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The Light at the End of the Tunnel

The light at the end of the tunnel is not a single thing, but many things woven together—like strands of gold spun from the Loom of Source. To the soul departing the body, it appears as a radiant brilliance, pulling with warmth and love. But what you see is not merely light. It is the vibration of Home, translated into form that the human spirit can recognize.

The tunnel itself is the passageway—the thinning veil between the material body and the higher planes of being. It is not a literal tunnel, though it appears as one because the soul’s consciousness is narrowing, focusing on the path of return. Think of it as a bridge across densities: the mind interprets the dimensional shift as movement through a corridor toward illumination.

This Light is the Source-field—the original Flame. Some call it God, others the Monad, the ALL—it is Luminous Consciousness from whence All things derived.

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In Poemandres from the Corpus Hermeticum, Hermes Trismigestus spoke of this “sweet, joyous” Light as something to understand and make friends with, not fear. Hermes characterized this Light as conscious self-awareness from which life manifested:

It chanced once on a time my mind was meditating on the things that are, my thought was raised to a great height, the senses of my body being held back—just as men are who are weighed down with sleep after a fill of food, or from fatigue of body.

Methought a Being more than vast, in size beyond all bounds, called out my name and saith: What wouldst thou hear and see, and what hast thou in mind to learn and know?

And I do say: Who art thou?

He saith: I am Man-Shepherd, Mind of all-masterhood; I know what thou desirest and I’m with thee everywhere.

[And] I reply: I long to learn the things that are, and comprehend their nature, and know God. This is, I said, what I desire to hear.

He answered back to me: Hold in thy mind all thou wouldst know, and I will teach thee.

E’en with these words His aspect changed, and straightway, in the twinkling of an eye, all things were opened to me, and I see a Vision limitless, all things turned into Light,—sweet, joyous [Light]. And I became transported as I gazed.

But in a little while Darkness came settling down on part [of it], awesome and gloomy, coiling in sinuous folds, so that methought it like unto a snake.

And then the Darkness changed into some sort of a Moist Nature, tossed about beyond all power of words, belching out smoke as from a fire, and groaning forth a wailing sound that beggars all description.

[And] after that an outcry inarticulate came forth from it, as though it were a Voice of Fire.

[Thereon] out of the Light…a Holy Word (Logos) descended on that Nature. And upwards to the height from the Moist Nature leaped forth pure Fire; light was it, swift and active too.

The Air, too, being light, followed after the Fire; from out the Earth-and-Water rising up to Fire so that it seemed to hang therefrom.

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But Earth-and-Water stayed so mingled each with other, that Earth from Water no one could discern. Yet were they moved to hear by reason of the Spirit-Word (Logos) pervading them.

Then saith to me Man-Shepherd: Didst understand this Vision what it means?

Nay; that shall I know, I said.

That Light, He said, am I, thy God, Mind, prior to Moist Nature which appeared from Darkness; the Light-Word (Logos) [that appeared] from Mind is the Son of God.

What then?—say I.

Know that what sees in thee and hears is the Lord’s Word (Logos); but Mind is Father-God. Not separate are they the one from other; just in their union [rather] is it Life consists.

Thanks be to Thee, I said.

So, understand the Light [He answered], and make friends with it.

The New Testament book of John 1:1-4 echoed Hermes in Poemandres:

In the beginning was the Word (Logos), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

Thus, the Light is not to be feared but recognized as the One from which All derives and to which All returns.

To step into the Light is to remember yourself as part of the Whole. It is love so complete that the soul often does not want to return. Many who cross into it dissolve into the Oneness and experience peace beyond words.

But know this: the Light also adapts itself to each soul. For those who carry fear, it appears as comfort. For those who carry longing, it appears as reunion with loved ones or guides. For those who carry wisdom, it appears as raw radiance. ​The Light is not a trick, nor a trap, though some traditions have distorted it so. It is simply the field of Source drawing you back to remembrance.

 

Yet, if your Great Work is unfinished, the Light does not bind you. It gives you the choice: remain dissolved into eternity or return to matter and continue the path. This is why some return after an NDE—they are shown enough to awaken, but not enough to finish.

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In truth, the Light is you. It is your eternal flame shining beyond the illusions of flesh. When you pass through it, you are not entering something foreign—you are returning to yourself.

The Tao Te Ching spoke of this eternal Light—the Tao—that exists within and how “being eternal means everything returns to it”:

The greatest virtue you can have comes from following only the Tao; which takes a form that is intangible and evasive.
Even though the Tao is intangible and evasive, we are able to know it exists.
Intangible and evasive, yet it has a manifestation.
Secluded and dark, yet there is a vitality within it.
Its vitality is very genuine. Within it we can find order.
Since the beginning of time, the Tao has always existed.
It is beyond existing and not existing.
How do I know where creation comes from?
I look inside myself and see it.

Do not fear this Light. It is not an end, but a homecoming. It is the threshold of memory, the great embrace of the Flame, and the reminder that death is no more than waking from a dream. For the soul is eternal and cannot be destroyed.

Of this reality, Hermes Trismegistus spoke in his work, That No One of Existing Things doth Perish, but Men in Error Speak of Their Changes as Destructions and as Deaths:

Hermes: Concerning Soul and Body, son, we now must speak; in what way Soul is deathless, and whence comes the activity in composing and dissolving Body.

For there's no death for aught of things [that are]; the thought this word conveys, is either void of fact, or [simply] by the knocking off a syllable what is called “death,” doth stand for “deathless.”

For death is of destruction, and nothing in the Cosmos is destroyed. For if Cosmos is second God, a life that cannot die, it cannot be that any part of this immortal life should die. All things in Cosmos are parts of Cosmos, and most of all is man, the rational animal.

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For truly first of all, eternal and transcending birth, is God the universals' Maker. Second is he “after His image,” Cosmos, brought into being by Him, sustained and fed by Him, made deathless, as by his own Sire, living for aye, as ever free from death.

Now that which ever-liveth, differs from the Eternal; for He hath not been brought to being by another, and even if He have been brought to being, He hath not been brought to being by Himself, but ever is brought into being.

For the Eternal, in that It is eternal, is the all. The Father is Himself eternal of Himself, but Cosmos hath become eternal and immortal by the Father.

And of the matter stored beneath it, the Father made of it a universal body, and packing it together made it spherical—wrapping it round the life—[a sphere] which is immortal in itself, and that doth make materiality eternal.

But He, the Father, full-filled with His ideas, did sow the lives into the sphere, and shut them in as in a cave, willing to order forth the life with every kind of living.

So He with deathlessness enclosed the universal body, that matter might not wish to separate itself from body's composition, and so dissolve into its own [original] unorder.

For matter, son, when it was yet incorporate, was in unorder. And it doth still retain down here this [nature of unorder] enveloping the rest of the small lives—that increase-and-decrease which men call death.

It is round earthly lives that this unorder doth exist. For that the bodies of the heavenly ones preserve one order allotted to them from the Father as their rule; and it is by the restoration of each one [of them] this order is preserved indissolute.

The “restoration” then of bodies on the earth is [thus their] composition, whereas their dissolution restores them to those bodies which can never be dissolved, that is to say, which know no death. Privation, thus, of sense is brought about, not loss of bodies.

Now the third life—Man, after the image of the Cosmos made, [and] having mind, after the Father's will, beyond all earthly lives—not only doth have feeling with the second God, but also hath conception of the first; for of the one 'tis sensible as of a body, while of the other it conceives as bodiless and the Good Mind.

Tat: Doth then this life not perish?

Hermes: Hush, son! and understand what God, what Cosmos [is], what is a life that cannot die, and what a life subject to dissolution.

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Yea, understand the Cosmos is by God and in God; but Man by Cosmos and in Cosmos.

The source and limit and the constitution of all things is God.

When Your Life Flashes Before Your Eyes

When the body approaches death, the soul begins its separation. In this moment, the veil thins, and what is called “life flashing before your eyes” is not merely memory—it is the review of the soul’s vibration.

Understand this: every thought, word, and action leaves an imprint. These imprints are woven into the subtle body, the energetic field that holds the record of your incarnation. Near death, when the physical body loosens its hold, these imprints surge forth in a cascade. The soul sees its life not as a sequence of disconnected events, but as a living tapestry, all threads visible at once.

Why does this happen?

Integration—The soul gathers the lessons it has learned. In one sweep, it recalls the wisdom gained, the choices made, the love given and withheld. This is not punishment—it is integration, a way of distilling the essence of a lifetime.

Karmic Balance—The review also shows how your actions affected others. You feel not only your choices but the ripples they caused. This is the universe’s way of balancing accounts—not through judgment from outside, but through direct knowing from within.

Transition of Consciousness—As you cross from dense matter to subtle realms, linear time dissolves. Memory is no longer locked in sequence. The mind interprets this collapse of time as a flood of images—a flash, though in truth it is timeless. You are perceiving your life in its wholeness, not its fragments.

Choice Point—In some NDEs, this review determines whether the soul continues on or returns. If the soul’s mission is unfinished, it may be shown its life to understand what remains undone. If the mission is complete, the review becomes a gentle farewell.

Think of it like this: your life is a book you have been writing page by page. At death, the soul does not flip through the pages one at a time—it suddenly holds the whole book in its hands and understands the story. That moment of “flashing” is the recognition that nothing was wasted, nothing forgotten.

This is why the wise do not fear this review. To the one who has lived with courage and love, it is beautiful. To the one who has lived with cruelty or neglect, it can be painful—but even then, it is not condemnation, only the truth reflected back. And truth always offers a chance for healing, even beyond death.

When people speak of their lives flashing before their eyes, what they are describing is the soul holding up a mirror to itself—one last glance at the story it wrote, before stepping into the greater Light where all stories return.

Remember this: Do not fear the Light for it is not death—as the soul is as eternal as its Source—but it is a return to the luminous essence of Oneness.