Observations placeholder
Sellers, Peter - His out of body experience
Identifier
012467
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
The comic genius of a generation of actors, Peter Sellers brought brilliant characterizations to numerous films, including The Mouse That Roared (1959), Dr. Strangelove (1964), The Pink Panther (1964), and Being There (1979). He was known for his enthusiastic way of totally absorbing himself in his characters, even carrying roles offstage. Then Peter Sellers, the brilliant, confused actor, had a near-death experience. Seated in a Hollywood mockup of a limousine's back seat while shooting his last great film Being There, he told Shirley MacLaine about it. He was astonished that she did not consider him bonkers. Shirley documented their conversation in her book, Out on a Limb
A description of the experience
Out on a limb – Shirley MacLaine
In 1964, during the first of a rapid series of eight heart attacks, when his heart stopped and he was clinically dead, he had an out-of-body experience. Sellers said,
"Well, I felt myself leave my body. I just floated out of my physical form and I saw them cart my body away to the hospital. I went with it ... I wasn't frightened or anything like that because I was fine; and it was my body that was in trouble."
Meanwhile, the doctor saw that Sellers was dead and began to massage his heart vigorously. Sellers stated,
"I looked around myself and I saw an incredibly beautiful bright loving white light above me. I wanted to go to that white light more than anything. I've never wanted anything more. I know there was love, real love, on the other side of the light which was attracting me so much. It was kind and loving and I remember thinking That's God."
Sellers' out-of-body soul tried to elevate itself toward the light, but fell short. Sellers stated, "Then I saw a hand reach through the light. I tried to touch it, to grab onto it, to clasp it so it could sweep me up and pull me through it." But just then his heart began beating again, and at that instant the hand's voice said, "It's not time. Go back and finish. It's not time." As the hand receded Sellers felt himself floating back down to his body, waking up bitterly disappointed.
The repeated act of dying became for Peter Sellers the most important experience of his life. Sellers himself said of death, "I'll never fear it again."
Sellers' wife, Britt Ekland, found it unnerving that her previously restless husband had now become so quiet. He was now "sitting still over lengthy periods, saying nothing, but staring at her with his thoughts turned inward." Sellers returned to England for an extended convalescence, but soon reverted to old habits and bought his 84th car, an expensive Ferrari.
Sellers' NDE strengthened his conviction that he was a reincarnated soul whose power of mimicry sprang from memories of past lives. But during his incarnation as Peter Sellers, at least, he felt lost. He did not know who he was and why he was on this earth.
"I know I have lived many times before ... that experience confirmed it to me, because in this lifetime I felt what it was for my soul to actually be out of my body. But ever since I came back, I don't know why I don't know what it is I'm supposed to do, or what I came back for."