JWs And Near Death Experiences

by Cold Steel 32 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • Cold Steel
    Cold Steel

    Nope, there are many people who have negative experiences. Do a search for Howard Storm on YouTube. There are many others who experience evil spirits in NDEs.

    Evidence supports the idea that out-of-body experiences depend on the temporal parietal junction. The temporal parietal junction of the brain seems to be involved in spatial self-perception and, thus, may be a candidate for understanding these phenomena... Visions and visitations seem to be associated with the temporal lobe. The temporal and parietal lobes of the cortex are involved in visual and face processing, as well as emotional events. Oxygen deprivation is likely to interfere with activity in neural structures, and the temporal and parietal lobes seem particularly susceptible to oxygen deprivation.

    Still, the convincing thing to me is when there’s a conveyance of information. Elena Durham, author of I Stand All Amazed, had her experience in the 70s. She was told things that she didn’t know then but was confirmed in the 90s. She’s one of the ones who saw friends she said she knew before she was born, and whom she recognized immediately. They greeted each other and embraced like old friends. She also asked questions and received intelligent answers about why God allows wars and evil (because he cannot and will not interfere with the free agency of man). When she came to, she contacted the priest who had given her last rites in the emergency room, and he couldn’t quite get his head around how she returned from death. He kept telling her, “But you were dead! They had taped your ring and earrings and had sent you to the morgue. You had been flat lining!” But she not only described the events that had happened in the emergency room, but was able to repeat the conversations of the doctors in a room she had never been in. Alas, like many such stories, she spends too much time describing the health problems that landed her in the emergency room and no one cares. They just want to hear the death and dying part. Apparently there’s no pain whatsoever in leaving your body. She described it as a very slight “pop” and then you were out looking down at your body and everything else that is going on. When the light appeared, she felt a great desire to approach it and that was when she made the transition to Paradise and began recognizing people. She described the beauty of the spirit realm, the colors, the fact that angels 1) don’t have wings and 2) are nothing more than people who not yet had been born or people who, having passed through life were either resurrected or awaiting resurrection. That made sense to me in that I’ve always wondered why angels were human in appearance.

    She also saw that there were many people on Earth who had passed on, but didn’t want to pass into the light. Some didn’t want to leave the places they had become familiar with in life and others who feared judgment. This is consistent with many other near death experiences, such as that of Howard Storm, an atheist who died in a hospital and was overpowered by evil spirits. Only when he called on Jesus Christ was he delivered. Apparently many of the spirits of the wicked dead join forces with Lucifer and his angels. These are most likely the spirits one sees manifesting themselves in various paranormal shows.

    If people see light and there’s no intelligence conveyed, I tend to chalk it up to medicine. But we’ve all had dreams and know the woozy indistinct things that happen in dreams. Afterwards we know we did things in our dreams, but we don’t recall them like we recall reality. When people go out of country and meet with people for business, they return home with detailed memories. They can describe the sights they saw, the colors, the weather, and the conversations they had. When people with near death experiences can do the same thing, that’s more than just an oxygen-deprived dream.

    I talked to an elderly nurse at a hospital one time while undergoing a sleep study. She told me of numerous stories she’d heard over the years, and added that most ER personnel can tell such stories. One involved a guy who was doing some wiring in his bathroom. He thought the electricity had been turned off, but he’d hit the wrong circuit breaker. Suddenly he was thrown back into his empty bathtub. He had no sensation of leaving his body but he found himself looking down and seeing it just as his wife and son rushed in. He saw them trying to revive him and noticed the burn marks running up his arms. He felt totally at peace, and then, he said, he heard voices he hadn’t heard for years—his parents. He didn’t see them, but they told him he had to go back, that his work on Earth was not complete; but he didn’t immediately go back. He heard his son and wife talking, heard them call 911. Then, poof! He was back. Although leaving his body had been painless, going back was anything but—and this is quite normal in NDEs. Suddenly he hurt everywhere. His arms felt like they were on fire. Later, in the hospital, he was able to recite his wife’s conversation with his son, as well as describe what they were wearing. Was it oxygen deprivation interfering with activity in neural structures in his temporal lobes? Who knows? But why are so many people able to describe conversations doctors are having even as they’re flat lining? And why can they describe what the doctors are wearing, or what doctors or nurses are doing in different rooms at the time?

    One thing I know, and that’s that we mortals have immortal spirits that not only survive death, but may have existed before we came to this earth. These things Jehovah’s Witnesses can’t answer.

  • smmcroberts
    smmcroberts

    I don't mean to laugh at sincerely held beliefs, but I did in spite of myself. In fact I'm still laughing over the lines: " Apparently many of the spirits of the wicked dead join forces with Lucifer and his angels. These are most likely the spirits one sees manifesting themselves in various paranormal shows. " Even my wife, the born-againer knows the haunted-house shows on TV are crap.

    You cannot know what you claim to know (that "we have immortal spirits that survive death"). No one knows more about the unknowable than anyone else. But we do know that thoughts are intimately tied to brain function. You can induce OBE's by manipulating the brain, and people will swear that they are seeing old friends in the room that have long since died. If you want to believe in life after (and/or before) death I won't argue with you; I don't know such things either. But I do know that it seems highly unlikely given these facts (and to me, facts outweigh anecdotes every time.) When I die I fully expect to be dead.

  • Cagefighter
    Cagefighter

    JW's have near death experiences, but they only see Brooklyn Heights and visions of binding books six days a week.

    HAHAHAA

  • Vanderhoven7
    Vanderhoven7

    The evidence of conscious existence after death in scripture is rather minimal; not what you would expect if the doctrine were authentic.

    https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1XTUEMUNWgM4E4qb6lNiS4Qghz-wxhc0cO4C8QYkocaY&embedded=true

  • moshe
    moshe
    he heard voices he hadn't heard for years-his parents. He didn't see them, but they told him he had to go back, that his work on Earth was not complete;

    In 1999 I was in bed asleep and I had a dream- my father and I were shoping at a clothing store called Fazios, that I hadn't been inside since I was a boy (closed for many years). We were looking at some denim overhalls and in walks my mother and brother ( she died in 1991 and my brother had died five months previously). They told my dad, It's time to go. I stood in front of my dad and announced - Dad is not ready to go with you, he is staying with me- you need to leave, it's not time for him to leave,- I was very determined that my father not leave with them ( yes, I seemed to know they were dead)- They turned and walked out of the front door-

    Immediately, I was awakened by the sound of my telephone ringing- it was the hospital. The nurse said my father had suffered a heart attack, he was unconsious and I needed to come to the emergency room asap- he might not live - I drove the two hours to the hosiptal and sat by his bed for the next 24 hours- he did recover and lived for another three years- There is a spirit world, I don't know why, but I know it exists.

  • biometrics
    biometrics
    One thing I know, and that’s that we mortals have immortal spirits that not only survive death, but may have existed before we came to this earth. These things Jehovah’s Witnesses can’t answer.

    I agree. Not only can't they answer them, they won't even discuss them.

    I find any written explanation of biblical verses is more or less one man's interpretation. There are literally volumes written about Lazarus and The Rich Man. I really have to ask myself did God or Jesus intend on leaving a text, for common people, that requires volumes (of propaganda) to explain and interpret each paragraph?

  • Cagefighter
    Cagefighter

    Wow, great story Moshe.

  • GromitSK
    GromitSK

    For those interested in NDEs, I found the following book by Chris Carter very informative:

    http://www.amazon.com/Science-Near-Death-Experience-Consciousness-Survives/dp/1594773564

  • smmcroberts
    smmcroberts

    Moshe,

    This is called "Data mining"; when we discount all of the times our dreams don't come true (99.999% of the time) and only focus on the few where (by sheer coincidence) they do. Gather enough data and you're sure to get a random hit now and then. IMHO that is not a good basis to build a belief system on a "spirit world".

    I had similar experiences many years ago when I thought I was having precognitive dreams. But the dreams were always remembered by me after their supposed fulfillment. When I later looked back on them honestly I could see where I had subconsciously stretched the truth: something would happen that would remind me of something similar in my dream (which was pretty vague) and then I would fill in the details, or would "remember" the dream in accordance with the "fulfillment".

    For instance, I once received a letter from a friend from NY who enclosed a tract with an illustration of a train. I then remembered that I had dreamed I was at the airport and I had asked someone "when does the train arrive from New York?" And they said "2:15". Holding the letter in my hand I then looked up at the clock and I think it was around 1:30. But when I later related this story to people the time somehow became 2:15 -- just to see their jaws drop. But it didn't feel like a lie; it felt like it really should have been 2:15 when I looked up at the clock, and so I helped the supernatural experience along a little.

    My wife will tell a story similar to yours about her waking up at 2 AM and "knowing" that her grandmother had just died. I have seen her innocently improve upon this story with the telling through the years until she's almost got me believing it. But I was there, laying in bed next to her hearing her snore at 2 AM. Again, it's not lying; it is wishful thinking and comfort: our minds giving us what we need. I'm not against wishful thinking and comfort in times when they are needed, but I am more in favor of honestly facing the hard factual truth. All the fact seem to point to our minds being dependent on our brains, so that when one dies the other is switched off forever. And that's fine by me; I don't have any memories worth preserving for eternity. I no more dread death than I do going to sleep each night: when the day is over I turn out the light and willingly give up my consciousness. When my turn is over I'm out of the game and someone else can play.

  • GromitSK
    GromitSK

    The way around this Moshe is to take notes as soon as you wake up. This will reduce the risk of embellishment and subtle changes in your recollection over time (if there are any). This doesn't of course mean that your dreams are not coincidental. Bereavement dreams perhaps need extra attention to recording details at the time, if we know a person is ill we may think and dream of them more, this makes it more likely that a bereavement dream which comes true is coincidental but not certain to be so. The more details you record as close to the dream as possible, the better.

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