Near Death Experience Catholic theology

[OrdinaryMelkite]

NDE’s would fall under personal or private revelation in the Catholic Church- which is acknowledged but not required to believe…

If you want a book that will enhance your faith and confirms the basic truths of Catholicism via spirit images…check out
What Do I Have to Do…Paint You a Picture? It’s available on Amazon.com

Sorry- don’t have the link

I go with this. I personally believe in certain NDEs but I also agree with Holy Mother Church that they are to be acknowledged but not required to be believed.

 

[OrdinaryMelkite]

I have read this book and others, and I have had a near death experience. It changed my life completely and I started a web site and blog on the subject. The truth is that NDEs are not religious experiences. I know that some experiencers see Jesus or God and it is easy to say this is religion. The experience is spiritual but not religious, there is no doctrine in them. I have read thousands of them. They are about love as Jesus taught, spiritual love and compassion. Now the core teachings of Christianity are of love as taught by Jesus. To love one another, forgive, don’t judge, love your enemies, and help others. This is not religious doctrine, it is about spiritual growth and love. It stops there in ninety percent of NDES.

I’m sorry, but there is more to Christ’s teachings than what you enumerated. What you stated may be part of Christ’s teachings but not ALL of it. It is basically “feel good spirituality” what you are talking about. Which I know about from my New Age days.

And you forget, if it does not mention Christ or God or ignores it-----it is not real but an illusion caused by Non-God sources. Possibly demonic. To paraphrase Paul, not all spirits come from God-----same for NDEs.

Like I stated in the previous post, I believe in certain NDEs-----but I’m not naive enough to believe that all of them are really “good” or really “Christ-centered.” Or even confirming the truth of the Catholic Church.

 

[phdunegan]

Has anyone read “Heaven Is For Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven” by Todd Burpo (the boys father). This book convinced me that some NDE are very real. If these “out of body” experiences are caused by hypoxia (lack of oxygen) then he couldn’t have possibly seen his dad in the other room ‘mad at God’ and his mother on the cell phone crying in a completely different room than the dad’s. I believe it, totally! I am currently attending the “Life in the Spirit” series (Catholic by the way) and it was the talk of our group one night…read it!

 

[grandprixmama6]

Don Piper is a well-renowned Baptist minister. I have heard him speak and I have read his books, “90 Minutes in Heaven” and “Getting to Heaven.” I found both books to be credible and very inspiriing…
As a catholic, I believe members of other faiths can and do receive messages from God, and are able to go forth and preach His Word because of it…
even though they do not possess the “fullness of the faith” does not mean they are not inspired by God…they are our brothers and sisters in Christ…sometimes I think we separate ourselves from non-catholics because of the way we witness to them…Catholics vs. Prostestants, etc…

 

[praxising]

They don’t.

There is no proof, so far, that NDE is anything but the dying head giving it’s owner one last “experience” before the breath runs out. As such, it is no more a theological source than dreaming is.

ICXC NIKA.

Well, if we have to have something considered “proof” there is none that Jesus Christ ever walked the earth or that there is any God at all. Makes Scripture pretty much a null theological source.

“God knowledge” comes in a lot of forms,I think. Being graced with the experience of His Light and Life after death, is probably pretty good source material for theological reflection.

 

[meltzerboy]

Well, if we have to have something considered “proof” there is none that Jesus Christ ever walked the earth or that there is any God at all. Makes Scripture pretty much a null theological source.

“God knowledge” comes in a lot of forms,I think. Being graced with the experience of His Light and Life after death, is probably pretty good source material for theological reflection.

I’d like to think the near-death experience is a spiritual or religious one and believe at least some of the personal accounts. At the same time, I can’t totally ignore the scientific explanations for these happenings. The debate on this issue is vigorous. Judaism is perhaps even less given to accepting the NDE than Catholicism since it believes in the strict division of the present life and the afterlife. We are not permitted to make contact (even if we could) with those who are deceased; hence the forbidden nature of seances and communion with ghosts and visions as well.

 

[Lekatt]

They don’t.

There is no proof, so far, that NDE is anything but the dying head giving it’s owner one last “experience” before the breath runs out. As such, it is no more a theological source than dreaming is.

ICXC NIKA.

There is plenty of evidence that near death experiences are real. A great deal of research shows that consciousness lives on after the death of the brain and body.

wp.me/pvtV5-Sm

On the other hand science has no evidence at all for what they claim NDEs to be, only opinions and theories that have been debunked by real NDE research. If you believe there is real evidence please show it here.

 

[angelic06]

I have not read either the book chosen by the OP or phdunegan’s title, but I have read a comparable work----it discusses non-religious evidence life after death in general, but it does devote a chapter to NDEs. It is D’Souza’s “Life After Death”.

About NDEs, he states that it is possible that they could be just a trick of the mind, but it does seem to suggest that there may be something past this life. He also acknowledges that while many reported NDEs all seem to have that warm and fuzzy positive feeling, there are some in which patients have reported going to hell.

Now, another book which may be of interest is Dr. Chauncey Crandall, MD’s “Raised from the Dead”. Now, the majority of the book is not about the patient which I will discuss, but Dr. Crandall does discuss him at the first and the last of the book. In it, a patient dies in the ED, and Dr. Crandall, an on call cardiologist, asks the ED physician to defibrillate him. Now, for those of you who are not familiar with medicine, you cannot shock a patient who is already flat lined. You have to do CPR first and wait for the heart to quiver in order to shock. Anyway, after the patient dies and Dr. Crandall starts to write his final report, the ED physician comes in and Dr. Crandall gets this feeling that he should shock the patient just “one more time”. The ED physician, after some complaint to Dr. Crandall, ultimately complies, and the man comes back from the dead----with a completely restored heartbeat, not one that has to kick into motion, if you know what I mean, before becoming normal. Now, remember what I said: you cannot shock a person who has flatlined. There has to be some electrical activity. Anyway, the patient is admitted to the ICU.

Here is the gist of my story, as it relates to NDEs. Dr. Crandall talks to the patient in the ICU. The patient says that while he was supposedly dead, somebody threw him into the “trash”. What I am trying to get at is this: some people worry that NDEs somehow refute the notion of hell, the denial of which is, of course, in direct contradiction to Catholic teaching. The patient’s story, as told by Dr. Crandall, a Presbyterian, shows that not all NDEs are positive experiences and would quite possibly confirm the existence of hell.

Remember this is a well respected cardiologist, not a quack doctor or a witch doctor.

Dr. Crandall’s and the patient’s story:

assistnews.net/stories/2007/s07070094.htm

 

[GEddie]

There is plenty of evidence that near death experiences are real. A great deal of research shows that consciousness lives on after the death of the brain and body.

wp.me/pvtV5-Sm

On the other hand science has no evidence at all for what they claim NDEs to be, only opinions and theories that have been debunked by real NDE research. If you believe there is real evidence please show it here.

Hey, I’m not anti-NDE, in fact, I’d love it if they turn out to be true. I just don’t want to put my hope in something that future research might disprove.

There are significant divergences in the accounts, and the human mind does behave strangely when the oxygen is cut off. So it STM that caution is needed in accepting them.

GOD Bless and ICXC NIKA

 

[JCnMe]

If you know God is real,Jesus Christ is real, Mary is real and the Holy Spirit is real- then you know our spirit lives on …is it really so far apart from science to spirituality- that when the spirit leaves the body that firing of the neurons as the body shuts down is a guidance system for the spirit on it’s journey?.. Just think of them as runway lights-so to speak…:takeoff::heaven:

 

[Lekatt]

I’m sorry, but there is more to Christ’s teachings than what you enumerated. What you stated may be part of Christ’s teachings but not ALL of it. It is basically “feel good spirituality” what you are talking about. Which I know about from my New Age days.

And you forget, if it does not mention Christ or God or ignores it-----it is not real but an illusion caused by Non-God sources. Possibly demonic. To paraphrase Paul, not all spirits come from God-----same for NDEs.

Like I stated in the previous post, I believe in certain NDEs-----but I’m not naive enough to believe that all of them are really “good” or really “Christ-centered.” Or even confirming the truth of the Catholic Church.

I agree with you near death experiences do not confirm the Catholic teachings or the teaching of any other religion. They confirm God’s love for His children which is unconditional. I don’t want to argue the issue with you for I have seen it with my own eyes and experienced it with my heart. All paths lead to love, so I wish you the very best of all things. Peace and love.

 

[randirhoades]

My Beloved friends,

I’ve heard both sides of NDEs. If you died, came back and it changed your life, wonderful! I want to believe that if I died, saw Jesus for real and came back, then God is not through with me yet…for the purpose He gave me. Which is what I don’t know. lol All I know is I want to love all of mankind and hopefully, love/pray for my enemies too. ahem, I’m working on that one. ;]

Love ya’ll,
§heila

PS This is all interesting!

 

[Faith1960]

They don’t.

There is no proof, so far, that NDE is anything but the dying head giving it’s owner one last “experience” before the breath runs out. As such, it is no more a theological source than dreaming is.

ICXC NIKA.

The CC doesn’t require us to believe in DNE as being a part of a spiritual experience, does it?

 

[GEddie]

The CC doesn’t require us to believe in DNE as being a part of a spiritual experience, does it?

Of course not.

Even if it were demonstrably true, such an experience is no more than private revelation. Such has never been on the Catholic Church’s “required list.”

ICXC NIKA

 

[fhansen]

I have read this book and others, and I have had a near death experience. It changed my life completely and I started a web site and blog on the subject. The truth is that NDEs are not religious experiences. I know that some experiencers see Jesus or God and it is easy to say this is religion. The experience is spiritual but not religious, there is no doctrine in them. I have read thousands of them. They are about love as Jesus taught, spiritual love and compassion. Now the core teachings of Christianity are of love as taught by Jesus. To love one another, forgive, don’t judge, love your enemies, and help others. This is not religious doctrine, it is about spiritual growth and love. It stops there in ninety percent of NDES.

Yes, and heaven isn’t about religion either for that matter-it’s a direct experience- the experience of God in the Beatific Vision, in fact. Presumably religion will no longer be necessary once we die-it will have fulfilled its purpose.

I don’t have a strong position one way or the other on this but since there are consistencies in reports of NDEs such as yours, I assume the people involved are telling us something about the nature-the truth- of the afterlife experience, at least in the primary stages.

 

[GEddie]

Yes, and heaven isn’t about religion either for that matter-it’s a direct experience- the experience of God in the Beatific Vision, in fact. Presumably religion will no longer be necessary once we die-it will have fulfilled its purpose.

That is implied in Rv. where it is stated there will be no “temple” in New Jerusalem.

I don’t have a strong position one way or the other on this but since there are consistencies in reports of NDEs such as yours, I assume the people involved are telling us something about the nature-the truth- of the afterlife experience, at least in the primary stages.

ICXC NIKA