Features
Experiencing life after death
Louisville, Kentucky, USA, rings a bell. That is where the greatest prize-fighter of all time, Mohammad Ali, hails from. And that is also where Leonard Bruce, a noted cancer patient suffered almost interminably. At 24, he was taken into hospital for another cancer operation, the seventh in a series of pain under the knife.
Nigel Blundell wrote about Leonard’s life-after-death experience in his true account titled “CHILLING TRUE TALES FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE.”
In Leonard’s own words, “I wanted to die. I felt relief that this was going to be my last operation. After eight hours, the anaesthetic was wearing off and the nurses were waiting for me to come round. But I didn’t want to.
“I closed my eyes and waited for death. Suddenly I was floating in midair, looking down at my body lying on the wheeled hospital cart. All around me doctors and nurses were working frantically. I actually said goodbye to my body as I turned away towards a bright light. I felt relaxed, out of pain and really happy for the first time in years.
COMMAND
“I felt, rather than saw people around me. Somehow I knew they were my friends. They seemed to be drawing me along with them into the clouds. Then I felt something stop me dead in my tracks. A male voice, authoritative but mellow, commanded, “Do not go further, my son have things for you to do?” “I opened my eyes and the first thing I saw was a nurse, her hand to her mouth in amazement, saying, “He’s back! He’s awake!”
Leonard adds: “My friends nowadays ask me why I am so calm and why I don’t worry. I tell them with a smile that it is because I do not fear death. I have been to heaven once and it is a wonderful place.”
The account of Owen Thomas is equally mind-titillating. At the age of 20 he was stabbed through the heart and sent to hospital where he had no blood pressure, no pulse, no heartbeat in him. Owen says: “I knew I was dead. But I was approached, as if in a dream, by my brother Christopher who had died 20 years ago. He put his hand on me, pushed me away and said, ‘we don’t want you!’ Then I returned.”
“Similarly, Barney Hayden died and found himself in a beautiful garden full of trees and flowers. His father who had died 15 years earlier was there. He asked him to go back and Bamey saw himself on the hospital bed.
Martin Ford died in 1971 after a heart attack, felt weightless and began to see iridescent lights beckoning him. Helen Nelson died of a heart attack and saw brilliant flashes of light. Durdana Khan died for 20 minutes, saw her grandfather, mother and grandmother and a bright shining light.
Louise Walter of North Carolina died during surgery and saw a bridge with sun-light pouring over it. “On the other side was my father who had died long ago. He was smiling and very happy.”
Why did all these people see bright lights?
Harry Woods, 61, died and remembers being dragged to hell. “No one will ever know the terror I experienced. I don’t know how long I was in that hellish place. But for me it was an eternity. It has completely.”
Helen Womack, 60, died in the fourth in a series of operations, Helen found herself in a group of people and realised soon that it was her turn to give an account of her life. “As I did, I became aware of the Devil standing on my left and Jesus standing on my right. I felt like a child between them…”
BELIEF
Will she follow the Devil to hell or Jesus to heaven? “When I woke up in the recovery room I just cried and cried.”
When yours truly, Kwame Alomele, interviewed the Central Region woman who died and woke up after four days when preparations were completed for her final rites, Ghanaians did not believe the story.
Her description of the joyous feeling and of peace were the high-points of her experience. She was unburdened of all the worries of life and witnessed the punishment given to sinners in what could be described as hell.
When she was coming back to life, she saw a little schoolboy going into eternity. She was puzzled, but under-stood it all when she finally came back to life. The schoolboy had died that day she had returned to life. This suggests that there is a journey in and a journey out.
Many after-life experiences have been documented in developed countries and people actually research into such experiences. In Ghana, and elsewhere, such documentations do not exist.
This article was first published
on Saturday August 27, 2005
THE typical itinerant salesman in Sikaman is a herbalist. He is normally a slim macho with the capacity to perambulate the expanse of area covering the triangle of Accra-Tema-Ashiaman. In short, he can walk a total of 60 miles a day, marketing a product that cures every disease, including poverty. 
The door-to-door herbal pharmacist advertises his product by word of mouth. He has nothing to do with the Food and Drugs Board (FDB). After all, his concoctions do not feature on FM stations.
Those herbalists who cannot walk to propagate the herbal gospel, liaise with drivers of mass transportation and their mates. They are, therefore, given the chance to sell their products on Benz buses that ply the routes.
Normally, the herbalist starts his sales message with a prayer and Bible study. He asks the passengers to bow down their heads in supplication to God the father, the son, the Holy Spirit.
When a herbalist asks the passengers to close their eyes and bow their heads, Moslems on board naturally feel offended. They feel that the herbalist has no right to assume that every passenger is a Christian. They think such an assumption is an affront to Islam.
So a Moslem on board will raise the hand for a point of order. He’ll remind the herbalist that it would be in his own interest to mind his language.
“Be careful the way you address people in a public place. Not every person here is a Christian,” he’d state assertively.
Of course, the herbalist will promptly ignore him, but would all the same “watch” his tongue. Who knows whether or not the Moslem brother is inspired by Quoranic zeal to defend the tenets of Islam to the hilt?
When he starts saying, “Wallahi!” and “Inshallah!” it could be the beginning of proclaiming Islam as supreme, a point which must be driven home with talibanic precision.
So the herbalist must tread carefully lest he steps on fire.
The herbalist could even add a measure of mirth to it all, by announcing that Christians on board today have very interesting company on the journey, but that should not detract from the business of the day.
The Moslem brother will weigh the words carefully and offer a wry smile.
He must be careful the occasion does not degenerate into the use of semantics and proverbial oration to deride his conviction that public utterances must be mindful of religious sensibilities. He has made his point very clear and expects that it is taken in good faith in the interest of a peaceful journey.
The herbalist will now open the New Testament and preach salvation, stating clearly that salvation can come only through Jesus Christ and NOBODY else.
The Moslem brother will now start twitching his moustache. The visible and almost revolutionary reflexes of his upper lip can be an indication that sentiments have begun superseding reason, and the outcome could well be tragic now shift uneasily in his seat.
The time has come for him to also express his right to the religion of his fore-bears. He’ll put his hand into his pocket and rise to his feet. The time has indeed come!
This article was first published on Saturday, September 9, 2006
When the cause of a particular problem like sickness, disease, sudden illness, a social issue etc. are not known, it stands to reason that resolving it becomes a huge challenge.
Citizens would understand the government when public announcements are made to the effect that government is trying to find a solution to the issue, even though it is taking a while for it to be resolved because citizens are rational beings.
On the other hand, if the solution to a particular issue is known to everybody but the government for whatever reason, is dragging its feet in resolving it, citizens become frustrated and begin to lose trust in their leaders.
One such issue is the heavy traffic along a section of the Kasoa – Odokor road. A short stretch of bad road between the traffic light at the Weija Government Hospital and the entrance to the entrance of the overhead that leads to the N1, is the cause of the problem but nothing is being done about it, day after day, week after week, month after month. Thus is clearly unacceptable.
Another issue that requires urgent attention is the lack of pavements along a lot of streets in parts of the various Municipal Assemblies. Exercise is a prerequisite for long life and healthy living and for those of us who it has become a way of life, this issue of people putting up structures right to the edge of the drains beside the roads, are making life difficult for us.
We are compelled to walk along the roads, putting our lives at serious risk. Pedestrians should never be compelled to compete with vehicles on our streets and roads. Roads and streets are made for vehicles and pavements are made for pedestrians. That is the norm. Any attempt to normalise a situation where pedestrians are mingling with vehicles is insanity.
It is the road regulations that makes it so and therefore district or municipal assemblies are to take responsibility and ensure that spaces for pavements are not encroached upon. Citizens have rights that must be protected by their leaders and making pavements available to pedestrians, is one of them.
When we hear of teachers having sex with students, it appears it is something recent. It is not a new phenomenon. It has been there since Adam. Perhaps this issue is getting much attention due to the proliferation of social media. It was an open secret in times past when Teachers were in relationships with female students and some married them immediately after completion of school.
Some teachers were also known to be having unholy interactions with female pupils but due to the times that these acts occurred, human rights issues and the awareness around it, allowed such unscrupulous teachers to get away with their crimes.
Now we are in a different era and so a Headmaster is now in hot waters. He is alleged to have raped about 19 female students and as usual, some officials tried to cover it up and are also in hot waters and their actions or inactions in the matter are under investigation.
Why the man has been allowed to roam freely without being arrested is simply mind boggling. It appears that the law applies differently, depending on who you are. This issue came to public attention sometime in August this year, yet the police had not arrested or invited this man for question regarding the rape allegation.
It has come out that he is a Constituency Secretary of the ruling party and the question in the public domain is that, is it because he is a political figure that is why he is still walking around without questioning? I believe in the rule of law so let us hold our breadth and let the proper thing be done.
The police must however be seen to be active in this matter. God bless.
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