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What are your thoughts on Near Death Experiences?
- Thread starter Psalm23
- Start date
Spirit of Light
Be who ever you want
Q: What are your thoughts about near death experiences?
A: I have not had that kind of experience my self, so it is impossible for me to either confirm or deny if it is real or not, but I would be surprised if it was not a possibility it has happened to people.
What are your thoughts when someone claims to have died and come back and tell a story of what they saw?
A: I have not had anyone tell it directly to me, but I could not rule it out fully, because I could not prove or disprove it.
The Crimson Universe
Active Member
I believe they're telling the truth. That the soul actually pops out of the so called 'dead' body for a short period of time, hovers around it or even visits other spirit realms, then comes back to tell us about its experiences.
I have had it happen to myself. Twice now.
I discount any specific claims of heaven/hell/afterlife. But not the process or the experience itself.
stvdv
Veteran Member
My Master said "every night you die, and every morning you are reborn"
Probably elsewhere He might have said "every second you die and you are reborn"
The question that is most important is "Who Am I?"
Knowing that "I" never dies, this whole idea of NDE only pertains to the identification with one's body ... hence maya, illusion and ignorance. NDE is valuable, because afterwards you might realize that you are not the body AND you might know that NDE is an illusion
But without NDE you at best can believe, so NDE is valuable to know NDE is useless (afterwards)
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A Vestigial Mote
Well-Known Member
My thoughts are that a brain/body that is "near death" is in NO WAY a reliable instrument to base ANYTHING on. Period. Hell... we can barely rely on fully cognizant/aware people to reliably convey truths... and someone wants to claim that people far less able than that are a good indicator of anything at all? Craziness.
That when your external sensory perception is cut off, your conscious experience is at the mercy of the subconscious mind.
Like with a dream, what you experience while dreaming becomes your reality at the time of the dream.
Also I suspect that while consciously you are cut off, subconsciously your brain still has access to external stimuli and continues to predict reality somewhat accurately while folding this information into the experience.
Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
I'm in line with this. I also believe there are medical causes but like any traumatic experience the profoundness changes people's lives. I don't doubt that.
Well, I'm also of a mind that a person can willingly induce an NDE as well. As many of the accounts also match the Shamanistic idea of a "rebirthing".
True story, I've posted it on RF before and no doubt i will again
My father was mugged, he was hit across the head with a half brick that shattered his skull. During a month long coma he clinically died 3 times. He distinctly remembers dying and to this day he claims the only reason he came back was because god is a lousy poker player.
My father was mugged, he was hit across the head with a half brick that shattered his skull. During a month long coma he clinically died 3 times. He distinctly remembers dying and to this day he claims the only reason he came back was because god is a lousy poker player.
ecco
Veteran Member
If it is a near-death experience, the person was not dead - right?
Double-blind experiments have been conducted. Items were placed on a shelf in rooms with critically ill people. The items could not be seen by someone standing up. They could only be seen by someone floating up from their body. No one has passed this test. No one has identified items on the shelves. No one.
If you want to have an "NDE" with a light at the end of a tunnel, it's easy. Just stand in a rigid posture in the hot sun for a period of time. As lesser and lesser blood gets to your brain, you will experience "tunnel vision". Things on the periphery of your vision will go black. The visible part in the center will get smaller and smaller. At some time, if you don't start moving, you will pass out because your brain has experienced a shortage of oxygen.
There are hundreds of videos of soldiers standing in formation with one or more passing out. There are videos of wedding brides and grooms passing out from standing at the alter (probably coupled with stress).
Nothing magical. Nothing after-worldly. Just physiology.
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
I believe that NDEs are fairly accurate renditions of what happens when the soul leaves the body and a person is 'between' life and death, but I do not believe NDEs represent a death experience because that person is not fully dead. If you want to read some interesting books on death experiences below are some of my favorites.
The Afterlife Revealed
Private Dowding
I also like this book, but I cannot say I believe that everything he wrote given it was just one man's experiences:
Heaven and Hell
The Crimson Universe
Active Member
QuestioningMind
Well-Known Member
That they are experiences that people have had when they were NEAR death and that anyone who claims that they died and came back during a near death experience doesn't understand the difference between being near death and actually dying.
I knew someone who became convinced they were true after he read Embraced By the Light. I never read it, but apparently its a book with testimonials of some kind. He said it was good.
I have heard more than one person claim they were momentarily dead and saw heaven or hell, but I have a problem with it. If they describe hell or heaven and say its a warning for the living then I doubt they are telling the truth, and its partly because of Jesus parable about Lazarus and the Rich man. At the end he says that the point of his parable is that even if someone returns from death it doesn't change minds. Personally I believe that multiple people have lied to me and to congregations about this in order to sell books or get offerings in the plate.
While I'm old, I don't think I'm quite "near death" yet. So I haven't had an NDE.
Dumb experiment. It assumes that people who are not in their physical bodies would notice such a thing in a true out of body experience. There's no reason to assume that. All the reports are that much more significant things are going on.
Put something on a shelf in plain view. Ask someone to come into the room and tell them something truly shocking. Then afterwards, ask what was on the shelf. The odds are so close to zero that they would have noticed or remembered.
I've been one of those soldiers and passed out.
That is not the same as an NDE. Doesn't have any of the same qualia. Try getting actually close to the brink of death.
My thought are that someone believes what they saw. They are sharing an experience, and I have no business questioning it without having had such an experience myself.
My main thoughts:
- a dying brain is not generally a reliable brain.
- similarities in experiences between people can be best explained by our common physiology.