Near Death Experiences 2: The Illusion of Linear Time

One of the most pervasive features of Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) is their apparent structure as a journey—a passage from life to death, from darkness to light, from earthly existence to an encounter with something beyond. Many accounts describe moving through tunnels, crossing thresholds, or entering vast, radiant spaces. Others speak of being sent back, of having reached a boundary they could not cross, or of choosing to return. These descriptions, however, are deeply conditioned by the assumption of linear time, which imposes a narrative of movement and transformation onto what is, in truth, the eternal appearing of Being.

The Imposition of Temporality

When NDEs are recounted, they are necessarily filtered through the structures of human cognition and language, which are inherently temporal. In order to describe an experience, one must arrange it into a sequence, as though it unfolded step by step. This is not a reflection of the experience itself but of the way experience is made intelligible within our historical and linguistic frameworks.

Many who undergo NDEs report a sense of timelessness—an awareness that past, present, and future collapse into a single, all-encompassing whole. And yet, when they attempt to convey this, they must revert to the language of succession: “First, I left my body. Then, I moved through a tunnel. Then, I saw a light.” The structure of narration forces the imposition of a before and after, even where none was actually perceived.

Disentangling NDEs from the Idea of Change

If we assume that NDEs involve an actual transition from one state to another, we are already interpreting them through the framework of becoming—the belief that something was not and then came to be. But this assumption contradicts the necessity of Being. What is, is eternally; there is no “leaving” or “returning” because there is no departure from Being itself.

What, then, does it mean when people describe a movement toward or away from the light, a sensation of being pulled back into their body? It means that the appearing of truth occurs under the conditions in which it must appear. The shifting perspectives in an NDE do not signify an actual movement but rather the way in which the eternal manifests within the structure of finite experience. To see a light is not to travel toward it; to experience a boundary is not to approach or retreat from it. These are forms in which Being necessarily appears within the interpretative framework imposed by finite consciousness.

The Illusion of an “Afterlife” as a Sequential Process

Many take NDEs as confirmation of an afterlife—a realm entered after physical death, where one continues an existence beyond the material world. But this too relies on a misunderstanding of time and transition. If Being is eternal, there is no “after” to life, just as there is no “before.” Life and death, as they are conventionally understood, are part of a framework that assumes becoming, rather than recognizing that what is, is necessarily.

This is why some NDE accounts paradoxically describe seeing deceased loved ones who, by earthly chronology, were not yet dead. If these experiences were truly sequential, such occurrences would be impossible. But within the Structure of Being, there is no contradiction—only the necessary appearing of truth under the conditions in which it must appear.

Conclusion

Near-Death Experiences do not reveal a passage from one state to another, nor do they provide proof of a journey into an “afterlife.” Rather, they expose the limitations of our conventional understanding of time. The elements of NDEs—light, beings, boundaries—are not markers of transition but manifestations of the eternal as it appears within finite perception. By recognizing this, we move beyond the illusion of becoming and approach NDEs not as glimpses of another world, but as the unfolding of what is eternally true.