Near death experiences

[MisterLove]

I find stories of near death experiences fascinating and often scary.

There seem to be many common elements to all of them: the being of light, the dark passageway, the feeling of love and acceptance...

Dannion Brinkley has been through several NDEs and he has some amazing stories to tell:




Gloria Polo is another fascinating character, she was struck by lightning and survived to tell the story. Even if you don't speak Spanish, the emotion and intensity of her speech will impress you:




Then there are the visions of Hell, the scariest and freakiest of them all. This one is so weird, it's probably true:

[CellarDweller]

Yeah, I believe in these as well. I've never had one, but I don't dispute others having them.

[MisterLove]

Yeah, I believe in these as well. I've never had one, but I don't dispute others having them.

I'm terrified of NDE's and death.

I'm a good person but somehow I believe I'm going to end up in hell.

[MisterLove]

Speaking of which, I'm a Catholic and our priest said something a bit strange this weekend: 'We are already saved but we have to think of the others'.

I have no idea what he meant by that. I love my religion but I don't think it's a passport to heaven.

[Woollyhats]

^^He meant as a Catholic you believe that the blood of Christ that bled from him as he died on the cross paid the price for your sins, and because you believe in him and praise him, he will speak for you before his father, so you are saved from ultimate judgement. Your priest wants for you to convince others to do the same, or to use the official term, evangelize.

Some Catholics disagree, some such as the pope believe that good works should come first in getting to heaven and that making God's kingdom on Earth is especially important; others believe that stringently following the rules laid out in the Bible to minimize sin, while fervently professing their imperfections to the Lord and begging for forgiveness -- essentially regarding life as a test is what gets you there. Personally, I would ask such Catholics why they bother with believing in purgatory (contained within the catechism) when they feel this way.

Anyway, I used to be Catholic; not so much any more.

Near death experiences are enlightening from a religious and scientific perspective. Religious because we can imagine if it's possible to see what's beyond life (perhaps even if that is nothing), scientific because discovering the impact that a dying brain has on consciousness as it disappears is undoubtedly curious, if a little morbid.

Thanks for sharing.

[MisterTinkles]

I was starting to believe these things, until I saw a documentary on the physical damage aspects of NDE's.

This woman claimed that NDE's are nothing more than certain stimuli that affect parts of your brain, nothing more.

Lets say you are in a car wreck, well, you body goes into shock to avoid as much nerve damage as possible. But during that time of severe shock, you see "light", hear "voices", or "see your life passing before your eyes", and many other after effects.

These after effects are caused by your body and brain releasing chemicals into your body, either from the shock to the body, or to suppress things going wrong in your body. This causes you to (more or less) hallucinate "white light", and see images in your mind. Some people even think they are floating above their bodies, when in fact, they are experiencing a sensation that is a chemical effect of the brain after an accident or incident.

Some peoples bodies even shut down, and can give the effect of being dead or in a coma, when in fact their bodies could not take the shock that was given....so it pretty much has to shut down and reboot itself. During this time, you could have dehydration and lack of oxygen, which can have the same effects of chemical imbalances.


Once I listened to this woman, she made a LOT of sense, and I now believe that these effects people have from NDE's are nothing more than severe chemical imbalances caused by stress and anxiety of the body and the brain. Nothing more.

[driftwood]

Speaking of which, I'm a Catholic and our priest said something a bit strange this weekend: 'We are already saved but we have to think of the others'.

I have no idea what he meant by that. I love my religion but I don't think it's a passport to heaven.

Of course not, and neither does he. But he needs to act like he does, because it's the only product he has to sell.

[austin]

I was almost asleep one night and i was falling off a cliff ,Wow talk about a heart attack i woke up screaming.

[southbiochem]

Speaking of which, I'm a Catholic and our priest said something a bit strange this weekend: 'We are already saved but we have to think of the others'..

Jesus the Christ paid the death penalty that was hanging over humanity for the sins commited since Adam and Eve..

"the wages of sin is death" no?

There was an exchange and JC took humanity's place, This was the job that God sent him for in the first place.

He already paid the price for all human's sins past and future in blood, the punishment over humanity has already been lifted.

the only condition for you to be Saved is to believe in this, to believe in JC as the Savior and to repent...nothing more..doesn't mean you won't sin ever again, cuase you will no matter what, you're human, but everytime you acknowledge this and repent truthfuly, and remember that JC already saved you, these sins God already forgot about.

remember, there is no gradation in sin, to God all sin is equally horrid, and this also means that there is no sin too great to be unforgivable

this is a concept hard to grasp for Catholics.. Mainly the hurch authorities are to blame, so I applaud your priest.

He also said others are the main concern..he meant non-believers, as it was JC's commandment before he left that Christians should go out n about spreading the Gospel and turning more and more people to beleiev in JC and God, and thus being saved.

I've always thought of Catholicism to focus too much on guilt, a guilt that should be replace with repentance, which is quite different.

Once you do thi sther's comes a joy and a sort of transformation of oneself, which leads you to recognize sin and avoid it, even when every now and then you'll fall back.

But JC already payed for what you did and will do.

So you see other than death being unavoidable, you should not fear it, cause that God you believe in already thought of you and everything you would do in life before you where born.


Ok, you might find it hard to take seriously the words of an atheist, but trust you me, I have done my fare share of Bible studying.

[starbelly]

I don't deny the possibility of near death experiences— after all, there are people who have been dead for hours who have come back to life and can remember seeing themselves lying in hospital beds and whatnot.

Personally though, I almost died in the hospital ICU after a surgery (I kept quitting breathing) and I don't remember a single thing of it. I remember coming to and having an oxygen mask on my face and the nurses telling me to "try and take deep breaths", but that's it.