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silver cord has been described as being smooth, very long, very bright, like an
elastic cable made of light, about an inch wide, sparkling like a tinsel on a
Christmas tree, and attached to one of several possible locations on the
physical body. During the dying process, as the spirit body leaves the physical
body and moves farther away it, the silver cord becomes thinner as it is
stretched to its limit and becomes severed. When this occurs, the spirit body is
released from being attached to the physical body. At this point, it becomes
impossible for the spirit body to ever return to the physical body. For this
reason, we can define "irreversible death" as that point when the silver cord
becomes stretched to its limit and severed. This is the so-called "point of no
return." This boundary point may also be accompanied by the appearance of a
particular landmark representing a boundary such as a river, a wall, a fence, or
a canyon. Once this barrier is crossed, the near-death experience becomes an
irreversible death experience.
Many experiencers have felt the pull of the silver cord when it is stretched
near its limit. They often describe the experience as being instantly retracted
to their physical body - like stretching a rubber band to near its limit and
then releasing one end of it.
This silver cord is our spirit body's "lifeline" to our physical body in the
same way that our umbilical cord is our "lifeline" to our mother's body during
the birth process.
During the death process, should the physical body be subjected to a violent
death, such as in a severe car accident, the silver cord is severed before the
impact preventing the pain that is experienced by the physical body from being
felt by the spirit body.
The existence of the silver cord is even mentioned in the Bible:
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"Remember him - before the silver
cord is severed, or the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is
shattered at the spring, or the wheel broken at the well, and the dust returns
to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it."
(Ecclesiastes
12:6 - 7) |
The Religious Significance of
the Silver Cord and the Golden Bowl
From the notes of the
Episcopal
Daily Lectionaries Online website, comes this translation:
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"The golden bowl
suspended by the silver cord was a symbol of life; the snapping
of the cord and the breaking of the bowl, a symbol of death. The
pitcher ... the broken pulley: another pair of metaphors for
life and its ending." |
From the editorial pages of the
Christadelphian Tidings website, comes this translation:
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"Verse 6 appears
to use two metaphors to speak of death. The first is of a
silver chord and a golden bowl — most likely the bowl was
used as an oil light, suspended by a chord. Dying is
compared to the breaking of this chord and the crashing of
the bowl down to the ground, whereupon it shatters and its
light is extinguished. Second, death is compared to a
pitcher used to draw water at a well. Death is like the
breaking of this pitcher and the pulley which was used to
let it down. No more water can be drawn; death has
conquered. |
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"It is
interesting that both of these images, the symbols of water
and light, are used elsewhere in the scriptures as metaphors
for life. The consequence of this termination of life is the
decaying process by which the dust returns to the earth. The
spirit, in a reversal of Genesis 2, "returns unto God who
gave it." This is what death is all about: the shattering of
all man's hope, and the cessation of everything that he was
and stood for." |
Near-Death Experiences
and the Silver Cord
 The following are insights concerning the
silver cord from NDErs profiled on this website.
While preparing to
undergo one of his otherworldly journeys, Edgar Cayce had lost
consciousness and had a dream.
Usually, he would travel
through a tunnel toward the light. But in this instance, he met the Angel of
Death and learned about the silver cord. The following is his
experience described in his own words:
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As I went out, I realized that I had contacted Death, as a personality, as an individual or as a being. Realizing this, I remarked to Death: |
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"You are not as ordinarily pictured - with a black mask or hood, or as a skeleton, or like Father Time with the sickle. Instead, you are fair, rose-cheeked, robust - and you have a pair of shears or scissors." |
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In fact, I had to look twice at the feet or limbs, or even at the body to see it take shape.
The Angel of Death replied: |
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"Yes, Death is not what many seem to think. It's not the horrible thing which is often pictured. Just a change - just a visit. The shears or scissors are indeed the implements most representative of life and death to man. These indeed unite by dividing - and divide by uniting. The cord does not, as usually thought, extend from the center - but is broken from the head, the forehead -
that soft portion we see pulsate in the infant. |
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"Hence we see old people, unbeknowing to themselves, gain strength from youth by kissing there; and youth gains wisdom by such kisses. |
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"Indeed the vibrations may be raised to such an extent as to rekindle or reconnect the cord, even as the Master did with the son of the widow of
Nain. For
he did not take him by the hand (which was bound to the body as was the custom of the
day), but rather stroked him on the head - and the body took life of Life itself! So, you see, the silver cord may be broken - but the vibration ...'"
(Edgar Cayce) |
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I saw a long silver cord coming out of my spirit body, right through the
cheesecloth-like fabric I was wearing. The cord extended down and out in front of
me, and as I turned around, I saw that the silver cord draped around and behind me,
like an umbilical cord. I followed it through the two hallway walls and into my
den, where I saw it attached to the back of the head of my physical body. The cord
was about an inch wide and sparkled like Christmas tree tinsel! ... As soon as I
saw that silver cord was attached to my physical body, my spirit was thrust into a
dark tunnel. (Dr. Dianne Morrissey)
In Dr.
PMH Atwater's book,
Beyond the
Light, the near-death account of Alice Morrison-Mays is given. Alice described her return to her physical body from a near-death experience. She remembers entering her physical body through the
silver cord:
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"Almost instantly I felt reentry into my body through the silver cord at the top of my head. There was something
akin to a physical bump. As soon as I entered, I heard someone near me say, 'Oh, we've got her back.' I was told I had two pieces of placenta as large as grapefruits removed."
(Alice
Morrison-Mays) |
It was literally so bright that I could not sustain the gaze so I turned away. At
that moment I noticed a silver cord, attached around the navel area going down,
down, down to a person I saw lying on my bed. It was me! I had a curious non-interest in
it.
(Joni Maggie)
When I had my first child I had the experience of being out of my body and hovering above it attached to a thick cord.
(Mrs. Walters)
Several years ago I once experienced the silver cord when 'stepping
out in trance'. Out of the body, at a distance of about 1m or 1,5m I turned around, face
to the physical body. As usual in near-body distance I was without visual perception and in absolute darkness. Feeling a touch on my breast I reached out for
it and felt something with smooth surface formed like a cone, diameter at the basis
(breast) ca. 15 - 20cm, getting smaller to a diameter of about 5cm at a body-distance of about 30cm.
At this diameter
(5cm) it transformed to a cord, leading in
direction of the physical body. In all other OBEs of the type of "stepping-out-in-trance" I paid no attention to the silver cord, but at a certain distance
(ca. 50m)
I felt a pull. Then I was stopped as if tied and fixed at my backside. Instantly I
was retracted to the physical body. This happened very often and reduced my
expeditions to a short duration, frustrating me. (Alfred
Ballabene)
Sylvan Muldoon's first conscious projection occurred when he was 12 years old. He awoke
in the middle of the night to find himself conscious, but not knowing where he was,
and apparently unable to move, a condition he later called astral catalepsy.
Gradually the sensation of floating took over, and then a rapid up-and-down
vibration and a tremendous pressure in the back of his head. Out of this nightmare
of sensations the boy's hearing gradually began to return and then his sight, by
which he could see that he was floating in the room above his bed.
Some force took
hold of him and pulled him from horizontal to vertical. He saw his double lying
quietly asleep on the bed, and between the two of them stretched an elastic-like
cable which joined the back of the head of his conscious self, to a spot between
the eyes of the body in bed, six feet of so away.
Swaying and pulling against the
cord, Muldoon tried to walk to another room to wake someone, but found that he
passed right through the door, and through the bodies of other sleepers too, when
he tried to shake or clutch them. Frightened, he roamed around the house for what
seemed like fifteen minutes, and then slowly the pull of the cord increased and he
found himself being pulled back to his body.
Everything went in reverse. He tipped
back to horizontal, again became cataleptic, felt the same vibrations and then,
with a jerk, dropped back into the body. He was awake and alive again. (Sylvan
Muldoon)
The silver cord protects us in many ways. At the time of a
violent death, like a severe auto accident, the silver cord is severed before
impact so the person will feel no pain. That really brought a lot of comfort to me
to know that my son did not feel pain at the time of his death. During the dying process, the cord becomes thinner to where it finally is severed.
The soul is released. (Debbie
Doe)
Susan Blackmore, a former parapsychologist with heavy skeptical leanings, is
considered one of the world's leading authorities on OBEs and NDEs. She
herself had a NDE while attending Oxford University during the early 1970s. By her own admission she
"spent much of the time stoned, experimenting with different drugs."
During her
first year at Oxford she had a NDE after several hours on the Ouija board while
stoned on marijuana. The experience also occurred during a period of her life when
sleep deprivation was common for her. She describes herself as having been in "a
fairly peculiar state of mind" when she had the NDE.
During her NDE, Blackmore went down a tunnel of trees toward a light, floated on the
ceiling and observed her body below, saw a silver cord connecting her floating
astral body, floated out of the building around Oxford and then over England, and
finally across the Atlantic to New York.
After hovering around New York, Blackmore floated back to her room in Oxford where
she became very small and entered her body's toes. Then she grew very big, as big
as a planet at first, and then she filled the solar system and finally she became
as large as the universe.
Her experience with the silver cord is right out of traditional occult literature
on astral projection. (Susan
Blackmore)
In the book,
An Unquiet Mind, Kay Redford Jamison, who suffers from bipolar disorder,
describes a similar voyage as Blackmore. Jamison traveled to Jupiter while
she was enjoying the manic phase of her mental illness. (Susan
Blackmore)
One patient was 2½ years old when he had a seizure and his heart stopped. His
parents contacted Dr. Sam Parnia after the boy drew a picture of himself as if out of his
body looking down at himself.
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It was drawn like there was a balloon stuck to him. When they asked what the
balloon was he said, "When you die you see a bright light and you are connected
to a cord." |
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"He
wasn't even three when had the experience," Parnia said.
(Dr. Sam Parnia) |
I was suddenly floating above my body, with a strange cord attaching me and my
physical body. I had read about that and so I knew it was normal. I started to
float around after practice, mostly around my basement. So I went upstairs to see
if any one was there, and I found my sister in the kitchen, I touched her face and
she looked straight at me.
I thought for a moment she had seen me. But she walked
right through me and turned up the thermostat. That's when I realized my cord was
gone! Not even a whist of it was left. So I thought about reconnecting with my
body to go back but nothing happened. I knew for sure I was stuck. Gone. No one
would know what happened to me!
I went back down to the basement to see what I
looked like from the outside. There he sat. The most beautiful man I had ever
seen. He motioned for me to come toward him and so I did. He told me to float
just above my body and he would help me. I laid there and suddenly I felt as if I
was being pulled back down into my body. Before I could thank him I woke up
... I knew I had met an angel. (Caroline
Graham)
A boy, woke up and got out of bed during the night. Whilst walking along
a hallway he became "aware that something was amiss." On turning around
and looking back toward the way he had come he saw what appeared to be a
thin cord of light leading from him back to his bedroom. Naturally
concerned, he followed the cord back to his bedroom only to discover
that he was still asleep in his bed. He had no recollection of how he
returned to his physical body.
The above is a typical example of an out-of-body experience during sleep, which,
happens to everyone. The one unusual aspect of this case is that the boy woke up
whilst he was astral traveling and became alarmed. (Divine
Inspirations' research)
A List of the Various Locations
on the Physical Body Where the Silver Cord has been Seen to be Connected to
At the time of death, a
dying person may notice their silver cord attached to one of these possible
locations on the physical body:
| (1) |
The Head (the back of
head, the top of head, or the forehead) |
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People who saw their
silver cord attached to the back of the head of
their physical body: Dianne
Morrissey |
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People who saw their
silver cord attached to the top of the head of
their physical body:
Alice
Morrison-Mays |
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People who saw their
silver cord attached to the forehead of their
physical body: Edgar Cayce,
Sylvan Muldoon |
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| (2) |
The
Chest |
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People who saw their
silver cord attached to the chest of their
physical body:
Alfred Ballabene |
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| (3) |
The
Abdomen |
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People who saw their
silver cord attached to the abdomen of their physical
body: Joni Maggi |
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| (4) |
The
Back |
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People who saw their
silver cord attached to the back of their physical body:
(More coming soon!) |
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Note: Although
this is not a complete list, these are the main locations that I
have come across in my research. |
A List of the Various Locations
on the Physical Body Where the Spirit Body Will Enter the Physical Body Upon
Return
Many near-death and out-of-body experiencers have
described leaving and entering their physical bodies at a particular location on
their physical body. Not everyone leaves and enters their physical body at the
same location. These are the main locations on the physical body that I have
across in my research:
| (1) |
The Top of the Head |
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| (2) |
The Chest |
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| (3) |
The Abdomen |
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| (4) |
The Feet |
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The Correlation Between the
Chakras, Leaving and Returning to the Body, the Silver Cord, and the Afterlife
Reams
There appears to be a correlation between the
following:
| (1) |
The location of the head
chakra, the heart chakra ... all the body chakras |
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| (2) |
The location on the body where
people leave and return to their body during a NDE or OBE |
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| (3) |
The location on the body where
people see their silver cord connected |
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| (4) |
The location of a particular
afterlife realm or dimension |
Information about the NDE and Afterlife Realms
will show how each chakra (endocrine gland) is spiritually and astrologically
connected to a particular afterlife realm. It is our physical, mental and
spiritual connection with afterlife realms.
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"Birth in the physical is death in the spiritual. Death in the physical is the birth in the spiritual."
- Edgar Cayce |
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Send comments
to: Kevin Williams
Copyright © 2007 Near-Death
Experiences & the Afterlife
Last modified:
June 11, 2006 |
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