Vajra,

Muslims believe that Jesus was a prophet, but not God in the flesh.  You miss the point of the Muslim mullah's [Ahmed] NDE encounter with Jesus.  His encounter was so glorious that it converted him from Islam to Christianity, despite the fact that he hated Christians and wanted to kill the Christian couple who visited him in the hospitial and prayed for his healing!  

As for Buddhists not expecting an encounter with the Buddha, you overlook the important distinction between the Buddhism taught in the monasteries and the vulgarized Buddhism of the ordinary masses.  Buddhists do have dreams of the Buddha (e. g. Wang Chien-line's regular dreams of the Buddha in a Pure Land Buddhist text.  Also, Buddhists constantly depict the Buddha (Siddartha Gautama) in art and statues.  In the trauma of death, Buddhists encounter a greeting party like most Christians.  One would expect the Buddha to show up often.  But he doesn't.  Why not?  Also, remember that there is nothing in the Bible that predicts that, immediately after dying, Christians will be greeted by a Being of Light identifying Himself as Christ.  Christians expect to meet Christ later when they arrive in Heaven. Indeed, many conservative Christians believe that Christ's NDE appearance as the Being of Light is a demonic counterfeit experience!

Don

My thought Don was only that since so much energy and intensity have been poured into the idea of Jesus as God it as a concept must have become invested with enormous power (belief) over the years.

Meaning presumably that the Mullah might unintentionally whether as a result of some exposure or past life have tapped into this, with the outcome that you describe. (we can bring up lots that we'd consciously rather not)

But that's not necessarily an indication of the superiority or accuracy of any particular belief though.

On the Buddha. I wasn't suggesting that individuals don't dream of him, or that many ordinary punters don't see him as a deity. But the institutions do not teach this, and most certainly do not dictate  worship in the way institutional Christianity did of Jesus. (it'd be wholly in conflict with teaching) The Pure Land sect is similar as best i know.

So my suggestion was only that this as a result can't have the same power as the Jesus belief, which might  explain the differing NDE expereinces you mentioned. I'm unsure as to why it should be a matter of issuing challenges....