In Mark Gober’s extensively researched book, An End to Upside Down Thinking, he examines thousands of personal accounts of near-death experiences (when a person’s body and brain is physically dead for a short time and then brought back to life). One of his fascinating findings is the regular reporting of what is called a “life review.”

As reported by one individual, “Every second from birth until death you will see and feel, and you will experience your emotions and others that you hurt, and feel their pain and emotions. What this is for is so you can see what kind of person you were and how you treated others from another vantage point.”

This is all experienced in an instant—a total picture of the truth of your life and that of everyone who you affected. Others even reported seeing truths that their spouses or loved ones kept hidden. Think about that.

Another individual who experienced this explains, “Not only did I perceive everything from my own viewpoint, but I also knew the thoughts of everyone involved in the event, as if I had their thoughts within me. This meant that I perceived not only what I had done or thought, but even in what way it had influenced others.”

Read this breakthrough book yourself and come to your own conclusions about the nature of consciousness, but ask yourself this: if, at the moment of death, everything true about our lives is revealed to us in an instant—if this is part of the process that determines what happens to us when we die—and if everyone we love will go through the same process when they die—do we want to lie to anyone we love? Do we want to harm anyone and be forced to confront the effects in our dying moment? Do we want anyone we love to have to deal with what we have kept hidden in their dying moment?

The near-death experience and the life review teach us to choose unconditional love now and always, while we are alive. We can always be honest and open about everything. We can always be accepting and forgiving so that others can do the same.