Brother Dannion
(Brinkley, Dannion)
and the Boxes of Knowledge
Excerpt from:
"Saved by the Light"
1994 by Dannion Brinkley
Villard Books, New York
ISBN 0-679-43176-4
Introduction
On September 17, 1975, Dannion Brinkley was talking on the telephone
during a thunderstorm. A bolt of lightning hit the phone line,
sending thousands of volts of electricity into his head and down his
body, throwing him several feet into the air. His heart stopped, and
he died.
When Brinkley revived in the morgue after twenty-eight minutes, he
had an incredible story to tell. Saved By the Light, is the
profoundly moving personal account of his near-death experiences --
the second NDE occurring fourteen years later -- and the resulting
spiritual transformation that has completely altered his life.
After the lightning strike, Brinkley watched from above as loved
ones and medics tried to to start his heart. When doctors pronounced
him dead he was already traveling through a dark tunnel toward a
spirit being, who led him into a crystal city awash in light and
tranquillity. Brought before thirteen angelic instructors in what he
describes as "a cathedral of knowledge," Brinkley was told of events
that would shake the world before the year 2000 -- including the
Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the Persian Gulf War, and America's
current economic crisis. Of the 117 revelations that he recalls, 95
have already come to pass.
The Boxes of Knowledge
I was able to count the Beings as they stood behind the podium.
There were thirteen of them, standing shoulder to shoulder and
stretched across the stage. I was aware of other things about them,
too, probably through some form of telepathy. Each one of them
represented a different emotional and psychological characteristic
that all humans have. For example, one of these Beings was intense
and passionate, while another was artistic and emotional. One was
bold and energetic, yet another possessive and loyal. In human
terms, it was as though each one represented a different sign of the
zodiac. In spiritual terms, these Beings went far beyond the signs
of the zodiac. They emanated these emotions in such a way that I
could feel them.
Now more than ever I knew that this was a place of learning. I would
be steeped in knowledge, taught in a way that I had never been
taught before. There would be no books and no memorization. In the
presence of these Beings of Light, I would become knowledge and know
everything that was important to know. I could ask any question and
know the answer. It was like being a drop of water bathed in the
knowledge of the ocean, or a beam of light knowing what all light
knows.
I had only to think a question to explore the essence of the answer.
In a split second I understood how light works, the ways in which
spirit is incorporated into the physical life, why it is possible
for people to think and act in so many different ways. Ask and you
shall perceive, is the way I sum it up.
These Beings of Light were different from the one that met me when I
first died. They had the same silver-blue glow of that first Being,
but with light that glowed deep blue from within them. This color
carried with it a great sense of might and seemed to draw from the
same source that traits like heroism come from. I have never seen
the color since then, but it seemed to signify that these Beings
were among the greatest of their kind. I felt as awestruck and proud
to be in their presence as I would to be standing with Joan of Arc
or George Washington.
The Beings came at me one at a time. As each one approached, a box
the size of a videotape came from its chest and zoomed right at my
face.
The first time this happened I flinched, thinking I was going to be
hit. But a moment before impact, the box opened to reveal what
appeared to be a tiny television picture of a world event that was
yet to happen. As I watched, I felt myself drawn right into the
picture, where I was able to live the event. This happened twelve
times, and twelve times I stood in the midst of many events that
would shake the world in the future.
At the time I didn't know these were future events. All I knew was
that I was seeing things of great significance and that they were
coming to me as clearly as the nightly news, with one great
difference: I was being pulled into the screen.
Much later, when I returned to life, I wrote down 117 events that I
witnessed in the boxes. For three years nothing happened. Then in
1978, events that I had seen in the boxes began to come true. In the
eighteen years since I died and went to this place, ninety-five of
these events have taken place.
On this day, September 17, 1975, the future came to me a box at a
time.
Boxes One Through Three: Visions of a Demoralized Country
Boxes one, two, and three showed the mood of America in the
aftermath of the war in Southeast Asia. They revealed scenes of
spiritual loss in our country that were byproducts of that war,
which weakened the structure of America and eventually the world.
The scenes were of prisoners of war, weak and wasted from hunger, as
they waited in the rugged prisons of North Vietnam for American
ambassadors to come and free them. I could feel their fear and then
despair when they realized one by one that no help would be
forthcoming and that they would live out their remaining years as
slaves in jungle prisons. These were the MIAs, those military men
considered "missing in action."
The MIAs were already an issue in 1975, but they were used as a
starting point in the visions to show an America that was slipping
into spiritual decline.
I could see America falling into enormous debt. This came to me as
scenes of money going out of a room much faster than it was coming
in. Through some kind of telepathy I was aware that this money
represented the increase in the national debt and that it spelled
danger down the road. I also saw people waiting in long lines for
the basics of life like clothing and food.
Many scenes of spiritual hunger came from the first two boxes as
well. I saw people who were transparent in such a way as to reveal
that they were hollow. This hollowness, it was explained to me
telepathically, was caused by a loss of faith in America and what it
stood for. The war in Southeast Asia had combined with inflation and
distrust in our government to create a spiritual void. This void was
added to by our loss of love for God.
This spiritual depravity resulted in a number of shocking visions:
people noting and looting because they wanted more material goods
than they had, kids shooting other kids with high-powered rifles,
criminals stealing cars, young men firing on other young men from
the windows of cars. Scenes like these played out in front of me
like scenes from a gangster movie.
Most of the criminals were children or adolescents that no one cared
about. As I watched image after image, it became painfully clear to
me that these kids had no family units, and as a result, they were
acting like wolves.
I was confused because I couldn't figure out how American children
could be left to roam and murder. Didn't they have parental
guidance? I wondered. How could such a thing happen in our country?
In the third box I found myself facing the seal of the president of
the United States. I don't know where I was, but I saw the initials
"RR" emblazoned beneath this seal. Then I was standing in the midst
of newspapers, looking at their editorial cartoons. One after the
other I saw cartoons of a cowboy. He was riding the range or
shooting down bad guys in saloons. This vision was festooned with
satirical illustrations from around the country from such newspapers
as the Boston Globe, the Chicago Tribune, and the Los Angeles Times.
The dates on the newspapers ranged from 1983 to 1987, and it was
clear from the nature of the drawings that they were about the
president of the United States, who projected the image of being a
cowboy to the rest of the world.
I could also tell that the man in these cartoons was an actor,
because they all had a theatrical look to them. One of the cartoons
even referred to "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and played off
the famous scene in that movie in which the two outlaws jump off a
cliff into a shallow pool of water. Yet despite the vividness of the
newspaper clippings, I was unable to see the face under the cowboy
hat. I now know that "RR" stood for Ronald Reagan, but at the time I
had no idea who the " cowboy" was. A few months later, when I was
recalling these visions for Dr. Raymond Moody, the noted
psychiatrist and researcher of near-death experiences, he asked me
who I thought " RR" was. Without hesitation I said, "Robert
Redford." He has never let me forget that mistake and ribs me about
it every time we get together.
Boxes Four and Five: Strife and Hatred in the Holy Lands
Boxes four and five were scenes from the Middle East, showing how
this area of eternal strife would reach a boiling point. Religion
would play a large role in these problems, as would the economy. A
constant need for outside money fueled much of the anger and hatred
that I saw in these boxes.
In the first of these boxes I saw two agreements taking place:
In the first, Israelis and Arabs were agreeing to something, but
what was unclear to me.
The second accord was one that I could see in some detail. Men were
shaking hands and there was much talk about a new country. Then I
saw a collage of images: the River Jordan, a settlement from Israel
that was spreading into Jordan, and a map on which the country of
Jordan was changing color. As I watched this puzzling collage
unfold, I heard a Being speak telepathically to me and say that the
country of Jordan would exist no more. I did not hear the name of
the new country.
This agreement was nothing more than a front by the Israelis to
create a police force composed of Israelis and Arabs. This was a
very harsh police force, cruel and unyielding. I saw them wearing
blue-and-silver uniforms and having a tight grip on the people of
this region. So tight was their grip, in fact, that world leaders
became highly critical of Israel. Many corroborators on both sides
kept an eye on their own people and reported their activities to
this police force. They served to make everyone suspicious, causing
trust in these societies to disappear.
I could see Israel becoming isolated from the rest of the world. As
things worsened, there were images of Israel preparing for war
against other countries, including Russia and a Chinese-and-Arab
consortium. Jerusalem was somehow at the eye of this conflict, but I
am not sure exactly how. From newspaper headlines that appeared in
the vision, I could see that some incident in that holy city had
served to trigger this war.
These visions revealed Israel as being spiritually hollow. I had the
sense of it being a country of strong government but weak morals.
Image after image came of Israelis reacting with hatred toward
Palestinians and other Arabs, and I was steeped in the sense that
these people as a nation had forgotten God and were now driven by
racial hatred.
The fifth box showed oil being used as a weapon to control the
international economy. I saw images of Mecca and then of the Saudi
people. While these images streamed before me, a telepathic voice
said that oil production was being cut off to destroy America's
economy and to milk money from the world economy. The price of oil
was going up and up, said the voice, and Saudi Arabia was making an
alliance with Syria and China. I could see Arab and Oriental people
shaking hands and making deals. As these images came to me, I could
sense money being given by the Saudis to Asian countries like North
Korea, all in the hopes of destabilizing the economy of the Asian
region.
I wondered where this alliance began, and I was able to see a
close-up of Syrians and Chinese signing papers and shaking hands in
a building that I knew was in Syria. The date that came to me was
1992.
Another date came to me 1993-and with it came images of Syrian and
Chinese scientists working in laboratories to develop a missile that
could deliver chemical and biological weapons. Nuclear weapons were
becoming things of the past, and these countries wanted to develop
new weapons of destruction.
The boxes kept coming.
Box Six: Visions of Nuclear Destruction
Number six was terrifying. I was drawn into the box and found myself
in a cool, forested area beside a river. Next to the river was a
massive cement structure, square and foreboding. I was fearful and
didn't know why. Suddenly the earth shook and the top of this cement
structure exploded. I knew it was a nuclear explosion and could
sense hundreds of people dying around me as it took place. The year
1986 was given to me through telepathy, as was the word wormwood. It
wasn't until a decade later, when the Chernobyl nuclear plant
exploded near Kiev in the Soviet Union, that I was able to associate
these pictures with an event. It was then that I made another
connection between the vision in this box and the nuclear disaster
in the USSR. The word Chernobyl means "wormwood" in Russian.
A second nuclear accident appeared in the box, this in a northern
sea so badly polluted that no ships would travel there. The water
was a pale red and was covered with dead or dying fish. Around the
water were peaks and valleys that made me think I was seeing a fiord
like those in Norway. I couldn't tell where this was, but I knew
that the world was frightened at what had happened, because
radiation from this accident could spread everywhere and affect all
of humankind. The date on the picture was 1995.
The vision didn't stop there. People were dying and deformed as a
result of these nuclear catastrophes. In a series of what seemed
like television pictures, I saw cancer victims and mutated babies in
Russia, Norway, Sweden, and Finland, not hundreds or thousands of
people, but tens of thousands, in a vast array of deformity, going
on through generations. The poisons released by these accidents were
carried to the rest of the world through water, which was tainted
forever by this nuclear waste. The Being made it clear that humans
had created a horrible power that had not been contained. By letting
this power out of their control, the Soviets had destroyed their own
country and possibly the world.
The box showed me the fear in people's hearts that resulted from
these nuclear accidents. As the images of this fear unfolded, I
somehow understood that environmentalism would emerge as the world's
new religion. People would consider a clean environment a key to
salvation more than they ever had before. Political parties would
spring up around the issue of a cleaner planet, and political
fortunes would be made or broken based upon feelings about the
environment.
From Chernobyl and this second accident, I could see that the Soviet
Union would wither and die, with the Soviet people losing faith in
their government and the government losing its grip on the people.
The economy played a strong role in these visions. I saw people
carrying bags of money into stores and coming out with small bags of
goods. People with military uniforms wandered the streets in Soviet
cities begging for food, some obviously starving to death. People
ate rotted potatoes and apples, and crowds rioted to get at trucks
filled with food.
The word Georgia appeared in a Cyrillic script, and I could see a
mafia developing in Moscow that I assume came from the state of
Georgia in the Soviet Union. This mafia was a growing power that was
in competition with the Soviet government. In scene after scene, I
saw mafia members operating freely in a city that I think was
Moscow.
I felt no joy as I watched the Soviet Union collapse. Although
Soviet-style communism was dying right before my eyes, the Being of
Light was saying that this was a cautious moment instead of a
glorious one. "Watch the Soviet Union," he said. "How the Russian
people go, so goes the world. What happens to Russia is the basis
for everything that will happen to the economy of the free world."
Box Seven: The Environmental Religion
The seventh box held powerful images of environmental destruction. I
could see areas of the world radiating energy, glowing like a radium
watch face in the dark. Telepathically I could hear voices speaking
of the need to clean up the environment.
These voices came out of Russia at first, but then the accents
changed and I could tell that they were emanating from South
America, probably from Uruguay or Paraguay.
I saw the speaker from Russia as he talked with zeal about our need
to heal the environment. People rallied around him quickly, and he
soon became so powerful that he was elected one of the leaders of
the United Nations. I saw this Russian riding on a white horse, and
I knew that his rise would come before the year 2000.
Boxes Eight and Nine: China Battles Russia
In boxes eight and nine were visions of China's growing anger toward
the Soviet Union. When these visions took place in 1975, 1 didn't
know that the Soviet Union would break up. Now I think the tension I
saw in that vision was a result of the death of Soviet communism,
which left the Chinese the leaders of the Communist world.
At the time, the visions were a puzzle to me. I saw border disputes
and heavy fighting between Soviet and Chinese armies. Finally, the
Chinese amassed their armies at the border and pushed into the
region.
The main battle was over a railroad, which the Chinese took in heavy
fighting. They then pushed deep into the Soviet Union, cutting the
country in half and taking over the oil fields of Siberia. I saw
snow, blood, and oil and knew that the loss of life had been heavy.
Boxes Ten and Eleven: Economic Earthquakes, Desert Storm
Boxes ten and eleven came in rapid succession. They revealed scenes
of the economic collapse of the world. In general terms, these
visions showed a world in horrible turmoil by the turn of the
century, one that resulted in a new world order that was truly one
of feudalism and strife.
In one of the visions, people lined up to take money out of banks.
In another the banks were being closed by the government. The voice
that accompanied the visions told me that this would take place in
the nineties and would be the beginning of an economic strife that
would lead to the bankruptcy of America by the year 2000.
The box showed images of dollar signs flying by as people pumped gas
and looked distressed. I knew this meant that oil prices were
accelerating out of control.
I saw thirteen new nations entering the world market in the late
nineties. These were nations with manufacturing capabilities that
put them on a competitive footing with the United States. One by one
our European markets began to give their business to these
countries, which slowed our economy even more. All of this led to a
greatly weakened economy.
But the end of America as a world power came as visions of two
horrendous earthquakes in which buildings were swaying and toppling
over like a child's wooden blocks. I knew that these quakes happened
sometime before the end of the century, but I couldn't tell where
they took place. I do remember seeing a large body of water that was
probably a river.
The cost of rebuilding these destroyed cities would be the final
straw for our government, now so financially broken that it would
hardly be able to keep itself alive. The voice in the vision told me
that it would be this way while the images from the box showed
Americans starving and lined up for food.
At the tail end of box ten came images of warfare in the desert, a
massive show of military might. I saw armies racing toward one
another in the desert, with great clouds of dust billowing from the
treads of tanks as they crossed the barren ground. There was cannon
fire and explosions that looked like lightning. The earth shook and
then there was silence. Like a bird, I flew over acres of destroyed
army equipment.
As I left the box, the date 1990 came into my head. That was the
year of Desert Storm, the military operation that squashed the army
of Iraq for occupying Kuwait.
Box eleven began with Iran and Iraq in possession of nuclear and
chemical weapons. Included in this arsenal was a submarine loaded
with nuclear missiles. The year, said a voice in the vision, was
1993.
I saw this submarine powering through the waters of the Middle East,
piloted by people I knew to be Iranians. I could tell that their
purpose was to stop the shipping of oil from the Middle East. They
were so praiseful of God in their speech that I had the sense that
this was some kind of religious mission.
The missiles that occupied the desert of the Middle East were
equipped with chemical warheads. I don't know where they were aimed,
but I do know that there was worldwide fear of the intentions of the
Arab nations that had them.
Chemical warfare played a role in a horrible vision of terrorism
that takes place in France before 2000. It begins when the French
publish a book that infuriates the Arab world. I don't know the
title of this book, but the result of its publication is a chemical
attack by Arabs on a city in France. A chemical is put into the
water supply, and thousands drink it and die before it can be
eliminated.
In one brief vision I saw Egyptians rioting in the streets while a
voice told me that by 1997, Egypt would collapse as a democracy and
be taken over by religious fanatics.
The final visions from box eleven were like many images we now see
of Sarajavo: modem cities crumbling beneath the weight of warfare,
their inhabitants fighting one another for reasons ranging from
racism to religious conflict. I saw many towns worldwide where
desperate citizens were eating their own dead. In one such scene,
Europeans in a hilly region of the world were weeping as they cooked
human meat. In rapid succession I saw people of all five races
eating their fellow humans.
Box Twelve: Technology and Virus
The eleventh box was gone and I was into the twelfth box. Its
visions addressed an important event in the distant future, the
decade of the nineties (remember, this was 1975), when many of the
great changes would take place.
In this box I watched as a biological engineer from the Middle East
found a way to alter DNA and create a biological virus that would be
used in the manufacture of computer chips. This discovery allowed
for huge strides in science and technology. Japan, China, and other
countries of the Pacific Rim experienced boom times as a result of
this discovery and became powers of incredible magnitude. Computer
chips produced from this process found their way into virtually
every form of technology, from cars and airplanes to vacuum cleaners
and blenders.
Before the turn of the century, this man was among the richest in
the world, so rich that he had a stranglehold on the world economy.
Still the world welcomed him, since the computer chips he had
designed somehow put the world on an even keel.
Gradually he succumbed to his own power. He began to think of
himself as a deity and insisted on greater control of the world.
With that extra control, he began to rule the world.
His method of rule was unique. Everyone in the world was mandated by
law to have one of his computer chips inserted underneath his or her
skin. This chip contained all of an individual's personal
information. If a government agency wanted to know something, all it
had to do was scan your chip with a special device. By doing so, it
could discover everything about you, from where you worked and lived
to your medical records and even what kind of illnesses you might
get in the future.
There was an even more sinister side to this chip. A person's
lifetime could be limited by programming this chip to dissolve and
kill him with the viral substance it was made from. Lifetimes were
controlled like this to avoid the cost that growing old places on
the government. It was also used as a means of eliminating people
with chronic illnesses that put a drain on the medical system.
People who refused to have chips implanted in their bodies roamed as
outcasts. They could not be employed and were denied government
services.
The Final Visions
At the very end came a thirteenth vision. I don't know where it came
from. I didn't see a Being of Light bring it forward in a box, nor
did I see one take it away. This vision was in many ways the most
important of all because it summed up everything I had seen in the
twelve boxes. Through telepathy I could hear a Being say,
"If you
follow what you have been taught and keep living the same way you
have lived the last thirty years, all of this will surely be upon
you. If you change, you can avoid the coming war."
Scenes from a horrible world war accompanied this message. As the
visions appeared on the screen, the Being told me that the years
1994 through 1996 were critical ones in determining whether this war
would break out. "If you follow this dogma, the world by the year
2004 will not be the same one you now know," said the Being. "But it
can still be changed and you can help change it."
Scenes from World War III came to life before me. I was in a hundred
places at once, from deserts to forests, and saw a world filled with
fighting and chaos. Somehow it was clear that this final war, an
Armaggedon if you will, was caused by fear. In one of the most
puzzling visions of all, I saw an army of women in black robes and
veils marching through a European city.
"The fear these people are feeling is an unnecessary one," said the
Being of Light. "But it is a fear so great that humans will give up
all freedoms in the name of safety."
I also saw scenes that were not of war, including many visions of
natural disasters. In parts of the world that had once been fertile
with wheat and corn, I saw parched desert and furrowed fields that
farmers had given up on. In other parts of the world, torrential
rainstorms had gouged out the earth, eating away topsoil and
creating rivers of thick, dark mud.
People were starving in this vision. They were begging for food on
the streets, holding out bowls and cups and even their hands in
hopes that someone or something would offer them a scrap to eat. In
some of the pictures, people had given up or were too weak to beg
and were curled on the ground waiting for the gift of death.
I saw civil wars breaking out in Central and South America and the
rise of socialist governments in all of these countries before the
year 2000. As these wars intensified, millions of refugees streamed
across the U. S. border, looking for a new life in North America.
Nothing we did could stop these immigrants. They were driven by fear
of death and loss of confidence in God.
I saw millions of people streaming north out of El Salvador and
Nicaragua, and more millions crossing the Rio Grande into Texas.
There were so many of them that we had to line the border with
troops and force them back across the river. The Mexican economy was
broken by these refugees and collapsed under the strain.
As these visions ended, I had the amazing realization that these
Beings were desperately trying to help us, not because we were such
good guys, but because without us advancing spiritually here on
earth, they could not become successful in their world. "You humans
are truly the heroes," a Being told me. "Those who go to earth are
heroes and heroines, because you are doing something that no other
spiritual beings have the courage to do. You have gone to earth to
co-create with God."
Go Back
|