When we die and go to the other side the only thing we can be sure about is that there are bound to be surprises. Of most immediate note will be how God viewed our lives. We'll probably be astonished at how what we thought was good was not always so good and what we thought was "bad luck" was often the best thing that happened to us.

This we cull from accounts of those who "passed over," only to return thanks to modern resuscitation techniques, which are redefining or at least greatly informing our notions of afterlife.

One woman from Denver in a book of such accounts called Beyond the Veil (which we may make available upon request, see below) recounted that when she entered eternity after a serious accident and a "most beautiful garden," what she learned was that each "bad" thing, each suffering, each "test" in her life had been designed to help her grow.

"My test wasn't the injuries I received in the accident or the hardships I have had to overcome," recalled this woman, named Neddie. "My test was how I accepted what had happened to me.

"One night as I was saying my prayers and thanking my Father in Heaven for all the blessings He had given me and for the miracles that had come into my life, a small voice came to me and said, 'It really doesn't matter what your trials or tests may be here on earth. It's how you accept them. That's the real test."

Many of the accounts are sobering because they teach us that God is not concerned about religiosity so much as spirituality, and that if religion doesn't lead to love, morality, and kindness, it leads to nothing.

When we die our goodness will be reflected in our robes and their whiteness (while lacking will be seen as gray blotches).

That's actually what these folks say -- many of them  in various books, and across denominations.

"I received the strong impression that positions at work, in society, or in churches are not important at all," said a man named Kent who "died" in a logging accident on May 22, 1987. "What matters is how we treat people, whether or not we are kind to them and what kind of relationships we build with our families. All of these things were conveyed to me when a falling tree enabled me to pass to the other side."

Work in churches certainly has importance, but this man is trying to make a point and fascinating it was when he said he saw his first wife (who had pre-deceased him) when he was on the other side of the veil, and that she had not the least bit of jealousy toward his second wife (and in fact said he had to return to help her!).

Again, that word "surprise." How powerful is prayer, and how powerful is love -- which knows no bounds and is the currency of Heaven.

"The only thing of which I have a clear memory occurred sometime during that period," said a woman named Caryn, who also was in a car crash. "I was drawn into a brilliant, bright light, and felt so peaceful. I remember sitting in a big room on a round couch, next to a man. I don't have any memory of looking at his face, but we were both in white, and watching some people, who were both in white, come in and go out of the same room we were sitting in.

"It was the most wonderful, peaceful, loving feeling," she continued in this book by Richard Nelson, a graduate of Harvard Law School. "It's almost indescribable, and I remember not wanting to leave. I was crying, sobbing, and he held me and told me not to cry -- that things would be alright."

Indeed, the vast majority don't want to return! But they have missions to complete -- including the sharing of such experiences.

For the lessons are awesome.

Actual glimpses of the eternal -- or at least alleged ones -- tell it like it is, if such account are authentic, as a good number seem to be (while others can tend toward the New Age).

"I have seen many of the things come true that Father sent me back to do," said Neddie. "Yes, there are a few that haven't come about, and I'm still working on them. With time, patience, love, and faith, they will. After returning from the other side, I've learned that impossible things just take a little longer."

[resources: Beyond the Veil]