Love, I believe, is the key. Love is not easily understood though; it gets confused with affections, with desires, wants, needs, preferences, and all sorts of warm fuzzy feelings, and even unpleasant feelings too, like hurt, jealousy, anger. I think the best teachings on love are in the New Testament. I am not aware of any other source that teaches love clearer. The NT teaches what love is and what it isn't. The distinction is important.

The differences between fakery and truth, between emotional and genuine love, between false service and true service, hypocrisy and sincerity, are not as easily noticed as they might first seem. It is easy to cross the line. Otherwise JC would not have emphasised the differences and provided examples of each, and Paul and John discussed these too.

I have read or heard countless NDEs.  Christian NDEs seem unique in the frequency with which they include paranormal verifiable encounters with unknown discarnates. E.g.
(i) Colton Burpo meets his sister of whom he was unawayre, who died in childbirth.
(2) Dr. Eben Alexander meets his unknown birth sister on the butterfly, a sister unknown to him due to his adoption in infancy. 
(3) In her NDE, Betty Eadie meets her unborn child, which she will later meet and adopt. 

But here is an even more spectacular Christian NDE.  My Dad's pastor friend (Albert Baldeo) watches his dying dad converse with his brother, who is simultaneously dying in a nursing home 10 miles away.  The conversation only makes sense when transcripts are compared from both places.  Family members in both places verify the common time and conversation that occurs. 

Switching from NDEs to astral projection, Swedenborg's verifications far, far surpass non-Christian NDEs in the quality of paranormal verifying evidence.  ES gains from his discarnate contacts detailed knowledge of letters written to relatives, detailed knowledge of the last conversation the deceased had with a friend, the location of a jewelry receipt hidden in a secret compartment known only to the deceased.  By contrast, Robert Monroe's 3 examples of cartoony OBE past life recall don't pass the giggle test.  A pinch he verifies in a conversation with the woman he targeted ignores the fact that people often experience twitches and unexplained pains.  Monroe does identify a doctor he visits from a younger picture, but even that is far below the standard set by ES's verifications.

I dismiss the retrievals posted on this site because they fail to meet the verification standards that ES established as possible through a genuine astral gift.  So I guess the dignity of the New Age Ghetto depends on the desperate expedient of finding one fraudulent Christian NDE and generalizing that to all Christian NDEs.  So sad, but a tad amusing! 

Eben Alexander: "More than ever since my near death experience, I consider myself a Christian" ("The Easter Question." "Huffington Post"). 

It seems as if there is there are some recent attempts on this forum to convert people to Christianity.

I'm all for Jesus, but I don't believe that he was a Christian. I figure he was a Christ consciousness type.

When it comes to the new testament, the stories of Jesus were passed along by word of mouth for years before they were written down, and then men decided which stories would be included in the Bible, and which wouldn't, and how they would be translated.

Therefore, when I read Biblical stories and words that are attributed to Jesus, I use my discrimination. Some of the words sound fine, but I doubt that Jesus said all of the things the Bible gives him credit for. If we have a place for Jesus in our heart, perhaps we want to take care about what he gets credit for.

I have read some wonderful NDE accounts that didn't include a meeting with Jesus. They didn't have some sort of confirmation, but the depth of what was experienced made confirmation unnecessary.

I'd be surprised if Jesus is concerned about NDEs that include him being given more credit than those that don't. Perhaps some experiences include him because very wise spirit beings understand that not everybody will accept what NDEs say if they don't include Jesus. There is no need to minimize the value of NDEs that don't. Each person receives grace in the way that is appropriate for he or she.




1796 wrote on Jan 28^th, 2015 at 2:01am:

<<Perhaps it is loving to allow each person to determine what source of information helps them grow in love.>>

Albert-  I'm wondering if you were serious with this statement?  For example, suppose a person told you that ACIM or Seth was his source for helping to grow in love. What would you tell him if asked for advice?

I know in the past you have frequently said that you feel obligated to encourage people to steer clear of sources that you don't believe to be legitimate.

Have you changed your position on that, or was the above quote tongue in cheek?

Just wondering.

R

For the record, I would love to see everyone become a Christian.  But I also advocate honest and open inquiry, some thing I feel is lacking, e.g. in G-man's insinuation about more fake Christian NDEs.  As for me, I have read all 3 of Robert Monroe's books, Robert Bruce, Buhlman, even Seth books, and many more New Age books to see if I can learn from alternate perspectives.  I'm even hoping to take a week-long training at TMI.  I applied once, but was closed out!  People like G-man apparently can't handle the openness of Christians like myself and Eben Alexander to New Age approaches.  Why? Because they are so stuck in their myopic New Age Ghetto that they can't learn from alternative perspectives; and so, they rely on crude caricatures of Christianity to excuse their bias.  They don't realize, for example, that Christianity of the first 2 centuries provides the first  literary advocacy for soul retrievals!

Albert, why do i get the felling that you know very little about New Testament teaching about love, even as you trumpet the superiority of NDE perspectives on love.  I challenge you to identify the 3 clearest New Testament texts on love.  I'll bet you can't do it.

Berserk2 wrote on Jan 27^th, 2015 at 11:27pm:


What! No corroborating links in your post? Surely you can copy and paste some evidence?..George..GMan 

Albert, you say you took exception to my comments about the new testament, and infer I'm trying to convert people to Christianity, and you infer I'm somehow not allowing others to determine their own sources of inspiration.

Yes I am Christian, and I don't care whether you or anyone else of this forum is Christian or not? Again - I don't  care. So next time you are having a fantasy that I'm trying to convert you, remember - I don't care.    

Its a public forum and can mention my Christianity, and my beliefs if I wish to.
And I can state them as facts if I want to.

I credit people with their own freewill and free intellect.  Read that again Albert, and try to comprehend what it means to do actually and sincerely credit people with that quality.
Part of it means I expect others to think for themselves.
It means I make statements and I don't expect others to take them as truth, but to think about them.
It means that when I give instructions I don't expect others to treat them as orders.
It means that when some over sensitive insecure idiot starts bleating that he's having his free determination restricted because of something I said, and on an internet forum of all things, then I will tell him to mature and take responsibility for himself and start exercising his own freewill and intellect.      

And if I want to I can say that "I am unaware of any book that teaches love clearer than the new testament does".
I'll say it again, just for you and any other new age sensitive fairies who find it offensive, "I am unaware of any book that teaches love clearer than the new testament does".
Are you hurting yet, Mr So-sensitive? Are you feeling that I am trying to convert you? take away your free determination? Grow up Albert. No ones trying to convert you, control you, take away your freewill/free determination or choice. You know that. You're not an infant.