Robert Kopecky - How to Get to Heaven (Without Really Dying): Wisdom from a Near Death Survivor

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

Copyright Information

How to Get to Heaven (Without Really Dying): Wisdom from a Near Death Survivor 2018 by Robert Kopecky.

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First e-book edition 2018

E-book ISBN: 9780738755489

Cover illustration by Robert Kopecky

The Soul of Rumi by Coleman Barks used with permission

Llewellyn Publications is an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Kopecky, Robert, author.

Title: How to get to heaven (without really dying) : wisdom from a near death

survivor / by Robert Kopecky.

Description: First Edition. | Woodbury : Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd., 2018. |

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017052908 (print) | LCCN 2017058801 (ebook) | ISBN

9780738755489 (ebook) | ISBN 9780738753218 (alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Future life. | Heaven. | Near-death experiencesReligious

aspects. | Conduct of life.

Classification: LCC BL535 (ebook) | LCC BL535 .K67 2018 (print) | DDC

202/.3dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017052908

Llewellyn Publications does not participate in, endorse, or have any authority or responsibility concerning private business arrangements between our authors and the public.

Any Internet references contained in this work are current at publication time, but the publisher cannot guarantee that a specific reference will continue or be maintained. Please refer to the publishers website for links to current author websites.

Llewellyn Publications

Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

2143 Wooddale Drive

Woodbury, MN 55125

www.llewellyn.com

Manufactured in the United States of America

Contents

Introduction:
Finding Heaven (the Easier Way)

Perspective

: Gaining Perspective Through Simple Principles: Cultivating a View from on High

: Kindness: Its Very Nice to Be Very Kind

: Humility: How a Humble Life Is So Totally Fabulous

: Honesty: The Gift of Honesty Is Really No Lie

: Forgiveness: Its For Giving and For Getting

: Compassion: Becoming a Passionate Compassionate

: Service: How You Really Can Meet the Nicest People

Presence

: Finding Presence Now: Its Always Been Now, and Always Will Be

: The Presence That Lasts: Uncovering Ancient Paths to Heaven

Purpose

: Discovering Divine Purpose Through Personal Actions: Becoming a Heavenly Human Being

: Looking into the Truth: Turning from Our Dark Corners to Face the Light

: Meditation Works When Your Mind Doesnt: Dont Just Do SomethingSit There!

: Recognize the Sacred in Everything: and (Surprise!) Become a Whole Lot Happier

: Look for the Divine in Others: Realizing Heavenly Relationships

: Create a Divine World: Making This Place Look More Like Paradise

The Everyday Realization of Heaven

Many Heavens to Live, Many Ways to Die: Why We Really (Dont) Die

Bibliography and
Interdimensional Reading List

Exercises

Introduction:
Finding Heaven (the Easier Way)

Everyone wants to go to Heaven, and it seems that a few of usincluding yours trulymay have briefly visited there already. Theres no qualification for claiming knowledge of the afterlife equivalent to surviving whats commonly called a Near Death Experience, shortened to the familiar acronym NDE . As unlikely as it may sound (even to me), over the course of fifteen years I happen to have survived three of them. I lived through three very different Near Death Experiences at three very different times of my life. You could say, in a funny way, that I got lucky.

I obviously overdid it a little, and while I would never recommend multiple Near Death Experiences as a means to realizing the amazing spiritual truths at work in our lives and our world, eventually it did work for mein profound and mysterious ways. Unfortunately, it required some forceful knockings (mostly with my head) on doors leading into a different, magical reality. Those lessons were painful but, needless to say, intensely educational. Its my aim to pass those lessons along to you in an easier, more enjoyable wayso please just follow my suggestions (and not my example) when I say that you dont have to actually die to go to Heaven. There are definitely much better ways to find that elusive realm of serenity and wonder right here and now, many of which well be exploring in the pages of this book.

While my case is obviously unusual, Im not at all alone in my experience of life after death. Thousands if not millions of people have been on the other side of this mortal veil by now and lived to tell about it. Clinical studies and polls suggest that approximately 5 to 15 percent of people who die and come back to life report experiencing a conscious reality existing beyond this one.

Some of the afterworlds they describe are classically Heaven-like, replete with the grandeur of angelic choirs, winged entities, and ascendant beings of light; while others are dark and definitively hellish , full of fire, brimstone, sharp-toothed demons (with pitchforks even)all that kind of scary, sinister stuff . The majority of these very personal experiences unfold somewhere in the middle, simple and humble NDEs that arent nearly as imaginative as those more spectacular experiencesmore like normal life as we all know it. Aside from the inherently surreal circumstances of my NDEs, mine were more normal that way. They were like this life, only different. Like this life, they took place in a potentially magical world where practically anything could potentially happen.

I believe that all of those different NDE stories are the truthful experiences of every one of those experiencers, but just where do the differences in their stories (as in mine) come from? Why does the afterlife seem to be configured differently for different people? Perhaps the answer to these differing experiences of Heaven can be found by looking at our personal earthly experiencesthe nature of our perspective on life (the way we look at it), the presence we bring to living (how we live it), and the roles our individual and collective purpose has given us to play (the reason why were here).