Death

[Red24]

What do you "see" when you die? Anybody have any interesting Near Death Experiences? I've always wondered what it's going to be like. First I thought it would be pitch blackness, like when you close your eyes. Then I thought it would be brightness and peacefulness. I have many views on what the afterlife is going to be like, but cant decide on one. Please help!?

 

[Green Kepi]

No one alive knows for sure; however, if one goes by what the Word hints at...Luke 16:22 tells us at immediately after death, the angels come to carry the Christian home. Pitch black...don't think so. What would be the purpose of that? 1 John 3 mentions that "we will be like Jesus"...1 Cor. 15:35-44 lets us know the old body is the seed and when resurrection comes the spiritual bodies will then be given a form (a new body). Sure sounds exciting to me and I don't want to miss it!

 

[godnotgod]

What do you "see" when you die? Anybody have any interesting Near Death Experiences? I've always wondered what it's going to be like. First I thought it would be pitch blackness, like when you close your eyes. Then I thought it would be brightness and peacefulness. I have many views on what the afterlife is going to be like, but cant decide on one. Please help!?

Before you can begin to address such a question, you must first answer the following:

Who is it that lives?

Who is it that dies?

When you realize that there is no one who lives or dies, that there is no life or death as such, that what we call life and death are but illusions, you will begin to have a different view of existence. What becomes more important than what happens after "death", is what is happening right now in front of you. At each and every moment of your life, pay full and complete attention to what is right in front of you in this eternal Present Moment. Then, when "death" comes, it will take care of itself.

Many people talk about an "afterlife", but no one has any evidence whatsoever of such a realm. All we know for certain is that we are here, now. The past is dead, and the future non-existent. Therefore, we can say that what is reality is this world, and this world only. To speak of "another realm" is what Buddhists call a "substantial, delusive idea". \

What do I mean when I say that life and death are illusions? What we call life cannot exist unless it feeds on dead organic matter. Therefore, life is death. Likewise, what we call death is actually life, as the "corpse" is being consumed by macrophages and other bacteria almost immediately. Death is life. What you must realize is that life and death are but concepts of the mind. In reality, no such conditions actually exist. The world is One, and there is neither life nor death, but lifedeath, as it were. The idea that they exist as two separate conditions is a duality of the mind only.

Awaken in the Present Moment, and you will be free of both.

"Life itself is a disease with a very poor prognosis; it lingers on for years and invariably ends with death!
Alan Watts

"Thou hast nor youth nor old age, but, as it were, an after-dinner sleep, dreaming on both"
TS Elliot

 

[Thief]

You have to separate from your body.
If not the body goes in the box and the box goes in the ground.
Eternal darkness is physically real.

The angels have a personal interest in whatever stands up...out of the dust.
They will look you over.
They will then do unto you as you have done unto others.

Good luck.

 

[URAVIP2ME]

No one alive knows for sure; however, if one goes by what the Word hints at...Luke 16:22 tells us at immediately after death, the angels come to carry the Christian home. Pitch black...don't think so. What would be the purpose of that? 1 John 3 mentions that "we will be like Jesus"...1 Cor. 15:35-44 lets us know the old body is the seed and when resurrection comes the spiritual bodies will then be given a form (a new body). Sure sounds exciting to me and I don't want to miss it!

Matthew (13:34) informs us Jesus would not speak to the crowds without a parable or illustration. Luke (16:19-31) is just that a parable or illustration.
It was not a literal happening.

Was Jesus resurrected to heaven immediately after death?
Or as Acts (2:27,31) says Jesus was buried in hell.
Even David did not ascend to heaven (Acts 2:34; John 3:13)

What did Jesus think he would be doing while buried in hell?
We can see by John (11:11) that Jesus likened death to sleep.

Where did Jesus get such an idea?
Jesus would have been familiar with the Psalms such as:

Psalm 6:5 that says in death there is no remembrance....
Psalm 13:3 mentions the sleep of death
Psalm 115:17 the dead do not praise...
Psalm 146:4 at death thoughts perish.

King Solomon, known for his wisdom, also agreed.
Ecclesiastes 9:5,10 the dead are not conscious of anything.

Jesus was resurrected or awakened from death by God to go the spirit or heavenly realm.
Revelation 5:9,10 shows there are those redeemed from earth to rule with Jesus in heaven as kings and priests.
But Jesus also promised that humble meek ones would inherit the earthly realm. (Matt 5:5; Psalm 37:11,29,38) Jesus will fulfill the promise to Abraham (Genesis 12:3; 22:18) that all families of the earth will be blessed, and all nations of the earth will be blessed.

This will be accomplished when Jesus takes action as described by Isaiah 11:4; Revelation 19:11,15 by ridding the earth of the wicked by the words of his mouth. (Proverbs 2:21,22;10:30; Psalm 92:7) thus Jesus will usher in peace on earth to the great multitude of Revelation (7:9,10,14), and then those that are not called to be saints or holy ones ruling with Jesus will be resurrected to earth. 1st Cornithians (15:26) says our last enemy 'death' will be brought to nothing. When something is brought to nothing it no longer exists. Isaiah ( 25:8) wrote death will be swallowed up. When something is swallowed up it is gone. Revelation (20:13) shows after those in hell (the common grave of mankind) are deliver up from hell, then emptied-out hell will die a symbolic second death of verse 14. A second death of no future return. After death and hell are destroyed then as Revelation (21:4) says even death will be no more, and there will be curing or healing for the nations- Rev. 22:2.

 

[Ben Dhyan]

What do you "see" when you die? Anybody have any interesting Near Death Experiences? I've always wondered what it's going to be like. First I thought it would be pitch blackness, like when you close your eyes. Then I thought it would be brightness and peacefulness. I have many views on what the afterlife is going to be like, but cant decide on one. Please help!?

Hi Red, the ego 'I' that most mortals identify with as to who they are, is a temporary phenomenon that only is present while the spirit of God that vivifies the body and gives consciousness to the mind is incarnate. At the death of the body when the spirit leaves it, it reintegrates with the universal spirit but as others have alluded to, it is not knowable to mortals as to what the reality behind the concept of the other worlds/heavens truly is. Jesus said that in his Father's house, there are many rooms.

IOW, the experiences of an NDE, whilst indicating an out of body state of the soul, in no way provides mortals with the full story of 'what after death?', for the experience is still one that is being translated by the not yet dead brain mind. When the deceased's spirit has completely evacuated and is permanently separated from the dead body, then and only then will the truth be revealed, but it will be a direct event, spirit in spirit, not one being translated through a mortal physical brain mind.

So in the mean time, one should be patient and humble and live a life true to one's God given sense of truth, for God after all is within us, "Know ye not that ye are a temple of the living God".

 

[DadBurnett]

What do you "see" when you die? Anybody have any interesting Near Death Experiences? I've always wondered what it's going to be like. First I thought it would be pitch blackness, like when you close your eyes. Then I thought it would be brightness and peacefulness. I have many views on what the afterlife is going to be like, but cant decide on one. Please help!?

My “Vision”
From within a meditative state, I wondered, what death was and this vision came. I am alone yet quiet, calm, filled with a peaceful wonder. Everywhere there is white light, without source or shadow. Looking around I see only absolute whiteness as far as the eye can see, no shapes, just whiteness. It was more of a feeling of radiant energy. It is not at all what I expected, yet I really had no expectations of “this place” beyond fanciful stories of earthbound imagination.
I looked down and saw feet; I had toes, fingers, hands and arms. I slowly reached out one hand to touch the other - whatever I was, I was real, tangible in some sort of intangible way. I had a body, yet it was not the body I had just moments (was it really moments?) before. My mind began to wander ... can this be the way everyone arrives here, wherever here is.
There is a saying that when the student is ready, the teacher appears. Not just on earth ... I begin to ask self questions and from nowhere a being is standing here before me. We are both clad in white. His (if it is a “he”) bears no emblem or name tag; the thought comes, this is the Teacher.
Before a single word is spoken, I am taken back to an earth memory, to a little booklet my Aunt gave me years ago. It was a “channeled” piece about a soldier horribly killed in WW-I. Standing here before the Teacher, I recalled how the “dead” soldier awoke in an all white hospital-like setting, laying on a “cot” surrounded by scores of others also killed in battle. (There were no bandages, no tubes or IVs, no oxygen masks.) Each one was tended by a loving, caring, compassionate figure in white. They were being nursed through the trauma of their death. This, I understood, was a place of healing and preparation, before moving on into ... It was as if the Teacher then reached into my mind and revealed to me what I already knew.
How long have I been standing here, I wondered? There is no sun, moon or stars to mark the passage of time. Is time relevant? Where was everybody? I’ve not seen or sensed anyone else except self and the Teacher “being.” Where were St Peter and Jesus? Where was the throne of God? Where was my deceased family members? Why were they not here?
When you are ready, I thought. When my questions end, answers will come. The key that opens the mind is wonder, not questions. Questions demand answers; wonder is the gateway to the infinite.
I wonder, who or what am I? I still have a sense of Jim, of my flesh and blood earth identity. On earth I believed that I had a heavenly counterpart ... I called it Soul. Where was this Soul, this other me? No, not asking, just quietly wondering. I am momentarily awash in the realization that this is my place of healing and preparation. I am being ministered to by the Teacher just as surely as were those who died in that long-ago war.
My mind continued to wonder - who would I want to meet first? My Grandmother? My Dad? Who ... and why? Do I really want to see them now? Am I ready to see them? I am not asking for answers, I am wondering what I should be wondering.
Do I want to see my daughter as whole and complete ... like I never saw her in real life? I don’t want to see her as she was - as she was contemplating her death. No, I’m not ready to see her ... I’m not ready to see any of them, not with these eyes ... With these eyes I see only through veils of memory where reality is no more than the past’s illusions. Is this the “here and now” where illusion ends?
The sense of purpose I longed for in the flesh has no place here.
All around, featureless white light; no hint of form or shape. No shadow, no place brighter or darker than any other. No illusion, nothing to misconstrue, no place to start, no place to end ... no place. This, I think, is a part of the healing process ... the process of letting go, letting go of yesterdays, of tomorrow, letting-go-of-self. What will I see when I can no longer see “me” ... What will I be when Jim, Jimmy, James is no more than a memory? As I step from the who, what and where I was and into timeless Eternity, what will I be? Why will I be?
My mind wanders ... It was said by John that the New Heaven, the Holy City of the New Jerusalem, was a city made of things like “pure gold like clear glass.” There is no such city here, nor even a hint of one; just white light, Teacher and me. The thought came, John described the Holy City as being constructed of the purest elements of planet earth. With rare exception, as prophets and seers spoke of heavenly things and beings they were described in earthly terms. Of course, that was all they could relate too. Jesus spoke of God as Spirit, something clearly other than of this earth. We understood that God and the stuff of God was something other than the purest elemental earth, something other than star-stuff. I no longer know what to expect! The Teacher’s thoughts resonate inside my being - “You are making progress, letting go of expectation.” Hearing those words, I begin to realize that I must let go of seeing things through human eyes, I must let go of quantifying and qualifying everything according to earth-based criteria.
I am clearly more than “me,” in fact the idea of me is beginning to feel somehow strange, foreign. There was a time when I was a shoe salesman, a laborer, a manager, an LDS Elder, a New Thought minister. These were no more than ever-changing masks I wore. Is being a human being of flesh, blood, bone a brain no more that such a mask? I am in the process of shedding that mask and becoming ... what? I don’t know what to call myself anymore. I am not a man, am not even a dead man. I am a ... being ... but I don’t know what I am being.
No, I am not a being, I am a becoming.
I look around. The Teacher has left; left me to my thoughts and my wondering. I remember wondered why I had not yet met anyone else and wondering who it is I would like to see - greet - embrace. Is there anyone else here? My mind says there must be. Are they as anxious to see me as I am them? Or, having already gone through the awakening process (whatever it is) do they patiently wait my transformation? Do I want to see them as they were or as what they have become? I am beginning to sense that we will meet, but not as we once were. Yes, Teacher, that’s what I want - to fully let go of the old me, to become more like them so that we can indeed be One. I feel more and more of my old self peacefully slipping away, each earthly memory giving way to new awareness. I have died to the flesh and now I die to the ways of the flesh. I am beginning to understand the truth and in truth am being set free ... eternally free.

 

[Thief]

This vision you've had is called 'born again'.
Few people see it before it happens.

 

[DadBurnett]

This vision you've had is called 'born again'.
Few people see it before it happens.

Interesting perception ...
However, I am born-again, many decades ago and this visions was not that ...

 

[URAVIP2ME]

Hi Red, the ego 'I' that most mortals identify with as to who they are, is a temporary phenomenon that only is present while the spirit of God that vivifies the body and gives consciousness to the mind is incarnate. At the death of the body when the spirit leaves it, it reintegrates with the universal spirit but as others have alluded to, it is not knowable to mortals as to what the reality behind the concept of the other worlds/heavens truly is. Jesus said that in his Father's house, there are many rooms.

IOW, the experiences of an NDE, whilst indicating an out of body state of the soul, in no way provides mortals with the full story of 'what after death?', for the experience is still one that is being translated by the not yet dead brain mind. When the deceased's spirit has completely evacuated and is permanently separated from the dead body, then and only then will the truth be revealed, but it will be a direct event, spirit in spirit, not one being translated through a mortal physical brain mind.

So in the mean time, one should be patient and humble and live a life true to one's God given sense of truth, for God after all is within us, "Know ye not that ye are a temple of the living God".

If I may take the liberty to add that 1st Cor (3:16-17) in talking about the temple, going back to verse 9 it says you are God's building, verse 16, the temple of God, the spirit of God dwells in you. Verse 17 continues with if any man defiles the 'temple' (or building) God will destroy him......

In discussing the death of mankind Solomon wrote (Ecc 9:5) that the dead are not conscious. Psalm (104:29,30) when God sends forth his spirit they are created. Once Adam and Eve were created they passed that spirit down to us along with a conscience. Once Adam and Eve died so did their life's spirit. Man came from dust and returns to dust. Adam did not exist before he was created and Adam ceased to exist after he died. We did not exist before we were conceived and at death would always cease to exist if it were not for Jesus promise of a resurrection.

The first ones to learn about the heavenly mansions or abodes were the apostles at John (14:2). They were faithful followers of Jesus. (Hebrews 6:4-6) When do they receive that house? According to verse 3 when Jesus comes again. So it would not be right away after death.
So they would have to sleep the sleep of death, unconscious in death, until Jesus comes to reward them with a heavenly resurrection.
This is why we read at Acts (7:60 B; 1st Thess 4:13) that James fell asleep in death. Those faithful followers are firstfruits (1st Cor 15:20,23) and are part of the first resurrection according to Rev (20:6). First implies more to follow.

Since not all inherit heaven, but inherit earth, then an earthly resurrection awaits those. Since Jesus made his new covenant for a kingdom with his followers, (Daniel 7:18,22,27) then those that have lived and died before Jesus opened the way to heaven will be resurrected to life on earth to be part of the meek to inherit the earth.
Acts (24:15) uses future tense that there 'will be' a resurrection.....

 

[Thief]

Well hey DadBurnett...
I might suppose you are referring to the congregational style of commitment...the one of personal pledge to a creed?

I was referring to that commitment made by Someone else.

Here in this life...as you enter...you are born ( as to bear up ).
Your congregation will ask of you commitment (born again).

But during that hour of your last breath...Someone else must bear you up.
Their commitment to you....is the born again experience I had in mind.

 

[DadBurnett]

Well hey DadBurnett...
I might suppose you are referring to the congregational style of commitment...the one of personal pledge to a creed?

I was referring to that commitment made by Someone else.

Here in this life...as you enter...you are born ( as to bear up ).
Your congregation will ask of you commitment (born again).

But during that hour of your last breath...Someone else must bear you up.
Their commitment to you....is the born again experience I had in mind.

Well my friend, I guess that my confusion was that your response did not seem to relate to this thread's original question nor to my post ...

 

[3.14]

you can't know for sure thats the beauty of life,
if you knew something real good was comming next you would spend your life trying to making sure you got there
same is if you knew something real bad would happen you would spend your life trying to avoid death


now these are not good ways to lead a life, so with doubt its possible to focus yourself on life rather then what come's after

 

[nour1]

death is like sleeping , when you sleep in the night you are gone and nothing is in your mind except perhapse dreams , but when sleeping you are like dead man , god says : we bring you to death by night and to life after that ....ect .<quor'an >

resurection is other thing , you will be alive for ever except the sinners .not all but some of them .they will be finished up .

 

[Beta]

To go back to the OP RED 24 , what do you see after you have died ?
Eccl.9v5 .......The dead know not anything...their memory is forgotten.
v6, also their love, hate, envy is now perished, Ps.31v12..as a dead man out of mind. To perish is to decay or rot.
A dead man is dead until he is resurrected.

 

[URAVIP2ME]

The Psalmist agree:

Psalm 6:5 in death there is no remembrance....
Psalm 13:3 talks of sleeping the sleep of death
Psalm 115:17 the dead do not praise God....
Psalm 146:4 at death thoughts perish.

Jesus also likened death to sleep at John 11:11.

There will be a resurrection (awakening) according to Acts 24:15

 

[DadBurnett]

Just curious ... anyone here familiar with the experiences of Emanual Swedenborg? He wrote extensively of the experiences of life after death.

 

[S-word]

death is like sleeping , when you sleep in the night you are gone and nothing is in your mind except perhapse dreams , but when sleeping you are like dead man , god says : we bring you to death by night and to life after that ....ect .<quor'an >

resurection is other thing , you will be alive for ever except the sinners .not all but some of them .they will be finished up .

I see that some here are referring to the resurrection and not to the state of death. In the resurrection, the righteous may be like Jesus now is, but as you say, after the death of our bodies, (This means the first death) the minds=spirits that have developed within these bodies, which will have been returned to the elements of the universal body from which they were borrowed, enter into a period of rest, which is like a sleeping for the souls into which the minds of the righteous individuals have been imprinted, who in that state of rest are oblivious even to their own existence.

Isaiah 57: 1-2; Good people die and no one understands or even cares. But when they (Good people) die, no calamity can hurt them. Those who live good lives find peace and rest in death.

If the spirits of good people who fall asleep in righteousness find peace and rest in death as stated by the Lord through his prophet Isaiah, then it becomes obvious that the souls of the unrighteous do not, and in his parable of Lazarus and the rich man, Jesus gives us an insight to the state that is experienced by the unrighteous souls in death.

The first resurrection of the dead, is that of they who have been gathered to Jesus the first fruits, Jesus the first of many brothers to have been chosen from the body of the most high in the evolution of the singularity of origin which has become all that exists, and has been given divine glory by our ancestral Spirit, see acts 3: 13; and placed in the throne of our heavenly Father as the cornerstone to the Brilliant Temple of Light which will supersede His old physical tent which is the body of the most high in the creation, 'Mankind,' who is Lord of creatures and the prototype of the Son of Man who is Lord of Spirits.

They of the first resurrection are the righteous spirits that had been gathered to the bosom of Abraham and were the ancestral spirits in Jesus of whom, he Jesus, was their compilation, and after his death, they who were in the spiritual enclosure of which Jesus (the mind,) was but their compilation, had been poured out as fire upon the believers of the words of our Father as spoken through his faithful servant Jesus and they, after gathering to their spiritual beings the spirits of good people who fall asleep in righteousness and when born again into this physical world, are the Temple that is Jesus, wherein the Lord our Father and saviour, shall rule the whole world.

Acts 17: 31; For He (The God of our ancestors) has fixed a day (The seventh period of one thousand years) in which he will judge the whole world with justice by means of a man that he has chosen. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising that man from death.

Over those who are of the first resurrection, the second death (That of the spirit=mind) has no power and they will rule with Christ for the thousand years when Satan shall be bound in chains. Sometime after the thousand year Sabbath, which is the seventh period of one thousand years or the seventh day from the day in which Adam ate of the forbidden fruit and died in that day at the age of 930, Satan shall be let loose and be free to deceive and divide the world once again and it is then that the fire will descend from heaven and incinerate all upon the earth, except for those who will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye from bodies of corruptible matter into bodies of glorious and brilliant light as was the body of Jesus of Nazareth who appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus, then will come the second resurrection of the dead.

The righteous dead will be resurrected to eternal life in the eighth eternal heaven of unapproachable light, while the unrighteous will be cast back into the seven periods of physical life which revolve eternally within the eighth eternal period, there in the refining fires of physical life, their unrighteous minds will be wiped clean of the eternal soul, which is (The divine animating principle that pervades the entire universal body and animates all therein, in other words, the eternal life force), this means the second death, and in the refining fires, the rejected life force of the eternal will be given new bodies and new minds=spirits.

 

[S-word]

If I may take the liberty to add that 1st Cor (3:16-17) in talking about the temple, going back to verse 9 it says you are God's building, verse 16, the temple of God, the spirit of God dwells in you. Verse 17 continues with if any man defiles the 'temple' (or building) God will destroy him......

In discussing the death of mankind Solomon wrote (Ecc 9:5) that the dead are not conscious. Psalm (104:29,30) when God sends forth his spirit they are created. Once Adam and Eve were created they passed that spirit down to us along with a conscience. Once Adam and Eve died so did their life's spirit. Man came from dust and returns to dust. Adam did not exist before he was created and Adam ceased to exist after he died. We did not exist before we were conceived and at death would always cease to exist if it were not for Jesus promise of a resurrection.

The first ones to learn about the heavenly mansions or abodes were the apostles at John (14:2). They were faithful followers of Jesus. (Hebrews 6:4-6) When do they receive that house? According to verse 3 when Jesus comes again. So it would not be right away after death.
So they would have to sleep the sleep of death, unconscious in death, until Jesus comes to reward them with a heavenly resurrection.
This is why we read at Acts (7:60 B; 1st Thess 4:13) that James fell asleep in death. Those faithful followers are firstfruits (1st Cor 15:20,23) and are part of the first resurrection according to Rev (20:6). First implies more to follow.

Since not all inherit heaven, but inherit earth, then an earthly resurrection awaits those. Since Jesus made his new covenant for a kingdom with his followers, (Daniel 7:18,22,27) then those that have lived and died before Jesus opened the way to heaven will be resurrected to life on earth to be part of the meek to inherit the earth.
Acts (24:15) uses future tense that there 'will be' a resurrection.....

The book of Sirach, which is to be found in the Apocrypha of the Old Testament, coupled together with the book of Job, a number of the Psalms, Parables, Ecclesiastes, and the Wisdom of Solomon, all belong to the Hogmah or Wisdom Literature of the Hebrews, ‘Mashal’ means Similitude, parable, or proverb.----- In the book of sirach, R, H, Charles translation chapter 47 verse 17, it is written concerning Solomon, “By thy songs, parables, dark speeches, and satires, thou didst cause astonishment to the peoples etc.”

Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. I envy those who are dead and gone; they are better off than those who are still alive. But better off than either, are those who have never been born etc. A man may have a hundred children and live a long time, but no matter how long he lives, if he does not get his share of happiness and does not receive a descent burial, then I say that a baby born dead is better off. Man and animal receive the same ultimate reward, total oblivion, from the dust they came and to the dust they shall return. A wise man is no better off than a fool, the reward for doing good is the same as that for doing evil, so don’t be too good or too wise, Why kill yourself?

We are all going to our final resting place, and although life is useless, the conclusion of the matter is, if you live a religious life you may at least experience some peace in the short span of consciousness that has been allocated to you in this useless life. So go ahead and eat, drink and be merry, drink your wine and be cheerful. It’s all right with God. Enjoy your life with the woman you love, as long as you live the useless life that God has given you in this world. Enjoy every useless day of it, because that is all that you’ll get for all your troubles. Never again will you take part in anything that happens in the world, because there will be no action, no thought, no knowledge, no wisdom in the world of the dead to where the righteous, the wicked, the wise and the fools, animal and man, are all going. For the living know that they are going to die, but the dead know nothing.

Solomon’s songs are found in his book, ‘Song of Songs,’ his parables are found in his book of proverbs, his dark speeches are in the ‘Wisdom of Solomon,’ and who can read the negative and even depressing words from the book of ‘Ecclesiastes without realizing that here is the satirical work of Solomon, aimed at those who believed in neither life after death, or the resurrection from the dead.

When you quote from the book of Ecclesiastes, Know that you are quoting the satirical work of Soloman, aimed at those who believed in neither life after death, or the resurrection from the dead.

 

[URAVIP2ME]

Jesus, according to John (11:11), believed the dead sleep.