An amazing series of mystical experiences. By Dick Richardson.

From an introduction by Rhea A. White:

   Described are the richest mystical encounter experiences I have ever read. They span a time period from 1963-1983. The initial experience happened when Richardson was age 24 and had sat down one evening to listen to some music and read the paper. The first 4 of 5 parts describes in great detail (etched in memory) the experiences he had that evening.

   The first ‘Purgation’, was “in some respects like being kidnapped by divine...perfection”. The outer world was stripped away. In the second ‘Isolation in Limbo’, with his mind free in space, he was stranded in “nothing” and then fell into a “light hole”. In the third, “Beyond the White: Circumincession of the Trinity of Being”, one event was experienced from two reference points simultaneously and seemed to be a trinity. It ended when he and everything else ended... “I and the universe were no more. It was the end of time”. There follows “Paradise: The Virgin Womb of Eternity, and a Unification in Resurrection”. Here, “after a non duration of time there was a re-emergence or resurrection of my being, an annihilation of annihilation as such, but the like of which could never be dreamed or imagined”. In this, the longest section, his description is awesome.

   The final section, ‘The Dark Side, (1963-1983): Dichotomy and Synthesis’, describes the years between this first experience and a subsequent one 20 years later. In between he felt much ambivalence and confusion as he tried to incorporate what he had experienced while back in the everyday world, which was basically good in itself. He finally gave up the attempt and tried to forget what he had seen and known. “It was too good for me and it was too good for reality itself”. He could not figure out the point of it all, try as he may. After a month or so he had a nightmare, waking in panic, sweat and even blood. He began to have psychic experiences in response to questions that concerned him. By age 40 all experiences had ceased. Then, one spring morning while picnicking with his wife and dog, he had an experience which, unlike the others, he could not possibly describe. The transcendent self he had known at age 24 became united with his “earthly self”. The two experiences came together: “In transcendence the outer I had gone to IT; but here and now, on earth, IT, the implicate inner reality... had come to me”.