This may be a stupid question, but I’ll ask it anyway. Why is it that NDEs are always described as very pleasant events? It’s as if nobody who almost dies is destined for Hell. Has anyone here heard of such “negative” NDEs?
I read “23 Minutes In Hell” but that wasn’t an NDE, and probably a far more powerful account of the reality of Hell since NDEs seem to only brush with the actual afterlife.
Speaking of which, can anyone recommend a (credible) book/story of Heaven? “23 Minutes” was very powerful, but I’m generally more of a “carrot” guy than a “stick” guy.
I’ve heard of an occasional encounter with hell myself, but you’re right that they’re not to common.
It could be that if the tunnel is only like a gateway, nobody ever really gets there to find out.
Why is it that NDEs are always described as very pleasant events? It’s as if nobody who almost dies is destined for Hell. Has anyone here heard of such “negative” NDEs?To answer your second question first: NO. At least I haven't heard of any. So probably you may be right, that "23 Minutes in Hell" is not a description of an NDE. I.e., the person who wrote it was not undergoing the physical death process at the time the epiphany/meditation (whatever it was!) on the reality of Hell occurred.
Beliefnet reports:
Wiese claims that he was lying in bed at 3 a.m. when he was plunged into hell — not in a dream, but in actuality; not because he had died and was being punished, but because God wanted him to experience hell and warn others.FWIW, I had a similar experience once, "lying in bed at 3 a.m." However I was spared the vision of Hell; something entirely different was presented to my view. To boil it all down to essentials, what I heard and saw was that God loves His creation so very, very much; but that above all, He loves His creature, man — not in the abstract, but as unique, individual souls, individually called to be sons of God. That was it, in a nutshell. With "full graphics" and "voiceover." Next thing I knew, I was safely restored to my bed, and crying my eyes out for the sheer beauty and glory of what I had seen and heard. I am absolutely sure this was no mere dream.
So I have to say these things do happen. But as far as I know, I, like Bill Wiese, was not "at death's door" when it happened to me. Therefore, it was not an NDE.
There have been such meditations of Hell across Christian creedal confessions. A particularly harrowing one is St. John of the Cross' "dark night of the soul." I don't think he was at death's door when this vision came to him. So that couldn't be called an NDE. Or St. Theresa of Avila's vision of divine Love, in which she dies to herself, the victim of a divine arrow of Love struck straight into her heart. I don't think she was at death's door when this happened to her. So that couldn't be called an NDE either.
It seems to me that nobody who has ever had such an experience asked to have it. It is something that simply happens to one, unasked for. Such experiences get classed into the category of "mystical experience." And as such, in our thoroughly rationalistic age, are simply dismissed (e.g., as hallucinations, maybe even as the result of bad digestion). Notwithstanding, they tend to be life-changing events for the persons who suffer them....
Which is presumably what they have in common with NDEs. Which brings us to your first question, Future Snake Eater: "Why is it that NDEs are always described as very pleasant events?" Well, it seems to me if you are at death's door, and then you see loved ones who have died, and you see them "well"; you've gotten to a "place" where an angel tells you, "You're not ready to die yet, because you still have something to accomplish in the world, so you have to go back," from the standpoint of mortality, you'd probably find that pretty pleasant, too.
I think you're right about this, Future Snake Eater: "NDEs seem to only brush with the actual afterlife." YES. It's as if in an NDE one comes to the boundary of incarnated existence and one's eternal spiritual being, and one is denied the ability to cross it. One is "sent back" into the world, presumably for a purpose which God intends.
Or so it seems to me. But then, what do I know? There are no "experts" in NDEs or mystical visions — not even among the ones who experience them.
Thank you ever so much for writing dear Future Snake Eater!
Decades ago, probably the 70s, I read a book called Life After Life on this same topic. IIRC, there was a description of a dark, frightening experience related by a man who had committed suicide but was then revived by medical care. He came away with the clear impression that he had done a very negative thing and was horrified at the prospects, had he remained dead.
Several years ago, I saw a television program on NDEs, and one gentleman had a horrible experience. He described being in a dreadful place, with dark, specter-like creatures pulling him towards a hot, fightful pit, and the sounds of agony around him.
His heart had stopped for 8 minutes. He had led a very selfish and brutal life.
When he was revived, he turned to Christ and changed his ways. I was surprised that they showed that clip, given the media's propensity to discount anything that might support Christianity, but it was very moving. The man cried the whole time, and they had his wrap sheet to confirm his sinful ways.
His NDE, quite literally, scared the devil out of him.