afterwards
The subject of near death experiences occasionally throws up some interesting testimonies.
By near death experience I mean the direct experience of heaven or God or angels or departed relatives which is often described by someone who has supposedly clinically died or come close to death, and then been revived.
From the investigator's viewpoint I would recognise that some of the claims are genuine, in the sense that the people genuinely believe they experienced what they are describing.
My opinion is that there are motives to lie, a book deal, sensationalism, mischief, etc.
But they are not all lying.
My Aunty Pat had a near death experience fifty years ago and kept it secret.
She told me years later that during a difficult birthing in hospital she had felt the presence of her own dead mother standing at her shoulder, that she could see endless stretches of flowers, and that she could hear music which was of an indescribable beauty.
She had asked the doctor the following day: "Doctor did I die in the operating room?"
He had replied: "It is better to put these things behind us."
She only spoke about the matter decades later when other people at a prayer group with her, recounted similar experiences.
She has become my benchmark for the analysis that they're not all lying.
But how many of them are telling the truth?
And have any of them, my aunt included, experienced what they think they experienced?
There seems to be no way as yet to prove that the experiences are more than a dream or a medication induced fantasy.
I'm keeping my heart open. There are five immediate testimonies which I would commend to your attention amid the hokum and the business ventures and the less than credible new agey stuff. These are to be found on Mr Youtube's sometimes useful sometimes opprobrious website. Do a search with the key names and you'll find what I'm asking you to look at.
1. Don Piper's experience. He was injured in a well verified car crash. (A truck drove into his car.) He claims that his death was established four times by responders at the scene. We might wonder were they really sure. It's a legitimate question. But hear his account and see what you think. A film has just been released about his case.
2. Mickey Robinson. Again the accident he was in is well attested. An adventure sport lover, he had his claimed direct experience of the immortal truth in the crash of a light aircraft he was due to parachute from. He claims to have seen hell and to have encountered God. The accident occurred forty five years ago. Mr Robinson is still around and sharing his testimony, and there is plenty of current footage of him. I find him credible for two particular reasons. Firstly he still carries some of the visible marks of his injuries and these are injuries that might inhibit the confidence of some people who had experienced them, and might lead some of us who have not experienced them to look on him as a victim. Yet he doesn't exude victimhood. When you look at him you feel you are looking at a good looking, fortunate, much blessed, and fulfulled human being, the sort of man many of us would like to be be. The injuries are just there but in no way seem to diminish his personhood. In the light of God they have become part of who he is but not a limiting part. I am reminded of the teaching: The Lord turns to the good all things for those who love him. The second reason he seems credible to me is a throwaway remark he made after describing his supposed supernatural experience. He said: "After I saw hell I couldn't even bear to hear people say to one another: Go to hell. If you saw it, you wouldn't wish your worst enemy to go there. I don't care who it is. Hitler, Osama, Saddam, whoever. If you saw hell you wouldn't want them there."
3. Ian McCormack. He was stung repeatedly by jellyfish while surfing off a tropical island. The testimony about the afterlife from this man did not at first engage me. Again it was one of the throw away remarks he made when his main testimony was over, that made me sit up and take notice.
4. Doctor Mary Neal. She's got a pragmatic almost clinical manner as she makes her statement. Can she be believed? According to her testimony, she was drowning in her kayak during a downriver trip in Chile when she had an encounter with eternal life. She's quite blunt about the experiential truth of it and insists she knows it was no dream.
5. Ali Perez. A hard bitten enough police officer from the USA. There's short five minute footage of him available from his appearance on Pat Robertson's CNN network which includes a dramatisation of his claimed experiences. It's good footage but I recommend you access a longer talk he gave to fellow police officers recently. In a shoot out he was hit several times and claims certain incredible events unfolded while the shoot out was going on. His injuries and the reality of the shoot out cannot be questioned. Nor can it be doubted that in court he blessed the man who had shot him. But can anyone believe the rest of what he says? Can such things be?
By near death experience I mean the direct experience of heaven or God or angels or departed relatives which is often described by someone who has supposedly clinically died or come close to death, and then been revived.
From the investigator's viewpoint I would recognise that some of the claims are genuine, in the sense that the people genuinely believe they experienced what they are describing.
My opinion is that there are motives to lie, a book deal, sensationalism, mischief, etc.
But they are not all lying.
My Aunty Pat had a near death experience fifty years ago and kept it secret.
She told me years later that during a difficult birthing in hospital she had felt the presence of her own dead mother standing at her shoulder, that she could see endless stretches of flowers, and that she could hear music which was of an indescribable beauty.
She had asked the doctor the following day: "Doctor did I die in the operating room?"
He had replied: "It is better to put these things behind us."
She only spoke about the matter decades later when other people at a prayer group with her, recounted similar experiences.
She has become my benchmark for the analysis that they're not all lying.
But how many of them are telling the truth?
And have any of them, my aunt included, experienced what they think they experienced?
There seems to be no way as yet to prove that the experiences are more than a dream or a medication induced fantasy.
I'm keeping my heart open. There are five immediate testimonies which I would commend to your attention amid the hokum and the business ventures and the less than credible new agey stuff. These are to be found on Mr Youtube's sometimes useful sometimes opprobrious website. Do a search with the key names and you'll find what I'm asking you to look at.
1. Don Piper's experience. He was injured in a well verified car crash. (A truck drove into his car.) He claims that his death was established four times by responders at the scene. We might wonder were they really sure. It's a legitimate question. But hear his account and see what you think. A film has just been released about his case.
2. Mickey Robinson. Again the accident he was in is well attested. An adventure sport lover, he had his claimed direct experience of the immortal truth in the crash of a light aircraft he was due to parachute from. He claims to have seen hell and to have encountered God. The accident occurred forty five years ago. Mr Robinson is still around and sharing his testimony, and there is plenty of current footage of him. I find him credible for two particular reasons. Firstly he still carries some of the visible marks of his injuries and these are injuries that might inhibit the confidence of some people who had experienced them, and might lead some of us who have not experienced them to look on him as a victim. Yet he doesn't exude victimhood. When you look at him you feel you are looking at a good looking, fortunate, much blessed, and fulfulled human being, the sort of man many of us would like to be be. The injuries are just there but in no way seem to diminish his personhood. In the light of God they have become part of who he is but not a limiting part. I am reminded of the teaching: The Lord turns to the good all things for those who love him. The second reason he seems credible to me is a throwaway remark he made after describing his supposed supernatural experience. He said: "After I saw hell I couldn't even bear to hear people say to one another: Go to hell. If you saw it, you wouldn't wish your worst enemy to go there. I don't care who it is. Hitler, Osama, Saddam, whoever. If you saw hell you wouldn't want them there."
3. Ian McCormack. He was stung repeatedly by jellyfish while surfing off a tropical island. The testimony about the afterlife from this man did not at first engage me. Again it was one of the throw away remarks he made when his main testimony was over, that made me sit up and take notice.
4. Doctor Mary Neal. She's got a pragmatic almost clinical manner as she makes her statement. Can she be believed? According to her testimony, she was drowning in her kayak during a downriver trip in Chile when she had an encounter with eternal life. She's quite blunt about the experiential truth of it and insists she knows it was no dream.
5. Ali Perez. A hard bitten enough police officer from the USA. There's short five minute footage of him available from his appearance on Pat Robertson's CNN network which includes a dramatisation of his claimed experiences. It's good footage but I recommend you access a longer talk he gave to fellow police officers recently. In a shoot out he was hit several times and claims certain incredible events unfolded while the shoot out was going on. His injuries and the reality of the shoot out cannot be questioned. Nor can it be doubted that in court he blessed the man who had shot him. But can anyone believe the rest of what he says? Can such things be?
posted by heelers | 1:15 AM
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