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Doctor Claims He Has Evidence of the Afterlife
MSNBC ^ | 1/20/10 | Michael Inbar

Posted on 01/21/2010 6:27:18 AM PST by marshmallow

In new book, he says that near-death accounts transcend cultures and ages

The near-death experience story is so common that it has become a bit of a cliché: A medical patient, hanging in a murky limbo between life and death, is drawn through a tunnel of bright light, meets their maker, and is told they must return to the land of living.

But that scenario played out letter-perfectly for Mary Jo Rapini. And her story is getting firm backing by a doctor who has studied some 1,300 near-death experiences. Medical doctor Jeffrey Long chronicles Rapini’s story, along with his own research, in a new book: “Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences.”

In the book, Long contends his study shows that accounts of near-death experiences play out remarkably similarly among the people who have had them, crossing age and cultural boundaries to such a degree that they can’t be chalked up simply to everyone having seen the same Hollywood movie.

Through a tunnel

Appearing with Dr. Long on TODAY Wednesday, Rapini related her near-death experience to Meredith Vieira. A clinical psychologist, Rapini had long worked with terminal cancer patients, and when they told her of their near-death experiences, she would often chalk their stories up as a reaction to their pain medication.

But in April 2003, she faced her own mortality. Rapini told Vieira she suffered an aneurysm while working out a gym and was rushed to the hospital. She was in an intensive care unit for three days when she took a turn for the worse.

“All of a sudden [doctors] were rushing around me and inserting things into me, and they called my husband,” she told Vieira.

“I looked up and I saw this light; it wasn’t a normal light, it was different. It was luminescent.

(Excerpt) Read more at today.msnbc.msn.com ...


TOPICS: Current Events; General Discusssion; Theology
KEYWORDS: nde; ndes; neardeathexperience
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In 1994 my wife contracted viral meningeal-encephalitis. Early in her 14 days in ICU she coded but was brought back to life. Several months after recovering I asked her what she remembered of the experience. Among a lot of other details, she talked about the overwhelming feeling of love. She said she was given a choice of staying or coming back to us. She said even though her overwhelming urge was to stay, she realized that I would be left with raising our three children, who were 12, 9, & 7 at the time. Thank God she chose to return to us. I consider her decision to be the ultimate expression of her love for our family.


81 posted on 01/21/2010 11:28:24 AM PST by OB1kNOb (Q: What's the difference between Obama and his dog, Bo? A: Bo has papers.)
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To: r9etb
"Aside from that little episode on the road to Damascus, you mean."

I think that encountering God on this plane (like Moses and the burning bush) is not the same as coming before Him at His throne of grace.
I've been pondering this most of today (I'm in my office, sooo I've got "distractions"), and thinking about all of the encounters we (humans) have had with the Living God over the millenia, and there does seem to be a little difference when it's down here (unlike Isaiah is ch. 6 or John in Revelation) - Jesus speaking to Saul on that Damascus Road, etc.
"r9etb", I want to take some time to study this, how and why it is different - thanks for the exchange and for giving me to ponder.
Have a blessed day.

82 posted on 01/21/2010 11:31:43 AM PST by Psalm 73 ("Gentlemen, you can't fight in here - this is the War Room".)
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To: waxer1

Thank you for sharing your experience and sincere sympathy on the loss of your little boy.


83 posted on 01/21/2010 12:04:14 PM PST by Churchillspirit (9/11/01...NEVER FORGET.)
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To: Psalm 73
Thanks, FRiend. You have a blessed day, too.

I'd just leave you with something I've learned the hard way over the past couple of years.

Scripture is a wonderful thing, and discussing and defending Scripture is often necessary. There really are people whose actions must be countered through its use; and whose understanding of Scripture needs to be corrected.

But sometimes we can get so wrapped up in our defense and arguments that we forget the basic difference between Scripture and God. Jesus spells it out in John 5: You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

I'm not accusing you of that sin; rather, I'm recounting the lesson that I had to learn, which was that when defending Scripture and debating theology, it is all too easy to lose sight of the real point, which is nothing more or less than God's love for us. It has to be accounted for -- and it changes the logical and theological basis of a lot of the arguments one commonly sees, sometimes to the point of making us change our position on a matter.

To win the argument at the expense of losing sight of God's love (and that's how religious controversy always seems to end up...) is no victory at all. The image of Christianity we present to the world in such fights is one of ugliness and conflict -- precisely the opposite of image of Christianity that we would want to convey.

I think the distinction between prophetic encounters (and in that I count the sorts of personal contact you and I might have with the Holy Spirit) is really only a matter of degree, rather than kind, from the type of contact described in these experiences.

That's why I reacted to your initial post ... it seemed to raise Scriptural argument over a phenomenon which I think is probably real, and amazingly hopeful not just to those who have the experience, but also to those of us who hear their stories.

84 posted on 01/21/2010 12:13:19 PM PST by r9etb
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To: marshmallow

bookmark


85 posted on 01/21/2010 1:42:11 PM PST by massmike (...So this is what happens when OJ's jury elects the president....)
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To: Psalm 73

“Saul of Tarsus no doubt had Divinely-inspired visions of heaven, but did not claim to actually meet God face-to-face.”

Corinthians 15

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you— unless you believed in vain.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, HE APPEARED ALSO TO ME.


86 posted on 01/21/2010 1:52:46 PM PST by paulist ("For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." - Philippians 1:21)
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To: Psalm 73
Being "born again" is a confined view of scripture? Jesus is quite clear on what He means by that

No he is not, if you know Greek. Besides, that conversation never took place because in Aramaic it would not be a pun (it's not in Greke either, except by a stretch).

87 posted on 01/21/2010 8:33:51 PM PST by kosta50 (Don't look up -- the truth is all around you.)
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To: cqnc
Most people have a poor concept of Eternity since mathematics fails ordinary folk at or near infinity. Assuming it is at least a million years you are here on this planet for about .00008 of it. Love one another!

I remember a sermon once that tried to put eternity into some perspective. Imagine a steel ball the size of the Earth, and set one tiny ant walking on it. The time it takes for the footsteps of that ant to grind the steel ball into powder, is the beginning of the first second of eternity.

That's one reason I've never been able to accept the "sitting on a cloud" view of heaven. It seems more like this is boot camp, and heaven is when the real work, and the real rewards, begin.

But, that's just my interpretation.
88 posted on 01/21/2010 8:35:14 PM PST by Ellendra (Can't starve us out, and you can't make us run. . . -Hank Jr.)
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To: Quix

Thanks for the ping!


89 posted on 01/21/2010 8:45:33 PM PST by Alamo-Girl
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To: Shimmer1

I have often wondered why there is nothing at all in scripture from Lazarus. I mean, wouldn’t you imagine he had a lot to say? I guess it was not considered important enough to write down, but that has always seemed odd to me.

As for Judgment Day, there are various explanations, one side is that we are *dead* until the end and then we wake up (so, to us it would feel immediate, but wouldn’t explain an experience of going into a light upon death since these people come back here and now). The other side is that our souls go somewhere while our bodies are dead and we get new ones later.

I personally think (but what do I know, this is just supposition) that God and Heaven are outside of time as we know it, and so to us, we die and we are immediately judged, because everything has already happened. I admit, this is hard to get my mind around, but it makes some sort of sense to me.

I like the *idea* of people dying and coming back, but I don’t think really jibes with scripture, since the vast majority of them have a pleasant experience and don’t want to leave (unless of course the light is Lucifer, who comes as an Angel of Light).


90 posted on 01/22/2010 8:56:47 AM PST by brytlea (Jesus loves me, this I know.)
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To: TexasCajun

I hadn’t thought of that...


91 posted on 01/22/2010 8:59:38 AM PST by brytlea (Jesus loves me, this I know.)
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To: TexasCajun
For some reason, there never seems to be any reports of people going to the bad place, and coming back to tell of it, like there are of people seeing the light and coming back...maybe there is no bad place?

...or no coming back, just the welcome matt.

Good point! If the life you lived had been bad enough to condemn you to hell, why would you be sent back to carry out more evil?

92 posted on 01/22/2010 9:08:45 AM PST by GreenHornet
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To: Lazamataz

You went to the Hell for hot naked women?


93 posted on 01/22/2010 9:19:11 AM PST by brytlea (Jesus loves me, this I know.)
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To: Nea Wood

Self-ping for later.


94 posted on 01/22/2010 3:10:15 PM PST by Nea Wood (Silly liberal . . . paychecks are for workers!)
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To: GreenHornet
If the life you lived had been bad enough to condemn you to hell,

The lives we ALL live are bad enough to condemn us to hell. Every last one of us.

It is only by the cleansing of the blood of Christ that we are redeemed and given the gift of eternal life in heaven, should we accept that gift.

95 posted on 01/24/2010 5:21:07 PM PST by alnick
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To: woollyone

No, English uses commas. Translators misplaced it.


96 posted on 02/18/2010 11:38:27 AM PST by Hootowl
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To: Psalm 73

English uses commas, not Greek. English translators inserted the comma where they thought it should be and quite possibly were wrong.


97 posted on 02/18/2010 11:39:29 AM PST by Hootowl
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To: Hootowl
So if the original koine Greek used no punctuation...

...how in the world could a translator misplace what was not there originally?

One cannot misplace something that does not exist.

=)

98 posted on 02/19/2010 11:06:35 AM PST by woollyone ("The trouble with socialism is you run out of other people's money to spend." Margaret Thatcher)
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To: woollyone

Are you being deliberately obtuse?


99 posted on 02/26/2010 8:53:15 AM PST by Hootowl
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To: Hootowl

Are you being ntentionally rude?

We’ll try this again ...

We both agree that koine Greek has no punctuation
You claim the comma (punctuation) was misplaced
I replied that you cannot misplace something that does not exist
You then call ME obtuse

you’re projecting or unable to grasp what is plain and obvious


100 posted on 02/26/2010 3:31:54 PM PST by woollyone ("The trouble with socialism is you run out of other people's money to spend." Margaret Thatcher)
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