Near-death (or after-death) Experiences

[Pearl_of_Tyburn]

Howdy,

I was wondering what to make of near-death or after-death experiences, such as when are drowned and then recussitates, or sustain a major concussion after a car-crash etc. Obviously, the veracity varies from experience to experience, but I was also wondering about those who have officially “died” and then been brought back to life, without experiencing anything at all. Would that be a reason for their faith in the afterlife to be shaken? Also, has anyone out there had a near death or after-death experience?

God Bless,
Pearl

 

[Bob_Crowley]

This topic has been raised before on at least one occasion. But anyway … I’ll start by repeating more or less what I said last time.

I make the claim that on the night my father died, he appeared in my room. I started by announcing “How the hell did you get in here?!” which he didn’t answer but apologised for his years of deliberate cruelty. We talked and argued for what appeared to be a few minutes of our time, and then he disappeared. But just before he disappeared he gave this truly horrific scream, and it was obvious something was coming for him.

I still remember some of what we said, and in particular I remember the scream. And I don’t remember dreams. In any case during the proceedings I cried out at one stage “What is this? A dream or something?” to which he had a slightly bemused expression on his face, and said “No, it’s not a dream. I died tonight.”

He also said “It wasn’t easy for me either, you know, and I never had a chance to see anything like this!”

But it wasn’t a Near Death Experience (NDE). He was dead, full stop.

But as a sideline to this, at one time I was debating NDE’s with atheists on a Google Group, and getting nowhere. So I prayed to meet someone who’d had an NDE. Within two or three days I picked up a passenger from a nursing / retirement home (a bloke about my age - I was driving a cab part time) who claimed he’d had an NDE. He said he was technically dead for about ten minutes following an operation to remove his stomach due to cancer.

He said he could still hear everything eg. “Well, he’s gone. I suppose I’d better go and tell the registrar.” Then he could hear them chatting. But apparently his body shook, and he heard “Hang on, he just shook! Maybe we’d better try again!”

And they brought him around. He said you should have seen the doctors’ faces when they came to visit him later.

What got to me though was that he happened to go to the same school in the same year as the oldest son of the same uncle who came to tell me my father had died, some four days after his death as his body wasn’t found for that time.

That’s my story.

 

[GEddie]

Howdy,

I was wondering what to make of near-death or after-death experiences, such as when are drowned and then recussitates, or sustain a major concussion after a car-crash etc. Obviously, the veracity varies from experience to experience, but I was also wondering about those who have officially “died” and then been brought back to life, without experiencing anything at all. Would that be a reason for their faith in the afterlife to be shaken? Also, has anyone out there had a near death or after-death experience?

God Bless,
Pearl

Although the NDE might be a window to the human afterlife, it might also be no more than the dying head giving its owner one last experience before the breath in the lungs runs out, similar to the events in Ambrose Bierce’s Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.

So no, the lack of such an experience is not grounds for doubting the human afterlife. Neither the Scripture, nor our LORD Himself, ever mention such experiences at all.

ICXC NIKA

 

[Loving_disciple]

I don’t think it would be a reason to shake our faith.

 

[wcknight]

I have heard from several friends who had close relatives who experienced this. Also a priest whose mother appeared to him the night she died.

I think this just reaffirms our beliefs. One comment was things are just as they say it is.
That was from an apparition to a close friend, one who died a year before and the second who died the next day.

 

[Bob_Crowley]

I think this just reaffirms our beliefs. One comment was things are just as they say it is.
That was from an apparition to a close friend, one who died a year before and the second who died the next day.

I said above my father appeared to me the night he died. So I’m curious as to the experience of others who might have had something similar happen to them.

So … was there any communication between the priest and his mother, and if so what was it?

Secondly what do you mean by “… things are just as they say it is.” Does that mean that “things” such as personal judgement, heaven and hell are just as Christianity says they are?

 

[wcknight]

We were told by the priest that his mother appeared to him and simply said that she had died. He did not relate anything else about it.

One of our PGK who passed away a year previously appeared to his best friend in the hospital. He simply said things are as they said it would be. No further explanation was given. The story was told to another friend who was visiting. The person in the hospital died the next day.