Inspired by reading the previous topic about Hell. I decided to surf the internet looking for information about near death experiences as I've watched some documentaries on it before. As non-believers we have this acceptance about death as something not be feared but a natural occurrence which happens to everyone. We've rid ourselves of interpretations of what lie after death means by people who have never experienced it, or are just parroting off ancient stories, and theories that have never been proven.
SO. Some interesting things I have come across while reading about NDE, from both religious and non-religious accounts. Also I enjoy reading about NDE because it is opened to be looked at from a scientific perspective, versus what is taught in religion which is not open to discussion or other interpretations of what happens after death. Plus think about it?
Why aren't people basing their interpretation on what happens after death from those who have been close to death before. I think it's interesting because in religion you never hear them talk about people who have NDE. Instead religion sticks to what was written in the books.
1. Death is peaceful, and all the pain goes away.
2. There are rare accounts of feelings of fear of judgement.
3. A sureal experience of being everywhere and apart of everything around you
Now in regards to NRE there are a few questions that scientists have been trying to figure out in regards to stories told.
1. Are these just hallucinations as a result chemical reactions before the brain shuts down 100%
2. Or are these real places.
Interestingly enough, many NRE when you read about them are quit similiar, yet could be distorted by religiuos upbringing. For example accounts of meeting Jesus, that would not be possible for someone who was not brought up Christian or had never heard about Jesus. Here are some interesting NDE from. I read them with
some skepticism, but some fascinate me because they make no mention of religious bias.
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http://www.nderf.org/NDERF/NDE_Archives/Exceptional%20Accounts.htmNo religion mentioned.
I took in a small breath of water and it was not at all what I had expected it to feel like. I thought I would have choked and gagged but instead I felt relief. I opened my mouth and hungrily swallowed down more water. It seemed the more water I swallowed the more peaceful I felt. The next thing I remember is looking up and seeing a bright white light coming out of the center of my chest going upward toward the surface of the water top. I was now looking down at my lifeless body feeling no pain or attachment to it. I looked like a mannequin with my blond hair fanned out around my head. My arms were floating in a relaxed position at my sides and my legs were still standing with my feet planted in the mud. I looked like a life size doll. I felt totally disconnected from my body and at peace with everything in the Universe. I was not the least bit scared.
Religious connection
God then showed me all my life from birth till NDE. I felt and experienced again all these events and I also felt emotions I had raised in others. I was my only judge! This experience was very painful. I dare not imagine what Adolf Hitler underwent when feeling the pain of millions of individuals… God showed me when I had generously done things without thinking about it beforehand, and when I had done unloving things. I even saw myself steeling sweets in a shop, thinking to myself, “Whew, nobody saw me!” But indeed somebody saw me… Yes God saw me! But he does not judge me. In fact this is what hit me the most: God does not judge, he just loves us with unconditional love, this love is indescribable, it is not like what we feel on earth, this is rather a force-love.
I did not have an experience of seeing 'God' as an "old man in a big white robe, sitting on a throne," although, that was the most prominent image I might have held in my mind, formerly. At NDE, 'God' was the Mind, or maybe I'd say, "The Order" in all things.. 'God' felt to be the Supreme Highest Vibration and Frequency, that felt like more of an ESSENCE than an old man, to me. It was all around and in everything. And 'God' no longer felt male to me. I didn't sense a gender, if there was one. The idea of that just seemed silly to from the Other Side. God was just all that is beautiful and peaceful and One, and all that is Good.
this one is my favorites because it's closer to what I believe
then went through a life review. It was all about my relationships with others in this review. During this, I felt what they felt in my relationship with them. I felt their love or their pain or their hurt, by things I had done or said to them. Their hurt or pain made me cringe and I found myself thinking, ""Oooh, I could have done better there."" But most of what I felt was love, so it was not too bad. No one was judging me during this process. I felt no disapproval from anyone else...only my own reactions to it all. That feeling of unconditional love saturating me continued to be there. I was judging myself, but no one else was judging me in this review… The first question I asked was, "What is the right religion?" I was told, "They all are. Each religion is a pathway trying to reach the same place." I was shown a mountain, with each religious group trying to reach the top...separated from each other by distance...but each one was trying to get to the same place. I was then told that people choose to be born into whichever religion or group that will help them achieve the lessons they are sent here to learn. I was told that the earth is like a big school, a place where you can apply spiritual lessons learned and test yourself, under pressure, to see if you can actually "live" what you already know you should do.
Again I'm not saying that any of these stories are true and fact. But I have seen many NDE reports, and many have the same thing in common. Plus I like to entertain things where you can take a scientific sampling of many sources and compare them.
1. Overwhelming Love and peace
2. Out of body experience
3. If met with God, it was a pleasant experience not a fearful one.
So something else I was reading up. Near death experience for atheists .
http://near-death.com/experiences/atheists01.htmlSome interesting things. Note that regardless of belief, or lack there of death was still a positive experience as retold by those who have experienced coming close to it.
Concerning the NDE aspect of meeting Jesus, the percentage of atheists who reported meeting Jesus is (50%).
The atheist category is not the category with the highest percentage of experiencers who met Jesus. Another point of interest is within the atheist category itself. Because the percentage of atheists who reported meeting Jesus is equal to those atheists who don't, this may be a reflection of how a person's lack of religious belief has no relevance when it comes to meeting Jesus. It also means you don't have to be a Christian to meet Jesus during a NDE.
On the other hand, the relatively large number of atheists who do meet Jesus may be a reflection of how some atheists get what the don't expect - an afterlife and experience of Jesus and get what they need - an experience with a great spiritual leader and/or get what they don't desire - knowledge that they were wrong about the afterlife or Jesus. It may also be a reflection of the fact that Christianity is the dominant religion in the West were the vast majority of these experiences come from.
And heres another link talking about how religion appears not to have any affect on NDE
http://www.near-death.com/experiences/research06.htmland some interesting quotes from that I wish to share that pertain to us as non-believers.
Many religionists think they have the whole truth and the only short-cut to heaven. Some churches force their particular brand of God's love on people who were perfectly satisfied and thought they were on good terms with God already. But even though the churches have abused religion, I believe everyone should have some kind of a religion, or philosophy, to encourage them to think and grow spiritually. (Arthur Yensen)
An atheist is as likely to have a NDE as was a devoutly religious person. Regardless of their prior attitudes - whether skeptical or deeply religious - and regardless of the many variations in religious beliefs and degrees of skepticism from tolerant disbelief to outspoken atheism - most of these people were convinced that they had been in the presence of some supreme and loving power and had a glimpse of a life yet to come. Almost all who experienced a NDE found their lives transformed and a change in their attitudes and values, and in their inclination to love and to help others. (Dr. Ken Ring)
Now I know what you're thinking well what about bad religious practices. Interesting they talked about that too.
Harmful Belief: Fundamentalism
People who have strong and uncompromising religious beliefs generally have temporary problems after death when they discover their beliefs to be false. The following are insights that support this:
(a)
If we have no fixed beliefs about anything, we'd be free to adapt to the new surroundings and fit in where we belong with no unusual difficulty. Everything has its place. Fixed beliefs are useful in prayer where doubt is fatal. Yet doubt is always useful in sizing up religious dogma, reading junk mail, listening to commercials, and the promises of politicians. (Arthur Yensen)
(b)
Deeply held religious beliefs come into visible expression in the spirit realms, just as they do in the physical realm. We create our own experience. Eventually, restrictive minds slowly open and expand allowing them to accept greater understanding. Then they are ready to move from their limited concept of life to the eternal adventure, for there is ever more to know, to do, to be. (Jan Price)
(c)
Some people believe that to be a spiritual person, we must renounce the world, give up worldly things and read the Bible all the time. But people who live this way create a mournful life for themselves and one that is not receptive of heavenly joy. Everyone's life on Earth stays with them when they enter the afterlife. If people want to live a heavenly life, they must live a moral and civil life in the world. Living an inward life and not an outward life at the same time is like living in a house with no foundation which gradually develops cracks and collapses. (Emanuel Swedenborg)
(d)
The most difficult thing for a person who has been deeply steeped in a particular religious tradition is to realize that the form alone is not what elevates a person; it is the heart. (Nora Spurgin)
(e)
Some Christians enter the spirit world and are led into thoughts they had during their physical life about the soul's state after death, heaven, and hell, until they come to resent their former utter ignorance of things like this, and resent the Church's ignorance of such matters. (Emanuel Swedenborg)
(f)
Many people, when they come to the astral world, experience a great deal of turmoil and distress because they have been too positive and too dogmatic in their earthly lives and have tried to impose that dogmatism on other people. I think you can find, if you will think about it and look back at your own lives, that there are times when you wish you hadn't been so forceful in persuading someone to do something. When one does this he is cutting across a divinely given attribute of each person, which is free will. (Margaret Tweddell)
(g)
After death, people do not keep their religious faith if it does not come from a heavenly love. (Emanuel Swedenborg)
(h)
The following revelation from Ruth Montgomery is an example of a fundamentalist preacher's death experience:
"First, he is shocked to find that God is not sitting on a throne surrounded by angels. He may think this is only a brief interlude until he adjusts. He may begin to preach to people there who he believes are lost souls who lack the righteousness to advance to heaven. His sermons may attract some people. But he begins to demand that the older souls around there help him find the way to the throne of God. He may honestly believe that it is being concealed from him in some mysterious way. At last the old souls gather around and explain to him that he is preaching a false doctrine; that heaven is within each man, and so is his private hell; that he has arrived, and nothing is being hidden from him. It is up to him to begin work on his own spiritual advancement, and he is retarding the progress of others by misleading them with false hopes of a promised land. For this is the promised land, and we make of it what we will through our own endeavors." (Ruth Montgomery)
(i)
Some people believe we must be baptized to go to heaven. Some people believe we must speak in tongues. Some people believe we must accept Jesus as God or savior. Such people believe that religion is the way to heaven. But unless the religion we practice is unconditional love, then we are not following in Jesus' footsteps. (Kevin Williams)
(j)
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. (1 John 4:16)
Reading all this stuff it's obviously looking at hings from Christian perspective. Which is not surprisingly since Christianity IS the largest religion and many people who grew up in maybe Christian countries have bothered to research NDE.
NOW ON THE ISLAM SIDE OF THINGS.
When I try to do research on it.
All I get are near-death experiences from Muhammad and other religious figures thousands of years ago. Or immediate references to Hadiths and Holy Books as as proof? No actual current samplings from ordinary Muslim folk? Unlike other faiths/ non-faiths. Hmmm..
http://www.near-death.com/muslim.htmlIn fact on a forum someone wrote that in Islam that a near death experience is not compatible with Islamic beliefs for one cannot die and come back so even if a Muslim did have a NDE if it was anything other than what was described in the Quran then he/she would be considered crazy. In fact every other religious group from Christians to non-religious to everyone else has come forth with NDE, but there are rare documented accounts with Muslims.
Hmmm >_>; very suspicious. 
Anyways, so why do I personally seem so fascinated by NDE. Well from the many places I have seen reporting on NDE, it seems fascinating that no matter who the person is, or what they believe there are many similarities that are not connected to any particular faith or heaven which is the part that fascinates me. For if they were 100% what was written in the Bible or whatever Holy book, then we'd have many conflicting reports from religious and non-religious butting heads over death experiences and calling each other out. Yet from most places, many people nod and say yeah that similar feeling happened to me.
AND I have yet to find many reports if any on hell. Most if not all NDE have been 'heaven like.' So anyways wanted to share
Because like I said, maybe you might think people are crazy or making up NDE in their heads, but it's closer to study scientifically than just taking what is written in the Holy books. By being able to sample many near death experiences worldwide. Because it happens and why the heck not. It's a fascinating thing to read up on when you get the chance.
Topic: Near Death Experiences, the closest scientific observation of Life After Death?