THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 17, 1995 TAG: 9511170677
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEXIS SMITH, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
Dannion Brinkley claims to have twice died and lived to tell about it.
Brinkley's after-death experiences have led him to dedicate his efforts to sharing through his books and lectures what he's learned about what lies beyond this life.
That journey led him last week to Virginia Beach, where he participated as one of several speakers in an Association for Research and Enlightenment conference titled ``We Don't Die: Taking a Closer Look at the Other Side.''
Brinkley, author of ``Saved by the Light'' and ``At Peace With the Light,'' travels the country explaining his beliefs about life's transition to death.
``We are great powerful spiritual beings,'' and our human experience is a ``a type of three-dimensional virtual reality,'' he said, describing one of his two after-death experiences when he was pronounced dead for 58 minutes after being struck by lightning. ``The spirit enters the `virtual body' and lives out its experiences in what we think of as our lifetime.''
Brinkley's personal after-death experiences about 20 years ago led him to work as a hospice volunteer, counseling the dying as they make their way from this world to the next. He describes his work as a hospice volunteer and how he was called to counsel an 86-year-old woman who lay dying in a nursing home.
The woman, forgotten by her family years earlier, began what Brinkley describes as a ``panoramic life review.'' During this review, ``hospice patients review what they remember of their lives helping them prepare for the transition from life to death.''
Brinkley, 45, delivers his lectures in a loud booming voice, relying on his Southern upbringing in Aiken, S.C., to keep the audience's attention focused as an energetic evangelist would. He incorporates humor and affection in his presentation because he says ``we are taught to fear death from religions, institutions and government.''
During his after-death experience Brinkley said that he was instructed to build centers that consisted of an eight-step program through which persons can re-establish themselves spiritually. He has built such a center in Aiken. He plans to build his next one in Asheville, N.C., and eventually others worldwide.
Brinkley said that during his after-death experiences a spiritual being showed him the future, enabling him to make the following predictions:
``Russia will have a new leader and his name will be Gui or Gru.''
``Iran and Iraq will form one country. This land area was known as Persia and formerly Babylon.''
``Manuscripts will be discovered in either Egypt or Nepal that will change the whole way we look at history.''
``King Hussein has prostate cancer and will die before the year is up. Jordan will cease to exist.''
A movie about Brinkley's life will be telecast Dec. 12 on the Fox network.
But about 500 participants who attended last week's conference got a chance to hear Brinkley in person. They came to Virginia Beach from all over the United States.
``I came to see Dannion because I had a similar near-death experience,'' said Helen Noble of Indianapolis, Ind. ``I couldn't talk about it for years because people are unaccepting of my experience. I do hospice work, too, but with friends and family.''
Robert Adriance of Virginia Beach, who started the lecture series with the A.R.E., said he has seen a dramatic increase in the number of members compared to when he first came here 25 or 30 years ago. ``I think we had about 1,500 members when I first joined.''
A.R.E. members now total about 40,000 worldwide, said Robert Grant, coordinator of public information and outreach.
Brinkley said death doesn't have to be feared.
``When you're dead, you're more alive than you'll ever be,'' he said. by CNB