I stood in a place of total darkness.  Pitch black.  Not the kind you think of when you think of night, but a place of total absence of light – like the inside of a fish would be.  I was totally unafraid, although aware of movement all around me – not touching me, but very, very close.  Way out before me and to my left, a very long way away, was a carpet of stars – pin-pricks of light so far away, and yet it was so very apparent that they were, in fact, stars.

Suddenly, very close above and around me I saw purple lightning, then some blue.  It wasn’t like the lightning I normally see in the sky.  I was watching it germinate, and then shoot out in all directions.  The color was perfect, pure and brilliant, unlike any I have seen before.  I tried to compare it with colors I knew, but those fell far short of the reality I was witnessing.  The blue was royal blue, but so much more.  The purple was royal purple, yet so much more.  For a moment I thought I was imagining it all, and tried to make the lighting change to a different color with my mind, but it was impossible to do.  There was a moment of miniscule, short-lived red lightning, which faded away and then did not return.

The movement I had detected earlier about me was becoming recognizable as shapes moving in the darkness because they were now reflecting the colored light of the lightning across their shoulders.  They did not reflect enough light to be able to make out distinct shapes, but they were close beside me, passing within hands reach, and there were a great number of them.  They were all faint hues and each slightly different.  And there were so very many of them, there did not seem to be any space which was unoccupied.

Curious about my environment, I turned my head and upper body to look over my left shoulder and saw reflected in the distance against an unseen sky a reddish orange glow.  The reflection was faint but discernible and covered a vast expanse.  I turned quickly away as the sight made my blood run cold.

My eyes were being drawn relentlessly directly in front of me.  There I beheld in the distance a brilliant, white-gold square.  It was emanating light in every direction, and should have been blinding.  Yet, it wasn’t.  The sight of the light struck an odd sort of stillness into my soul.  Though there were shapes milling all around me, there was nothing between me and the light.  For a moment, I thought it was a light box of some kind.  However, there seemed to be people standing off to the sides of the box, although they seemed very small and so must have been quite some distance away from me, which meant that the box, if that’s what it was, was quite large.  I was aware that there was a vast, dark expanse between me, the shapes milling around me, and the light and people far away from us, and I was aware that I could not cross that space.

Then, before me, I saw two hands, palms upward, outstretched toward me.  They emanated a brilliant white light which illuminated my being.  I was overwhelmed with peace and overjoyed that they were reaching for me.  As I stretched out my hand I was instantly transported across the vast dark expanse and into the place that was bathed in brilliant white-gold light.  I became aware as I moved across the expanse that the shapes behind me were weeping and wailing, though I had not been aware of it before.  As I moved forward into the light I quickly forgot what was behind me as well as those behind me that were now weeping so loudly.  Nothing else mattered — I was home.