What you are about to read is a very personal facet of my life, an ongoing series of experiences that began with a Near-Death Experience or Death Vision, and concluded with my conversion to a deeper and more spiritual walk with Christ. These experiences have been as surprising to me as they may be to you. I did not seek them, at least in the format in which they came, yet neither can I deny them. They are more real to me than life itself, and more precious, consequently my life has been forever changed.
Despite this, I do not believe my experiences should be the same as those of any other person. They have been mine alone, tailored by God to my individual and specific needs, and I alone am accountable to God for them and for my responses to them. In the years since my death vision I have interviewed hundreds and hundreds of other experiencers, and I have never found any two of their experiences to be exactly alike, nor any to be like my own. Neither have any two experiencers reacted exactly the same to them.
To me this is nothing more than wonderful evidence of the kindness of God as He deals with each of His highly individualistic children on our own levels.
Though I have been sharing portions of my death vision and subsequent life's experiences constantly since 1976,1 am still looking for the best way, using the English language, of explaining them or putting them into words. To this point, at least, my attempts feel inadequate, and I am chagrined by this weakness. Yet from that instant when I entered into the presence of my Lord Jesus Christ and felt His overwhelming love, I knew that it was my responsibility to share that love with others. There are many ways of doing this, of course, and I have tried as many as I can think of. One of the most effective, however, has been to share those portions of my experience I am able to articulate and feel comfortable about sharing. Hence, this book.
Beyond the fact that these things did happen to me, and that I feel commissioned to share Christ's love as well and as often as I can, I make no further claims. I am neither a proselytizing missionary nor a religious or scriptural scholar. Much of what I saw and learned I still do not understand, and some of it I still cannot discuss with others.
More, while I have finally found personal peace and a church organization that fills my spiritual needs, I refuse to declare that others must take the same steps I have taken to find their own peace and spiritual fulfillment. As God's children we are highly individualistic beings, and I believe we each have the right to approach Him in whatever manner feels to us most comfortable, and even to not approach Him at all if that is our choice. What you are about to read, therefore, is merely a part of my own experience, my own attempts to interpret it and live according to it, and the results of those attempts. I have written it in as true and accurate a manner as I am able, and my great and only hope is that you who read may feel, as I have, the pure and overwhelming love that God has for each of us. —Elane Durham vii
Durham, Elane (1998-01-08). I Stand All Amazed (Kindle Locations 43-52). Granite Publishing and Distribution. Kindle Edition.