Many are those who have questioned near-death experiences for a number of reasons, among which the concern that so little on the topic has been broached by theologians.Posted on 02/11/2008 1:56:37 PM PST by NYer
Many are those who have questioned near-death experiences for a number of reasons, among which the concern that so little on the topic has been broached by theologians.
The visions of "eternity," and the lessons from such episodes, do not always fit the neat pictures created by the philosophical branch of the Church, some say.
Thus it comes as a jolt to learn that the man considered the master of modern theology, St. Thomas Aquinas -- almost universally cited as the major intellectual inspiration for the Church -- himself experienced what has been described as a "glimpse of eternity" and "the light" (as in near-death episodes).
As one researcher noted, "the eleventh-century philosopher and theologian, who wrote voluminously until the end of his life, had a vision of of the light," after which he said, "I cannot go on.... All that I have written seems to me like so much straw compared to what I have seen and what has been revealed to me."
The Summa Theologiae, his last and, unfortunately, uncompleted work, deals with the whole of Catholic theology. He stopped work on it after celebrating Mass on December 6, 1273. When asked why he stopped writing, he replied with the quote above. He died three months later, on March 7, 1274.
Thus it may be sobering for those who scoff at such episodes on the grounds of an intellectualism based largely on scholars such as St. Aquinas, who, as one bio puts it, "by universal consent," is "the preeminent spokesman of the Catholic tradition of reason and of Divine revelation. He is one of the great teachers of the medieval Catholic Church, honored with the titles Doctor of the Church and Angelic Doctor."
That's not to say that caution should go out the window with such phenomena: there can be not only delusion, but deception, or New Age-style spin on such experiences. Many tend toward the occult. We must remember that the devil can come as an angel of light.
But consoling it is -- and convinced we are -- that there is indeed that great Light, that death is nothing to fear for those who are right with God, and that deceased loved ones often assist in the transition, there to greet us either at the deathbed or in the Light at the end of a "tunnel."
Indeed, workers with hospice have numerous such accounts, as do many viewers who responded to a previous article we had on the topic.
"I had an interesting experience in 1997," wrote Margo Otterstetter of Baton Rouge. "I had a routine surgery that went terribly wrong. The doctor accidentally severed a section of my bowel and a major artery without knowing it.
"She closed me up and fifteen to twenty minutes into recovery, I began 'crashing.'
"I remember feeling a terrible pain (like someone hit me with a sledgehammer in the stomach) -- and I remember not being able to open my eyes. I distinctly heard buzzers going off in my ears and feeling a nurse patting my hand saying, 'stay with me baby, stay with me...we need a doctor over here!'
"I felt instant panic knowing that someone was talking about me and those buzzers were mine.
"All of a sudden I felt a hand on my shoulder and smelled a very familiar smell. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that it was my father who had passed away in 1984. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was him. The minute he touched me I felt completely relaxed; I knew that in fact I wasn't dying; and that everything would be okay. The fear of dying literally evaporated away. It was funny that I did not care if I lived or not at that point. It was really strange -- but through a very long and sometimes painful recovery I felt a new sense of purpose and a realization that my dad continues to be here when I need him. I know I will see him again and I can't wait!"
"Most of these visions happen within 24-48 hours of our passing and the way the angels are standing are meaningful too," wrote one hospice nurse, Christine Rossi. "If they are standing with their arms folded, it is a comfort visit to let them know that they are not alone and need to pack their bags for the journey. If the angel has his/her arms out (it is not a real arm but two streams of light where our arms would be), then it is very close to passing."
Often, those on the verge are given a choice.
"I love to share my near death experience as I think it helps others who are fearful of death," writes Allene Ramsey of Sylva, North Carolina. "I was 27 years old at the time. It was 1975, and I was about to give birth. After delivery I began to hemorrhage and loose blood pressure.
"My husband was sent out of the room as they tried putting in an IV with much difficulty as my veins were collapsing.
"At this time I began to rise from my body. I am a very visual person, being an artist, yet there was nothing visual, just the sense of leaving my body and rising.
"As I was rising I felt the most peaceful, joyful, loving, fatherly presence, which to this day is impossible for me to describe or explain. The experience was intense and extremely real. It was realer than real! I was given the choice to continue on but that moment I said, 'I have a baby' and those words were filled with the love I already had for my daughter before her birth.
"I was immediately placed back into my body which was extremely cold and hurting. I have never forgotten this experience with God who loves us, and I know I will be reminded of it at my death and have no fear of that day."
"My first husband died in 1997 at age 48 after suffering a rare form of cancer," adds Marilyn Gibson of Iowa. "I was at his deathbed as twenty-two friends and relatives and our priest were praying the Rosary.
"He was unresponsive that whole morning, breathing very labored. I leaned toward him in his final agony and told him it was okay, and that Jesus and His mother would come for him.
"Within moments he gazed over my shoulder, and stared at the dining room ceiling (his hospital bed was in our living room), and I saw his face transformed to when he looked about twenty-two years old or so. He made a contact with his eyes to someone, and I will never forget that look on his face -- one of complete awe and peace.
"Then he sighed his last breath, and died. This experience has made me not afraid to die, and I have told our children, and many others, especially those who are struggling with the death of a loved one, that they may be helped with their grief."
We live forever! Few things are depressing in that Light.
There are conversions. A woman named Kim Smith from Connecticut (originally Louisiana) mentions how her teen-aged son got in a terrible accident on an all-terrain vehicle and plunged into a coma before recovering.
"One day he raised the index finger of his right hand saying 'Listen, listen!'" says Kim. "He then said he remembered the accident (seems impossible because he was unconscious as soon as his head hit the pavement and was dead-on-arrival at the emergency room). 'I died, I died,' he said. 'You died?' I asked. 'Yes, I died, and it hurt so much.' Then he began to cry uncontrollably and his speech was incoherent. This was all he ever said of the near-death experience, but later, while still in the hospital, he would confide, 'Heaven is full of love' and one day cautioned my 18-year-old brother, 'never talk down to anyone.'"
Afterward, he became very devout.
"My husband, Gene, was afraid of dying, he always asked me how I could not be afraid," says Rose Best of Barstow, California, lastly.
"When he had lung cancer, he told me he was afraid. He had one chemo treatment on Dec 30, 1997.
"On Jan 10, 1998 he took a turn for the worst, went into respiratory distress, and I called an ambulance to take him to the hospital. He was intibated and when he was stable he was sent to a VA hospital, so he could continue treatment.
"While he was there for a few days, he called me and said he needed to talk to me; he was so confused. I told him I would be there in an hour.
"When I got there he told me that he had just had an experience and wanted to tell me about it. He said he started to hear beautiful music and everything was so peaceful; he saw a bright light and he started going towards it again; he could not get over the peacefulness of where he was at. As he was walking towards the light he was not as old as he is now (65), but much, much younger and had a spring to his step.
"And then he heard a voice saying it was not his time and calling him back. But he said he did not want to go back -- it was a beautiful place to be, but again it was said it was not his time.
"From that time on he prayed more and had a certain peace about him. He died a beautiful peaceful death about two weeks later. He had the Last Rites and was ready to meet his God."
And says Judy, a nurse, "One of my most unforgettable patients was a gentleman with a brain tumor. He was on hospice, and had a loving family that took excellent care of him.
"As his ability to speak and eat slowly waned, he began to sleep more, but clearly showed no signs of distress in any way. Finally, he was comatose.
"He remained that way for about a week and his family continued to care for him with great love. One morning, a snowstorm prevented his daughter from going to work as a teacher. School was canceled. Instead, she went upstairs to begin his morning care. As she walked into the room, she was shocked to find her father sitting up in bed with his arms raised toward the ceiling.
"She called to her mother and said, 'Mom, come quick, dad's been healed!'
"At that very moment, he fell back to the bed and was deceased. That moment she had walked into the room was his moment of passing and he was reaching for his eternity and for whomever was calling him."
[resources: afterlife books]
[send near-death experiences here]
self ping for later reading
For non-Catholics, the Divine Mercy is a portrait of Jesus commissioned by a sainted Polish nun.
It portrays Jesus robed in white standing with his right hand in a gesture of blessing and his left hand upon his heart, from which is issuing a reddish ray symbolizing the blood and a bluish ray symbolizing the water that gushed from his side when it was pierced by the centurion.
Bump to read tonight.
And I see that NYer has included a picture.
Beautiful stories. Believers know that they need not fear death, as it is only the beginning.
That picture kept me out of a lot of trouble during my youth. Felt like he was staring into my soul.
I have many stories that have been told to me but I have two that happened in the last 3 weeks.I have to run but if I have the time I will post them tonight.
If I remember, Saul’s experience when struck by lightning resembles a near death experience, too.
My friend’s old boss had a near death experience. He said he was given a choice to go on or go back, but these were the trials he would face (they came true). He chose to go back. He said he lives a much better life now than he did before that.
My friend also read a book about 1500 near death experiences. ALL of them were the same with seeing the light. Sometimes it grows and the whole place is filled with love and peace, but for others it shuts off, and the people say they feel sick, alone, and like their body is on fire before they are called back.
My friend’s old boss had a near death experience. He said he was given a choice to go on or go back, but these were the trials he would face (they came true). He chose to go back. He said he lives a much better life now than he did before that.
My friend also read a book about 1500 near death experiences. ALL of them were the same with seeing the light. Sometimes it grows and the whole place is filled with love and peace, but for others it shuts off, and the people say they feel sick, alone, and like their body is on fire before they are called back.
We are non-Catholic as well, but have a hand-painted portrait of Jesus that I picked up at a flea market years ago and His eyes seem to follow you as you walk across the room. It creeps my grandkids out.
The divine isn't real, so there must be some other, natural explanation?
Oh, and since only natural observable phenomena are allowed, then of course, that proves that only natural phenomena {in this case, lightning] occur! Is that what you are trying to say or mean?
Nowhere in Paul's own, personally written account, did he equate it with what we know today as "lightning".
Please!!! We want to hear them!
“... alone,...”
That is hell in a word.
Heaven is with God. Hell is apart from God.
Just like sin. There is faith. And there is everything else. Everything else is sin.
Do not go toward the light. It’s a trap!
That is probably the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. There are many versions of it and this is as close as I could come. The more common image does not show His arms.
Here is the history of that image.
It was to Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690), a humble Visitandine of the monastery at Paray-le Monial, that Christ chose to reveal the desires of His Heart and to confide the task of imparting new life to the devotion. There is nothing to indicated that this pious religious had known the devotion prior to the revelations, or at least that she had paid any attention to it. These revelations were numerous, and the following apparitions are especially remarkable: that which occurred on the feast of St. John, when Jesus permitted Margaret Mary, as He had formerly allowed St. Gertrude, to rest her head upon His Heart, and then disclosed to her the wonders of His love, telling her that He desired to make them known to all mankind and to diffuse the treasures of His goodness, and that He had chosen her for this work (27 Dec., probably 1673); that, probably distinct from the preceding, in which He requested to be honoured under the figure of His Heart of flesh; that, when He appeared radiant with love and asked for a devotion of expiatory love -- frequent Communion, Communion on the First Friday of the month, and the observance of the Holy Hour (probably June or July, 1674); that known as the "great apparition" which took place during the octave of Corpus Christi, 1675, probably on 16 June, when He said, "Behold the Heart that has so loved men . . . instead of gratitude I receive from the greater part (of mankind) only ingratitude . . .", and asked her for a feast of reparation of the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi, bidding her consult Father de la Colombière, then superior of the small Jesuit house at Paray; and finally, those in which solemn homage was asked on the part of the king, and the mission of propagating the new devotion was especially confided to the religious of the Visitation and the priests of the Society of Jesus.
Notice the strong resemblance to the Divine Mercy image! When our Lord appeared to Sr. Faustina, he asked that His image be painted with the words: "Jesus I Trust in You" below it. The Polish nun could not paint and someone was commissioned to paint it according to her description.
It's a remarkable story and one worth reading. Jesus asked Sr. Faustina to be His Secretary of Divine Mercy and to keep a diary.
"Your task is to write down everything that I make known to you about My mercy, for the benefit of those who by reading these things will be comforted in their souls and will have the courage to approach Me."
The following site has posted extracts from it.
Thanks for the description. I was wondering about that. Divine Mercy is a perfect name for it. :-)
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