Today we had the Gospel reading from John of the raising of Lazarus. Unfortunately, it isn't recorded in the Gospel account if Lazarus had anything to say about his four days of being dead. However, now there is a plethora of near-death literature. I admit to a fascination with it, and I have read quite a few of the books about the subject. My faith isn't dependent on these accounts; the skeptics could be right that they are just the result of the misfiring of oxygen-starved neurons. After all, none of these people have actually stayed "dead", they have all come back to tell the story. There are the earlier works, such as Raymond Moody's Life After Life, and Betty Eadie's Embraced By the Light. There is Don Piper's 90 Minutes in Heaven. And Todd Burpo's Heaven is for Real, about his young son's experience of nearly dying. I read the book, didn't see the movie. My personal favorite is Joyce Brown's Heavenly Answers to Earthly Challenges, perhaps because there is more about making one's life pleasing to God, and finding meaning in hardship. My criticism of some of these books is that they make a book out of something which could be covered in a decent length magazine article. They add a lot of extraneous material and family background, when what I really want to know is, "What happened while you were there?" And of course, the truth is that I'm just going to have to wait, I have to trust in Jesus' words in John 14: 1-3 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God[a]; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am."
And I Cor. 2:9 : "...eye has not seen, and ear not heard, and which have not come into man's heart, which God has prepared for them that love him."
I remember seeing this about Heaven Is For Real ...Boy Says He Didn't Go To Heaven; Publisher Says It Will Pull Book.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if I believe in these experiences but I want to hope they are true. One of my favorite past novels was "Passage" by Connie Willis. It was about a scientist who studied Near Death Experiences.
A friend of mine died and came back. He as declared dead, the operating room was cleaned up, we had released his obituary to the media (I was in college PR at the time), and he was on the gurney headed for organ retrieval, and his wife saw him eyelid flutter. They turned the gurney around, raced back to the OR, hollered "clear" and did all the other stuff you see in the movies, and life returned.
ReplyDeleteHe didn't remember a thing, but he described the experience as being "not uncomfortable"
Crystal, I want to hope they are true, too. I did see that item about the boy who retracted his story. It was actually about a different book than "Heaven is for Real".
ReplyDeleteI enjoy Connie Willis' books, especially "The Doomsday Book", and I have "Passage". I actually haven't read it yet, I put it aside for later, and forgot about it. Thanks for reminding me about it; I am going to find it and read it.
I read that Willis; mother died when she was a child and the book was kind of inspired by that. The ending of the book was very mysterious and yet positive :)
DeleteI never realized how much I want heaven to be real until I started having dead loved ones. The thought of them being gone forever is just too awful.
Tom, the older I get, the more I like hearing about someone who found dying "not uncomfortable"!
ReplyDeleteI was clinically dead for a few minutes due to a cardiac arrest during surgery. I was ten at the time. I did not experience anything at all. My first memories are of about three days after the surgery. I have read a number of books written primarily by evangelical christians. Interesting that they all meet Jesus, who looks like a fair-skinned European. The little boy's Jesus looked amazingly like a portrait of Jesus done by a little girl in eastern Europe. He picked it out of a line-up of photos. This portrait, of course, was of a European Jesus, very generic from childhood prayer books I had. Interesting that he remembered nothing until several years after his near-death experience, not until his parents were at wits end financially. His father is a minister of a non-denominational congregation. The little boy may not have deliberately lied, but he may have been encouraged by questions and conversations to develop memories that had not previously existed.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago I decided to look for literature and studies on the subject from non-christian sources and found several interesting books. The bright light and tunnel seem fairly universal. Seeing relatives is also universal. But only christians see Jesus and angels and other christian symbols. Personally, I think it is all in the mind, and that when near death, our minds conjure up certain images. In the case of one woman's book (she lives in Hong Kong, but is of Indian heritage), her near-death visions were of her father forgiving her of the scandal she caused the family by refusing to marry the man they had chosen for her. I believe he had died several years earlier without forgiving her unconditionally. She was always somewhat distant from the family after that, later married a westerner. So her "dying" thoughts were of what she most wanted - forgiveness and acceptance of her choices from her father.
Anne, I have also noticed that Jesus in these accounts tends to look like the people's preconceived ideas. Though one thing some have said is that appearances really don't matter at all in the next world, and people see loved ones as they remember them.
ReplyDeleteCrystal, I feel the same way about lost loved ones. Sometimes I dream about having tea with my mom, or something very mundane like that. I hope there's room for some mundane in heaven.
Since it seems unlikely that heaven requires material human bodies, then it makes sense that people simply envision what is familiar. I don't think these visions are of real visits to "heaven", but are simply the work of the mind under the stress of the chemical changes that may precede the death of the brain. It would be lovely if the stories were true, but I am sceptical. Science can explain most of what people report about their near-death experiences, but a few questions remain. If what christianity teaches about the Trinity is true, why do people only meet Jesus? Maybe some meet the Father. If it is really "heaven", then why don't non-christians also meet Jesus or the Father or the Spirit, for that matter? They report the same feelings of happiness, peace, etc that is found in the christian literature on near-death experiences, but no christian symbolism.
ReplyDeleteI am skeptical also, to a degree. However, in most of these accounts, people report seeing a "light" which radiates love. They assumed that this was God, or Jesus, however they understand him. In earthly life, Jesus met people where they were. Whether or not these experiences are "real", wouldn't God meet people where they were, in death? In nearly all the accounts, the people report knowing that there was a threshold, that once crossed, was a point of no return. It seems logical that a lot of knowledge would take place beyond that threshold.
ReplyDeleteYes, the common elements include light, very often a tunnel to the light, a sense of peace, contentment and love and meeting family or friends. This is true of accounts by non-christians as well as those of christians. But these remembered feelings most likely are the result of brain chemicals than of a real trip to "heaven". The specifics of the reports, such as the one developed by the family of the little boy that produced a book and a movie, seem to be products of imagination. In the case of young children who claim to have seen Jesus or God, yet had not remembered anything during the first years after their near-death experience, it seems likely that the memories that came later are the result of suggestion, deliberate or not. The stories are interesting. The scientists are trying to develop ways of testing them. For example, some people report floating above their own bodies, usually during surgery, looking down on themselves and the operating room staff. I think that some have tried putting an object in the scene of cardiac arrest patients after the person has gone under, removing it before resuscitation, to see if the patient remembers seeing it. As far as I know, none have.
DeleteI believe that there is a great deal about the brain that we do not know. As a natural sceptic, I discounted reports of telepathy - until I experienced it personally. So I am trying to keep an open mind on NDE! ;)
Anne, I've had a couple of experiences of clairvoyance or prescience myself. And didn't we all have an auntie with the "second sight"; at least those of us with a little Irish in our background? Would make an interesting discussion sometime.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI had one brief and inexplicable experience that happened out of the blue when I was wide awake, healthy, and not under the influence of any substances. I talked to a priest about it, and she (Episcopalian) said it was fairly common. She suggested it as a focus for prayer and reflection and advised me not to tell people about it because comments from others would change the memory, make them think I was crazy, or I could end up embellishing it. It was very good advice. (And, no, I did not go to heaven.)
ReplyDelete