A while ago I published an article on the spiritual perspective of death1. As part of that article I touched briefly on the subject of Near-Death experiences (NDE’s for short), where an individual has a very close brush with death but lives to tell the tale. In my opinion, these NDE accounts are some of the most significant (perhaps, the most significant) stories that we could ever hear or read about. One might even say that if one was only to ever encounter spirituality from one source, this should be it. Hence, today I wish to offer some thoughts on their significance.
As I said in the aforementioned article, the question of whether life continues after physical death is probably the single most significant question of all. Of course it is important to pay attention to the myriad of issues that relate to life on earth. However, the question of life after death relates not only to the vast expanses of eternity beyond the short physical incarnation, but also to the meaning of life itself.
I would suggest that NDE’s offer tremendous insight and inspiration, both in relation to life on earth and obviously also to what follows afterwards. Hence, let us dig in.
The NDE phenomenon in brief:
Since time immemorial human beings have had various experiences of a supernatural and/or spiritual nature. One prevailing common theme is that we are not merely our physical body, but possess a Soul or Spirit which in-dwells the physical form, but also can exist independent of it. Our current world culture has largely dismissed such beliefs as outdated superstitions, but nevertheless, human beings continue to have experiences that convince them of the reality of such things. I do not intend on making a large scale case for the objective reality of spirituality as a whole here. Rather I will attempt to stay close to the subject at hand (NDE’s). However, it will be unavoidable that a consideration of NDE’s will naturally lead to questions about the fundamental nature of reality.
So, a near-death experience (NDE) is an experience of someone who comes either close to clinical death, or may even have no vital signs at all for a period of time before returning (in which case we may debate whether it is valid to say that such a person actually died and returned to life). Whilst the person may be in a coma, under anaesthesia or have no vital signs, they claim that they were fully conscious and experiencing themselves outside of the body and/or in another dimension of reality altogether.
Many prominent NDE researchers have popularised lists of common features of NDE’s. I’m going to try to avoid simply copying these, and rather go by memory in order to attempt to give my own take on the matter. So, the following are some common features of NDE’s:
– An out of body experience (OBE) in which someone experiences themselves looking down on their body, floating around the ceiling, and/or travelling around earth (or another realm) without the constraints of their physical body.
– A period of transition from the physical realm to another realm. In modern Western culture it is common for people to report travelling through a tunnel towards a light at the end. Other variations that are common both in Western and non-Western cultures are crossing a bridge, travelling through beautiful fields of flowers etc.
– Encountering a transcendental light that emits unspeakable love and peace. This light is usually described as extraordinarily bright – it is often described as being like a million suns – but yet it does not blind or harm. Almost universally this light is described as being pure love, unconditional and without limit, a love that is different to the usual human experience of love. Again, it is almost universal that experiencers feel an insatiable desire to be one with the light. It is common for experiencers to describe both an impersonal (but sentient) light that is everywhere in the after-death realm, and also encounter individualised “beings of light”.
– Encountering deceased friends, relatives, religious figures or more general beings of light on the other side, who act as guides through the NDE.
– Experiencing a “life-review”, in which their entire life is re-lived in a moment in great detail. It is vital to note here that this isn’t merely a quick flash of visual imagery from ones life, but rather described as a complete, no-stone-left-unturned record of every thought, word, intention, feeling and action from birth to the present. What’s more, it is common to hear that in the life review one sees the true intention behind ones actions (that is, free of egoic rationalisations), and also sees, feels and fully experiences the consequences of ones behaviour on others. Hence, as a result this is described by many as being completely life changing, as it completely re-orients their priorities and beliefs about life as a whole.
– Travelling through different dimensions of the afterlife, including witnessing the immense beauty of the physical universe, a deep void, various hells and heavens, and even cosmic, mystical experiences of unity beyond time and space. A significant majority of NDE’s report visits to a heavenly afterlife realm, and many people have claimed to have travelled through numerous levels/layers of heaven, growing in subtlety and radiance as they ascend. There are however significant numbers of people who have reported hellish NDE’s. In some cases the person returns directly from the experience, deeply relieved to be alive. In other cases they cry out for help during the NDE itself and are saved from hell by a being of light.
– Being given visions of possible futures and/or a message for humanity as a whole. Often the person is given a mission to fulfil to help steer humanity in a particular direction.
– Being told that it is not a person’s time to die yet, or being given a choice to stay in heaven or return to Earth. Whilst we do hear of NDE’s where people have suddenly found themselves back in their physical body, it is quite common to hear of people either being given the choice to return to Earth, or simply being told that they have to. Hence, many NDE’s show a continuum from the beginning to the end, with the person fully conscious through all stages.
Common objections to Near Death Experiences:
Whilst it isn’t the intended purpose of this article to give an in-depth response to objections, I would like to give a brief summary of such objections and my responses to them. In general there are two main branches of criticisms of NDE’s. The first branch comes from the presumption of materialism that has become largely conflated and confused with science. The second branch comes from religious groups that object to the spiritual philosophy/theology of the majority of NDE’s.
Materialist objections:
So, starting with materialistic objections (often mischaracterised as “scientific objections” or “scientific explanations”), many people seek to explain away NDE’s as merely hallucinations brought on by a dying brain (being deprived of oxygen), or the side-effects of anaesthetics or pain-killers, or as part of a physical or psychological condition such as temporal-lobe epilepsy or a dissociative response to trauma.
Firstly, I wish to quickly re-state something I touched on in a previous article2, and which I will speak on at length at some point.
The spirit of science is supposed to involve a sincere desire to know what is the truth of a subject, to understand it without bias and to follow the evidence to wherever it naturally leads. The method of science is supposed to be a means to firstly hypothesise, then experiment, open the experiment up for review and finally offer conclusions upon the results.
As as means to do this we have adapted the method of “methodological naturalism”, which naturally presumes natural (physical/material) causes and hence excludes spiritual explanations. As a result, metaphysical naturalism (which is a philosophical view; aka materialism or atheism) came to be conflated with the scientific method. Hence, many people consider the scientific perspective to naturally offer materialistic explanations for spiritual phenomena.
Obviously, if you preclude spiritual explanations as a prior to studying NDE’s, then you cannot claim to be in line with the spirit of science. Rather, if science acts in this way then it is merely pseudo-science, or scientism, a religion of materialism.
So, a truly objective and scientific perspective on NDE’s should consider multiple possibilities and explanations. One of those should be that many (or most) NDE’s are indeed objectively real spiritual experiences, and that they constitute some form of evidence for the reality of spirituality. From here, materialistic explanations can be offered as other competing explanations, and the different explanations can be weighed up against each other. However, to be blunt, this isn’t the way it is generally done today. Rather, it is usually stated (or assumed) that materialism isscience, and hence the two are conflated up front.
Having acknowledged this, the majority of arguments I have seen from materialists bring up the correlation between physiological processes in the body (and the brain in particular) and the subjective mental experience. Almost without exception, I find this correlation being raised with the assumption that the only possible interpretation is that the physiological processes are the cause of the subjective experience itself. That is, when a scientist mentions that electrical stimulation of the temporal lobes can induce an out of body experience (OBE), it is therefore assumed that this establishes that spiritual experiences are always caused by a physical process, and that spiritual experiences are ultimately hallucinations (and are thus unreal), and that the physical processes are the reality.
I have previously argued that causation goes in both directions3; that is from matter to mind (upward causation), and from mind to matter (downward causation), and it is not hard to find examples of both. For example, consuming the drug LSD alters the body’s chemistry and induces an altered state of consciousness (upward causation). However, you can also alter the body’s chemistry and induce altered states simply through applying will power and directing the mind in meditation (downward causation).
So, to re-state, it seems to me that a large percentage of materialist arguments against NDE’s work on the assumption that any evidence showing correspondence between physiology and an internal (mental) state would therefore be evidence that the physical processes were the one and only cause of the experience. That is, I have never really seen any materialist ever take into account the spiritual view of correspondences and bi-directional causation between the physical dimension and the mental and spiritual dimensions.
Again, this is not something I can do justice to here, but I think the above summarises one of the main issues with materialistic objections. Having noted this, I have a few more things to add here today.
Firstly, materialists have made a big thing out of saying that people that have NDE’s cannot say that they died and came back to life, but rather can only say that they came close to death and survived. The reasoning for this is that they define death as a final state of no-return, and hence by their definition it is impossible to come back to life after death.
I personally find this to be largely a game of semantics. Let us remember that materialism is built upon the belief that mind is only an epiphenomenon of matter. Hence, materialism is built upon the belief that consciousness is completely dependent upon biological processes, in particular those inside the brain itself.
A significant percentage of NDE’s occur whilst the person in question can be verified to have no vital signs for a significant period of time. If the materialist explanation were correct, one would expect to see the persons consciousness slipping away progressively into oblivion as the breath, heart beat and brain waves dissipate and completely stop. If the materialist explanation were correct one would expect that NDE’s would be described as fuzzy or hazy, like a hallucination or typical dream.
However, a hallmark of the NDE is the complete opposite. That is, experiencers claim that they were more awake, more aware during their NDE, whilst their body was devoid of the biological processes that materialists claim are essential for consciousness. And importantly, in a significant
percentage of NDE’s the person in question claims a continuity from the beginning of the NDE through to when they came back to their body.
We should also note that there are many people who come close to death and don’t report anything at all. I have seen this claimed as evidence that NDE’s are only hallucinations that happen to some people.
I would respond by pointing out that by definition there is no experience that can disprove NDE’s. If someone blacks out and comes to afterwards, this simply means that for whatever reason they were unconscious and don’t have anything to recall. It doesn’t mean that had they not be revived that they would not have become aware in the spirit at some point. It may also be the case that some Souls remain unconscious in the astral world before reborn on earth4.
Likewise, if someone says that they experienced just a blackness, just a nothingness, then this implies by definition that they were conscious, in which case they did actually have an NDE, only that there wasn’t yet any content to it before they returned (i.e. they were conscious without any perception, sensation or thought). Rather, they were conscious in a void, which we should note is well attested as part of the overall NDE phenomena.
Finally, it is common for NDE’s to begin with a common OBE, such as looking down at one’s body in a hospital bed and travelling around the hospital. There are countless cases where people claim to have seen things whilst out of body that they could not possibly have known if they were simply hallucinating from their fixed position. Without having controlled experiments and interviews done immediately following such experiences it is difficult (if not impossible) to test such claims properly. However, we should note that there are many cases whereby others have claimed to be able to attest to what the NDE’er saw. There have even been attempts to compare NDE’ers recollection of their own resuscitation to a control group (see Michael Sabom5).
Probably the best argument I have seen presented by materialists is that NDE’s frequently contain imagery that corresponds with the upbringing of the individual, both on a personal and collective level. Anyone that has made a sincere attempt to study religion and spirituality as a whole should recognise this fact:
There is no clear defining line between psychological and spiritual experiences; there is no clear defining line between the mind and the spirit.
Rather, the two clearly interact and crossover. I have written a fairly lengthy article specifically on this topic that I plan to publish shortly. For today I will try and give a brief answer.
Essentially, in making this point about NDE’s, materialists are arguing that evidence of the projection of the beliefs, symbols and language of the person (and their wider culture) in NDE’s is evidence of NDE’s being hallucinations, projections of the psyche (which materialists believe is wholly created by and contained within the brain). Without a very deep understanding of spirituality and a philosophical leaning, one could understand this argument, and perhaps be swayed by it.
Certainly a significant percentage (probably the vast majority) of people that hold religious and/or spiritual beliefs fail to recognise the self-validating element of such beliefs. That is, most people are quite literal in their beliefs, and do not consider that the truth of their sacred experiences is on a deeper level. However, there have always been spiritual teachings that have emphasised the deeper realities of spiritual experience, and have recognised the superficiality of outer symbols and language.
It is indeed true that many people have claimed to have met prominent figures from well-known religious traditions in the NDE. I would caution that we shouldn’t necessarily assume that such figures were real historical figures, but rather that the beings in the higher realms take on familiar appearances in order to soothe the mind and put the person at ease.
An excellent example of this is the NDE of Mellen Thomas Benedict6. Prior to his NDE Mellen read extensively on religion and philosophy, in an attempt to prepare himself for what was
coming. When he did inevitably die and enter the astral dimension he met a being of light that showed itself in a variety of forms, corresponding with the various religious traditions Mellen had studied. When Mellen asked the being to show it’s true form, it then showed itself just as light. I believe also in Howard Storm’s NDE the beings of light (he identified them as angels) offered to show themselves to him in human form, to which he declined7.
To properly understand my response to this objection, I must explicitly state the foundation of my worldview:
That is, I believe the true substance of reality is consciousness.
This is the exact opposite of materialism (which states that the true and only substance of reality is matter and its laws). In a spiritual universe, every dimension is made up of consciousness, though the lower dimensions are denser, grosser and appear to be more solid and objective.
As such, an NDE is an experience in the astral dimension (higher than the physical), which is therefore less dense and more subjective. Just as in a dream, the substance of the experience is created and moulded by mind. Contrary to an average dream however, an astral experience is not created wholly by the finite, individual mind of the person having an NDE8, but rather an interaction between themselves, higher beings and God. As such, NDE’s make use of language, forms and symbols that are familiar to human beings as the superficial outward form of the experience itself. However, they are still fundamentally real. In fact, they are more real than earthly, physical experience. They are real experiences, but not wholly objective. They are both objective and subjective.
I understand the above answer may seem quite unfamiliar to some readers. There is perhaps not much more I can do here other than to point out that this is not merely a new view made up in response to this objection (or any other), but rather an ancient view found in many religious and philosophical traditions (such as Advaita Vedanta).
I would also like to refer my readers to a particularly extraordinary book called “The Holographic Universe” by Michael Talbot9, which really addresses this particular issue in depth.
Religious objections:
Another stream of criticisms of NDE’s comes from orthodox religion, most commonly Christianity. Whilst a quick glance at an individual NDE account may appear in line with orthodox Christianity, a more careful examination of the NDE phenomena as a whole makes it clear that whilst the spirituality being offered does overlap with orthodox Christianity in many significant ways, it also diverges in other equally significant ways.
Firstly, the common ground is quite obvious. NDE’s affirm the reality of God and the overwhelming love of God. They affirm that there are both heavenly and hellish experiences in the afterlife, along with a plethora of spiritual beings with divine or demonic natures. They also affirm that we must face the reality of our choices and actions, and see them from a higher perspective.
However, in general and as a whole, NDE’s offer a universal and inclusive spirituality that doesn’t depend on belief in specific doctrines or adherence to a particular dogma. So, NDE’s as a whole do not teach that one is saved through faith in or a relationship with Jesus Christ. Whilst Christian imagery is quite common in Western NDE’s in particular, the theology of the experiences is quite clearly more in alignment with Eastern Spirituality and New Age spirituality.
For this reason, many Christians have argued that the light of the NDE is a false light, and many have quoted passages about Satan masquerading as an angel of light10. In conversations with Christians on this subject I have frequently heard it argued that many of these NDE’s start off beautiful, but get darker and darker as they go on.
I have attempted to verify this claim, and I believe I know where the sources for it are, though I also believe the relevant sources are being misrepresented, as we shall see. I know of at least three particular NDE’s which could be termed “hellish”, which progressively got darker and darker
as they progressed. The three I will briefly summarise today are from Kathy McDaniel11, Guenter Wagner12 and Howard Storm13. The two most relevant here are the last two (Wagner and Storm).
In the case of Kathy McDaniel she was in a medically induced coma and became conscious. Initially she was in darkness but then started to see a reddish light, which soon became foggy as the experience very quickly became one of pure hell. She was tormented, attacked and violated by demonic beings before eventually she started singing a Christmas carol and a beautiful white light (the True Light) came and infused her with overwhelming love and peace and lifted her out of hell.
It is very clear that the light she experience as saving her from hell matches the description of the light that many (if not most) NDE’ers experience near the beginning of their experience. There is a clear distinction between the faint reddish light she perceives at the start (with no mention of spiritual radiance, peace and love), and the divine light she perceives later that radiates overwhelming peace and love. So, this NDE certainly does not fit the Christian claim.
In fact, Kathy was a Catholic and therefore should have been considered to be saved by Christian theology. From what little I have heard from her it appears that she now accepts that the cause of her hellish experience was a combination of her belief in hell and purgatory, and probably the mental state that accompanied the traumatic conditions which led to her NDE (i.e. being in hospital on the brink of death).
In the case of Guenter Wagner, his NDE is quite unusual. That is, not only does it differ from the beautiful heavenly accounts we are most accustomed to, but it is also quite different from most hellish accounts. There are a number of possibilities for this, and I will discuss them shortly.
Essentially Wagner recounts having had an accident as a child and finding himself out of his body, at which point he was essentially tempted by a malicious spirit to go with him rather than try and get back in his body. He travels through a number of different dimensions where he is told he is not supposed to be there, and he is eventually questioned by a being of light who is extremely hostile towards him and explains that it is at war with other spirits who are trying to invade its world.
This being of light talks of love and religious doctrines and at times radiates peace and love, but at other times threatens to destroy him. Wagner recounts a life review experience in which the being of light taunts and shames him. Again, this is radically at odds from what we experience in essentially all other NDE’s. Finally, as Wagner is about to return to Earth he hears a voice telling him to kill his mother.
So, this is a very strange NDE. It has some of the features of a typical heavenly NDE, but it appears that they are mixed in seamlessly with hellish features. Hence, I could see that at a quick glance someone may use this account to argue that the beings of light in NDE’s are demonic imitators. However, at a closer look this doesn’t stand up.
As I see it, there are three main options to explain this NDE, and we may even possibly consider the possibility that all three are partially true. Firstly, Guenter himself admits to a lifelong struggle with alcoholism, and whilst the NDE occurred to him as a child he only recounted it as an adult. It is certainly possible that his memory and general brain functioning is all over the place as a result of his addiction. Obviously NDE’s are generally given as first-hand testimonies, and as such all have a large degree of subjectivity to them.
In Guenter’s case his NDE wasn’t recounted to others nor recorded till much later in his life. It is possible that he actually experienced a more “normal” NDE with some hellish elements at the start, after which an angelic being of light intervened to assist him. So, perhaps his memory has conflated the two sides and it is now all mixed up?
Secondly, if there is any truth to legends of fallen angels, then perhaps this NDE is an account of an experience with one. This might potentially explain how such a being could still have some of the attributes of the beings of light as commonly found in NDE’s, and yet also display a lower, demonic nature. According to his account the being was fearful of having its dimension invaded
by others with which it is at war. If this is indeed what Wagner experienced and if it does have an objective reality to it, then this sounds like a fallen being lost in a lower-astral dimension, at war with other fallen beings.
A third possibility is that Guenter’s NDE was made up. I generally hesitate to go in this direction, and I wouldn’t favour this possibility. It is always a possibility that someone has simply invented their story for one reason or another. Human beings have displayed the capacity for fraud since time immemorial, and religion has never been exempt from this. In this case Guenter Wagner’s testimony is very much an outlier, in that it is inconsistent. So, fraud must be considered.
Finally, we have the well-known case of Howard Storm. Storm was a keen materialist before his NDE, and he openly mocked religious folk for what he believed was their ignorance, weakness and gullibility. After a medical emergency he left his body and was deeply distressed to find himself unable to communicate with anyone around him. He then heard voices coming from the hallway of the hospital, leading him out of the hospital into a dense fog with a dim light. He soon found himself in a hellish realm surrounded by demonic beings who mocked, attacked and violated him. However, out of his desperation came the thought to pray to God, which culminated in an angelic presence (a being of light) appearing and saving him from hell, and taking him to the perimeter of a heavenly realm.
He was told he was unable to enter due to his soul not currently being suitable, but was given the opportunity to return to earth and make amends for the cruelty he had shown to others, and for the selfish way he had lived his life as a whole. He was bathed in transcendental peace and shown that he was a precious being that was loved, despite all the wrongs he had done.
So, to summarise, none of the above NDE’s began with a radiant, heavenly being of light beaming love. McDaniel’s begin with a faint light in a dense fog. The light being in Guenter Wagner’s NDE displayed both divine and demonic features. If this was a being of light, it was a fallen one. And again in Howard Storms NDE there is a faint light in a dense fog during the hellish part of the NDE. So none of these NDE’s start with a heavenly experience and then get darker and darker as they go. If there are any such accounts out there I haven’t come across them (though I have tried). If anyone comes across any such accounts I would be interested to have a look at them.
Rather, the standard fare for a hellish NDE is that the person experiences hell first, then after calling out for help is saved by a radiant being of light, taken to heaven and given their life-review, then being sent back to Earth to fulfil their mission. Guenter Wagner’s NDE is the closest I have found to the claim by Christians that NDE’s are deceptive. However, as already discussed, there are a number of reasons why his does not fit their claim.
Aside from this, I do know of several books written by Christians who had a previous history with New Age spirituality where they claim to have been tricked by spirits who claimed to be of the light. Some examples would be “The Light That Was Dark” by Warren B Smith and “The Beautiful Side of Evil” by Johanna Michaelsen (I believe there are many other similar books around, such as the more recent one by Doreen Virtue “Deceived No More”). From what I have seen such books generally tell of someone who was involved with New Age spirituality having a mixture of experiences before later converting to Christianity, and taking on the perspective that all of the things they experienced previously were wicked deceptions.
Just a few points I would make in response to all of this. Firstly, orthodox Christianity is not the only spiritual perspective that can explain for challenging or unpleasant spiritual experiences. Rather, what we term New Age spirituality also generally recognises that not everything or everyone in the vast spiritual cosmos is of the light. So, it is not true to assume that examples of hellish NDE’s contradicts a universal spiritual understanding. Likewise, it is not true that examples of deceptive behaviour of lower beings automatically implies the acceptance of a dualistic eschatology.
We might also question the overall idea that there a source of evil that can appear as beautiful light and beam radiant love. Firstly, the commonly quoted passage of Satan appearing as an angel of light from 2nd Corinthians 11:14 was referring to the competition between early Christian preachers, and the different gospels, different Christ’s they were preaching. We know that early
Christianity was not at all uniform, but rather consisted of numerous sects competing for followers. In the case of 2nd Corinthians we see that different teachers were competing for the same audience. There is of course no reason to give this passage an air of authority, as if it were written by God’s hand (see my previous article on the concept of scripture14). Rather, it is just an off the cuff remark by one author (Paul) to attempt to rebut other early Christian preachers competing for his audience.
Author and web-master Kevin Williams15 has given a number of responses to the Christian objections, from his own perspective (he considers himself a “Universalist Christian” – basically a New Ager with a significant investment in the Bible). Whilst I do not personally view the Bible as being authoritative, Williams presents an interesting argument16 from Matthew 12:24-3717, in which the Pharisees accuse Jesus of performing miracles via Beelzebub. Jesus responds that a house divided against itself cannot stand, and that you can measure the roots of a tree by its fruit.
Clearly the fruits of the NDE are radical love and radical accountability. Hence, Williams argues that by the example of Matthew 12:24-37, religious critics are adopting the same argument as the Pharisees, to which he believes his response is that of Jesus. Again, whilst I do not believe in a historical Jesus nor hold the Bible to have spiritual authority, I believe this is simply good logic. Exclusive religious beliefs are maintained by a strict dichotomy between the in-group (the believers) and the others (the heathens/pagans/atheists etc.). In such cases religious experiences, beliefs and practices are differentiated not on the basis of an examination of their details, but rather simply on whether they conform to the ideology of the group.
In my writings I have long been arguing that we should differentiate such things based on their nature, not the race, skin color, language, religion, sect or philosophy of the people in the example. Hence, we should be able to view NDE’s from an unbiased position and assess them for what they are. I believe that when we do this we shall see that they offer great upliftment and inspiration to humanity. I believe that the radiant light experienced in NDE’s is Divine, and this shows itself all through the phenomena.
Whilst I have not personally had a traditional NDE18, I am well familiar with the feeling of overwhelming, all-consuming spiritual peace (called ananda in Sanskrit) and love that is such a common feature of NDE’s. I believe that this spiritual peace is not merely something that is only experienced through NDE’s, but it is common to all deep, authentic spiritual experiences, regardless of culture or faith.
Again, the theology taught by the beings of light in NDE’s is one of radical compassion and radical self-responsibility. It makes absolutely no sense to argue that Satan masquerades as a radiant being of peace and love, teaching a lofty theology. The argument here by Christians rests on the assumption that without salvation from sin through accepting Jesus Christ as one’s personal saviour, that one is lost for eternity. They are arguing that Satan is trying to get people to abandon this idea in favour of a different theology.
One might argue that this is a form of circular-reasoning, as it assumes that orthodox Christianity is true, in order to dismiss evidence of a different theology. I would argue that to consider the spiritual and religious implications of NDE’s properly, one would have to go in with an open mind and consider multiple possibilities. Christians should be able to go in and compare NDE theology vs Christian theology on their own merits, rather than merely discarding NDE theology on the basis that it clashes with elements of Christian theology.
Furthermore, I would actually argue that it makes far more sense to take NDE’s as a primary source for spiritual knowledge, rather than a specific text, creed, teacher or school of thought. The difficulty is of course that (as mentioned before), NDE’s are heavily coloured by the mass consciousness of the human race, which means that they speak through the language of our sacred texts, creeds, well known spiritual leaders and groups.
So, it is true that NDE’s – both individually and collectively – reflect the language, symbols, beliefs and culture of both the people that experience them and the human race as a whole. However, when we view NDE’s as a whole, seeing the forest and not just the individual trees, we see that they communicate a spirituality which is universal and mystical, transcending the countless
differences and points of contention in the worlds religions, but aligning with the highest common grounds between them. One might say therefore that NDE’s correlate well with the ideal of a Perennial Philosophy, a timeless and universal spiritual philosophy that has been known in part to people from all over the globe, throughout recorded history.
I have the intention to devote an entire article to NDE theology in the near future, with the hope to go into much greater detail about the spiritual significance of the phenomena as a whole. In this future article I would also like to go into detail in comparing NDE theology to Christian theology, as I feel this is a very important issue. I believe that NDE theology is the solution to mankind’s religious misunderstandings and disputes. I believe NDE theology has what we need to understand religion correctly, to correct our mistakes and unite us as one family of light.
The meaning and significance of Near Death Experiences:
NDE’s as the solution to our self-created problems:
NDE’s offer direct solutions to the aberrations in human thinking and behaviour, both on an individual and collective level. That is, firstly everything about the experience in a general sense re-orients a persons overall worldview in a positive way. Secondly, in regards to exactly what happens, what is revealed and/or communicated, most NDE’s appear to be specifically tailored to the particular needs of the person in question at the time, and collectively they speak to the primary needs of the human race as a whole. So, NDE’s offer the solutions to our problems, seeking to correct our misunderstandings and put us back on a healthy path.
Furthermore, NDE’s speak not just to individual behaviour but rather to the underlying causes of them. Specifically, NDE’s address the dichotomy between religion and science, seeking to correct both the aberrations of divisive and fear-based religious dogma, and also the materialist assumptions that create all manner of problems in individual lives, as well as the collective experience of the human race and our entire planetary ecosystem.
NDE’s affirm the reality and primacy of Spirituality:
Firstly and foremost, NDE’s show us that we are spiritual beings, that we do not have to fear death, and that our loved ones are never truly gone. NDE’s banish the question of what happens after we die and give certainty to the reality of spirituality. NDE’s give context and meaning to everything that we go through in life, and remind us of the great sacredness of all things. NDE’s teach us what really matters, and shows us the true immensity of creation.
So, NDE’s show us that spirituality is not only objectively real, but that it is primary over physicality. NDE’s do not seek to diminish our physical experience in favour of spiritual escapism, but rather affirm the purpose and value of an earthly existence from a spiritual perspective. NDE’s remind us that the pleasures of the senses and material objects have only a temporary existence, and that relationships, experiences and knowledge live beyond the short earthly incarnation. NDE’s remind us that we should never seek anything at the expense of our Soul.
NDE’s teach Universalism and true unconditional love:
NDE’s show us that real spirituality is not dependent upon mythologies or creeds, of adherence to rules or rituals. Rather, real spirituality is always about Soul growth, about seeking love, joy, strength and wisdom. Probably the most profound of all features of the NDE is the unspeakable, overwhelming and all-consuming peace and love that is found in correspondence with the divine light. It should be obvious to us that everyone truly seeks happiness (although some beings are so hurt that they do so in destructive ways). The NDE reminds us that there is truly only one way to be happy, and that is to truly love.
NDE’s show us that love isn’t merely a word or a light feeling. It isn’t merely a human sentimentality or attachment. Rather, love is the inseparable and essential nature of reality, the core of life itself, emerging from the unity of existence. Again, there is no way to be happy other than to love. If we all seek happiness that doesn’t come and go, without fickleness or fragility, then we must devote ourselves to love that is beyond fickleness or fragility.
In religion and spirituality we often speak of divine love as infinite and unconditional. It is of course easy to miss the true significance of these words, and think that they refer to something completely foreign to us that we cannot relate to. (I’d like to highlight the next sentence, as this is really important):
In truth it simply means that divine love is completely independent of literarily everything.
This doesn’t so much mean that with divine love one must seek to be so compassionate that one overcomes the tendency to give or retract love on the basis of the behaviour of others. Rather, it simply means that behaviour and circumstances are irrelevant to love. This doesn’t mean that behaviour and circumstances are irrelevant as a whole, or that there are no consequences to our actions (and of course, NDE’s teach quite the contrary). Rather, it simply means that consequences, cause and effect are inherently different to the existence of divine love. Hence, NDE’s teach utterly, absolutely radical love.
So, you do not have to prove yourself worthy of divine love, you cannot be removed from it, it cannot be withdrawn from you, it will never run out and it has no limits or conditions. You are loved, always have been and always will be, no matter what. Furthermore, this love is completely fulfilling that having experienced it you naturally want to give your life to it, to be consumed by it, to live entirely in harmony with it. Hence the challenging path of living a spiritual life as a human being begins.
NDE’s teach absolute accountability:
Having established this, we then recognise the other side of divine love being independent of cause and effect. That is, NDE’s teach absolutely radical accountability. NDE’s show us just how responsible we are for what we think, feel, say and do. They show us just how much all of these matter, how our choices affect the lives of individuals and our wider world.
In my personal opinion, one of the key, core problems with humanity as we are is that we generally believe we can hurt others without hurting ourselves. We tend to think we can lie, cheat and steal to get the things we want in life, without consequence. Even when people profess to have strong spiritual and/or religious values, they often explain away their behaviour, seeking to justify to themselves (and others) what they do.
NDE’s show us that we cannot hide from God, or ourself. In the life-review we are spiritually naked19. Our true motives are fully exposed in plain view. The truth of our actions, our words and even our thoughts are seen objectively, without any potential to frame them in our defence.
The life-review shows the full consequence of our choices, both big and small. It shows the impact we have on others, not just in the immediate future but also in the long term. It shows the ripple affect of our choices, meaning that we see just how significant they are.
The life-review reveals that we are fully responsible for our choices, no matter what led us to them. As human beings we often justify our behaviour based on prior experience. Such luxuries are not found in the life-review, as our absolute personal responsibility is revealed.
However, despite all this, and despite the fact that that the life-review can be deeply painful, the beings of light do not judge us, no matter what we did. Their love for us is independent of the consequences of our actions.
So, we see that we can never truly get away with anything. No one ever does. The flip side of this radical accountability is that we generally have no idea how much capacity we truly have to change. We have so much potential for growth, for expansion, for evolution. We really are just at the very beginning.
When most of us hear about growth we usually think about physical fitness, about financial abundance, having the “perfect” relationship, the perfect home, the perfect career, status and respect from others and intellectual growth etc. However, we rarely think about expanding our
capacity for compassion, expanding our state of awareness beyond our ego, expanding into cosmic knowledge, expanding into higher dimensions of reality etc. NDE’s remind us that we are just children beginning our Soul development. We truly have no idea of what we are capable of. This should be seen as the greatest inspiration. This is truly good news.
NDE’s show us where true happiness is found:
So, as a whole, NDE’s correct the problems inherent in religion and materialism. They teach a universal spirituality beyond any sectarianism, showing that we each have the capacity to grow into a pure vessel for the divine light that we all are. They show us that nothing will ever fulfil us like living for the light does. Again, this does not diminish earthly experiences and pursuits, but rather puts them in their correct context. We do not seek happiness and fulfilment in the senses, possessions, experiences and relationships, but rather joyously participate in the world of the senses, objects, experiences and relationships from the happiness and fulfilment in our soul.
NDE’s show the error in materialism and hedonism, and offer the solution:
Hence NDE’s correct the materialistic and hedonistic tendencies that are rampant in human culture. NDE’s show us that a lust for material things can never be satisfied, and can never turn out well.
Finally, NDE’s repeatedly emphasise that humanity as a whole is on a challenging path right now, due largely to many of our mistakes. NDE’s show us multiple possibilities of our future in order to warn us of the consequences of our choices, and to give us the opportunity to make radical changes in how we live.
Whilst NDE’s are well known for containing warnings about challenging times ahead for humanity, they also contain a message of hope, in giving us a glimpse of what is possible when we live truly spiritual lives. Those that return after an NDE often develop psychic/spiritual gifts which add great depth to their life. Can we imagine a world in which a significant percentage of the population was using such gifts in service of the greater good? Again, as with the UFO phenomena20, this reminds us that we – the human race – are really just beginning in our path of evolution, and we cannot even begin to fathom what we are capable of.
So, we are taught that expansion of the heart and mind is the true goal and purpose of life, and that only in living in this way can we find true happiness and success. Peace on both the inside and outside is the result of wisdom and love in action.
In closing:
Again, I would like to encourage anyone interested in this topic to do some serious reading of first-hand NDE reports, and the writings of others who have studied the topic in-depth. These are not merely reports and opinions you read for the purpose of entertainment or gaining intellectual knowledge. These words are life-changing, cutting right to the meaning of life itself.
Again, I do not claim to have personally realised the ideals of which I have touched on here. Only that I am trying in my way to pursue them, and would encourage others to try as well, both for their own personal benefit, and also for the benefit of their family, friends and wider community.
May we all find that light which is true love. Peace
1 https://jameshiscoxblogs.wordpress.com/2021/07/25/a-spiritual-perspective-on-death/
2 https://jameshiscoxblogs.wordpress.com/2015/07/12/science-philosophy-and-the- supernatural-101/
3 In Western philosophy this is called “interactionism”, though I did not derived my views from Western philosophy.
4 This was discussed in “Autobiography of a Yogi” by Paramahansa Yogananda, in chapter 43.
5 https://www.amazon.com/Recollections-Death-Investigation-Michael-Sabom/dp/0060148950
6 https://near-death.com/mellen-thomas-benedict/
7 I believe he responded that he hated people, and was so relieved to see them as beautiful light – Unfortunately I don’t have a link however
8 Certainly though, we may also have dreams which are not just projections of our mind.
9 https://www.amazon.com.au/Holographic-Universe-Revolutionary-Theory-Reality/dp/ 0062014102
10 2 Corinthians 11:14
11 https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=YtaS1Zyrxnw&list=UULF4IFgmVjowpy8D7nXmFZL2A&index=20
12 https://near-death.com/guenter-wagner/
13 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMfSMaQ1bWc
14 https://jameshiscoxblogs.wordpress.com/2017/04/14/on-interpretations-of-scripture-why- many-religious-conservatives-and-progressives-misread-ancient-texts-and-misunderstand- religion-in-general/
15 Author of “Nothing Better Than Death”: https://www.amazon.com.au/Nothing-Better-Than- Death-Experiences/dp/1097107426 and the website near-death.com
16 https://near-death.com/ndes-are-not-satanic/
17 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew 12:24-37&version=NIV 18 Though I may have had one or more “dream NDE’s”.
19 There is an old tradition in seeing human beings standing naked before God. This is usually seen literarily, as in being physically naked. However, I believe the NDE literature clearly shows that the reality of it is figurative.
Having stated that, I believe in Howard Storm’s NDE he saw himself as being naked (i.e. his astral body took the form of a naked human body) as he stood before the angels having his life-review. I think in his case it was just what he needed, to be stripped of pride and taught humility and reverence to God.
20 https://jameshiscoxblogs.wordpress.com/2021/11/03/the-significance-of-the-ufo-phenomena/
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