The Symptoms

Waiting to pass through transition, I make the effort to release myself from the mind, habits and identity of the human primate, remembering myself as a voyager, separating myself from identification with the human primate within which I have been voyaging throughout its lifetime.

As a voyager, I release myself from the feeble grip of human primate consciousness; I feel myself reverting to my native state, the perfect shining void, endless light in infinite expansion; no past, present or future, all experience dissolving into the deep, shining eternal voidness of the void, releasing myself from the identity and environment of the human primate. I will enumerate the symptoms of transition:

Earth sinking into water. A deep, incessant sensation of slowly increasing pressure, of being inexorably drawn downward into a pool of mercury or lead, of melting into the earth.
Water sinking into fire. A sensation of clammy coldness as though one had been suddenly immersed in icewater — it begins with uncontrollable shivering, gradually merging into unbreathably hot, oppressively still atmosphere.
Fire sinking into air. A sensation of being just on the verge of explosion, giving way to a sensation of total dispersal of self.
Air into Clear Light. A feeling of being utterly at peace, utterly alone, completely outside space and time, free of all necessity; a sudden, powerful and thrilling sense of deep, ironic knowledge sweeps through the self, but this great, profound, sweeping, all-encompassing knowledge doesn’t seem to refer to anything in particular.

This reading is extracted from The American Book of the Dead and presented here for the benefit of all beings everywhere. Read it in the midst of vast congregations. Read it to heal the sick. Read it to instruct the elderly. Read it for the dead or dying even though they don't know it is being read for them -- your prayers and reading are helping them to attain liberation. For further reference see The American Book of the Dead.