Lights Out on Stories of the Light

“So I was in this car crash and I left my body and I went into the light…”

Millions of people across the planet watching the show yawned and fidgeted. Another story about going into the light. Ho-hum.

That’s the impression I got about the state of near-death experience accounts after watching the briefest of interviews with Howard Storm and Anne Rice on NBC’s Today.

It drives me crazy.

It appears as if the media culture believes that there is no more appeal left to stories about going into the light. I can imagine the phone call from a literary agent, “You went into the light. So what? Big fucking deal!”

“Well, it means that there is no death. We move on.”

“Yeah, yeah. Books have been there, done that. There’s no market left.”

“But everyday people are focused, absolutely focused on mortality and morbidity. They’re glued to the news to watch stories of death and destruction. Don’t you think they would like to see some other view? “

“No, absolutely not. Nobody cares about the goddam light.”

In truth I did not stay glued to the television waiting for Howard Storm’s appearance. But I did check in with it enough to be aware of some of the other things featured on today’s broadcast.

Michael Jackson’s trial was a huge concern this morning. We really care about this; it’s a matter of utmost importance to all our lives.

There was lots of talk about colon cancer and all the people who die from it. Gee, all the people who die from it, all the people who die from it, all the people who die from it. I guess if you get it and you know you’re going to die from it, you may suddenly have an interest in what may happen on your deathbed.

Gene Wilder was on discussing his latest book about finding love in relationships and in art. Katie Couric told viewers that Gene had asked not to talk much about his late wife Gilda Radner, but there it was again—death.

In reading from the Today Show website I see that among today’s MSNBC TV Highlights is ”Surviving the Atlanta Killer. When you reach the actual web page there’s even a shift in metaphor to “Surviving the Human Tsunami.”

Yeah, like a little massacre in Georgia really rates up there with a natural disaster that took over 170,000 lives—and in much less time than 26 hours.

”In less than 26 hours there were four dead, including a judge, a court reporter, a deputy sheriff and a federal agent. A second deputy was shot and a third was captured and disarmed. A newspaper reporter and another local resident were pistol-whipped, multiple car-jackings took place and their owners were threatened with death. Tourists were mugged, an armed home invasion evolves into a hostage situation that is ultimately resolved by the suspected killer being arrested by a heavily armed SWAT team.

“No, it's not the plot for some television techno-terrorism drama, but the unbelievably horrific actions of a one-man crime spree that devastated innocent families, terrorized a major urban community, and resulted in the largest manhunt in Georgia State history— all the while capturing the attention of the nation for a day.”

Yeah, but no one is interested in reading about the light. It’s been done, right? People would rather be terrorized. They’d rather juice up on stories of “unbelievably horrific actions.”

It seems that Howard Storm’s book resonated with Today because the author suffered miserably before he found the light. Here’s what it said on the web site (I kept the spelling errors of Howard Storm and Anne Rice as they appeared):

“My Descent Into Death,” a book by Howard Strom with a foreword by novelist Ann Rice, is not your typical “toward the light” encounter. Instead, this compelling tale describes the excruciating darkness and physical pain of coming face-to-face with evil. Strom experienced terror before entering the realm of heaven and reviewing his life in a conversation with God. Sent back to his body with this new knowledge, Storm was definitely a changed man. Strom was invited on the “Today” show to discuss his experience.

We sure hate those typical toward-the-light encounters! They interfere with all the doom and gloom of the scary stories about human tsunami killers.

Al Roker was the interviewer on the Anne Rice-Howard Storm segment, which whizzed by like an express train. Roughly half of it was about how Anne Rice and Howard Storm met; none of it was how Howard Storm and Jesus (and other angels) met. It’s all a matter of priorities.

If you were to score today’s Today broadcast, you’d have to conclude that darkness and fright got a lot more air time than did the light.

And one of tomorrow’s hot topics is an interview with Amber Frey telling us if she thinks Scott Peterson should be legally murdered. I can pretty much guarantee that they won’t be talking about the light or Scott Peterson’s life review, but I won’t be watching to find out, either.