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Religion & Near Death Experiences

Religion & Near Death Experiences

If you or your friend had a Near Death Experience in which you or they saw somethings that were different or seemed to contradict from your current beliefs and religion, then how did you feel about it? When talking about it with a member of your religion or even the pastor / pundit / imam / rabbi what do they say?

Experiences Death and Religion

Since my religion believes in a "transition" period between death and the Final Judgment, with sort of a "first pass" judgement to determine where a person goes in that transition, I find no severe contradictions with most NDEs. That isn't to say that I believe in any sort of "purgatory". I just believe in a spirit world that consists of many different "places" where people congregate. The people go where they are most comfortable, associate with the type of people that they are most comfortable with.

Within this spirit world, there is a "hell" as well as a "paradise". I have read several NDEs about people who have attempted suicide, or were somewhat vile in their personalities, and found themselves among spirits that quite literally "tore them apart". However, the spirits that were violent WEREN'T demons or devils, but were other vile people who were filled with violence and malice, and took pleasure in hurting other people.

All of the NDEs that I have read have many elements that I find very compatible with my religion.

Religion & Near Death Experiences Paranormal & Mystics Dreams Studies

As Nighthawk, I find a lot of similarities between NDEs and my belief system. I would not feel odd if someone shares with me something that they have experienced and does not match my religious teaching. Obviously, since the person "returned" it means to me that the place where they stayed was just a "porch" to real thing.

Experiences Death and Religion

I believe that NDE's are responses that the brain produces in a time of great stress on the brain, much like dying, in order to relieve the mental anguish of dying. I don't believe that they are real experiences outside of someones mind. So obviously life changing NDE's fall far from my belief system, or lack of belief system in this case.

Experiences Death and Religion

This is a subject I hesitated replying to... for the simple reason that it scares the bejabbers out of me.

It scares me because I have no reference to base any opinion on. It scares me because I just don't know! My only reference comes from common belief, and most of those beliefs stem from religion.

I think it's the most tragic thing to believe that death is merely the end of consciousness; that there is nothing more once the body and brain die; that we cease to exist!

This gives new meaning to a quote LDS posed in the Philosophy forum: The greatest understanding Man can gain from knowledge is that Life is meaningless.

I answered that quote in the philosophy forum, but what of my spiritual view?

Do I even consider myself to be "spritual"? Do I believe in a god, an afterlife, heaven and hell? Do I believe in higher dimensions, parallell worlds, spatial existences?

I've studied philosophy, I've travelled widely and examined many cultures, I consider myself to be intelligent. The fact is, unless I experience something myself, I just don't know. Being a philosopher empowers me with the right to ask questions, but unless the answers come back accompanied by hard facts, they remain unanswered questions.

I have a love/ hate relationship with people of strong religious beliefs. I admire them for their faith, I love it that they hold such strong convictions.... but I hate it that they can't debate with me on a factual basis. I especially hate it when they smile knowingly, like they have a secret I'm not privy to, and can't let me in on the secret.

One of my favourite quotes came from an author who wrote silly books that made me laugh uproariously. He wrote the following dialogue between Man and God:

MAN: Prove to me that you exist.
GOD: I can't, for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.

I laughed, but at the same time I thought, "Wow, that's actually quite deep!"

Having a near death experience assumes you were aware of the occurrence. Was there a bright light? Were there familiar voices? Was there a figure in white waiting to greet you?

Incidentally, athiests make me just as angry as religious zealots. Athiesm is a form of religion in its own right. The problem with atheists is that they expend a lot of energy refuting religion, so much so, that their arguments give argument to the existence of God.

Agnostics, on the other hand... whew! I better shut up now!

Religion & Near Death Experiences

I am not religious but I certainly think near death experiences are real. People actually experience them.
Are they from your brain? Are they chemical? Is it spiritual? Are there really spirits there to lead you to heaven? That's the unknown part of the experience.
There MAY be an existence of some sort life after death.

Does that mean there is a god?

Or does that just mean it is a fact of physics . . . like a sunrise. Once upon a time people thought god made the sun rise every day - and if you didn't make the right sacrifices one day the sun wouldn't come up. Now we know the sun rise is just a physical fact, a part of nature. Of course, you can define nature as being god.

Maybe we will find that some of our "human" energy just survives the death of the physical body and continues on in some form we just don't fully understand yet. Much like the physicians a couple hundred years ago didn't' understand blood circulation, but they figured it out w/ some study and improved technology.

Maybe we'll even find proof of coming back to life in another form - reincarnation. There are plenty of stories about that, too, that seem to have grain of believability.
So, near death experiences don't depend on religion, just like believing the sun will rise, or the earth is round, doesn't depend on religion or your religious belief. It is just a fact. Science will learn more and maybe the explanation will be found in the future (chemistry, quantum physics, energy transfer, whatever).

Religion & Death Experiences

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Religion & Death Experiences Studies Dreams Mystics & Paranormal

Stillborn Baby Was About to be Placed in Her Coffin When She Miraculously Came Back to Life

Miraculously, in India a baby who was stillborn came back to life during a bathing ritual right before her final rights. The baby was delivered at a nursing home and her parents, Farid and Fatehma Mollah, were given a death certificate. Ref. Source 6w