Audiences are turned off by long plays — aren't we all?
I don't know about you, but I know what I don't want in theatre. I don't want shows that drift on and on … oh, except the shows that justify every moment of their three-hour-plus running time, such as Jerusalem or The Lehman Trilogy. Maybe the incoming Broadway smash Stereophonic (190min) will fit the same bill, as the New York reviews suggest it will.
I don't want shows that feel like they are serving short measures either, not for these prices. Oh, except for excellent interval-free plays in the West End at the moment, such as The Fifth Step (with Martin Freeman and Jack Lowden, 90min) or Retrograde (about Sidney Poiter, 90min). Or, a few months ago, Macbeth (110min) with David Tennant and Cush
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Daily Mail
an hour ago
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EXCLUSIVE The three near-death experiencers who came back with the SAME message from the afterlife
Many near-death experiencers seem to return from their journeys with a similar message, and for three people who nearly died, they're convinced Earth is an illusion. Unlike many other out-of-body experiences, Joyce Keller, Nanci Danison, and Bill Letson didn't return to their bodies with a newfound sense of appreciation for their life here on Earth. Instead, each person claimed that they received an extraordinary message from the afterlife, saying that what we consider the real world is a dream, and the realm we call the afterlife is the actual reality. Moreover, the three who died and were brought back to life, said that the love of the afterlife is completely unconditional and is something they can't wait to return to. spoke to Keller, who said she's had multiple near-death experiences, and was just 18 months-old when she 'died' for the first time. The New Jersey -born author said that her father was a pharmacist, but was unable to get her fever down when she developed strep throat. 'There were curtains next to my bed that had big flowers on them, and the center of one of the flowers, which was like a daisy, an Angel appeared and said, 'It's time to come with me,'' Keller said. 'She reached her hand out, and I reached, took her hand, and I went with her, and that started my journey of out of body experiences,' she added. Keller said that the angel told her that human life was an illusion, and that she would live a life devoted to teaching when it was time to go back to her body. 'I had been out of my body for about a half an hour, I guess, and my parents accepted the fact that I was dead, but I came back,' Keller explained. When she was just seven years-old, Keller had another experience where she drowned while in a lake in Long Island, New York. 'My older sister took me by the hand, and we started to walk out into the lake. About 10 feet out, we both stepped into a very, very deep hole,' Keller recounted. 'I just kept going down and down and down, and I couldn't breathe. I accepted the fact that I was going to die, and then the same blue light appeared - a beautiful blue angel,' she continued. During this second near-death experience, Keller said the angel again told her that she would return for a life of teaching and healing. However, the angel also said that Keller would go through a period of suffering. She went on to write 12 books, but experienced a major disappointment during a failed a TV audition, leading to depression and despair. That's when Keller said the angel appeared in her life again, playing an Olivia Newton John song that had never been heard before. That song would be released a week after Keller's experience, which she said convinced her that she was connected to God and the cosmos in a unique way. 'My consciousness was elevated to another level. They said, You don't have to be depressed about anything. We're taking care of you,' Keller said. Another woman who had a similar experience in the afterlife was Danison, who died in a mammography room while undergoing tests in 1994. Danison, a scientist and devout Catholic from Ohio, was suspected of having breast cancer and was awaiting a biopsy to confirm the diagnosis. She told the Outer Limits of Inner Truth Reborn podcast: 'It was an allergic reaction to the local anesthetic that she used for that, combined with very low blood sugar, I just died. After the radiologist left... I just left my body.' Danison said she encountered a presence that was more like an energy field than a God-like entity, which she called 'Source.' It was this energy source that told her that human life was an illusion, created so that Source could learn from observing human experiences. 'The most compelling thing was the information that I am not a human. I'm not a human being, that humans are animals that are indigenous to planet Earth and that what I am is a spiritual being that inhabited the human,' she said. 'Source is innately, unconditionally loving and we as parts of Source are innately unconditionally loving. We know what love feels like. We feel it in the afterlife,' Danison continued. 'At the end of my near-death experience, I accepted the mission to return to this life of Nanci and to share with anyone who would listen to everything that I had learned in the afterlife, and also to experience unconditional love within this lifetime,' she added. Danison said that when humans die, they're simply waking up from a dream so they can resume their existence in what we call the afterlife. She added that people should focus on love, all the people they've loved, and the bliss they expect to feel after crossing over to join Source. 'You will be going HOME to your true home, to unconditional love and acceptance. Remember that you will leave all the pain and sorrow behind when you go but will take with you all the love and cherished memories,' Danison explained. Letson, a retired firefighter, found out that life was an illusion during a near-death experience which showed him the afterlife was a place of peace and joy. Letson briefly died after contracting the flu while on duty and being given medicine which caused a fatal reaction. 'I was trying to sneak out of there and they came in and they gave me some drugs that they were giving everybody and I reacted to that. I mean, I went down immediately and my wife was there and she said your eyes just rolled back and you fell straight back on the bed and they couldn't get you back,' Letson explained. He described the afterlife as a 'sea of welcoming euphoria and joy, heaping praise on me and acceptance and love.' Letson added that he realized that the 'person' he had been on Earth was not really him, and that human life was not the real reality. 'All I could think of through all of that was how in the world did I forget who I really was? How is it possible that I fell for this?' the firefighter explained.
