What is the Catholic view on Near Death Experiences (NDEs)?

[CRATUS]

We believe Saints have been shown heaven and hell, but others who have NDE’s can’t be real ?

Jim

Good question. I totally believe them. Obviously people lie. I still find it fascinating.

 

[GEddie]

How do you know they haven’t been canonized ?

Saint Bernadette saw the Blessed Mother, as she was dying.

She was still alive, but in a coma at that point

Jim

By modern I meant post-1977.

Also, a deathbed experience is not per se an NDE.

ICXC NIKA

 

[JimR-OCDS]

By modern I meant post-1977.

Also, a deathbed experience is not per se an NDE.

ICXC NIKA

Why are they not similar, except the NDE returns ?

If there is life after death, which we Catholics believe, there should be no problem with people having seen the other side.

St Dom Bosco visited Purgatory and Heaven, in dreams

We accept this, but not the testimony of NDE’s.

I find this contradictory.

Jim

 

[Lily_Bernans]

We believe Saints have been shown heaven and hell, but others who have NDE’s can’t be real ?

Jim

I’m sure they can be real; I just don’t believe the majority of them are encounters with the afterlife. I keep an open mind about it, though. I don’t absolutely rule them out as experiences of the afterlife. That would be foolish for anyone to do. We really don’t know for sure what they are.

 

[Lily_Bernans]

Are you no longer accepting PMs?

People can PM me. I had to turn it off for awhile because I was so busy with school. I’m busy again, but a few PMs are okay.

 

[Techno2000]

I believe that passage to be the origin of the phrase “out of body experience.”

For SP specifically, the idea of being out of body – to the Hebrew mind, the person is the body – would be particularly salient.

ICXC NIKA

And a person could become so injured or sick that they have an “out of body experience.”

 

[Faith1960]

People can PM me. I had to turn it off for awhile because I was so busy with school. I’m busy again, but a few PMs are okay.

I don’t have any questions now but when I do, do you mind me PMing you?

 

[Lily_Bernans]

I don’t have any questions now but when I do, do you mind me PMing you?

It’s fine, but it might take me a day or two to get back to you if it’s before the 15th because I’m super busy.

 

[GaryTaylor]

Why are they not similar, except the NDE returns ?

If there is life after death, which we Catholics believe, there should be no problem with people having seen the other side.

St Dom Bosco visited Purgatory and Heaven, in dreams

We accept this, but not the testimony of NDE’s.

I find this contradictory.

Jim

I agree people literally die and for all known reason some somehow come back. And that point, a good deal of these people truly believe Is the will of Christ. I think its further atonement. I also think it happens more often than we would assume. I believe miracles happen everyday.

 

[McCartney]

Are we ALLOWED to believe in them, McCartney?

As I said, the Church does not give any ruling on them. So we are allowed to believe in them. I definitely do believe except for the ones that they’ve had an NDE and buy a book for $10. If you are trying to make money from your experience, then it is probable a false experience.

 

[mikekle]

And a person could become so injured or sick that they have an “out of body experience.”

This would not the same thing as an NDE, the experiences are totally different from what Ive read about ‘out of body’ accounts though.

The key point to remember in a true NDE is the mind and body are completely and clinically dead for a certain time and then it is restored, I believe the longest one is around 45 minutes, most I have heard about are around 5-15 minutes, my personal friends NDE, he was CLINICALLY DEAD for 7 minutes, NO brain activity, NO body functions. If the brain is dead, the NDE cannot be a product of it.

 

[Lily_Bernans]

This would not the same thing as an NDE, the experiences are totally different from what Ive read about ‘out of body’ accounts though.

The key point to remember in a true NDE is the mind and body are completely and clinically dead for a certain time and then it is restored, I believe the longest one is around 45 minutes, most I have heard about are around 5-15 minutes, my personal friends NDE, he was CLINICALLY DEAD for 7 minutes, NO brain activity, NO body functions. If the brain is dead, the NDE cannot be a product of it.

Some people think a surge of brain activity plays a part:

washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/surge-of-brain-activity-may-explain-near-death-experience-study-says/2013/08/12/47026016-0105-11e3-9a3e-916de805f65d_story.html

news.discovery.com/human/health/near-death-experiences-what-happens-in-the-brain-before-dying-150407.htm

If the brain is actually dead, the person can’t come back to life. The key word is “near.” They are “near death experiences,” not experiences of actual death.

 

[GEddie]

The human body is the natural world’s greatest mystery, and the human brain is the body’s.

The fact that no electrochemical activity registers on counters placed on the head skin does not prove that the brain is dead; just as the cessation of breathing, once medicine’s marker of death, **does not **prove that the body is dead.

All we can say is that the head appears to be quiescent and probably not generating any experiences that may be had.

ICXC NIKA.

 

[McCartney]

Some people think a surge of brain activity plays a part:

washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/surge-of-brain-activity-may-explain-near-death-experience-study-says/2013/08/12/47026016-0105-11e3-9a3e-916de805f65d_story.html

news.discovery.com/human/health/near-death-experiences-what-happens-in-the-brain-before-dying-150407.htm

If the brain is actually dead, the person can’t come back to life. The key word is “near.” They are “near death experiences,” not experiences of actual death.

How do you explain people seeing their dead relatives whom they did not know. A young boy kept speaking about his sister who dies before he was born. He also spoke about things his grandfather did with his father even though he had never seen his grandfather.

 

[Lily_Bernans]

How do you explain people seeing their dead relatives whom they did not know. A young boy kept speaking about his sister who dies before he was born. He also spoke about things his grandfather did with his father even though he had never seen his grandfather.

To believe those things, I’d first have to believe the people were telling the absolute truth, and I’m skeptical enough of human truthfulness to not believe everything said by people I don’t know. I don’t automatically say, “Well, they’re lying,” I just take what they say with a heavy dose of skepticism. Maybe they lie about such things because they want their fifteen minutes of fame on “Unsolved Mysteries.” Maybe they hope to write a book and get rich like the the man who wrote about his kid in “Heaven Is for Real.” I didn’t read that book or see the movie and never will, but I know people who read the book, and they told me only a few pages actually focused on the boy, and they didn’t find the book convincing at all.

What about the people who report past lives - reincarnations - and they are supposedly verified as true? Are we to believe that all the NDE people are truth tellers and all the reincarnation people are liars just because our religion does not accept reincarnation? That would be naive and a very arbitrary and unfair division.

The brain, and more precisely, the neurotransmitters involved in brain chemistry, are very complicated. I believe some of these people experience something, but I don’t believe it’s the afterlife. I believe in an afterlife, but I don’t believe we get to experience it until we actually die, and people who are really and truly dead do not come back to life. I know Jesus raised three of the dead, that we know of, but that was in a different time.

NDEs haven’t been studied with an array of modern medical equipment because of their very nature. If they ever are, maybe we’ll learn more, but until then, I don’t believe they are an experience of the afterlife. I have no problem with people who do, however, because, like I said, their origin is unknown. Maybe some day I’ll find out I’m right; maybe some day I’ll find out I’m wrong.

 

[Viki63]

I met a woman who told me of her NDE, her account was very impressive. She related that she died during an operation and remembered. being drawn through a dark tunnel while filled with peace and comfort. After she returned she no longer was afraid of dying.

Clearly the mind outlives the body. We see this in Lazarus, who Christ resuscitated several days after his death. Where was his spirit/ mind during those days? He existed somewhere.

.

 

[mikekle]

To believe those things, I’d first have to believe the people were telling the absolute truth, and I’m skeptical enough of human truthfulness to not believe everything said by people I don’t know. I don’t automatically say, “Well, they’re lying,” I just take what they say with a heavy dose of skepticism. Maybe they lie about such things because they want their fifteen minutes of fame on “Unsolved Mysteries.” Maybe they hope to write a book and get rich like the the man who wrote about his kid in “Heaven Is for Real.” I didn’t read that book or see the movie and never will, but I know people who read the book, and they told me only a few pages actually focused on the boy, and they didn’t find the book convincing at all.

What about the people who report past lives - reincarnations - and they are supposedly verified as true? Are we to believe that all the NDE people are truth tellers and all the reincarnation people are liars just because our religion does not accept reincarnation? That would be naive and a very arbitrary and unfair division.

The brain, and more precisely, the neurotransmitters involved in brain chemistry, are very complicated. I believe some of these people experience something, but I don’t believe it’s the afterlife. I believe in an afterlife, but I don’t believe we get to experience it until we actually die, and people who are really and truly dead do not come back to life. I know Jesus raised three of the dead, that we know of, but that was in a different time.

NDEs haven’t been studied with an array of modern medical equipment because of their very nature. If they ever are, maybe we’ll learn more, but until then, I don’t believe they are an experience of the afterlife. I have no problem with people who do, however, because, like I said, their origin is unknown. Maybe some day I’ll find out I’m right; maybe some day I’ll find out I’m wrong.

I can understand some of your skepticism regarding seeing past relatives, but in many cases, the person will describe conversations or activities taking place in other rooms, where they could not possibly have seen, so lying about this would not be possible.

Ive also read some strange NDEs like reincarnation and some other very bizarre experiences that would suggest a very different afterlife than the bible describes, but they are not common at all, usually its one of two similar experiences. Im not sure what to make of the strange ones, maybe we will all be shocked and in awe as to what really happens?

I do think the key point to most NDEs, the people that experience them seem to recognize there is nothing in death to be scared of or worried about, so that is very encouraging to the rest of us.

 

[thistle]

I can understand some of your skepticism regarding seeing past relatives, but in many cases, the person will describe conversations or activities taking place in other rooms, where they could not possibly have seen, so lying about this would not be possible.

Ive also read some strange NDEs like reincarnation and some other very bizarre experiences that would suggest a very different afterlife than the bible describes, but they are not common at all, usually its one of two similar experiences. Im not sure what to make of the strange ones, maybe we will all be shocked and in awe as to what really happens?

I do think the key point to most NDEs, the people that experience them seem to recognize there is nothing in death to be scared of or worried about, so that is very encouraging to the rest of us.

Catholics may not believe in reincarnation.

CCC 1013 Death is the end of man’s earthly pilgrimage, of the time of grace and mercy which God offers him so as to work out his earthly life in keeping with the divine plan, and to decide his ultimate destiny. When “the single course of our earthly life” is completed, we shall not return to other earthly lives: “It is appointed for men to die once.”** There is no “reincarnation” after death.**

 

[Faith1960]

I can understand some of your skepticism regarding seeing past relatives, but in many cases, the person will describe conversations or activities taking place in other rooms, where they could not possibly have seen, so lying about this would not be possible.

Ive also read some strange NDEs like reincarnation and some other very bizarre experiences that would suggest a very different afterlife than the bible describes, but they are not common at all, usually its one of two similar experiences. Im not sure what to make of the strange ones, maybe we will all be shocked and in awe as to what really happens?

I do think the key point to most NDEs, the people that experience them seem to recognize there is nothing in death to be scared of or worried about, so that is very encouraging to the rest of us.

NDEs are not reincarnation.
.

 

[Lily_Bernans]

I met a woman who told me of her NDE, her account was very impressive. She related that she died during an operation and remembered. being drawn through a dark tunnel while filled with peace and comfort. After she returned she no longer was afraid of dying.

Clearly the mind outlives the body. We see this in Lazarus, who Christ resuscitated several days after his death. Where was his spirit/ mind during those days? He existed somewhere.

.

Viki, if she actually “died,” she’d still be dead!