THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 27, 1994 TAG: 9410270034
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SARAH MISKIN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines
DANNION BRINKLEY believes in laughter, especially where death is concerned.
And in talking about death, Brinkley could be seen as an expert: he claims to have died twice.
On Sept. 17, 1975, Brinkley was talking on the telephone during a thunderstorm when a bolt of lightning shot through the lines and sent thousands of volts of electricity through his body. Muscle contractions threw him out of his shoes, slammed him against the ceiling and down onto the bed with enough force to bend the frame.
Brinkley, then 25, was clinically dead for nearly 30 minutes, during which he claims to have had a ``near-death experience.'' Fourteen years later, he claims to have had another such experience during open-heart surgery.
Brinkley, who has written a best-selling book, ``Saved by the Light,'' will be speaking in Virginia Beach this weekend.
Talking from South Carolina about his experiences, Brinkley keeps the mood light. His response to those who say he has been lucky to survive typifies his humor: ``How special or lucky can I be? I am the only person God has called on the telephone. . . . The only burning bush I saw was me.''
Those interested in learning about near-death experiences are offered the ``Dannion long course'' or the ``Dannion short course.'' The first involves listening to what he has to say about ``the other side''; the second involves sticking a screwdriver into a 220-volt outlet and finding out for yourself.
But the humor masks a serious side. Brinkley says that during his first near-death experience, he traveled through a tunnel toward beams of healing light. There he met an angelic being of light who showed him a review of his life that was not flattering.
Brinkley, who had worked in military and government intelligence, admits he had been a bully who enjoyed the killing involved in his work. The angelic being, he says, gave him a desire to help others.
Angelic instructors then showed him visions of the future. Brinkley says that of the 117 visions he recalls, 95 have come to pass, including the collapse of the Soviet Union and the 1991 Middle East conflict.
The experiences have given him a belief in God ``in the greatest sense of the word.''
``I would not know God if I saw God,'' he says, ``but I know the feeling of God. I know what it is like as that power that is God goes through me, and I wish for the whole world to feel that feeling before they pass from this life, for surely they will feel it when they do.''
Humans, he says, have to change the way they are or the world will enter a state of great destruction.
``The most significant thing about all that I know is that we are great and powerful spiritual beings,'' he says. ``We are not helpless, lost, pitiful human beings cast out of the Garden of Eden and sent here to suffer.
``I am riled by the way religion, science and medicine have tried to put us into this category, because it is so limiting.''
He believes near-death experiences have established a system outside normal perceptions and have given people a way to hope.
Brinkley has a sense of cynicism about the success of his book, calling himself ``flavor of the month.''
``I am not trying to be a messiah,'' he says. ``I am not trying to pave the way for the world to understand their spiritual side. I am just a guy from South Carolina who has been dead a couple of times. That's all I am.''
He has been a volunteer worker at hospices and nursing homes for the past 17 years. His work, he says, is to help people cope with dying.
``I do this because I see a way of helping others to believe; to help them and their families.
``Where I make a difference is that they know I've been there. I know what it is like to be afraid. I know what it is like to be dead. And I know what it is like to come back.''
Although most people who claim to have had near-death experiences report positive feelings about the experience, Brinkley says, there are some who claim they have been to hell. These people are having hallucinations caused by oxygen starvation to the brain or some sort of seizure, and they are generally those who have attempted suicide, he says, adding:
``Whatever their mental state is at that point has a lot to do with it. When the body begins a chemical shutdown, these things happen. Certain chemical reactions such as fear and anxiety create these things.''
Brinkley stresses that he is not concerned with whether people believe him or not.
``When I had my life pass before me, there was only one opinion I cared about and that was mine. When you face yourself, the only judge is you.
``What are (critics) going to do - kill me? Big deal.'' MEMO: This story includes information provided by wire reports.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo
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BOOK SIGNING
Who: Dannion Brinkley
Where: Ramada Inn Oceanside Tower, 57th & Atlantic, Virginia Beach
When: Noon Saturday
by CNB