Near-death experience, Many stories of those who tell of the phenomenon often don’t reflect...

OSV.com ^ | Msgr. Charles Pope

[Salvation]

Near-death experience Many stories of those who tell of the phenomenon often don’t reflect what we know through Scripture

Msgr. Charles Pope

9/16/2015

Question: I read a book by an author who had a near-death experience and claims that God told him that one’s belief system was irrelevant. This seems like New Age indifferentism. Can you comment on near-death phenomena and what this author said?— Bob Tisovich, Ely, Minnesota

Answer: Near-death experiences (NDEs) seem to be a rather widely reported phenomenon with certain common features. One has an “out of body” experience with a reported capacity to see oneself as if looking down. There is usually some experience of a light to which the person is drawn, sometimes down a tunnel. There is usually some sense of peace and joy but also a sense that now is not the time, and one is “sent back.”

While it cannot be denied that NDEs are reported with enough frequency that likely they do happen, they are problematic in certain ways. First, they can reasonably be explained naturally as consciousness fades. The Church usually looks for natural explanations and seeks to rule them out before quickly asserting a supernatural cause.

A second, a more significant problem with many (not all) NDEs is that they would seem to violate or skip over certain biblical and Church teachings regarding the last things. One aspect that is missing in most of them is judgment. Scripture says, “it is appointed that human beings die once, and after this the judgment” (Heb 9:27). St. Paul also speaks of us passing through fire to have our works tested and purified after death (1 Cor 3:13-15). The teaching on judgment and purification are seemingly absent in many, if not most NDE reports.

Even more problematic are the NDE reports that speak of being able to walk around heaven, see loved ones, etc. But heaven is not attained in bypassing the judgment scene and the purification that most, if not all of us, will need. Scripture says of heaven: “Nothing unclean will enter it” (Rv 21:27). So, such reports seem dubious, if Scripture is a reliable guide — and it obviously is.

Your question refers also to a book by an NDE “survivor” who claims that in his discussions with “God,” God didn’t care what spiritual tradition one had. But this is in contradiction to Scripture, which teaches there is no other name given by which we are to be saved other than Jesus (Acts 4:12). So, New Age gnosticism does not save one, and it would seem that the real God does care.

But here, too, is another societal ill of our times: the rejection of the Word of God in favor of often trendy visionaries. Death awaits us all, and we do well to simply heed the Lord’s warning to be ready by living sober, holy and devout lives.

[Salvation]

**My daughter stated that the brother of a friend who had several near death experiences just saw darkness.**

No doubt which direction his life had headed.

[M Kehoe]

I don't know, but it is an interesting phenomenon.

5.56mm

[painter]

except everything was white.

Could you feel the whiteness? There is a reason I'm asking.

[GreyFriar]

Yes, that is why I focus on discernment of each account/report of a NDE. And I note that Msgr. Pope uses this clause in his title: “phenomenon often don’t reflect what we know through Scripture,” which to me says that he permits room for there being cases that are within Scriptural bounds.

[Bob434]

I ‘felt’ the blackness in my ‘nothingness’ state- it was a crushing overwhelming feeling, and trying to describe it was like the blackness and ‘nothingness’ of ‘outerspace’ (wherever I was ‘sent to’ After I was ushered out of hell I n the NDE) overtook my whole being- like it permeated every cell- dissolving them- yet again, I was somehow able to feel and sense it all happening in this state of ‘nothingness’

It was all very bizarre yet felt so real

[Salvation]

Interesting story.

[plain talk]

I agree. I have been following these NDEs a long time including discussions with people that have experienced them. They are definitely real.

These people are not dead — they are near dead. The fact they have not passed through judgment yet is certainly explainable. Just because the eye witnesses described a place as heaven does not mean it is really heaven. How does that person know they really spoke to God — perhaps it was a demon posing as God. All these jabs could be explained.

[jsanders2001]

> “Not when it confirms what my religion says....: )”

What if one contradicts your religion?

I was making a funny. There’s a lot we still don’t know about just about everything in this universe despite how smart we think we are.

[Bob434]

interesting now- but horrifying when you’re a 17 year old kid- it really shook my faith for a long time- Satan succeeded in making me question whether God, heaven and hell were even real or not- for many years- (but there was always that ‘still small voice’ of the Holy spirit that no matter how bad things got, kept me through it all,

Talk about the valley of shadows- Those were tough times-

[Bob434]

I dunno- there’s a verse that states ‘to be absent of the body, is to be present with the Lord’

But I suppose perhaps there is a possible explanation that this means the soul being absent, and not the spirit- who knows-

[MHGinTN]

Um, is it just a catholic thing to hold duplicitous positions so easily? I mean, you tell me in one post that this thread is netiher a catholic caucus nor a bait thread, yet you focus upon what the head of the catholic religion is stating about the subject of NDEs. Do you really not see your own duplicity?

[Salvation]

I great book to read since it has both the doctor's story about what is happeneing medically and the NDE person's story.

Dr. Jeffrey Long's website with other NDE stories.

http://www.nderf.org/

[Salvation]

It is not just a Catholic thing. It happens to many.

http://www.nderf.org/

[MHGinTN]

Paul, as a Christian, made that comment about his own NDE outside of Ephesus, if memory serves. It may not be applied to non-Christians, as evidenced by what non-Christians say about their NDEs.

[Salvation]

I think of the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.

[painter]

Reading this post and #49 kind of a message was given to you.

That is, Just because you were "Born Again" is no guarantee you will go to heaven. You still have to live a Holy life in the eyes of God.

[Little Bill]

Scripture aside, I think that there might be some outside guidance.

In my case I was at the lowest point of my life as I walked out of my house all I could see was blackness. A voice said, “Everything will be all right.” At the time I had no reason to think or believe that.

I was overcome by the calmest feeling I have ever experienced. It was a rocky road for a few years but it happened.

I have come to conclusion that we are here to do something or influence someone in a larger or smaller way.

[mdmathis6]

I was always intrigued by a story of one woman who had ‘died’ and found her self in hell...but she found her self standing in front of two personalities that were more like balls of light...green and red if I remember. The one light spoke of her needing to be in hell but the other was arguing..”but Father....” Eventually the colors merged as they came to agreement and became one color and there was an agreement to send her back and a warning that her life must change. The woman survived, accepted Christ and is living a servant’s life even now.

I also was intrigued by the story of a young man given to drugs and a life of vice,was not religious...he was said to be dead and he spoke of entering into hell. In shear terror he started praying a little child’s prayer that he remembered from some sunday school class he went to as a child. He was then surrounded by light, confronted with his life and sent back. He is now a Christian and ministering for the Lord.

The Bible speaks of some as “being saved by the skin of their teeth’. Some are saved thru the preaching of love and others “by fire”!. I think God is so merciful he may very well bring many to the brink of hell, so that they might finally be broken so that he can save them thru Christ Jesus. In the first story I related, the woman knew she was before the Father and the Son, and the Son was arguing(”we have an advocate with the Father”) with the Father over the final disposition of the woman’s soul. The woman may have had a need to know just how intimate Christ was with the Father in his advocacy on all humanity’s behalf. (I think the parable of the lost sheep is applicable here).

Some NDE’s do seem to relate to scripture...especially the “hell” type NDE’s. It does Satan no good if a sinner comes back from something he engineered as a”fake” NDE only to become a Christian. It puts Satan’s kingdom at odds with itself.

[Hulka]

My sister could do an NDE upon command.

I observed my mother testing her.

I watched from the door as my sisye sat at the table with no view of the other room where my mother was. My mother took three randon items, too include something from her purse and put it on a side table out of view of my sister.

My mother returned to the kichen and sat across from my sister and my sister becagan this concentration thing and her face then went blamk. I a few seconds she was ‘back’ and described the items on the table, what orer they were aligned, as well. This NDE thing scared my sister (12 at the time) and my mother promised her she would never have to do that again.

[dp0622]

A chemical called DMT made naturally in the body is said to be the cause and I think has been tested with similar results.

I could be VERY WRONG and this has no reflection on my religious beliefs.

Either way, maybe God gave us DMT, possibly to make our passing easier to relieve fear and suffering. Just a guess.