Yes, we all stumble now and then, even death, I suppose. Perhaps we should all sing a drinking song together, you and me and death and everyone.....

I love an altered state as much as the next guy. Or girl...

cheers, blink

[Brendan:] "Being a "ghost" or whatever ain't for me! If onlybecause a ghost can't enjoy a drink every now and then, as both you and I like to do."
______________________________________________

B-man, on Robert Bruce's site, he recounts an astral visit to a recently dead alcoholic friend whom he finds plastered, immersed in a bathtub full of beer.  His buddy was too drunk to talk with him. Anyway, I was just thinking--if we could relocate your dead spirit to that "Beer Heaven," would you be interested?  Of course, if you were, you would have to listen to my biblical teaching, preaching, etc. before you could get there  , but.... Anyway, enough of this!  Do you wanna go there?

Yours till the deserts freeze and the camels come skating home,
Don

In response to Berserk2's question about what you want in the afterlife...(even though the question was not directed at me.) I will answer this because I wish to tell what I WANT.

1. I want to die and find myself outside of my body.
2. I want to watch my body die.
3. I want to be able to monitor what happens to all of my loved ones still left on Earth.
4. I want to meet others that are dead including my special someone that has passed.
5. I want to interact and have full matrix like games to play along with others that enjoy the same type of fantasy role playing.

Will this happen? I do not know.

(I have not died yet.) (Obviously.)

But one can hope.

A sleeping state of death which some people claim happens from retrievals is NOT ACCEPTABLE to me. I need to witness and experience everything.
I will not sleep.
I will not rest.

If my WILL power alone is strong enough....
If my conviction is strong enough....
I will get what I desire.
And if I do not?
I suppose it won't matter since the nothing will be all that I have left.
From nothingness I have come.
Too nothingness I may return.
The sadness fills my heart and soul.
I weep tears of pain and sorrow.
But the end will surely come.

Greetings,

One day I saw a dog laying down at the top of a hill in a pasture. His head was on his paws but he was looking off to the east with the most wonderful expression in his eyes, like he was seeing or at least thinking of something absolutely amazing.

As I walked closer to him I got concerned that I would startle him, because he still hadn't noticed me. I thought this from a purely selfish point of view, getting afraid he might bite.

A few steps closer and I realized he was physically dead or almost so. But his eyes reflected something glorious.

Since then I've thought of animals differently. Between the fetch, down, and heel  we may demand of them, they have their moments for spiritual connection too.
I believe they know Spirit, death, and even God.

Bets

Rondele-

To be truthful, it is not death that I fear....

I fear ceasing to exist.

Terethian,

I have had a profound nde and you are not free from JW indoctrination, here is an account of an JW nde:




Ex-Jehovah Witness Learns the Witnesses lie about our Spirit Bodies

The Near Death Experience of Haydee Cortes


I was baptized by the Jehovah witnesses in 1970. I believed in God but I didn't believe that Jesus Christ was God.  I believed Jesus Christ was a god created by the true God. I didn't believe in life after death much less that there was a conscious spirit that would leave the body when one died. I didn't believe in any kind of miracle healing nor I believed that God would communicate with people through visions or dreams. I believed that all kind of healing, miracles and visions were the work of the devil. I was very loyal to these Jehovah Witness teachings, and nobody could convince me of the contrary.

On September 12, 1973 I was ready to have a C-section done. While I was on the operation table I could see how the doctors and nurses were getting ready to do their job and they were kind of painting my abdomen with an orange liquid. I was concerned about it and asked what were they doing. The doctor explained to me that they were doing this before the anesthesia since they had to apply the anesthesia and start cutting right away to avoid the baby to be sedated.

They started injecting me the anesthesia and I felt a strange sensation. My body got stiffed, but my mind stayed awake. I realized they were going to cut my abdomen and I was not asleep. I tried to move and scream in desperation but all efforts were in vain. I started feeling a terrible pain while they were cutting my abdomen. All of a sudden in the middle of my pain I heard an audible voice saying; "Look what is going to happen to you!"
In that instant I was pulled out of my body with a sudden swoosh. I was moving very fast in a circular motion heading toward the ceiling of the room. I stayed hovering there looking down to what they were doing. I could see how my baby was being taken out of my womb. I felt very sad and I said: "Nothing can be done, everything is over for me on the earth. I was so anxious to see that baby and I couldn't even hold it in my arms". I remembered my other children with sadness and said, "This is the end; now my children will forget all about me".

I then started going up. I was aware I didn't have a solid body. I was some kind of energy force moving at a high speed like in a circular motion. I was completely conscious. I knew I was me and I had all my memories with me. I knew I had left the earth. I found myself in a pitch black place. I started asking questions to myself. "Is this the universe? Where am I? Where am I going to? Am I going to stay here forever?" All of a sudden I started feeling something very strange. The only word I can use for this is agony or torment. At the same time I was feeling a need for my body. I wanted to get out of there and I wanted my body back. I couldn't bear the torment. I remembered the voice I heard at the hospital right before coming out of my body ("look what is going to happen to you"). I started screaming "PLEASE, DON'T LET THIS TO HAPPEN!" " I ACCEPT I WON'T EVER GO TO THE EARTH AGAIN , I ACCEPT I WON 'T EVER SEE MY CHILDREN AGAIN, BUT I CAN'T ACCEPT I WILL BE HERE FOREVER". "NO, PLEASE, DON'T LET THIS TO HAPPEN!" Immediately I heard a group of voices saying at the same time "This is for you to believe". I answered " I only believe in the Almighty God.

Then there was a silence. 

The torment I was feeling stopped and I started to come down at a high speed again. I found myself back to the ceiling of the hospital room. This time my body was laying on a stretcher and I saw a nurse tapping its face and saying "Haydee, wake up!" I could clearly see her while I was moving down closer. Then I was softly dropped inside my body. The nurse was still tapping my face and calling my name. I opened my eyes and there she was right in front of my face. I looked at her eyes while I was thinking "I wish you knew where I'm coming from". I couldn't take the experience away from my mind and I was in a big concern about people in the world. I thought, "The Jehovah Witnesses deceived me, we are Spiritual Beings inside a flesh body and we come out of the body when we die!" People don't know what can happen to them. They should know about this!"

With this experience I learned that since I didn't believe in the Son of God I was in darkness. And there is where I went.

Matthew 8:11-12," And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Matthew 25:30 - And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

A few days later I was discharged from the hospital. I couldn't stop thinking about my amazing experience. I kept on repeating to myself, "I was deceived by the Jehovah Witnesses about no spirit coming out of the body when we died, and I just experienced it". I started to care for everyone in the world. I wanted to warn everybody about that dark place. I decided then to believe in Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord and started visiting a Christian church.

After I have received Jesus Christ as my Lord and savior I woke up one night and got up from my bed. While walking toward the door I looked back at my bed and I saw my husband sleeping and to my surprise, my body was also there next to him. I realized I was out of my body again but this time I was not a formless energy moving at high speed. This time I had a body. I stretched my arms forward and looked at this new body. I then looked at my children's bedroom and I felt sad to leave them. I thought, "now when my children wake up they will see I'm dead. They will bury me and they will forget all about me. They don't have anybody to take good care of them, poor things".

I then knelt on the floor and started praying, "Please Lord, in the name of your son Jesus Christ, return me to my body. My children need me." I felt a force lifting me up slowly from the floor and positioned me on top of my material body on the bed and I started to come down slowly until I fell inside it. Right away I tried to open my eyes and move but the body was rigid like a wall . All efforts to move were in vain. I got desperate and I started to pray "Please Lord, my children need me; there is no one to take care of them properly, bring me back to life." I started feeling like needles inside my whole body. I felt the force of life and the beating of my heart. I then opened my eyes and this time they opened. Then I moved my fingers to check and they moved. I then jumped out of my bed amazed.

I have told this experience in different churches and many lives have been touched and have given their hearts to the Lord. To God be the glory.

alan

[quote author=Terethian link=1203046354/0#12 date=1203262505]Thanks for sharing that Alan. It was very interesting!

Ceasing to exist is not acceptable. It is not what I consider an option. Each breath I take solidifies my need to exist. True, I see your point that if one ceases to exist then one will cease thinking and needing anything.... yet this is unacceptable.

You do not want to know what terrible things I am capable of if I knew that doing them would make me live forever.

....terrible things.
*****************
You wish to live forever and would do terrible things to
secure your immortality?
I wish I had the power to grant you your wish, and come
back to see you again in 500 years or so. (It would be
interesting, to see if you were wise enough to specify certain basics,
such as having your aging process halted or if you would
have defenses in place against certain types of injuries. BTW,
those are just TWO of a pretty big list of caveats.)
You're a young guy, so would your story be a classic in the
annals of "be careful what you wish for" stories? Or have you
carefully thought through just what "living forever" would
really mean?
Pretty interesting stuff (to me, anyway..!)

B-man