When you die, there is a great likelihood that you will not only be greeted by deceased loved ones, but that there will be a roomful of them.Posted on 08/09/2010 9:21:15 AM PDT by NYer
When you die, there is a great likelihood that you will not only be greeted by deceased loved ones, but that there will be a roomful of them.
This comes to us from actual hospice researchers -- who increasingly are describing the experiences of those who approach the glorious threshold of death (as are hospital medical personnel).
In our dark times, to declare the threshold of death as glorious seems strange, and yet it is also totally accurate: there is a glorious Light at the end of the tunnel for those who are not condemned. And even before that, there is a glorious reunion.
One of those who has come out to reveal the mechanics of "passing over" is David Kessler, a health-care worker whose book is even entitled Visions, Trips, and Crowded Rooms (and was recently highlighted by the Los Angeles archdiocesan newspaper).
"I've been intrigued by the use of the words 'crowd' and 'crowded,' writes Kessler. "When I started compiling examples to include in this book, I was surprised by how similar they were. In fact, it was hard to pick which ones to use because they were all so much alike. Perhaps we don't have a full grasp of how many people we've met, and we certainly can't recall all of the individuals who crossed our paths when we were children. In the tapestry of life and death, we may not always think about those who have come before us; we just know where we as individuals are positioned in the family tree. In dying, however, perhaps we're able to make connections to the past that we'd missed earlier in life."
Intriguing indeed. Will we encounter everyone in our family lines back to Adam? Plus all our friends?
"I often say that when someone is dying, it may be a 'standing room only' experience," the researcher says. "As I've stated previously, I firmly believe that just as loving hands greet us when we're born, loving arms will embrace us when we die."
He then cites several examples.
In some cases, those dying list every person they "see" to hospice workers. They carry on conversations with an invisible world that is every bit as real to them as the physical one. Parents. Spouses. Sisters. Brothers. Uncles. Aunts. Even friends and in-laws.
Said one: "I saw something last night that doesn't make sense. In the middle of the night, I woke up and my room was filled with people. I couldn't understand what was going on. I knew that doctors weren't making rounds with their students at that hour. I looked at the faces I saw -- they went on and on. While I only knew some of them, they all seemed familiar. Then I had this realization that all of these individuals were dead. I even noticed a colleague from work who'd died five years ago from cancer."
When asked by her daughter who she was talking to, another one said, "Why, people I've know my whole life. They've been gone a long time, but they're here to see me. So many of them -- what a crowd!"
The dying will sometimes use expressions like, "Look at all the old-timers going by" (in our own recollection of such cases).
This is how merciful Jesus is -- He never allows us to be alone, not even at the moment of death. Although we may have problems with some of those who endorse Kessler's book (as often occurs, New Agers gravitate toward many sorts of spiritual phenomena), it is fascinating. Many may try to chalk it up to hallucination, but cases where drugs were used that could cause such effects or symptoms indicating hallucination were not cited in the book.
Moreover, skeptics will have trouble explaining cases like that of one woman who was dying of pancreatic cancer while her husband Joseph was at a separate facility for severe Alzheimer's. Suddenly, recounts Kessler, she looked up and said, "Joseph died. Why didn't anyone tell me this?" She was assured by her daughter that Joseph was still in the nursing home. "Look, there he is!" insisted the dying woman. Gazing past everyone, she said, "Joseph, you came back for me!"
In the meantime, the daughter had decided to bring her father over to see the mom, and a cousin went to the nursing station to call the nursing home -- only to find out that Joseph indeed had died fifteen minutes before, of a heart attack.
Many years ago my mother was severely burned and not expected to live. As she lay dying she saw heaven opened and began to float up toward JESUS! However, he did NOT have his arms out to greet her. He said to her..”You have three little babies”. Then she began to float back down.
She survived her burns and lived another forty two years before dying of renal failure. As she lay dying again she was talking to someone in the room. My sister asked who she was talking to and she said “Those men in black there. One is standing and one is sitting in the chair there”. There was no one else in the room but my sister and mom. She died a few days later.
Scared the tar out of my sister!
My mom never told us about her first experience till we were middle aged.
Watching someone die can be a mystical thing. My FIL was acting out riding in his truck and going fishing. My MIL waited until all the family had visited and died very peacefully after counting each person she wanted in the room.
I had someone relate his experience, He wasn’t feeling well and had a massive heart attack in front of the doctor at the entrance of the hospital. He stated he worked hard all his life and asked the doctor not to give up on him, and the doctor and his team went longer than usual in trying to resucitate him and later the doctor told him he could not explain why he lived. Part of his story is that he saw a light at the end of a tunnel and watched it “rain cats and dogs” of people going downward to hell and a few going up to heaven.
I hope and pray that more people will go to heaven. I am trying to work on a very Liberal former Catholic now an aethist in his 70’s. It is an uphill battle. God is very forgiving, but individuals need to accept and Love God.
Aw, thank you, mlizzy. I guess I’m having a day where I’m very conscious of my weaknesses!
I love that quote so much! I’m going to try to make it my tagline, if you don’t mind. It’s so true!
“It helps, however, to ask our Lord on a daily basis, to guide and direct us to where He needs us most. And then, follow where He has led us.”
Amen!
Atta gal, Melian. Great tagline!! *smiles*
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