Will near death experience accounts transform psychiatry and psychology?

Finley99...............… I saw a film about a year ago that asserted that there are really only two forces in the universe........ love and fear.

Many people find the sensation of feeling their consciousness float outside their bodies to be more than a little scary........ and...…

(Christian Andreason, chapter 2)

http://www.allaboutchristian.com/spirituality/


.... if for some reason you find the sensation of floating outside your body scary.......... or if some scenes from your life make you ashamed....... and if the idea of reviewing these scenes with the Word/ Logos scare you......… and if you throw yourself down into a realm of highly critical beings.......... due possibly to your own tendency to be overly critical even of yourselfl....... then it is good to remember that former atheist Howard Storm who had been to Sunday school some as a child..... .... found that calling out for help radically altered the flavor of his experience.

Humility comes before honor....... and the simple willingness to ask for help with our out of the body experience during a brush with death.......... can take us up to a much higher level than we might imagine...…


http://www.near-death.com/storm.html

 

I put all that "Twilight Zone" BS aside while I was still in my teens. On a dare because one of my buddies had a grandmother who he said had all those spiritual powers I slept on her grave all night. I confess that I didn't sleep soundly but I did sleep enough.

 

No. Science and psychiatry are a tool by Satan to mislead people away from god, so science will never accept this.

 

Will near death experience accounts transform Religion?

is the bright light you see during death just the doorway to rebirth, does it attract you to it like a moth to a flame

teach yourself to control the mind while alive and you can avoid the light and choose another path if you choose


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Christians have made sure to make that illegal....

 

Along with everything else that feels or tastes good. Ever since the witch killing days they've really been a class act. Talk one way....act another should be their motto. I knew of one Baptist deacon who was screwing his best friend's wife. I knew another one who smuggled two beers at a time, in his front pockets, past the cashier in a convenient market to keep anyone from seeing him buy it......I suppose he was stealing to keep from being judged. Ya Think?

 

Past life regression under hypnosis is illegal in Israel partly because the ultra religious are not at all impressed with the idea of being Jewish in one lifetime and coming back as a Christian ten years later!


http://www.politicalforum.com/religion-philosophy/347012-do-you-think-anne-frank-has-came-back.html

Do you think Anne Frank has came back?



I personally am far more than a little impressed by the Barbro Karlen case!

http://www.iisis.net/index.php?page=semkiw-anne-frank-barbro-karlen-reincarnation-past-life

 

Within a decade or three psychiatrists may well know that "a good dose of Ketamine" might have been the ideal treatment to prevent Robin Williams from taking his life.


http://www.near-death.com/suicide.html

 

Why would anybody decide to spend 2.4 million dollars researching near death experiences if they were not hopeful that there was an element of reality to them?



http://www.near-death.com/evidence.html

 

because there are plenty of rich crazy people?. some will spend millions on finding a way to freeze themselves in such a way that they can be revived in the future - when medical science has developed (presumably) a cure for what ails them. some will spend millions investigating alien abductions. some will spend millions on vast tracts of wilderness upon which to house their whacky religious cult.

 

True....... that is one part of the formula for our beautiful third rock....... but.........… even back in 1990 in that first article that I ever read on near death experience .... that was published in Psychology Today magazine... there was an impressive section on how people born blind.......can see during their NDE!


http://www.near-death.com/experiences/evidence03.html

People Born Blind Can See During a Near-Death Experience

....

My point is that the people who decided to invest 2.4 million dollars on further research on NDE's.... could well have made a wise ......… rather than loopy............investment!

 

It was in psychology today because it's a psychological phenomenon. I don't imagine many therapists would attribute these episodes to supernatural forces, put it that way. They'd soon be de-registered if they did - at least in this country. They're medical practitioners, after all.

Not sure how such huge sum of money could be a wise investment, unless it was spent on psych research of the phenomenon. Calling it supernatural doesnt appear to helpful or useful, at least.

 

This is an excellent piece for discussion! Thank you for presenting it, Dennis!

There will always be the skeptical crowd that attribute NDEs to lack of oxygen in the brain, hallucinations, etc. but the fact remains that many professional people have completely discounted that hypothesis due to their findings of fact that reveal that those people who were comatose, declared clinically dead, etc. who had their eyes closed and could obviously not move out of their beds when brought back to their normal state were able to reveal incredible things that they could not possibly have witnessed in their previous state of being. Things like being able to describe perfectly what a person or persons were wearing and when people entered their room, etc.; being able to reveal full conversations that took place in other floors; being able to see things outside their room and reveal exactly what those things were etc.

These are things that can not possibly be attributed to the sick person possibly suffering from a lack of oxygen or hallucinating. In both those instances, that would not be able to explain how they could see, hear, and experience what they did in such great detail that has shocked the doctors who heard their conversations. And so many others in other parts of the world have had similar experiences. So, we can safely conclude that the spirit indeed detaches from the physical body and can go to different places and experience things while the person is in a near-death state and when revived the spirit of course returns to the physical body and the person is able to retain their experiences and is able to speak about them and expound on them.

In sum, it is my profound hope that Psychiatry and Psychology professionals will continue to keep an open mind to NDEs and will continue to champion this magnificent experience and findings that has occurred to millions across the world.

 

Please let me know when those Psychiatry and Psychology professionals PROVE there is a "spirit".

 

Spirit is the unseen part of you that keeps you animated. Without it you would cease to exist.

There are few who have seen the spirit outside of some clairvoyants with the ability to see and recognize such an energy body. But that does not mean it does not exist. For example, just because we cannot see micro-waves, television waves or radio waves does not mean they do not exist. If they didn't then how could we receive our television programs and radio programs? And how about the air and wind? Have you ever seen either? No, but you've felt it nevertheless so you don't doubt that they exist. Respectfully speaking, the key is in being able to keep an open mind to such things that you don't fully understand instead of developing a close-minded attitude.

 

Psychiatry and Psychology do continue to study this phenomenon. They just don't attribute it to supernatural agency.

In the meantime, it's odd that these wandering spirits (whatever the hell a spirit is - I note you didn't define it) don't return with useful information for themselves and their loved ones. Like lottery numbers, or a cure for cancer. Why is that, do you suppose?

 

Yes , but we DO receive TV and radio so there is proof waves exist. The effects of air and wind , REAL things, can be seen and felt....they are NOT imagined like a spirit which has never been proven to do anything.

 

least of all give us next week's game scores, or tell us where the car keys are.

really, I do wonder about these folk who compare things like microwave energy to spirits. I often feel like asking them to try thawing a frozen chicken using spirit guides. or perhaps to get their spirit friends to provide better tv reception.

seems they can't spot the difference between invisible stuff that does something (something tangible and measurable), and invisible stuff that does nothing. they also don't seem to be aware that if something is invisible, does nothing, and cannot be detected, much less defined, it necessarily has zero impact on our world. ergo, utterly meaningless. you might as well leap around the room barking like a dog, as talk of 'spiritual' matters in a way which suggests you know something about them. the first would at least have the benefit of increasing fitness and keeping your neighbours away.

 

My response has obviously gone way over your head so your problem.

 

Likewise, we DO receive miracles that even doctors have to attribute to that which is spiritual (of spirit.) The proof of God exists all over but it is only a blind person who cannot see the forest for the trees.

As for spirit, it is defined as being that which animates a person or gives it its life. That, in itself, should convince you that spirit serves the most important and awesome purpose above anything else you could ever think of. Because without spirit you would have no life. When a person "dies" their spirit leaves their body and they can no longer function. But as long as their spirit is housed in their body they can continue to function to one degree or another.

Man will never completely understand spirit because spirit is that which is spiritual. Man is physical. Therefore, since spirit cannot be seen but only felt (just ask some churches where the spirit overtakes them in song and word) only a fool would think they could understand spirit 100%. It can be explained but you have to wait until your physical life here ends to be able to fully understand, appreciate, and see spirit.

 

On Monday, August 25 I drove 99 year old Graham Jordan to Antigonish so that he could pick up parts to fix his lawnmower. Back when he was in his twenties he fell off the third floor of a motel/hotel that he was working on. His buddies from work rushed him to the hospital...… which had been a terrible idea..... because the physician at the hospital told them that they never should have touched this man..... they should have phoned an ambulance and waited for the professionals in the ambulance.

The physician told Graham that he was not going to be able to walk after he got out of the hospital. Graham..... replied to the doctor that "The LORD has been good to me before and I believe He will be good to me again....... I am going to walk because the LORD is going to heal me!"

Graham was correct....... and at 99 years of age...… he was still able to walk....... with no cane..... to every store that he wanted to go to on these two trips that I took him to Antigonish over this past month or so.......

About four months later after he was healed....... He told the doctor about what had happened..... and the doctor drove out to visit him.......... and the doctor got down on his knees and thanked God for healing Graham because the physician in Graham's case knew that a miracle had occurred there! (If I am not mistaken... this happened when Graham was about 27..... so since he is 99 right now.....so this happened around 1942.

I personally was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis when I was 14..... By 1980 or '81 my girlfriend at the time talked me into being prayed for by two pastors at the Worldwide Church of God Festival of Tabernacles celebrated in Charlottetown, P. E. I. that year........ and within a few months the arthritis pain that I had had for six or seven years was completely gone!

I am 55 now and still have no arthritis....although I do have lower back pain because I lifted wood improperly during the two decades or so that I worked at forestry until I gave it up in '97 due to lower back pain.

Like Graham........ I have noticed that when the LORD heals somebody........ He does an exceptionally good job of healing us............. that defies medical science.

 

I personally am a Christian..... and I admit that I also am guilty of straining out gnats and swallowing camels...… in my walk with Messiah Yeshua- Jesus over these past forty or forty one years!

We Christians seem to lure pretty powerful fallen angels to us........... and the degree to which we allow them to mess up our entire thought process is the best explanation for the holocausts that we have been involved in over these past five centuries........ I think I should begin a separate discussion on this........


http://www.politicalforum.com/relig...ristians-organize-holocausts-other-group.html

Best explanation I have read on why we Christians organize holocausts on other group.



Basically..... it is because we are far more so in tune with the dark side of the force, (fear)... than with light - love?!

 

Reminded me of a passage I like, where Isaac Beshevis Singer seemed to want to put it down to 'choice'. I'm not religious so I attribute "god' as metaphor. But that's me.

Isaac Beshevis Singer:

"I would say that behind all my ideas... is the freedom of choice. I feel that the freedom of choice is the very essence of life. We have one great gift from God and this is to choose. And we always indulge in choosing. If we pay attention to one thing, we have chosen to pay attention to it. If we love somebody, we have chosen this person for love. This is in every act of humanity. To me, God is freedom. And nature, to me, is necessity... When people leave free choice, the demons appear. The demons are in a way the dark side of nature which we choose. If we stop completely believing in our power [of choice], then other powers can come upon us. In other words, the demon to me is a negative side of free choice. Demons come when people resign themselves... when people say to themselves, "I'm not going to make any choices anymore. I will just let the powers work for themselves." It is then that the demon is bound to appear. The danger is always there - like a medical doctor who will tell you that the microbes are always there in your mouth and in your stomach, and if you become weak, they begin to multiply and become strong... Just as we are medically surrounded by dangerous microbes, so our spirit has always to fight melancholy and disbelief and viciousness and cruelty and all kinds of things."

 

Why do we have to die first? Why not while we're alive and can appreciate it?

If we're dead it isn't going to do us much good.....and it sure doesn't alive...


But I do love the circular escape route...
""Man will never completely understand spirit because spirit is that which is spiritual"""


HOW do you KNOW it can be explained but only after death? Have you been dead?

 

This is pretty straight forward. When you stop fearing death you can really begin enjoying life. The only interesting mystery is why religion with its promise of a wonderful afterlife doesn't accomplish this result.