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.
My belief is one step further. With God there is no time, no beginning, no ending. So I believe that when you die you see and are with everyone that you know, whether they be dead or alive. It’s why heaven is what they say heaven is supposed to be.
Personally, I prefer to see my Savior greeting me with open arms. (BTW, which do you think will be more crowded, Heaven or Hell? Just food for thought.)
After my cardiac arrest, people asked me if I saw “the light” or any family or friends who had died. I didn’t see either and was kind of bummed. Maybe it just meant that it wasn’t my time. It would be nice to know that there are people waiting for me when my number comes up.
I look forward to seeing my loved ones who had the hope of heaven...but first and foremost, I want to see Jesus.
“
THOSE DYING SAID TO ENCOUNTER ROOM FULL OF PARENTS, SPOUSES,
CHILDREN, IN-LAWS, FRIENDS
“
Except for the friends...this might be a trip to hell for too many people.
(yes, I’m being somewhat facetious...)
I spent a lot of time with an elder brother before he passed away and I could hear him talking to deceased relatives, both recent and long ago. At first, I attributed this to the drugs he was on for pain. However, as death drew nearer, he asked that the drugs be stopped so he could speak with his family coherently. Even then, these experiences continued. I did a lot of reading on the subject, including a book which actually was able to calculate the weight of a soul at about 1/8th of an ounce by measuring the loss of body weight at the time of death and adjusting for air in the lungs, etc.
I came away convinced that all people have souls and possibly even do some animals.
later
My mother will ask, “Is THAT what you’re wearing?”
read
and my aunt will ask me if I had washed behind my ears...lol
My mother will ask, “Is THAT what you’re wearing?”
From http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=44827
The physician, waiting up with Voltaire at his death, said that he cried out with utter desperation, “I am abandoned by God and man. I will give you half of what I am worth if you will give me six months of life. Then I shall go to hell and you will go with me, oh, Christ, oh, Jesus Christ!”
The morning my mother died, she told a health care worker that her mother and father were “looking for her”. Momma died in 1999 and her faculties were about 80%, so I don’t think this was dementia or senility. Her father died in 1923 and her mother died in 1946.
My hope is to hear Jesus say to me “Well done, good and faithful servant”.
That’s merely the beginning of a reality, which is so much more profound than ours. For the very first time you will love with the power of God’s Love. The other five senses explode. With the telephoto lenses of the Golden Eagle, scent of a bloodhound, the hearing of an elk, touch of a butterfly, and the taste appreciation senses of the great gormand. We are utterly unprepared for the transition.
This fascinates me. I was listening to the late nite Coast to Coast radio show one night and there was a long time hospice worker who had worked with thousands of people in their last days. He said that almost all the Cristians her worked with saw an Angel sometime during thier last days. When I told my wife about this she was shocked. She told me something she had never told anyone. When she was with her mother, days before her mother’s death, he mother pointed at the ceiling and asked my wife if she saw the angel. She then talked to the angel. My wife always thought it was the pain medication so she never repeated it. Now she’s not so sure.
For those of you interested in this topic, you might want to read of Tiffany Snow’s near-death experience (lightning strike) and what she learned from it. Fascinating, believable (at least to me), reassuring and enlightening.
www.tiffanysnow.com
“God’s Law: Love Always Wins”
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