I am pleased to write the Foreword for this online book entitled God Is With Us: What Near-Death and Other Spiritually Transformative Experiences Teach Us About God and Afterlife by Dr. Ken R. Vincent. I am the publisher of this wonderful book written by Dr. Vincent (whom I will affectionately refer to as Ken from this point on) which I published as a labor of love and a with a sense of urgency – not only because of my great admiration of Ken – but because his book contains divine revelations which I believe can literally change the world and bring people from all religious backgrounds and cultures together. One glance at the news headlines tells you this is something desperately needed in this world today. Although all the major world religions and many scientific fields of endeavor are covered in this book – make no mistake – this is a book about God. The vision of God that Ken presents in this book is consistent with scholarship of both ancient and modern religious experiences. As Ken’s magnum opus, this book gives the reader a profound understanding of his conclusions drawn from his scholarly search for a “generic” or “universal” God developed from his research into a mind-boggling number of scientific fields such as the following:
Thanatology: near-death experiences • out-of-body experiences • after-death communications • deathbed visions • the scientific research of life after death • Theology: Universalism • Jesus Seminar • Christology • angelology • conceptions of afterlife in early civilizations • resurrection • reincarnation • Anomalous Experiences: religious experience • spiritually transformative experiences (STEs) • mysticism • shamanism • Religious Studies: science and religious studies • comparative religions • phenomenology of religion • Jewish and Christian origins • mythology • Consciousness Studies: altered states of consciousness • neuroscience • psychiatry • psychedelic experiences • Psychology: psychology of religion • psychology of moral development • transpersonal psychology • social psychology • analytic psychology • phenomenological psychology • parapsychology • Philosophy: phenomenology • metaphysics • eastern philosophy • social philosophy • Historiography: ancient history • history of early Christianity • history of Universalism • Social Science: sociology • social studies • psychical research • spirituality studies
Concerning comparative religion, Ken asks Christians the following:
“Do you know why Magi Zoroastrian priests are on your Christmas cards?”
In other words, do you know why the Christian religion describes priests of the Zoroastrian religion worshiping the King of the Jewish religion? Knowing the answer to this question is a crucial step in understanding the concept of a “universal” God and the tremendous influence the much older religion of Zoroastrianism had on the world’s major religions. Inside this online book, Ken answers this question by shedding light on information previously known mainly to scholars. He guides the reader into the historical religious concept of “Universalism” – the revelation that God has a plan to ultimately provide salvation to all humanity.
At its heart, Universalism describes a God of unconditional and inescapable love and light extending to everyone no matter what their religious belief or background. It is a divine revelation given to Zoroaster, the prophet of the Magi religion, which was eventually incorporated in all the major world religions. Zoroastrianism describes a God who occasionally sends “saviors” such as Moses, Jesus, Buddha and Muhammad to lead their people toward enlightenment and salvation. In this book, and to a greater extent, in Ken’s paperback book entitled The Magi: From Zoroaster to the “Three Wise Men,” he discusses this important fact.
Ken is a retired Psychology professor, a founding Board member of the Christian Universalist Association, an expert in Universalism and the major world religions such as Zoroastrianism, and a member of IANDS (along with many other qualifications). More about Ken can be found in the Chapter of this book labeled “About Ken.” I consider Ken a special “guru” of mine because of his greater understanding of these lofty subjects and how he provides the layperson with a thorough and easy-to-read understanding of how they relate to NDEs and other STEs.
I have several experts I consider gurus for whom I go to for gaining more knowledge on such subjects. They are experts in their field who mostly impart their expertise freely for the sake of humanity. In fact, the Urban Dictionary defines the word “guru” in a number of ways; but I prefer their definition as follows:
“A teacher – a learned man [or woman] who shares their knowledge and enlightens all ignorant [people] and works for the mass uplifting of the society by imparting knowledge.”
There are many such gurus to be found on the Internet who fit this definition; but there are several such experts like Ken who have contributed so much to making this www.near-death.com website what it is today. How these experts became so important to my own personal research and enlightenment is a story worth telling. I will try to be as brief and precise as I can.
Before I had my own personal computer, I was a book worm reading everything I could get my hands on the subject of NDEs and Christianity. One of the books I read was Ken’s wonderful book entitled Visions of God from the Near-Death Experience which I highly recommend. But as a fundamentalist, the information I was reading about NDEs conflicted a lot with my strict Christian belief system. During the 1980’s, I had a “crisis of faith” partly due to this conflict which ultimately led me to being diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The medication I began taking was in every way a lifesaver. One might say the medicine took away the “manic street preacher” inside of me and ultimately made me a more liberal Christian. The major source of information which greatly resolved my internal conflict between fundamentalist Christianity and near-death studies was my first guru – Edgar Cayce (www.edgarcayce.org) – the Christian mystic whose information was my “bridge” connecting Christianity with near-death studies. The brand of Christianity revealed by Edgar Cayce agreed with what I was reading in all the NDE books which is: (1) the reality of Universal Salvation; (2) the Unconditional Love and Universal Mind that is God; and (3) the higher teachings and “hidden mysteries” of Jesus concerning a personal “resurrection” as a spiritual regeneration within a living person and – for those who have not experienced this spiritual “resurrection” – a bodily “resurrection” of the soul by means of reincarnation which is the divine method for the evolution of the soul. According to Cayce, this system of bodily reincarnation also allows those who have already attained spiritual regeneration to reincarnate to help others in their soul’s evolution and to help prepare the way for the “Kingdom of Heaven” on Earth. The Cayce Organization and their website is filled with wisdom on these mysteries which were ordained to be revealed at this time in history.
When I graduated with a computer science degree in the 1990’s, the World Wide Web was in its infancy. At this time, I discovered my second guru – Marcus P. Zillman, M.S., A.M.H.A. (www.zillman.us). He is an international Internet expert who played a major role in bringing artificial intelligence to the Web in the form of bots and intelligent software agents. He has authored hundreds of free publications available for downloading including over 80 white papers, Internet MiniGuides, How-To videos, and eBooks about a variety of subjects available to both the “newbie” as well as the “seasoned” veteran. His free resources allows me to be currently aware of important Internet sources especially in web development. One might say he was my “bridge” connecting my desire to present near-death studies on the World Wide Web via a website.
Then when I began creating the www.near-death.com website, I had already known whom I refer to as my third guru – P. M. H. Atwater, L.H.D, (pmhatwater.hypermart.net) – who was one of the early researchers in near-death studies and one of the very few researchers who actually is an NDE experiencer. Her books, articles and website gave me a perspective of NDEs which agreed with my growing liberal Christian view. From almost the beginning of my website, she has personally allowed me to freely reprint numerous articles of hers including a column in my monthly newsletter which spanned almost a decade. As someone who often presents NDE information to the Edgar Cayce organization, her knowledge was my “bridge” connecting NDE studies with NDE mysticism .
Sometime after the new millennium, I read an article in the Journal of Near-Death Studies entitled “The Near-Death Experience and Christian Universalism.” I was so impressed with the article that I contacted the author who eventually became my fourth and latest guru, Dr. Ken R. Vincent, to ask permission to reprint it on my website. After reading other articles by Ken published on the website The Universalist Herald (www.universalist-herald.org) of which he is now the retired Webmaster, another profound element to my knowledge base was added. His expertise provided me with another vital bridge for connecting NDE studies with Universalism in a way I have never known before. At the time, I considered myself somewhat of an NDE and Christian universalism expert; but in reading Ken’s writings I discovered someone who actually is a scholar of both of these subjects and someone who stands far beyond my comprehension of them. We agreed that he would be the NDE and Universalist guru on my website.
After reprinting his article “The Near-Death Experience and Christian Universalism” – which is now Chapter 10 of this online book – I became diverted with webmaster duties as my site was getting larger. Reprinting some of Ken’s articles remained at the top of my To-Do list. Ultimately, Ken emailed me a number of his articles in book format which are the Chapters of this book. Upon reading them, I knew I had to immediately build this book which Ken is offering at no cost. I know this new book of Ken’s will enlighten many people as it enlightened me. Building his book on my website has definitely been a labor of love.
And there is an enormous amount of profound information in this book as each Chapter ties in with the next. Much like the so-called “crimson thread” which weaves revelations of Jesus in the Hebrew Bible, so does Ken’s paperback book The Golden Thread: God’s Promise of Universal Salvation – as well as this new book – weave a “golden thread” of Universalism through all the major world religions tying them all together. Ken shares some Chapters of his paperback book here in this new book.
The reader will also be amazed how Ken ties near-death studies with scholarly topics such as:
- What NDEs and STEs teach us about God and the afterlife
- Modern scientific research into religious experiences
- Psychology as it relates to NDEs and STEs
- The parallel levels of moral development between individuals, religions, and entire cultures
- The parallel levels of religious development in individuals and world religions
- The five universal concepts found in all religions
- Why religion would probably cease to exist without STEs
- Why modern STEs are identical to STEs in ancient religious texts when you remove the supernatural elements
- Why personal religious experience is becoming more fundamental than theology
- The nine categories of resurrection appearances of Jesus which are identical to modern ADCs involving Jesus
- How modern scientific research of religious experiences reveals principles of Universalism
- Personal cases of Universalist mystical religious experiences
- How NDEs agree with Universalism including Christian Universalism
- The vast amount of historical and Biblical evidence supporting Universalism
- One of the most profound NDE testimonies ever documented because of its authenticity, authority, and aftereffects
- How the more ancient religion of Zoroastrianism influenced doctrines found all the Western religions
- The scientific research into negative religious experiences
- The history of how the false doctrine of eternal damnation crept into Christianity hundreds of years after the death of Jesus
- The types of Universalists in America today
- How Universalism is the key for resolving the strife in the modern world
- and much more…
In conclusion, I know Ken’s research will enlighten you in so many ways as it did me. A vast number of the missing pieces in my knowledge base concerning NDEs, STEs, religious studies, and Universalism have been filled in thanks to Ken and I am eternally grateful. – Kevin R. Williams, B.Sc.
