The one most significant common constant is the role of Jesus.  He often appears to atheists (e.g. Howard Storm) and sometimes even to Muslims.  Conversely, Muhamad and Buddha (Siddartha Gautama) almost never appear to their devotees.  Clearly, Jesus is the major player in the afterlife.  Those who identify the Being of Light as someone else have sadly missed out on encountering the Creator.   Howard Storm is told by Jesus that He has manifested Himself under various symbols to people of other cultures and aliens from other planets.  

Don

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Cosmic,

That is what my experience tells me also.  Beliefs are just one factor along with timing and circumstances of death, who is there to meet us when we die, whether or nor we pay attention to those who meet us, and other factors that seem to determine our "first landing place" so to speak.   

Sounds like in the case you cite the woman was for some reason drawn to her granddaughter's location.  Interesting that for some unknown reason she was drawn there and remembered it when she returned.  Sounds like a pretty standard OOB type experience more than a near death.  But I guess since we go out of body at death there really isn't much difference except the return to the body with an OBE.  I wonder if the grandmother ever realized or thought about herself as being dead?  I wonder if her experience has had any effect on her beliefs? I wonder what or who led her to her granddaughter?

Bruce

What I've read doesn't match up with what Beserk read. I've read a lot of near death experience where people didn't meet Jesus Christ . Also, Raymond Moody, one of the key and original investigators of NDEs found that a higher percentage of people don't meet Jesus during a NDE.  Many do meet a being of light that loves them completely and unconditionally. I figure there must be a huge number of beings of love and light in the spirit realm that abide according to what can be referred to as Christ consciousness.

Regarding how our beliefs effect us, a being of light told Jan Price the following during her near death experience.

"Each person is free to experience fully, and the only governor is the state of the conscious mind. Deeply held beliefs are what come into visible expression here, just as they do on the dimension from which you have just come. Not everone willl have the same experience, for truly we create our own. However, subtle energies gently press on closed, restrictive minds, and like the rosebud's petals, they slowly open and expand and are soon willing to accept greater understanding. Then they are ready to move from their limited concept of life to the eternal adventure, for there is ever more to know, to do, to be. Know this: No one is lost or left behind. Each individual unit of consciousness is of equal importance and can never cease to exist."

http://www.near-death.com/experiences/animals01.html


At the beginning of his NDE, Mellen-Thomas Benedict was told something similar:

Mellen: "What is going on here? Please, light, clarify yourself for me. I really want to know the reality of the situation."

Mellen couldn't remember the exact words he was told, he wrote as follows:

"I cannot really say the exact words, because it was sort of telepathy. The light responded. The information transferred to me was that your beliefs shape the kind of feeback you are getting before the light. If you were a Buddhist or Catholic or Fundamentalist, you get a feedback loop of your own stuff. You have a chance to look at it and examine it, but most people do not."

http://www.near-death.com/experiences/reincarnation04.html

My feeling is that if we are really closed minded during a NDE our experience will reflect this. If we have an open mind we'll get to experience what is true. Nothing is forced on us. Perhaps this is why some people end up in belief systems when they die.




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Cosmic Ambitions,

Betty Eade's NDE illustrates how prior beliefs can be refuted by NDEs.  During her experience, she learns that her belief in reincarnation is false:

"I always believed in reincarnation because that is the only thing that made sense to me before the [NDE] experience.  But during the experience, I actually asked about reincarnation and I was told that reincarnation upon the earth...would not be necessary for the majority of people, that there are other worlds that God created and that our continued education would be best served in those places instead of here (quoted from her interview on "Coast to Coast")."

While now rejecting the doctrine of reincarnation, she is told that a few souls do reincarnate.   "Jesus and the angels" make the same point to atheist Howard Storm during his NDE.  He is told that the doctrine of reincarnation is false, but that a few souls do reincarnate on earth. 

Swedenborg's astral travels reveal his apparent past lives. but when he ascends to higher heavens, he learns that these past lives are illusions created by unconscious memory fusion with intruding spirits.  Osis and Haraldsson's magisterial study of 500 NDEs in India revealed no reincarnationism during those experiences.   Jesus often appears to atheists during their NDEs.  So you're right: NDEs often contradict prior beliefs.

Don

recoverer,

But NDEs that attest reincarnation are relatively rare.   None at all in the 500 NDEs from India studied by Osis and Haraldsson!  What makes Betty Eadie's refutation of the reincarnation doctrine so compelling for me is that she strongly believed in this doctrine before her NDE.  Also, her new position is independently verified by an atheist.   Both are told that a few do reincarnate.  

What troubles me about even this concession is Swedenborg's vehement rejection of his earlier astral past life recall.  Higher angels systematically demonstrate how the illusion of reincarnation is created in the lower planes.   Swedenborg's verifications are more impressive than those of any astral explorer; so I'm troubled by the contradiction with the Eadie-Storm agreement about just a few reincarnating.

Don

Cosmic Ambitions,
you wrote: >>>Does anybody involved with retrievals here know what has happened with the terrorist's souls who were involved with the 9/11 attacks with regards to their souls' placement in the afterlife, and where they currently reside?... (i.e... taking into consideration their formerly held beliefs of martyrdom and being treated to the 70 odd virgins that they were promised whilst in the afterlife...) <<<

these threads contains thoughts/experiences about it:

Forums / Retrievals Only Forum / Re: to Ryan..first phasing experiment

Islamic BST Petrus

Suicide Bombers, Propriety  and Sanctity  dave_a_mbs

Creating things in the spirit world


Well, it has become a FAQ.
Spooky

  I also agree with that view Recoverer and Spooky.

  I also believe that in the case of of a self actually reincarnating instead of the Total self molding another personality, then sometimes the energies will be very similar--similar birth chart, numerology, etc.

   There are example in the E.C. readings of what appears to be almost repeat lifetimes in different time/space cycles, yet in the same general areas and environs.

   Who knows though?