Ok. In advance, forgive the ridiculous nature of this question, but one of the crosses I bear is a tendency to nitpick on little theological/philosophical issues, and one of my latest burning questions is this: during NDEs and OBEs, the subjects claim to see things while separated from their body; so, my question is, if our spirits are capable of seeing on their own, why do we have eyes? And shouldn’t blind people be able to see anyway?
To refine the question, why is our “spiritual sight” blocked during life?
Like I said–ridiculous question, but it’s been stuck in my head for awhile now and I had to put it out there.
I’ve written many times on this forum that the night my own father died he appeared in my room. He started with an apology, we argued and conversed, and at the end he gave this terrifying scream, and then disappeared.
Now we were talking, arguing, could see and hear each other, and it was discernably him, going by his features, tone of voice etc. He even reverted to type once, and lost his temper, which was something he could do at the drop of a hat. It was also pretty clear he could see his life in rapid retrospect, and even made a few predictions, one of which I’ve related on this forum, about the fact I’d become a Christian, and when I did I’d meet a certain pastor.
But his dead body was several miles away, so he had no eyes to see with; no brain to think with; no ears to hear with; no tongue, larynx, soft palate or lungs to talk with.
Yet here we were communicating somehow. What the means for the spiritual / physical interface was I don’t know, but for all intents and purposes he could have been standing in my bedroom in the flesh. In one way we should be the least surprised about interfaces these days - we routinely use interfaces - TV signals become a picture and sound; a GPS satellite signal gives directions on a small screen; we punch a keyboard to create letters on a screen while in the background tiny electric currents provide the logic and means.
So based on that personal experience, it’s obvious to me we have a dual existence - mind and soul. In the end it’s all up to God - He’s the one who gave us this life, and He’s the one who guarantees the next. Without His guarantee, there is nothing. Angels don’t have these organs either, but they communicate to humans from time to time.
When Gabriel spoke to Mary, this was just as much an example of a spiritual / physical interface as my father’s spirit appearing in my room.
The one thing that would be of some concern to me - what about those who might have committed some sort of mortal sin when they still had the ability to act responsibly, but then had brain damage or developed Alzheimer’s or a similar illness so they
can’t remember. As the old pastor said, you can’t repent of something you can’t remember. At death, I think they have their faculties restored, only to be faced with answering for something they’ve done that that they couldn’t even remember doing.
