What does everyone think about near death experiences?

Question

There are both heaven and hell ones. There are also many where people have witnessed things in detail that happened many miles away from the hospital or surgical room they were in. Some have even accurately told of objects on rooftops that could only be seen from a bird's eye view.

Thanks, Posh for your post that reminded me that I meant to ask this a couple of nights ago, but forgot.

Answer 1

Paul speaks of a man "whether in the body, I do not know or out of the body, I do not know, God knows, such a man was caught up to the third heaven. And I know a man - whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know - was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to tell." (II Corinthians 12:2-4)
I believe Paul was speaking of himself, quite possibly when he was stoned and by all appearances dead (Acts 14:19,20). He was saying that when he had these experiences, it was not clear to him if his spirit had actually left his body (and he was physically dead), or if these things were revealed to him while his spirit still resided in his body. Therefore I think it is clear that if Paul did not actually have, not only a near death experience, but was actually dead and raised from the dead by the power of God; at the least he acknowledged the possibility of such an occurrence. I would recommend to you the book "Caught Up Into Paradise" by Dr. Richard Eby

Answer 2

We are studying that very thing. We have some 900 case studies that we work through one at a time. There are some that convince people that they should find faith not all point to God or indeed Satan but every case has brought a the person closer to a Deity.
Incredible as it sounds these individuals also report seeing family in a different light. One case we have picked at for some two and a half years is written in a diary of a person that did pass in 1978. Her near death experience happened due to a fall into a frozen lake. Right after the accident she spoke of seeing a light and hearing the voice of her departed grandmother. As time progressed and she aged more detail came out in her writings. References to dark beings following her and beings that were soft blocking these dark beings from making contact with her.
She had taken up the Wicca beliefs and had tried to make contact with the "soft beings" Of course we can not speak with her to find out what she felt or how she saw these spectres exactly. But it does hold with multiple traditions and faiths.
Interesting stuff, I believe it is true
En Tis Blethec

Answer 3

Near death? your dead or alive if your dead you can never tell? If your alive then maybe you just dreamed it, your subconscious makes you relive your life. My uncle died for a short time on the hospital operating table. He told of such a experience, he was catholic but didn't practice any religion or church. In fact he knew nothing of the Bible. But he said he was in a room and a man was accusing him, and another man was defending him to God or someone ? he wasn't quite sure how or why this discussion was going on. But he was asked why he should come back to his body and and he responded to raise his youngest girl, she was a teenager at the time. Anyways he was revived on the hospital bed and came back to raise his daughter and he is dead now. But he also was showed that the sky was like a blanket with many holes in it and when someone dies a hole is covered up, or a star goes out. He changed his life for a short time after this experience but went back to his same old ways being a drunken smoking womanizer after a few years. Oh if your curious why he was in the hospital, he was riding a horse near a train and the horse threw him into an oncoming train. Oh yes my father died when I was 4 years old and my mother said right before he died, he got out of bed and shook hands with many friends that had died long before but my mother could not see any people there. But he spoke with them and shook hands then layed back into his bed and died

Answer 4

I don't believe in it, because I believe in what the bible say "THE DEAD KNOW NOTHING" Studies have shown that the brain does still receive activity for a few minutes after death. So personally I think it is just your brain playing tricks on you....so to speak. Satan is crafty, and he can do things to make people sway from the truth. I know if i was to ever have a experience like that(which i hope i don't) I would know that it wasn't real because when i die i am just dead, until the day of resurrection, this is what the bible says.

Answer 5

I think that it is just the brain freaking out on on a major electrical-brain-chemistry rush.

It is said that when Lavoisier was beheaded during the French Revolution, he had his assistant stand in the crowd to see if he could blink his eyes after his head was whacked off. According to the story, Lavoisier was able to blink his eyes 10 or 11 times as the executioner held his head up in the air for the crowd to see.

Now, that must have been weird, but what a cool thing for a scientist to think up as his last experiment.

Answer 6

My own belief is, that when our body dies, the soul (essence, spirit whatever anyone wants to call it) moves on. I think perhaps with a NDE its already going, then it comes back - maybe the timing is wrong?
I hadn't heard anyone give the hell account ones, only a sort of moving towards a light.
Perhaps I'm a hypocrite, because whilst I say I believe in spiritualism, I certainly don't want to think about 'bad' spirits or possession etc.

Answer 7

There are lots of stories about lots of things. I haven't heard anything about rooftops, but that sounds unlikely to me.

Anyway, that's a psychology question. Someone I knew who had a near-death experience didn't notice anything but the proverbial white light. And who's to say what brain reaction that's about. Maybe if you're predisposed toward a notion of heaven and hell, that's what you dream about.

Answer 8

The brain's a funny thing and scientists don't fully understand it. It is known that dreams can seem so real that people actually believe they are.

The brain works on electrical impulses, and experiments have shown that these impulses can trigger thoughts, fantasies, etc. Being a lot of people have talked about "white lights", etc., a lot of people have probably "experienced" them due to suggestion.

Personally, I think it's just that, a trick of the brain.

Answer 9

I think I saw that story - if it's the same one - about the woman who saw a shoe on the roof of the hospital? And the little girl who described the operations and machines used on her during her short period of death. I do believe that some of these stories are real. Personally, I think it's pretty amazing. Who wouldn't love to have some assurance that once we die, we're not really gone forever? It gives me more hope to think that I really might get to see all of my loved ones again, and that feels pretty good.

Answer 10

The phenomenon exists but a lot of it is influenced by the mind and previously held beliefs, I think. In other words, a Christian will see Yahweh in an NDE while a Muslim will see Allah, a Hindu will see Brahma, Native Americans will see the gods that they believe in, and so on. They don't prove any particular religion to be true, in my opinion.