‘I seemed to have been involved in a road accident, and I clambered out of a rather shadowy car. The road ahead was poorly made up, and I had to crawl my way forward – in the process, escaping from some people who were impeding my departure. At last I reached the end of the road and found myself in a vast expanse of clear space. There were no markings, but the space was occupied by diaphanous beings who had a mere outline of shape. This shape superficially resembled the human form, but there were no recognizable features. They seemed to cluster together in joyous groups, animated by a spirit of love that poured out into the atmosphere. They received me as one of their own, and I seemed to play along with them in their harmonious movement.

Then I began to wonder where I actually was. One of the company seemed to sense my question and asked me, ‘Don’t you know that you are dead?’ I then seemed to be ushered towards a great shadowy building where someone awaited me, apparently for appraisal and instruction. By this point, though, I was so excited that I seemed to awaken myself consciously: I had had direct proof of the survival of my personality after bodily death, and I wanted to make this knowledge available to others as soon as possible. Seldom have I woken up with such excitement and joy. Shortly afterwards, I even considered writing a book on what I had experienced, but a later, more sober, consideration showed that there was barely enough material for even a single page of foolscap.’

This dream led the priest and healer Martin Israel (who for many years also worked as a medical pathologist) to write his book ‘Angels, Messengers of Grace’. He wanted to convey his dream experience that all would be well and that angels are an essential link between a human being and God – and, more universally, between the whole created world and its creator.

If he hadn’t woken himself up in his excitement Israel wondered about whom he might have met in the great shadowy building, perhaps it may have been a representative of God the Holy Trinity. He writes, ‘had I been rather less impetuous, I might conceivably have attained this knowledge, but I suspect I did what was expected of me. In my earthly state of spiritual understanding, I am surely not eligible for a heavenly meeting. It may be that when I make the great transition that we call death I shall be better prepared for what is to come.’