Posted on 01/21/2010 6:27:18 AM PST by marshmallow
In new book, he says that near-death accounts transcend cultures and ages
The near-death experience story is so common that it has become a bit of a cliché: A medical patient, hanging in a murky limbo between life and death, is drawn through a tunnel of bright light, meets their maker, and is told they must return to the land of living.
But that scenario played out letter-perfectly for Mary Jo Rapini. And her story is getting firm backing by a doctor who has studied some 1,300 near-death experiences. Medical doctor Jeffrey Long chronicles Rapini’s story, along with his own research, in a new book: “Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences.”
In the book, Long contends his study shows that accounts of near-death experiences play out remarkably similarly among the people who have had them, crossing age and cultural boundaries to such a degree that they can’t be chalked up simply to everyone having seen the same Hollywood movie.
Through a tunnel
Appearing with Dr. Long on TODAY Wednesday, Rapini related her near-death experience to Meredith Vieira. A clinical psychologist, Rapini had long worked with terminal cancer patients, and when they told her of their near-death experiences, she would often chalk their stories up as a reaction to their pain medication.
But in April 2003, she faced her own mortality. Rapini told Vieira she suffered an aneurysm while working out a gym and was rushed to the hospital. She was in an intensive care unit for three days when she took a turn for the worse.
“All of a sudden [doctors] were rushing around me and inserting things into me, and they called my husband,” she told Vieira.
“I looked up and I saw this light; it wasn’t a normal light, it was different. It was luminescent.
(Excerpt) Read more at today.msnbc.msn.com ...
Maybe Rapini could describe to us what God looked like.../s
My dad was dying of cancer and heart disease. He was hurting. Then one day he opened his eyes and looked up, smiled a great big smile, held his arms out like he was about to hug someone above him, and died.
So sorry to hear of the loss of your precious toddler...
"you just state that Heaven is outside of space and time. That’s fine, but don’t pretend it’s from the Bible."
"Truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I Am." - if that is not outside of space and time......
"Christ came to live in our box of space and time."
Fully God and fully man.
Being "born again" is a confined view of scripture? Jesus is quite clear on what He means by that.
I wish they'd go into more detail on this. If a dying Muslim sees Allah/Mohammed/72 Virgins, and the Christians see Jesus, et al, then it IS a cultural thing. My own thinking is that it's just a "Death Mechanism" (for want of a better term), where the shutting down of the brain brings hallucinations. I understand scientists can recreate a "religious experience" by exciting a certain part of the brain, and if so, then the brain is just tapping into that area as you expire.
Impressive. Thanks.
Yes, those stories are beautiful, and I have no doubt that God is at work in their lives, but we need to weigh everthing against what the Word of God actually says.
I love an inspiring delightful story, but it is dangerous if I confuse that with the actual Word of God.
Saul of Tarsus no doubt had Divinely-inspired visions of heaven, but did not claim to actually meet God face-to-face.
I'm not trying to throw cold water on this, I just think we need to be cautious as to what we consider the actual words of God Himself.
bttt
END TIMES LIST
LIFE AFTER DEATH BOOK AND TODAY SHOW INTERVIEW.
Worth a read at the link, I think.
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/34953759/ns/today-today_people/?ns=today-today_people
Including post #17 from Gamecock of similar from two of his patients.
You bet...there are also near death experience when people came back screaming of being in hell. This article deceives the masses without Jesus people are hell bound.
God told me, in a dream — and talking about me — “I’d hit it.”
My mother, at the end of her battle with cancer, would comment on people ‘in the corner’ and look up at the ceiling where the corner met it. Now she was heavily sedated, no doubt, and probably had some lack of oxygen with her body shutting down... but she never hallucinated living people. She only hallucinated people who were dead. I always found that odd.
Oh yeah, and cats. She hallucinated cats a good bit. From what I understand from others working in hospice, hallucinating cats is common for some strange reason.
Journalism? It was a woman describing her experience. It was also a direct quote. How is this a lack of journalism?
You're using a particular view of Scripture to suggest that these sorts of episodes would only be confined to those who are already born again.
I doubt that God would be bound by such constraints; there's certainly nothing in Scripture to support that kind of restriction.
Indeed, if personal contact with God were preconditioned on already being born again, then I guess I and a lot of other people would have to join St. Paul as being ineligible for conversion.
Aside from that little episode on the road to Damascus, you mean.
Thanks much.
Very interesting.
No trouble believing that, at all.
Uh, Laz, you do realize that "smite" doesn't mean the same as "hit," in this context....
Of course, either way I suppose you'd still be screwed when all was said and done.
I saw Hell when I was 13 and Heaven when I was 28.
Both change your life irrevocably, and pretty much make you an alien on this planet.
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