What do you think of NDE's (Near Death Experiences)?

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I hope that most of you have heard of Near Death Experiences. Basically they’re very personal and powerful experiences felt by one who is physically on the verge of death. Oftentimes, people will experience their souls detaching from their bodies; and they’ll float around while seeing doctors operating on their body below. (The experience of exiting the body while still being concious of one’s separation from the body is called an OBE–Out of Body Experience.

More ofthen the case, people will experience themselves going through a long vortex–sometimes accompanied by someone else–such as an angel. Many will come to the end and see a large light of complete love and peace. The Light is represented by many as God, but some just say it’s a messenger of God. In some cases the Light tells the person that he or she has to go back–that it is not that person’s time. In other cases the Light gives the person a choice: to remain or to return to earth to tend to one’s family.

I’ve read a few bizarre incidences in which people actually have a Near Death Experience in which they see a large and beautiful city in which everything is dazzling with beauty. People sometimes see their deceased relatives who are waiting for them.

When I first started reading about NDE’s I thought it was great because it showed evidence of the afterlife. In fact, I read that a Medieval pope declared these experiences as such. However, reading some more I came across some really un-Christian NDE’s. People having NDE’s started talking about how they see people being reincarnated, how our primary reason to be on earth is to learn (somewhat of a Gnostic presentation), etc. God is shown as all-loving and forgiving (which is true); but many NDE’s clash with other NDE’s in terms of what the afterlife is like. Many of the Medieval NDE’s suggest that Jews and Muslims mostly go to hell; the more recent NDE’s suggest that Jews, Pagans and Muslims are just as accepted into heaven by God as are Chritians. Some present Christians who have had NDE’s still claim that they see many non-Christians in hell. So what’s all this about??!! Are NDE’s real, and if so, how much validity can we give to them? Any comments would be great.
 
I think an “other” response is necessary for my opinion. I think it is posible to have a spiritual experience if you come close to dying, even if you aren’t religious. I’m not sure why some people claim to see light. I don’t know what the light is or what it represents. Life is eternal, even for those who don’t believe it is. There will be life after death for everyone, even non-believers.
 
I voted that they are a natural effect. However, there may be an occasional valid one.

Note that Father Groeschel had no such experience in his recent accident, and he was about as near death as anyone has gotten.
 
I understand that the poll may not include your exact opinion. Just choose whichever option best fits your own opinion. Thanks 🙂
 
the research can kill ya… 😃 … sorry, 40 lashes with a wet noodle… 👍
 
I almost died once & I didn’t have a NDE. My husband who was a very holy man may have had a bad experience–he did not talk about it to me but told someone else that he was going to tell me about it but he died before he had the opportunity to discuss it—I know that the evil one attacks people when they are at their weakest–so good people may not have as good an experience as people who are not so good—also i think that if you had a bad experience you are not as liable to share it with other people.
 
There are things in the world that are not seen, I believe that. But a “near death experience” as popular press/magazines and radio shows express it are only ramblings of a chemically induced state. These chemicals are produced by a dying brain. Nothing super natural at all.
 
From what I have read, Exporter seems right. There have been studies done with several different drugs (LSD and sorry, I forget the names other the other one or two) that produce identical results to NDEs. The fact that human brains would respond similarly to these drugs makes sense…and still that the experiences may differ as to some of the details also makes sense given cultural/relgious background. It is similar to how human dreams often have similar patterns and yet vary considerably. And don’t dreams seem so real at times?

That said, who knows…
 
Wait!..

I have worked as a medical professional in a very large University Hospital and I can tell you what alot of patients have told me about their near death expierence…almost all of them expierenced the same thing!
Now… I’m not an expert by any means, but how can all these people that don’t know each other and come from all walks of life have virtually the same story…felt their soul float above their own body and watch whats gong on…see beautiful rays of light and have a strong desire to follow it…feel peace like nothing they have ever felt before and then a strong tug to return…but not wanting to!
these patients were very sincere and told their stories with so much reason that you would think it was just happening as they spoke.
I just could never pass this up as a drug induced experience or a dream.
 
I believe you Kayla.I’ve heard and seen some stories where some people had a NDE and came back with some ESP(Extra Sensory Power) like Clairvoyance or Remote veiwing.The Military uses people like that to help them locate hostages and stuff like that.😃
 
Obviously, I haven’t voted on this since the poll is now closed! Anyway I don’t know how I would have voted given the options. I do accept the possibility of near death experiences, although I have not read enough about the issue to form a solid opinion. However, I notice that 50% of respondants classed near death experiences as a ‘sign of a dying brain’. Doesn’t this create a major contradiction? If the brain dies, the body will necessarily die also. So if a NDE is the result of a dying brain, where do we get our reports of these experiences? It’s called ‘near death’ for a reason - because the person has made a recovery and has lived to tell the tale - this cannot occur if one has been classed as brain-dead…

As other posters have said, it is quite remarkable how similar accounts of these experiences are - I don’t know what the reasons for this are. It could very well be that their experience was supernatural or genuine, or there could be other influences involved - for example, the most common way the journey to heaven is explained is that there is a bright light or a tunnel of light (so, maybe a psychological aspect)… On the other hand, I don’t accept the argument put forward by some scientists that the experience was the result of medication or some other treatment. As Kayla said, most accounts of NDE’s are remarkably similar, and this applies to people who have come close to death in various circumstances - not only those who had been pumped with drugs at the hospital…
 
I had a near death experience, but it wasn’t exactly like those I read about after I had mine. I was still conscious - but went to a dark place and not conscious of the physical world, but able to think, etc. I continued to struggle (mentally I believe) for life. I then stopped struggling and consciously made a choice to let go to death. I let go. Suddenly, I was in the light. (I don’t remember any tunnel; my life did not flash before my eyes, no deceased relatives came to greet me, etc.) God was the light, and we were all one with the light. We were many, but we were one. There was no time/space fabric whatsoever. There was no thought of the physical world or anyone or anything on it. There was a depth of peace that we can never experience in our physical world. There was unconditional love to an extent we cannot give nor experience in our physical world. There was indescribable joy. I had no sense of anyone as an individual; I just perceived there were many, but we were one. Since it is outside our physical existence, there is no worry, no pain, no need, etc. I wanted to stay there.

But, then suddenly I was back - and I could feel pain. Then, I could sense the brokenness of this physical world in such stark contrast to where I had been.

Why did I come back? I don’t know; I suppose I have more to do here. Am I joyful about that? Not as I should be. I did not want to come back. There was no explanation given to me.

But, I will try to do as God wills and do all I can to return to that light even though I am not joyful about being back here.

I’m not sure why my experience was different than so many others: ie, no tunnel, etc. Also, no great peace or joy inside over the experience.

I will always believe it for what it was. You believe as you wish.

If you have any thoughts about my experience, let me know.
 
I’m on the fence.

The hopeful, emotional side of me would love to see my grandfather and my dad again after I die and to know that my life had meaning.

The rational side of me is skeptical because there is just as much evidence against it, if not more.
 
Ok, My response would truly have to be 'none of the above." There isn’t one up there that comes close to what I believe about NDE’s…which is that many of them are ‘true,’ and reveal truth to the person having it according to HIS experiences and understanding.

It doesn’t mean that everything but Christian experiences is bunkum, or that everything but Catholic experiences is, or that everything but Mormon experiences is. It doesn’t mean that all NDE’s are misfiring neurons–or that they are all TRUTH.

It means that…I don’t have a clue, but for those whose lives are changed by NDE’s, Truth (capital “T”) is found somewhere in there.
 
LIke somebody else here, I think think there needs to be an “other” section.

I think most people who have an NDE, and come back, haven’t gone the full length to judgment.

I’ll relate two stories, and in a peculiar way they’re related.

On the night my father died, he appeared in my room. He “materialised” (still somewhat opaque) in the corner near the bedroom door, and then advanced to the foot of the bed. He started with an apology, we argued and conversed, and at the end he gave this terrifying scream and immediately dissappeared. HIs scream was so terrifying I started to scream, but then he disappeared as promptly as he’d come.

Four days later my mother’s brother (my uncle) turned up to tell me he’d died, but it was messy, as his body hadn’t been found for four days. I still remember turning towards the bedroom as the penny dropped, and thinking, “What the hell was that the other night?”

As it turned out the uncle himself died later the same year, as he had liver cancer, unknown to him at that time.

I’ve related this to a Catholic psychiatrist and his opinion was that I really did see my father that night. So that was part of my father’s’ death experience - apologising to me for 20 years of deliberate cruelty, we argued, and then he went to Hell. I think his terrific scream was due to the sight of what was coming for him. I couldn’t see it, but he certainly could. He was shaking from head to foot.

Now about two years ago I was arguing with atheists on the net about NDE’s and getting nowhere. So I prayed I would meet someone who had an NDE. A couple of days after that I was sitting in a Maxi Taxi when a job came up. To cut a long story short I eventually picked up a bloke who hadn’t wanted a Maxi, but just a normal cab for himself. He was about my age, and so I wondered why he was in the retirement home where I picked him up. He started telling me about his health problems, and then said “I’m one of those rare people”. I asked him what he was talking about, and he said he’d been technically dead for ten minutes due to an operation.

He described the fact he could hear every word the doctors and staff were saying, the bright light, floating out of his body, etc. But I don’t think he got as far as seeing dead relatives, or judgement, before being “sent back”. But what got me was that he went to the same high school as the eldest son of the very same uncle who came to tell me my father had died.

That’s more than coincidence. However this bloke was a Christian (Anglican) and so I suppose his long term fate was more or less assured. He’d also suffered a lot, with an alcoholic father who at one stage fractured his skull.

So I believe in NDE’s. I’m a bit cyncical about the fact everybody goes to the same heavenly place. And I sometimes think the descriptions are flavoured somewhat by story telling. However I can’t see God writing off someone of a Hindu persuasion for example, just because they’ve hardly had a chance to hear about Christ, or live in a Hindu dominated culture.

On the other hand, I think the judgement is pretty tough.

“I tell you, on the Day of Judgement, a man will account for every useless word.”

My feeling then is that most people who return from NDE’s haven’t gone as far as the Judgment seat. But I think they do have them. There are too many common features in their stories, and with modern medicine they seem to be more numerous.
 
When I was 17 I was in a coma. On the way to hospital I was looking down at the ambulance, I think I must have been about 20’ above it in the air. Then I was in the kitchen and my mother was crying and my brother comforting her. Then I saw my sister saying unkind things to me :hmmm:…which led me to suspect it was all a surreal and vivid dream. Perhaps my brain knew I was on the way out but my soul wasn’t quite cut off from my body yet. 🤷

None of the following happened:
Saw a light
Saw Jesus
My life flashed before me
Angels singing
Pearly gates
Saw my body

I did
See my surrounds
Instantly and unintentionally go places such as the outside of ambulance and the kitchen at home.
Experience intense feelings, mainly of concern, not for myself but for others. I felt bad.

I guess NDEs are one of God’s mysteries so I leave it in His hands.🙂
 
Australis said:
When I was 17 I was in a coma. On the way to hospital I was looking down at the ambulance, I think I must have been about 20’ above it in the air. Then I was in the kitchen and my mother was crying and my brother comforting her. Then I saw my sister saying unkind things to me :hmmm:…which led me to suspect it was all a surreal and vivid dream. Perhaps my brain knew I was on the way out but my soul wasn’t quite cut off from my body yet. 🤷

None of the following happened:
Saw a light
Saw Jesus
My life flashed before me
Angels singing
Pearly gates
Saw my body

I did
See my surrounds
Instantly and unintentionally go places such as the outside of ambulance and the kitchen at home.
Experience intense feelings, mainly of concern, not for myself but for others. I felt bad.

I guess NDEs are one of God’s mysteries so I leave it in His hands.🙂
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If you live in Brisbane, then you can’t be far from me. I live in Logan City.

Going back to the night my father died in the post above yours, he died in a flat at Nundah. I lived in a flat in Yeronga. So there was a few kilometres distance involved.

I still remember what appeared to be a look of surprise on his face when he first saw me. We were estranged to put it mildly (I hated his guts, and I still find it hard to forgive him), and he didn’t know where I lived. With hindsight I suppose he was surprised to “find” me so quickly. I think he was sent to my flat personally.

Incidentally he wasn’t subject to gravity, being spiritual, and seemed to float a bit. Since in the two minutes or thereabouts we probably talked (not that I had the presence of mind to note the time), we would have moved hundreds of thousands of kilometres through space. So whatever was keeping him there was doing a bit of serious high speed maneuvering.
 
Bob, your reference to your father’s hideous scream gave me a fright!:eek: It sounds like you’ve learned more about this phenonema than I have, perhaps thanks to a Catholic priest. You seem to have seen a real ghost and if the priest is right, perhaps en transit to hell!

I am now wondering if my situation was an out of body experience rather than an NDE. No one saw me (that I could tell) and I didn’t try to communicate but rather observed.
 
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