Go towards the light, definition

Go towards the light is a reference to near death experiences where people see a bright light often interpreted as heaven or the afterlife or god. Others in the office beg to differ. They argue that if you don't want to die, you should head AWAY from the light. The "light" represents heaven and therefore you would be surrendering your life and resigning yourself to death. They think the phrase; "Stay away from the light!" is more appropriate.

See also the Tibetan Book of the Dead, which is chock-full of advice of not only going to the light, but also exactly which light you should go to. Namely, you want to head for the Clear Light, as that's the landing beacon for liberation. But most dead folks get sidetracked with thoughts of how they're not going to get any more turtle sundaes or really good cheesecake (understandably, I think), and there's a whole slew of increasingly bad-news detour lights that show up.

The continuing advice winnows down to exhorting the dead person to at least pick the best option available. Fine, they've missed the last possible exit ramp to the Clear Light, but they can at least pick one of the more promising worlds to be born into; if they're bound and determined to be reborn here, then they can for goodness sake avoid getting born as an animal, and above all else, "Be not fond of the dull smoke-colored light from hell." Which is pretty sound advice.

Most of us have heard of the concept of a person feeling like they are in a tunnel and that they are moving towards the light at the end of the tunnel. This visualization acts as an analogy representing the feeling that the person sees a solution or a happy ending at the end of the ordeal they are going through.

The majority of us, at the point of death are not able to see any light. Instead as soon as we die, ordinarily we see darkness. Even though the ' Region of the Dead (Martyaloka)' that we go through immediately after death is purplish in color, most subtle bodies journeying through it see only darkness. The reason is because the subtle body has a black covering of impressions of unsatisfied desires, personality defects, ego and in many cases a covering of black energy of ghosts. Hence it is as if they have their eyes closed and thus cannot perceive the actual colours of the Region of the Dead (Martyaloka).

Those people without a genuine desire for God-realization who see a light are in fact seeing the light generated by an illusion creating subtle sorcerer. Subtle sorcerers due to their high spiritual strength can create illusions of light as well as feelings of peace and happiness radiating from the light. These illusions are created by their spiritual powers and their black energy. They use this as a mechanism to lure subtle bodies and trap them into their slavery.

Earthbound ancestors are generally of a lower spiritual level and with a lot of attachments and unfulfilled desires. This means that they ordinarily cannot see a divine light when they die. By telling them to go towards the light, what one is effectively doing is telling the departed ancestor to go towards the illusion creating subtle sorcerer.