The-Tibetan-Book-of-Living-and-Dying

330 THE TIBETAN BOOK OF LIVING AND DYING
the environment around them. This coincides with what has
already been said about the Tibetan Book of the Dead:
"I remember coming round from the anesthetic and then
drifting off and finding myself out of my body, over the bed
looking down at my carcass. I was aware only of being a
brain and eyes, I do not remember having a body." 15
A man who had suffered a heart attack told Kenneth Ring:
"It seemed like I was up there in space and just my mind was
active. No body feeling, just like my brain was up in space. I
had nothing but my mind. Weightless, I had nothing." 16
2. Helplessly Watching Relatives
I have described how, in the bardo of becoming, the dead
are able to see and hear their living relatives, but are unable,
sometimes frustratingly, to communicate with them. A
woman from Florida told Michael Sabom how she looked
down on her mother from a point near the ceiling: "The
biggest thing I remember was that I felt so sad that I couldn't
somehow let her know that I was all right. Somehow I knew
that I was all right, but I didn't know how to tell her .. ." 17
"I remember seeing them down the hall... my wife, my
oldest son and my oldest daughter and the doctor ... I didn't
know why they were crying." 18
And a woman told Michael Sabom: "I was sitting way up
there looking at myself convulsing and my mother and my
maid screaming and yelling because they thought I was
dead. I felt so sorry for them,... just deep, deep sadness.
But I felt I was free up there and there was no reason for
suffering." 19
3. Perfect Form, Mobility, and Clairvoyance
The mental body in the bardo of becoming is described in
the Tibetan Book of the Dead as being "like a body of the
golden age," and as having almost supernatural mobility and
clairvoyance. The near-death experiencers also find that the
form they have is complete and in the prime of life:
"I was floating and I was a much younger man ... The
impression I got was that I was able to see myself some way
through a reflection or something where I was twenty years
younger than what I actually was." 20
They find also that they can travel instantaneously, simply
by the power of thought. A Vietnam veteran told Michael
Sabom:
"I felt like I could have thought myself anywhere I wanted