near death experiences
 

I heard that when you have a near death experience you go through a tunnel of light and a being asks you 2 questions. what have you learned and how have you increased your capacity to love. hmm very interesting, any thought?

Most who report near death experiences seem to report the tunnel and seeing the loved ones. That seems pretty much universal, cuts across all cultures and religious beliefs. For that reason, I believe that's the case.

As for the 2 questions thing, aside from the tunnel and the loved ones, there does seem to be a wide range of experiences being reported that when collated often seem contradictory. I'm not too sure what to make of that. There does seem to be a wide range of experiences. Some people seem to go through some form of life review and some don't.

There seem to be certain "constants" with n.d.e.s, the life review is one ,just like you are watching a movie of your actions,and how they affected you and others around you. Another common feature of the experience,seems to be that you are totally and unconditionaly accepted and loved ,whatever things you may have done in life,it seems like that if any judgement takes place at all,it,s you who judge yourself , your shortfalls, and sucesses, the brief experiences of the actual afterlife, before you are brought back ,would probably depend on what you expected, i.e if you were an aethist you might not see anything for a while, until it dawns on you ,that you are still thinking so something must have survived, if you were a devout catholic on the other hand,you,d probably see the Virgin Mary,in the early stages the afterlife tailors itself to your expectations

Yes, I've read of this several places, jessica.

An excellent book for exploring the subject further is P.M.H. A****er's books on Near Death Experiences.

And you might be interested in this thread: What can we learn about death from near death experiences? - http://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=22123


Xan

I have done academic research on this subject as well as have had an experience myself. There are so many similarities that it is astonishing. My results from several interviews were bittersweet. So many people spoke of the beautiful things they experienced but most felt they would never be truly happy again until they eventually get to really "go home". It left many with a sense of melancholy in their day to day life. They were able to taste the sweetness of what is to come and long to be there again.

Oh yes Jess, read the NDE with the link Xan posted, they are brillant!!! and you will find many people expierence it differently, but some have many traits (if i can call it that) in common. I also beleive that what one expierences is also what ones beleived in before hand.

The question that carries the most merit (in NDE experiences) is:


"What have you done for your fellow man?"

A good book on near death experiences is "Secrets of the Light" by Dannion Brinkley. In this book he tells us that when we die we go through a life review, where we evaluate the lessons we learned in this life, the mistakes we made and the hurt we caused. It's like re-living your life from the point of view of other people, to see how valuable our contribution has been.

This seems as a logical step to moving forward. Here is a quote from the book:

"We do not necessarily leave this side of life and end up in the glory of heaven as angles of infinite light. When we leave this side of life we pick up life on the other side with pretty much the same issues and attitudes to work through.

Our quest for spiritual perfection is an ongoing process both here and in the hereafter. What we leave unfinished here, we will finish there. So it really does serve us to live in a way that honors the gift of life we have been given."
Dannion Brinkley, recounting his near death experience in his book “Secrets of the Light”.

The 'tunnel of light' seems to be a common situation, widely reported as suggested elsewhere, over many cultures....

The 'two questions' business is purely a human-created fancy but they are interesting general questions to pose folk alive in the here and now. :wink:

One might ask, WHY many have this experience, but the vast majority never do.
What is it about some, that they've been given this unique perspective on life?
Did they have a role to fulfill that otherwise might not have been pursued?

That they've been able to share it with us is wonderful,
Yet I still wonder how-if my life might have changed, had I experienced this.

I've had many transcendent experiences with LSD& meditation , and varied spiritual ones after that.... so perhaps I didn't need that adjustment.

Likewise I've always known ET's are here, yet I've never seen a craft.