Similarities Between Heavenly Descriptions in A Course in Miracles and Near Death Experiences 

The Spiritual work A Course in Miracles provides guidance on how to reawaken to an awareness of the oneness of God's creation through relinquishment of the false self (ego) and remembrance of the true Self (Christ Self). 

Many of the descriptions of a heavenly state (awareness of the oneness of creation) from A Course in Miracles sound strikingly similar to the experiences described on the NDERF website by those who have had near death experiences and out of body experiences. 

Below are several such passages from A Course in Miracles which relate the same type of overwhelming peace, joy and love described in near death experiences.  If any of the passages from A Course in Miracles below sound interesting, and you would like to explore the concepts from A Course in Miracles further, I have related my own thoughts about my understanding of how to pursue relinquishment of false self identification in order to regain awareness of our true Self-identity in the book A Few Thoughts About the Course. 

Robert Brink 

From 'Above the Battleground' from chapter 23 of the Text of A Course in Miracles, 'The War Against Yourself:' 

                        Only a purpose unifies, and those who share a purpose have a mind as one.  The body has no purpose, and must be solitary.  From below, it cannot be surmounted.  From above, the limits it exerts on those in battle still are gone, and not perceived.  The body stands between the Father and the Heaven He created for His Son because it has no purpose.
 

                        Think what is given those who share their Father's purpose, and who know that it is theirs.  They want for nothing.  Sorrow of any kind is inconceivable.  Only the light they love is in awareness, and only love shines upon them forever.  It is their past, their present and their future; always the same, eternally complete and wholly shared.  They know it is impossible their happiness could ever suffer change of any kind.  Perhaps you think the battleground can offer something you can win.  Can it be anything that offers you a perfect calmness, and a sense of love so deep and quiet that no touch of doubt can ever mar your certainty?  And that will last forever?

Those with the strength of God in their awareness could never think of battle.  What could they gain but loss of their perfection?  For everything fought for on the battleground is of the body; something it seems to offer or to own.  No one who knows that he has everything could seek for limitation, nor could he value the body's offerings.   

From 'Your Brother's Sinlessness' from chapter 22 of the Text of A Course in Miracles, 'Salvation and the Holy Relationship:' 

                        Beyond the bodies that you interposed between you, and shining in the golden light that reaches it from the bright, endless circle that extends forever, is your holy relationship, beloved of God Himself.  How still it rests, in time and yet beyond, immortal yet on earth.  How great the power that lies in it.  Time waits upon its will, and earth will be as it would have it be.  Here is no separate will, nor the desire that anything be separate.  Its will has no exceptions, and what it wills is true.  Every illusion brought to its forgiveness is gently overlooked and disappears.  For at its center Christ has been reborn, to light His home with vision that overlooks the world.  Would you not have this holy home be yours as well?  No misery is here, but only joy.
 

                        All you need do to dwell in quiet here with Christ is share His vision.  Quickly and gladly is His vision given anyone who is but willing to see his brother sinless.  And no one can remain beyond this willingness, if you would be released entirely from all effects of sin.  Would you have partial forgiveness for yourself?  Can you reach Heaven while a single sin still tempts you to remain in misery?  Heaven is the home of perfect purity, and God created it for you.  Look on your holy brother, sinless as yourself, and let him lead you there. 

From 'The Forgotten Song' from chapter 21 of the Text of A Course in Miracles, 'Reason and Perception:' 

                        Listen,'perhaps you catch a hint of an ancient state not quite forgotten; dim, perhaps, and yet not altogether unfamiliar, like a song whose name is long forgotten, and the circumstances in which you heard completely unremembered.  Not the whole song has stayed with you, but just a little wisp of melody, attached not to a person or a place or anything particular.  But you remember, from just this little part, how lovely was the song, how wonderful the setting where you heard it, and how you loved those who were there and listened with you.
 

                        The notes are nothing.  Yet you have kept them with you, not for themselves, but as a soft reminder of what would make you weep if you remembered how dear it was to you.  You could remember, yet you are afraid, believing you would lose the world you learned since then.  And yet you know that nothing in the world you learned is half so dear as this.  Listen, and see if you remember an ancient song you knew so long ago and held more dear than any melody you taught yourself to cherish since.

            
            Beyond the body, beyond the sun and stars, past everything you see and yet somehow familiar, is an arc of golden light that stretches as you look into a great and shining circle.  And all the circle fills with light before your eyes.  The edges of the circle disappear, and what is in it is no longer contained at all.  The light expands and covers everything, extending to infinity forever shining and with no break or limit anywhere.  Within it everything is joined in perfect continuity.  Nor is it possible to imagine that anything could be outside, for there is nowhere that this light is not.

            
            This is the vision of the Son of God, whom you know well.  Here is the sight of him who knows his Father.  Here is the memory of what you are; a part of this, with all of it within, and joined to all as surely as all is joined in you.  Accept the vision that can show you this, and not the body.  You know the ancient song, and know it well.  Nothing will ever be as dear to you as is this ancient hymn the Son of God sings to his Father still.

            
            And now the blind can see, for that same song they sing in honor of their Creator gives praise to them as well.  The blindness that they made will not withstand the memory of this song.  And they will look upon the vision of the Son of God, remembering who he is they sing of.  What is a miracle but this remembering?  And who is there in whom this memory lies not?  The light in one awakens it in all.  And when you see it in your brother, you are remembering for everyone.