Near Death Experiences, real or not?

Uncarved

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News Anchor: ...an up and coming writer was caught fleeing down the street of a small suburban neighborhood, throttling a chicken in either hand. More at eleven.

Back in your cage Bart
 

aruna

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I know three people who have had an NDE. Two of them were fairly close friends. One was a woman who lived inthe Bavarian mountains and had a skiing accident - something with an avalanche. She was helicoptered to hospital. She could "see" the doctors operating form above and screamed at them to no, no , no, let me go, it's so beautiful here! But no-one could hear.
There was a feeling of absolute, perfect joy she had never had before and returning to the body seemed like returning to hell. However, she did return and told me the tale years later. She's a most reliable, truthful person and not in any way a wacko.

The other friend was an older man, a doctor. I don't know many of the details but he, like Thurid, spoke of an indescribable bliss and not wanting to be brought back to the body.

The third person was a younger man whom I met at a friend's party. It had happened failrly recently; he was in his 30's. He just couldn't stop talking about it. He'd had a motorbike accident and he was "dead" for a while. During that time he had the experience and it was so beautiful, so ultimate, it changed his life completely. His regul;ar life took on a new dimension. The shallowness of his previous life-style gave over to something quite different, and much more fulfilling.

I have "known" that we don't really die ever since my 13 yo cousin died from a pipe-bomb when I was 6. I saw the corpse and the whole family weeping and wailing and I knew he was still "living", though not in that corpse. I just knew.



When other people talk about "living this life to the full" I have to say I'm bit sceptical. They usually means "grab as much pleasure as you can" or "indulge yourself as much as you can" or "get drunk and screw enough women while you can" which is not what I would call living life to the full. Living life to the full, for me, was always about knowing who I really am, here and now, so that living and dying is all the same. It's a constant uphill climb and not easy but worth every step of the way.



That said, I do not want to die yet because I have responsibilities; my kids are old enough to manage without me but my husband and my mother need me. It would be especially devastating to my husband (who is ill and unable to live by himself) if I died before him and create huge problems all around, for everyone.

My advice to the OP would certainly be to continue to think hard and deep about death and what it really means, and who you really are, especially if this life is so awful. Maybe you're missing a dimension that could indeed be yours right now.
 
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Thump

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There are these two books on the topic, with opposing opinions:
Many Lives, Many Masters: The True Story of a Prominent Psychiatrist, His Young Patient, and the Past-Life Therapy That Changed Both Their Lives by Brian L. Weiss:

Read that one. It's pretty good and quite a fun read as well. I read it when I was 16 and enjoyed it. I find the idea of past lives to be interesting and I'm willing to believe in reincarnation which I guess is paradoxical considering I also believe that after death we just disperse into everything and our "pattern", if you will, disappears.
I find the idea that I might have been say... a medieval shoe-maker or a slave building a pyramid once upon a time to be interesting :D
 

RumpleTumbler

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My advice to the OP would certainly be to continue to think hard and deep about death and what it really means, and who you really are, especially if this life is so awful. Maybe you're missing a dimension that could indeed be yours right now.

Are you suggesting that suicide is the best course of action?
 

Writer2011

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I've never had a NDE before--and death scares me some but then again it doesn't...does that make sense?
 

aruna

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Are you suggesting that suicide is the best course of action?
OF COURSE NOT!!!!

Where, in everything that I've said, have I said that suicide is a good thing? It's the very worst thing anybody could do!

In the Indian epic Mahabharata thers'a sentence that seems to sum up al I have to say: A king is being questioned on his wisdom and suitability to rule. One of the questions is:

What is the most curious thing on earth?
And his answer:
That even though every single person on earth is going to die, everyone lives as if death doesn't apply to them.

I meant that if the quesion of death and what comes after and happiness are good and important ones and should not just be put aside for another day. In the end it is all about living 100%.
 

RumpleTumbler

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In the Indian epic Mahabharata thers'a sentence that seems to sum up al I have to say: A king is being questioned on his wisdom and suitability to rule. One of the questions is:

What is the most curious thing on earth?

And his answer:

That even though every single person on earth is going to die, everyone lives as if death doesn't apply to them.

But everyone doesn't live as if death doesn't apply to them.
 

MarkEsq

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Hearing voices

(Don't worry, this story has a happy ending. No, not THAT type of happy ending...!)

Two weeks ago early in the morning I was going to get my kids up when I had a sharp pain in my chest that stopped me in my tracks. I started sweating, my arm went numb and my wife called EMS. They came, hooked me up to stuff, and gave me nitroglycerin before wheeling me out. In the ambulance my heart rate dropped to one beat every seven seconds and they had to cut my shirt open to get to my chest.

As I lay there on the gurney I could hear voices calling my name, echoing in my head, drawing me away. And like in the movies, I slowly came back to hear the paramedics saying "Mark, Mark, can you hear me?" Once I realized I was alive I thought that was cool, coming back into focus like that. Not a NDE, I guess, but this thread made me think of it and I don't want to be here at work and working. :)

(Happy ending: after a 2-day stay in hospital, turns out my heart is A-ok. I had periocarditis and the ambulance incident was a vagal reaction to the drip and stress of the situation plus the side effect of the nitro which slowed my already-low bp and heart rate. I do feel like I have been given another shot though, I was pretty scared there for a while.)
 

Redd Ryden

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Where's the party???-- I got the KEY to the cage--
Wow-- Mark! Glad you're okay, now! Super glad it was somewhat of a false alarm! (IMHO-- anything that makes your chest hurt and causes you to pass out, isn't exactly a false alarm... Glad the EMTs helped you!)

Also glad you're back to being the guy in your bio:

"Incredibly handsome, athletic, witty and charming Englishman.
I'm modest and self-effacing, too."

Stay well-- and don't go looking for voices too soon. ;)