Wayne Morrison: At 17, He Asked the Light the Meaning of Life

Medical Details

In the early 1970s, at age 17, Wayne had taken medication for an illness he no longer remembers and was drinking at a party when he lost consciousness. No further medical details are given.

The Experience

In the early 1970s, Wayne Morrison was seventeen and at a party with older acquaintances. He had taken some medication for an illness and was drinking. One moment he was enjoying himself; the next, he was moving quickly forward through a dark expanse filled with a deep sound. It was not frightening.

A light appeared ahead, and he found himself gliding above a field of enormous flowers, some perhaps fifty feet tall. They were communicating with him, not with words but through a peaceful, positive interaction. A presence drew him toward a very bright light in the distance. As it came close, he instinctively knew that they knew each other, though he had no name for it.

Communication, he explains, was instantaneous; he understood before he could even form a thought. Sensing that every question could be answered, he asked the one that had troubled him most: why am I here, and what is the meaning of life? The answer came as a feeling of love, not love as he had known it, but all-encompassing. It thrilled him. When he asked whether others exist elsewhere in the universe, he felt himself carried rapidly to view distant civilizations, some that looked ancient.

In a dark space, a tablet spun and stopped, and he says he saw the history of the world from beginning to end in what seemed like milliseconds, understanding that he was part of it. He grew worried that he would be sent back and resisted. Then, in what he calls the most remarkable part, he was surrounded by thousands of beings of light who began singing his praises. As a musician himself, he describes it as unlike any music he has ever heard, improvised in the moment and vibrating through him physically, mentally and spiritually. He understood he had to return.

Back in the apartment, he says, he was so desperate to return that he wanted to harm himself, when a loud, deep voice said, "No," and at that exact moment someone opened the bathroom door.

He told his girlfriend the next day, but in those years there was no context for what had happened. About a year and a half later, married to her and with a baby, he saw Dr. Raymond Moody on television discussing his book Life After Life. Wayne jumped up and told his wife, "This is what happened to me."

How It Changed Their Life

He says the experience never let him go, and that as he grows older he takes stock in it more every day and is thankful. He shares it without religious framing because he wants to relate it as it happened.