Near-Death Experiences

Dondi · 08-26-2005, 05:26 PM

Hello. Brand new to this forum. I have read many great posts here. I hope to engage into some deep conversations here. Now I want to pose a question I presented in another local forum.

Have you or do you know someone who has had a near-death experience? In other words, their heart and breathing stopped for a short period of time, but were revived. Then related how they saw themselves on the operation table from above, gone through a tunnel, seen a bright light, met relatives who have passed on, seen a bright light, etc, etc. and the like. I'm just wondering if anyone has been through such an experience or know someone who has. What do you make of this sort of thing? Did it make change you view in an afterlife? Do you still fear death? Did it modified your existing belief system prior to the incident? I'd like this to be open to people of all religions and non-religions.

Bandit · 08-26-2005, 07:38 PM

yes, yes & yes. would be happy to share by way of PM.

Faithfulservant · 08-26-2005, 07:57 PM

It happened to my mother yes.. as a child She drowned and was revived and yes she was out of her body and yes she witnessed my grandmother wailing and talking to her.. in essence calling her back. She witnessed a man giving mouth to mouth and could recall perfectly what he was wearing and what he looked like even though she was unconscious after returning to her body.. she never "saw" the man. It changed my grandmother more at the time.. later in life it still affects my mother. My mom described it as being up in the trees.

When my father died my mother saw my father during a vision that she received during a prayer with the funeral director and my aunt. She had wanted to see his body one more time and they were strongly discouraging it and asked her to pray with them before making the decision.. my mother prayed and he came and spoke to her telling her that it would only hurt her if she saw him again.. She described him as having a full head of white hair dressed in white robes.. Mind you my father died of terminal cancer so when she described him he was in perfect health.. she said he had an aura around him and his eyes were piercing.. He also only spoke two words to her and that was "no babe" the rest was spoken in thought. When she finally woke up my aunt and the funeral director were just sitting there watching her and she had been sitting there crying she then told them what happened.

Just this past year my grandfather died.. My mom was outside of the house and my grandfathers body was still in the house waiting for the funeral home to come pick him up.. She was praying and praising God and she looked up and saw a dove fly into the sky. There are no doves in Washington state btw.. anyways.. a hymn played through her head that she didnt recognize.. she went into the house and told my grandmother what happened my grandmother started crying and told her that it had been my grandfathers favorite hymn.. my mom did not know this. This was played at his memorial service.

My mom also when I was a child had received a bad blood transfusion and contracted hepititus C she had not been diagnosed until she was suddenly in the hospital after being sick for so long.. she and my father were told that she would not survive the night. Her organs were failing. Well its a bit of a long story which I believe I posted somewhere else here she left that hospital that week and is still alive 30 years later. The shortened part of the story was that she had to sacrifice in order to receive... She basically nursed a dying woman while she herself was dying.. they both lived.

My mom is not delusional.. unless you consider visionaries delusional.. She has great faith and has taught me the power of faith.

Dondi · 08-26-2005, 08:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bandit

yes, yes & yes. would be happy to share by way of PM.

Sure, I'd like to hear your experience. Feel free to PM me. Thanks.

Dondi · 08-26-2005, 08:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Faithfulservant

My mom is not delusional.. unless you consider visionaries delusional.. She has great faith and has taught me the power of faith.

No, Faithfulservant, I don't believe your mother is delusional. There are too many simliar stories that attest to your mother's experience. In what ways did your mothers near-death experience affect you?

Faithfulservant · 08-27-2005, 03:04 PM

I do not have a fear of death. I have learned great faith. More so as I get older. I have comfort that my father is with the Lord in paradise and was the day he passed away. To a 12 yo thats a huge thing and it helped my greiving process. The fact that when he died a year after being diagnosed.. in great pain and drugged up.. emaciated and weak.. looked at my aunt with great peace and clarity and smiled before passing.. I find beautiful. I miss him very much. I was a daddy's girl to the very core of my being and I always will be.

Dondi · 08-27-2005, 03:58 PM

Thank you, Faithfulservant, for sharing such a personal story. It has given me comfort as well. That there has to be something beyond this physical world. And that there is love on the other side that we can carry over. And a peace in knowing our loved ones are taken care of.

I, Brian · 08-27-2005, 04:35 PM

Feel free to write it up here, Bandit.

Had a drug-induced NDE once on LSD - I don't believe I was near death, but a lot of the elements of an NDE were present, and the magnitude of the experience of being in the presence of Divinity was beyond anything I've ever experienced in any state, before or afterwards.

I was actually born strangled, so I often wondered if using hallucinagenics had triggered an original memory - not least which would explain why there was such a complete lack of cultural imagery in my own experience, that apparently are so often present in NDE's.

Overall, though some people may find it inadmissable with general NDE experiences due to lack of imminent threat of physical life, it did make for a life-changing experience I'll never forget.

Dondi · 08-29-2005, 12:49 AM

Brian, would you elaborate how it changed your life?

I, Brian · 08-29-2005, 02:19 PM

Well, I became vegaterian pretty immediately and entirely because of it, and it also gave myself a very powerful non-religious view of Divinity to relate to after.

The experience actually caused a lot of inner conflict, because I was going through a very reductionist period when I was 18, so I tried to rationalise the experience as entirely a matter of biochemical changes, not least in terms of an endorphin rush and similar.

However, the experience felt much too powerful to assign merely to a biological process - a point to underline is the sheer magnitude of it all - this is incommunicable. It was not like an dream, or hallucination, but something far and utterly removed from any the human conscious experience.

Dondi · 08-29-2005, 02:25 PM

From what I read in other people's NDE testamonies, a common lament is the inability to describe the experience in words. Another factor is the "reality" of the experience. In other words, it wasn't a dream nor a hallucination. In fact, there is a sharp clarity in what they experience. Interesting. Thanks for sharing that, Brian.

path_of_one · 08-30-2005, 08:32 PM

I've never had a NDE, only OBE. But I have talked with people who've had NDEs and also terminally ill people who sometimes have a prolonged NDE time, in which they experience sort of being between two realms- being visited by angels and/or dead friends and family and such while still alive. I feel blessed for having been given the gift of their wisdom and description of their last moments.

I never have been afraid of death; I know it isn't the end. It's unpleasant and often painful, but temporary- like a challenging gateway to get through before going somewhere new. At least that's how I think of it.

The most amazing NDE experience I have heard was told to me by a former teacher of mine. She had a massive hemorrhage while in labor with her second daughter and died due to her great loss of blood. She found herself looking down at the doctors trying to save her life, giving up, and recording her time of death. She followed (in spirit form) the doctor to the waiting room far down the hall and listened to him deliver the news of her and her baby's deaths to her husband. She then found herself in a tunnel of light that she could scarcely describe except to say that it was like being on the inside of a diamond. She had no body but felt a rapid acceleration of movement toward the source of the light. Suddenly she stopped at the edge of something invisible, and beyond her was only God. She was entirely suprised at her response to this chain of events- she had been raised to fear God but she found herself angry at losing her child, at leaving her husband alone with another young child and his grief. She was screaming and yelling in anger at God, and couldn't understand what good could come of her death. She said she felt only peace, love, and acceptance. Though she knew from God that it was her time to go, God allowed her to return to life for her daughters and husband, with the knowledge that she would again be called to Him when she was no longer needed. She was suddenly back in her body, and in labor with her second daughter. They had been dead eleven minutes- and that was after the doctors recorded the time and stopped trying to save her. The room was still covered in her blood waiting for the clean-up crew to move her to the morgue. Miraculously, upon being back in her body, she needed no blood- it was as if she had never had the hemorrhage. She was alone in the room, and got up off the table and walked out to the nurse's station to tell them she was in labor and needed a doctor. Of course, they and the doctors were shocked and shaken, more so when she was able to recount the entirety of what the doctor had told her husband far down the hall and out of earshot of her dead body. She said she learned how understanding God was, and how much He loved her and understood humanity. She also told me that though she'd never tell her husband or daughters, life can never compare to His presence, and though she doesn't regret her plea for her daughter's life, she looks forward to her own return to God. Last I heard, she was still teaching and her daughter- Celeste- was graduating high school. It's one of the most amazing stories I've ever heard.

Death doesn't bother me- I know it's just something we've got to get through to have new experiences in new life. In some ways, I see it as the last great adventure in this life. Like many adventures, it isn't necessarily pleasant, but I expect it will be rewarding.

Faithfulservant · 08-30-2005, 09:28 PM

My mom believes that it was the love my grandmother had for her.. the grief she was experiencing that called her back.. or allowed her to go back

Dondi · 08-30-2005, 10:51 PM

Incredible story, path of one. Stories of this nature ought to demolish the critics of the afterlife. You just can't explain something like this as being a product of a dying brain, as some would contend. Thanks for sharing.

path_of_one · 08-31-2005, 01:46 AM

Yeah, the doctor who attended her (and broke the news to her husband) was a staunch atheist who firmly did not believe in an afterlife. He was very shocked to hear her recall all he said and did when he was in the waiting room with her husband. Needless to say, it definitely gave him a new perspective- and the realization that there are lots of things out there that we just may not know.

The tunnel and light could certainly be an experience of the brain dying, as well as flashbacks to memories of birth, as in a dream.

The high incidence of dying people watching details of their death and being able to leave the scene and watch others react to their death, often impossibly far from their bodies... well, that's another thing all together.

A visiting speaker to a church I went to once had died and was in the morgue over a day before coming back. I don't remember all the details because it was a less personal setting and I didn't personally interview him- just heard him talk. Imagine the shock to the morgue workers!