Near Death Experiences

[Greyskull]

Ive been interested in near death experiences for a little while now.
You know, the "what happens when you die?" kinda stuff. Like, what really happens? LOL
Im not sick or 'dying', but I've recently lost the most special person in the world to me, and "what happens when you 'die'?" has been heavy on my mind.
I've been trying to go beyond the bullshit (figuratively & literally) the christian/catholic church "says".... because, well, they only say & do what benefits them. haha. So I dont quite trust/believe what theyd like me too.
So I've been soaking up lots of info via different media sources...

and as Ive been taking everything in I've found it kind of ironic my favorite song (Tool/Parabola) for the last few years is about life/death/lifeafterdeath - I dont really pay attention to lyrics and song meanings Im all about the riffs and the energy... so when I listened & read & thought about the lyrics I went "whoa, dogg" hahaha

anyways....

Anyone here ever been un/fortunate to have a near death experience?

Thoughts/experiences welcome.

Aloha

 

[daheadies]

Incase your interested in some non-christian stuff:

The Islam (kinda on the sufi side) of resurrection is as follows: (Found from one of my books from a class I took, I like this explanation..) (book=Islam Dynamic by Idris Samawi Hamid)

1. The human being - in particular, its soul (Arabicnafs) - survives death. This is not unique to Islam eschatology: the great Greek philosophers such as Plato and Plontinus, most Aristotelians (and probably Aristotle himself) also maintained a belief in the postmortem survival of the soul. Most major traditional religions also hold that the human being survives death in some sense;

2. The human being will undergo a full physical resurrection. That is, the soul and spirit of the individual will be reunited with the body that bore him in this life. On this point Islam parts ways with many other eschatological accounts. It also distinguishes itself from most stories of reincarnation or transmigration of souls. To explain: there are 3 basic ideas concerning what happens after death:

i. On the first, the soul maintains a purely spiritual, rational, or immaterial existence with death; any connection with matter or body is permanently severed;

ii. The soul is reborn in another body within this immediate life or cycle of the world; the body may be that of an animal or of another human form; this is reincarnation or tranmigration of the soul;

iii. The body which perishes and decays is reconstituted and the soul returns to it; this is physical resurrection.

3. Finally, the human being will be recompensed in the next life for his or her deeds in this life. In the most general sense, this is also commonly held byv many if not most traditional cosmologies philosophies.

-We all come from one single universal soul. As the soul returns so do we all return. If any of us were an exception then we would not be part of that universal soul.

-Islam thinks the fundamental point of creation is consciousness, therefore the soul keeps coming back, and sense were all 1 soul ultimately, everyone has to come back, no exceptions....

BUDDHISM and HINDUISM both think that people are reincarnated as well, either into human or animal or what not.. However think that through karma and dharma one can reach some sort of "nirvana".

 

[ganjasuiteseat]

the existence of existence is what keeps me up at night.no dought that there life after death.but my thing is why there is anything even in existence and what was befor existence?nonexistence which is????lol feel me?peace brother and i feel u

 

[daheadies]

In this universe- probably nothingness.
Im a believer in the big bang- found this from a "science and religion" class that I took that reconciled the two.. (Book=Three Big Bangs, by Holmes Rolston)
-"Primordial big bang, now dated about 13.7 billion years ago. Cosmologists have made claims about the duration of the "early universe" - from one microsecond after the initial "singularity" (a singularity example=black hole) to several hundred thousand years (400,000 years) as a superhot universe. They make further claims about an initial "inflation" when the originating universe, less than 10^-35(10 to the negative 35th power) seconds old, jumped in size by an enormous factor (about 10^60)(10 to the 60th power), expanding faster than the speed of light. (Guth 1997; Linde1990). At that time all of the present universe was somehow packed into space smaller than that of a typical atom, and this at extremely high temperature.

Ill talk philosophy / existence all day.. I know a decent amount of european philosophy

 

[rick shaw]

I was bike messengering in Manhattan in '98 When I biffed doing about 15 mph,no helmet.I lost consciousness on impact,awoke as they were loading me in the ambulance and said that my left ear was bleeding and blacked out.

My carotid artery cracked causing an epidural hematoma and a stoke. I woke up three days later,it was a week before I could sit up,I had to learn to walk again.

After I got better there was one nurse who took care of me,she was really interested in this,she asked repeatedly about auras and smells. With the brain damage I had there was no taste or sense of smell. Nothing mystic,no lights,no tunnel. Just blackout.

Years later seizures started,it was the same blackout,which scared me,but theres no pain.

 

[Crusader Rabbit]

You might want to look into the work of Elisabeth Kubler Ross.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/On-Life-After-Death/Elizabeth-Kubler-Ross/e/9781587613180

http://www.selfknowledge.org/resources/bookreviews/lifeafterdeath.htm

http://www.near-death.com/experiences/experts02.html

May you find inner peace my friend

 

[HighDesertJoe]

the existence of existence is what keeps me up at night.no dought that there life after death.but my thing is why there is anything even in existence and what was befor existence?nonexistence which is????lol feel me?peace brother and i feel u

You have put it very well, I don't know if we will ever know.

 

[Suspect]

Soul travels in the infiniteness, where it lands and starts its 'learning process' (life) depends on the soul's earlier achievements (lessons learned)

 

[H^2o2]

when you die it's like falling asleep. When you're sleeping you're not aware of it, correct?

 

[Hash Zeppelin]

^a lot of times when I'm dreaming I know it. if it seems too good to be true then I'm probably asleep. If it seems to be to crazy to be true then I'm probably sleeping.

As far as death goes I think your consciousness rests for eternity in the happiest moments of your life. spend your time doing what you love. don't waste time holding grudges. don't be judgmental. and follow the golden rule.

 

[daheadies]

its possible that heaven is self created. meaning this is it, if you make it.. I know sometimes when times get really really good I realize "agh, this feels like heaven"..I might be wrong.. each life could be a progressive heaven or hell of the last.. possibly then getting to the "ultimate heaven" which is not of this earth..

 

[BlueBlazer]

When I was 15, I drowned after experiencing hypothermia. All my muscles locked up and I couldn't move. As I was sinking, I looked up and saw the surface receding. A feeling of calm and peacefulness filled me as I thought, "this is it, I'm really going to die." I blacked out and came to in shallow water all alone. I have no idea what happened or how I was saved from death.

I don't remember anything except how calm and at peace I was with my impending death. It changed my life friends. I don't worry about what happens after death anymore and so far I'm on my 38th extra year of life the way I see it. It's hard to get down about anything for long when I have this incredible gift of extra time.

 

[dagnabit]

We barely remember who or what came before this precious moment,
We are Choosing to be here right now. Hold on, stay inside...
This holy reality, this holy experience. Choosing to be here in...

This body. This body holding me. Be my reminder here that I am not alone in
This body, this body holding me, feeling eternal all this pain is an illusion.

Alive

This holy reality, in this holy experience. Choosing to be here in...

This body. This body holding me. Be my reminder here that I am not alone in
This body, this body holding me, feeling eternal all this pain is an illusion...
Of what it means to be alive

Swirling round with this familiar parable.
Spinning, weaving round each new experience.
Recognize this as a holy gift and celebrate this
chance to be alive and breathing
chance to be alive and breathing.

This body holding me reminds me of my own mortality.
Embrace this moment. Remember. we are eternal.
all this pain is an illusion.

i always thought it was more about transcendence of consciousness without the need for death..
just my opinion though.

kinda like

I embrace my desire to
I embrace my desire to
feel the rhythm, to feel connected enough to step aside and weep like a widow
to feel inspired to fathom the power, to witness the beauty,
to bathe in the fountain,
to swing on the spiral
to swing on the spiral
to swing on the spiral of our divinity and still be a human.

 

[dmt]

"all we are is the universe experiencing itself subjectively, there is no death, life is just a dream, and we are just the imagination of ourselves," bill hicks (third eye/aenima/tool), d

 

[Greyskull]

Near Death Experiences

Some nice ideas and experiences shared.

Ive found a few websites that post personal experiences and ive dug right in soaking up what those who've been declared dead but come back to life have had to share - from the horses mouth, so to speak.

Some pretty crazy stuff.

Ive read thru each story/experience at www.nderf.org and am amazed at the fluidity between them (and it doesnt appear to me that there is a single author/writing group, as each is written in an 'individual' way). Theres stories/experiences from Christian\Catholics, Jews, Indians, Muslims.... If you have some time id suggest smoking a bowl (i like to roast 2 haha) and read a few.

Theres also a tv show on biography called "I survived... Beyond and back" thats kind of a trip to check out.

 

[SuperSizeMe]

When I was 15, I drowned after experiencing hypothermia. All my muscles locked up and I couldn't move. As I was sinking, I looked up and saw the surface receding. A feeling of calm and peacefulness filled me as I thought, "this is it, I'm really going to die." I blacked out and came to in shallow water all alone. I have no idea what happened or how I was saved from death.

I don't remember anything except how calm and at peace I was with my impending death. It changed my life friends. I don't worry about what happens after death anymore and so far I'm on my 38th extra year of life the way I see it. It's hard to get down about anything for long when I have this incredible gift of extra time.

I had a very similar experience at 15, but only I was on one of the beaches in SoCal, and miy incident was due to pure lack of knowledge of riptides and sandbars on the WC....what's a NorEaster to do?

Should have heeded the Lifeguards warnings, but it didn't seem like I was out that far.Later to find out I was riding the waves on a sea bar that was surrounded by 30-40 of water.

As the wave would pass, I would push off the bottom and wait for the next....until it...or I, moved our positions from the current.I found this out by sinking to the bottom as a wave passed, expecting about 7-feet of water, but finding myself in what seemed like a bottomless pit of water.Needless to say, I panicked.

My first attempt to swim to the top, with no assist of a push-off from the bottom, was met by a whitecap crashing down on my head...I can still remember how violently this thing was spinning me around like some giant Maytag.Subsequent tries netted the same result.

In a last ditch attempt to save my own life, I sank completely to the bottom in what now seemed closer to 40+ ft. of water, with the intention of pushing off the bottom one last time.When I got there however, the plan had changed.As I sat there, ass on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, it got real quiet.I recall looking up at the sun and seeing the shadows of what looked to be 6-10 ft. sharks...lest we forget, this is about the time JAWS was huge...but I wasn't scared.

Peaceful and retrospective is about the best I can desribe it...I had conceded my own death.

Then that survival instinct kicked in once again, one more push...when I broke the surface, I was hit directly in the chest with a large orange object, apparently that lifeguard whom I had been ignoring, wasn't ignoring me.

I managed to slip my arm through one of the straps on this thing and this kick-ass-muthafucka commenced to back-strokin' us both shore-bound.

I couldn't even stand up on the beach, every fiber of my being was completely spent.

He muttered a few cuss words at me as he walked away, me safely on the beach now.

Gratitude beyond my capacity to give was all I felt for that cat, and I couldn't even raise my head out of the sand to thank him.I most definitely was glad I didn't die that day, but like BlueBlazer, I have no fear of death any longer.


Peace,

SSM

sorry bout that novel

 

[BlueBlazer]

That sounds absolutely terrifying SuperSizeMe. I once was caught in a rip, but I was fortunate enough to be able to swim with it until it let me go. It was like being in a car watching the people on the beach pass by.

Always a pleasure to meet another who has felt that calm acceptance of one's imminent death.







But, it's still good to be on this side of the dirt ain't it?

 

[longearedfriend]

apparently death is so beautiful and amazing that if we knew how beautiful and amazing it was, we'd kill ourselves asap

 

[SuperSizeMe]

You would think it would be terrifying, and don't get me wrong, it most certainly was a very sticky spot to be in.I guess we some how access a different part of our brains to shield us from paralyzing fear in those situations...So I really felt none that I recall.

Once I stopped making all the noise in my own head is when the, almost tranquil feeling came over me...very surreal telling/reliving that story, in it's entirety, for the first time.

And yes, it's real nice to still be on this side

Pleasure was mine

Peace,

SSM

That sounds absolutely terrifying SuperSizeMe. I once was caught in a rip, but I was fortunate enough to be able to swim with it until it let me go. It was like being in a car watching the people on the beach pass by.

Always a pleasure to meet another who has felt that calm acceptance of one's imminent death.







But, it's still good to be on this side of the dirt ain't it?

 

[Bullfrog44]

What if death is just the end? An endless sleep of darkness, no dreams, no thoughts, no nothing............I hope this is wrong.

I have seen people die and let me tell you, not one looked happy or at peace.