Near Death Experiences & End Times

[ReducedtoAtoms]

So I've been looking at the end times for a long time now (4 years) My mom is really big on end times (and she's a Christian) I use to think it was cool, but now my opinions changed. (Obviously) During these past few years I've noticed how so many people would say the world was going to end because 'strange' things were happening. But this has been happening 90's when alien sightings were big. But now since it's 2020 and there's a virus, and there's invasive species. Plagues have happened before of course, so I don't really think that just because there's a plague that means God is close. It's the visions that are interesting but in a bad way. Some people hear messages from God, see visions of heaven in hell. (Or Jesus) People have been always seeing things. I recently saw this video saying Jesus was coming back and the first comment I saw was a kid asking to be prayed for because they weren't good enough. 

 

As for NDE's (Near death experiences.) 

 

There are mostly 3 outcomes of having an NDE and those are either you see hell, heaven, or nothing. Some people said they felt nothing but actually bliss and colors and lights. People who went to heaven saw Jesus and talked to God. Or God scared the living sin out of them by showing them hell and they end up seeing Hitler or something. Science says that these happen basically based on your idea of what death is; And one guy who had an NDE said he saw nothing but afterwards he ended up quitting his drug addiction. One I find mostly interesting is when people end up seeing their family members or (I assume) the angel of death or some other entity. 

 

It's honestly really confusing. And are there other religions where they see their own higher being? Is it just Christianity? 

I really would like to live a little longer and not wonder when Jesus will come down and slice my throat or something. 

[♦ Fuego ♦]

Hi RTA,

Sounds like you mostly have it figured out. The end times that Paul and Jesus expected to happen "soon" never happened, so believers have taken to saying it could be any day, while others say that certain things have to happen first. Both views (and others) based on the same book, just emphasizing different parts. The confusion is due to it being a mish-mash of different people claiming to write on behalf of God who doesn't want to speak for himself. The same thing is true for the other religions and their end of the world scenarios. 

 

NDEs are what people experience as their brains are deprived of oxygen, but they still retain some kind of consciousness. Various hallucinogenic substances and strong magnetic fields will also create seemingly divine experiences. I've had a few with different substances, but I mostly treat them as a perspective change on normal life, rather than taking them as actual encounters with deities or other beings.

 

The brain is an interesting and complex gizmo, and it generally works well enough for us to survive on this planet. It is easily fooled though. Consider the many optical illusions that the brain swears are "this way" and it is simply and demonstrably wrong. Brain science shows that the brain takes shortcuts to interpreting things to save a lot of time sorting out little details. Most of the time that isn't a problem, but when we start trying to piece together what happens after death based on what are essentially waking dreams, then the brain can create other beings or "gods", places, people, bring relatives back from the dead for a chat, or turn us into 8th dimensional fractals of light for a while. When high-ranking tribal members have delusional dreams or visions, those can get turned into religions (Abraham, kill your son for me... Ok, just kidding, but you do have to cut off part of his penis, or I'll kill you. That is still mandated for Jews today.)

 

The more you study about how our minds work, the less spooky things become, and the curtain is pulled back on a lot of the world's superstitions.

 

[◊ Weezer ◊]

I have known a few people who had NDE and afterward they were not afraid of death.  And not all had any kind of religion.  And it is my understanding that the incidents are "colored" by their culture, and that relatively few see the devil, etc.  

[Myrkhoos]

The problem with NDE is that, well, they are NEAR DEATH not death experiences. I would really be interested in talking to someone who was actually clinically dead, better yet, incinerated with witnesses and then gets ressurected. I would really pay attention to that guy.

      End times were mentioned in the Eastern Orthodox and there are fringe groups within that are heavy into those, but the mainline opinion is that one should focus on his own end. 

[◊ Weezer ◊]

16 hours ago, ReducedtoAtoms said:

 

I really would like to live a little longer and not wonder when Jesus will come down and slice my throat or something. 

 

If I was a betting person, I would bet you have many years left in this world.  Don't ruin them with worrying.

[Hierophant]

On 9/19/2020 at 7:50 PM, ReducedtoAtoms said:

So I've been looking at the end times for a long time now (4 years) My mom is really big on end times (and she's a Christian) I use to think it was cool, but now my opinions changed. (Obviously) During these past few years I've noticed how so many people would say the world was going to end because 'strange' things were happening. But this has been happening 90's when alien sightings were big. But now since it's 2020 and there's a virus, and there's invasive species. Plagues have happened before of course, so I don't really think that just because there's a plague that means God is close. It's the visions that are interesting but in a bad way. Some people hear messages from God, see visions of heaven in hell. (Or Jesus) People have been always seeing things. I recently saw this video saying Jesus was coming back and the first comment I saw was a kid asking to be prayed for because they weren't good enough. 

 

As for NDE's (Near death experiences.) 

 

There are mostly 3 outcomes of having an NDE and those are either you see hell, heaven, or nothing. Some people said they felt nothing but actually bliss and colors and lights. People who went to heaven saw Jesus and talked to God. Or God scared the living sin out of them by showing them hell and they end up seeing Hitler or something. Science says that these happen basically based on your idea of what death is; And one guy who had an NDE said he saw nothing but afterwards he ended up quitting his drug addiction. One I find mostly interesting is when people end up seeing their family members or (I assume) the angel of death or some other entity. 

 

It's honestly really confusing. And are there other religions where they see their own higher being? Is it just Christianity? 

I really would like to live a little longer and not wonder when Jesus will come down and slice my throat or something. 

 

I struggled with the idea of NDE as well during my deconversion, as if there was something to it that might make all of Christianity true. I think others here already stated well what an NDE is, especially that it is near death, not death. I didn't think about that until someone mentioned it and it clicked.

 

I used to get all weirded out whenever I heard these stories about people visiting hell and the warnings they had for us. It's all anecdotal and absolutely none of them agree with each other. I have no doubt some of those people actually believed they visited Hell, but I don't think they literally visited Hell. There are other people in various religions who reported they visited their own version of heaven and some in Hell. It's not a western - Christian thing. I never read this book, but if you are interested in reading more, here is something on the topic:

 

https://www.amazon.com/Big-Book-Near-Death-Experiences-Ultimate/dp/1937907201

 

[Myrkhoos]

Now I have same "faith" in NDEs as in dreams. Very interesting and telling phenomena, neurologically and psychologically, but not be trusted to be real or at least be extremely skeptical.