From my standpoint, if you see it you are intended to see it.  If you are not you won't.  Some people, from a soul standpoint, intended in this lifetime to seek answers about this topic...to obtain a sense of understanding about the afterlife, how it works and our place in it.  In my case, the questioning started in kindergarten sunday school, and my teacher told my parents not to bring me back. 

Some people have no questions, seek no answers, take a dogmatic approach to the established and accepted religions and find therein a satisfying end to the matter.  In fact, when they are approached about anything that varies from the norm they can get very uncomfortable.  It seems to me that they are not dealing with that in this lifetime...they have other fish to fry, and the afterlife is not one of them.  For one of these people, an NDE might blow their doors off, as it doesn't fit their norm. 

On the other hand, it may be that the individual was supposed to question the norm and didn't so it took an NDE to awaken him/her.  Interesting that a friend who wouldn't stay in the same room when I was discussing reincarnational matters had an NDE and is almost like a reformed smoker in his evangelical approach to informing others of the afterlife and previous and successive lives.  Not surprisingly I have known him before as a twin brother in colonial America. 

This is how I see it and I hope it helps. 

 

I remember nothing after four martinis, but I was assured I had a great time!

Hi Thomas,

I am not dismissive. Not at all. As I stated in my other post, I have been a very spiritual person and convinced I would leave my body at death all my life - until about half a year ago.

My work as a lawyer in the field of medicine law has inundated me with terrible cases of brain damage, of painful and prolonged death and of pain and suffering at the fringe between life and death (at the beginning of life as well as at the end). What I have seen there - together with my professional training to always question, always find the counter-arguments - has shaken my belief so badly that I have plummeted into the very very deep pit of fear and disbelief and thinking "I have only lived in an illusion, oblivion is the reality". And I can tell you, it`s a very dark place to be in. Ok, so the "endless sleep" won`t hurt me, but the world would be an entirely senseless, cruel, cold place and all these beautiful sparks that human beings are will just be snuffed out, including me. That, to me, is so terrible I lie awake most nights now and pray "please, please, if someone is out there, help me and show me it is not so".

And this is also why I reach out to you people here . You say you know what it is all about in the non-physical and the afterlife. So I put the questions that go round and round in my head to you, you see? Not because I want to challenge you, but because I really need your insights.

I have already gotten the advice to get out of this spiral a bit and therefore, I am only checking this board once a day now.

I`ve never had an OBE or an NDE. I have tried to OBE but seem to be very deeply rooted in my body.

I assure you that most people do remember nothing - I think I`ve read every book and text about NDE`s and they all agree on that, including the firm believers in an afterlife. There must either be the issue that it an illusion (that would be awful) or that most people do not remember. Children seem to remember more readily.

All sentinent beings are so beautiful, so marvellous, so individual - I hope you are right and not science.

Hi

Your situation makes alot more sense now, chrwe, now that I hear you're a lawyer.  Your profession must put you in the midst of alot of conflict and sadness. Human empathy allows/forces us to feel what others are feeling, so probably by now your clients' states of mind are overcoming your own.

(I always feel more loving and kind when I've returned from an afterlife visit. Then I feel grumpies coming on when I haven't been for awhile.  We absorb some of the energies that surround us. )

You can return to your former conviction with will power.
Chaos and darkness could never create "All sentinent beings... so beautiful, so marvellous, so individual."

Bets

Spooky- you're right, many people e.g. my sister don't want an afterlife because of the unknown factor and 'scary' world-view challenging implications.

Pat E. wrote on May 25^th, 2010 at 1:17am:


Very. 

I was asked last night "just what do you believe?"  My response, after a moments pause, was "I believe in the eternal soul, in the brief opportunity during this lifetime to enjoy and savor each moment, in an afterlife so much more magnificent and filled with love than anything a human being can imagine and an opportunity to live future lives to experience more of what this world has to offer."  Two people walked away, and three chose to argue with me, asking for proof, for verification, for the basis for my beliefs, along with comments about how could I be so far off?  Some people cannot handle the idea of a positive outcome from this incarnation...and that's a hard way to live.

heisenberg69 wrote on May 25^th, 2010 at 8:41am:


Their desire to prove me wrong surprised me...they asked and I simply answered.  They believe differently...fine, but why feel the need to defend their own belief unless it is on unstable ground in their minds.  My own certainty may have contributed to their chagrin...I was actually told I'd burn in hell!  I assured them I'd take that chance and live this life with love and optimism.  [amid the shaking of heads]