which he met a number of angelic beings and visited a crystalline city on the heavenly planes, where he was told to start spiritual retreat centers on Earth, while also being given prophecies about events decades in the future. Both Brinkley and Moody claim that many of these prophecies have been proven correct. Brinkley further claims to have developed telepathic powers – he can literally read other people's minds.

When I first read the book about 20 years ago, I found it very extreme, to the point of bizarre. In fact, this was one of the books which delayed my “conversion” to a spiritual worldview with several years. Moody's own books sounded interesting, even reasonable, but this?! “Saved by the Light” came across as cultic material, and I was surprised that Moody took Brinkley seriously, even employing him as his secretary. Part of me still does. Brinkley's stories have been heavily questioned by skeptics, including the Vietnam veteran and black ops parts. Apparently, he had contacts with an actual cult, Elizabeth Clare Prophet's Church Universal and Triumphant. I wonder why, since his book sounds “liberal”, while CUT are hardened anti-Communists of a decidedly non-liberal variety.

Today, I don't find this material as off-putting as I once did. But is it true? I happen to think that the NDE described by the author might be a true experience. I'm more skeptical towards the “prophecies”. The book was published in 1994. Many prophecies dealing with events before the book was published did indeed come true: the US would get a celebrity president with the initials RR, the Soviet bloc would collapse in 1989, there would be a huge desert war in 1990, Brinkley and Moody would visit Moscow in 1994, etc. However, no predictions about events *later* than the book's publication date have come true. The Anti-Christ didn't take over the world circa 2000, for one. The omissions are just as glaring: nothing about 9/11, the second Iraqi war, the first Black president or, ahem, a celebrity president with the initials DJT. Even Brinkley's buddy Elizabeth Clare Prophet managed to “predict” (sort of) 9/11. Moody vouches for the earlier prophecies, and people who met Brinkley in person believes that he has some kind of telepathic-empathic abilities. Maybe, but the failed prophecies do count against him (or against the 13 beings of light he met in the crystalline city).

In the end, I will nevertheless give “Saved by the Light” five stars. The book *is* interesting. Extreme NDEs definitely exist and has to be accounted for. Also, Dannion Brinkley's book played a certain role in my own philosophical meanderings, so for ol' times sake…