Trying to get a glimpse of what’s over on the other side (Signs of Life after Death?)

.theheraldbulletin ^ | June 11 06 | Jim Bailey

[churchillbuff]

Despite lifelong beliefs that have been ingrained in my faith since childhood, I have to admit that like almost everyone else I have from time to time wondered if my existence will simply come to an end on the day I draw my last breath.

There is, after all, no way to prove one way or the other that human life continues in another realm after the body ceases to function. Nobody has come back to testify about it, with one notable exception of course, and those who reject his divinity also tend to doubt what he had to say about life after death. And the late Madalyn Murray O’Hair, the infamous atheist, hasn’t weighed in on the subject lately either.

Some would insist such doubts are implanted by the devil himself. Others counter there is no scientific basis for belief in a hereafter in the first place.

But just about every time I entertain such doubts, something comes along to reinforce my long-held belief in the hereafter. It’s often the experience of a dying saint getting their first glimpse, as an old gospel song puts it, of what’s over on the other side.

I’m told the Rev. Dr. Hollis Pistole appeared to have one such experience at his passing a little over a month ago. According to the story, Dr. Pistole, after a long battle with debilitating illness, raised up and put his arms out just before he drew his last breath. Apparently he received that glimpse of what awaited him.

My wife’s father had a similar experience, opening his eyes and reaching heavenward just before his passing.

I also recently went over my mom’s notes made at the time of my dad’s death more than half a century ago. “Under me? Under me? Thank you, Jesus,” he said.

A whole category of what have been termed near-death experiences have been catalogued by those looking for insight into what happens at the end of life. A common phenomenon is a light-at-the-end-of-a-tunnel vision. Many claim to have seen friends or relatives but were unable to reunite with them when they were suddenly jerked back into life.

My Uncle Melvin had such an experience, claiming to have seen his brother and another loved one at the time he was suffering a severe heart attack from which he recovered.

It is impossible to figure out the working of the subconscious, thus rendering any attempt at concrete conclusions problematic. Are any or all of these phenomena merely the gyrations of an active brain or might they be an indication of a link between this world and one to come?

Belief in life after death has been part of human experience as long as mankind has pondered its existence. It has been reinforced by the most sacred writings of most of the world’s major religions, including Christianity, which bases its entire concept on the idea of God personally demonstrating life after physical death through the manifestation we call Jesus.

In this life, of course, our existence is tied to our physical body. But to define human life according to our physical limitations is an obvious understatement of our role in the universe. Human interaction is limited by our physical senses. But the true self that has developed over the course of our lifetimes would seem to go far beyond the senses.

And certainly there can be no doubt that the rationality of human beings and their capability to build on their life experiences place them in a category entirely separate from other living creatures.

Is there life after death? The question defies physical proof, to be sure. But there would seem to be glimpses enough into the future to show that our existence has only just begun.

And anyway, by preparing for eternity, I think I’m building a pretty good life here as well.

Jim Bailey’s column appears on Sunday. He can be reached by e-mail at jameshenrybailey@earthlink.net.

[Ken H]

From statistical studies of the NDE about 2/3rds go up to heaven(thru the tunnel, like the birth process itself), 1/3 go down to hell.

That runs counter to most of what I've heard. What statistical studies are you citing?

It may have to do with the UP Quark(+2/3 charge)and DOWN Quark(-1/3 charge); but, hey, that's just a guess...Jesus will explain it all when he gets back as our ambassador to intelligent species thruout the universe.

If your statistics are right, a lot of nonChristians go UP Quark.

[hardworking]

Some people have had experiences that they know better than to talk about with others who have not.

Yes, indeed. You are so right. I was going to say that it is a matter of faith, but when I saw your comment I knew that perhaps you too had experienced something that let you know. There aren't words to describe it.

[Rennes Templar]

"Nobody has come back to testify about it,"


Try Dannion Brinkley's Book, "Saved by the Light"

[MHGinTN]

A careful reading of Scriptures will reveal to you that there are two groups in Heaven, the Bride of Christ and the invited guests; both are there because of what Jesus did for us. Some even if the truth of Him is revealed to them will choose to not accept the Grace of God in Christ. They 'didn't choose wisely', to quote the old Knight in Last Crusade.

[Othniel]

I know a guy who went to be by the bedside of a fellow who was dying of cancer. He had led the cancer patient to Christ, and he was on his last legs. Before becoming a Christian, he was a hardened skeptic, as was a good chunk of his family. Prior to death, with all his relatives around his bed, he became delirious. He spoke like he was seeing people he hadn't seen in years, saying hi to them and that he was happy to see them. He said at one point, "And who are you, little girl? You're my daughter?" He and his wife had been expecting a girl at one point, but she miscarried. And so on. He gave a vivid description of what he saw, then suddenly sat up in bed, pointed to his atheist sister, and said, "It's all true. You need to listen to Pastor C. He's right about all of it." Then he fell back to the pillow, and was gone.

My grandfather was in a care home. He talked for a week about going out with Mary, my grandmother, who'd passed a few years before. One evening, he got out his good shirt and slacks and laid them out for the next day. When he got up, he put them on. When the nurse commented on it, he told her simply that he was going out that day. When she said that she was going down the hall to get his meds, he replied, "Well, go ahead, but I'll be gone before you get back." She left to get his drugs, and when she returned, he was sitting in his chair, having left the building seconds before. Talk about an exit!

[Petruchio]

3-1/2 years later, and I still ponder things I cannot put into words.

[epow]

I'm told that my 102 year old g-g- grandmother sat up in her deathbed just as she took her last breath and said loudly with a big smile on her face, "Oh Isaac, it's really you". Isaac was her husband, a Baptist pastor who had died almost 30 years before. I have a faded and yellowed copy of his picture taken in the smartly tailored uniform of Captain of a Confederate infantry company, and he was a fine specimen of a handsome, athletic appearing young man at that time in his life.

I'm sure that an atheist or skeptic would say that her exclamation was just her fading mind in an emotional state expressing it's fondest desire at that critical moment. But I choose to believe that she saw her dear husband's handsome young face as he reached out to take her hand and welcome her to their eternal home in that heavenly land where Jesus Christ went to prepare a place for those of us who are trusting in him and him alone for our eternal salvation.

[umgud]

I had both an out-of-body-experience and a NDE when I was a teen after a car wreck. I didn't understand what they were at the time, other than inexplicable to me. I don't know whether what happened to me is proof of an afterlife, but it sure was proof to me of the supernatural or at least proof of another dimension.

The OBE was very real, the NDE in hindsight, was a little fuzzy and a little harder to remember and explain. I don't remember a light or a tunnnel, but do remember great peace and beutiful soothing music and being surrounded by beautiful fauna. Never before or since have I ever felt such a great feeling. I don't know where I was, but didn't want to leave.

I was in a coma for about two weeks and spent about 48 days in a hospital.

[jennyp]

I think the Lord is kind. I don't think he intends an eternity of hell for the average Joe that doesn't believe in Him. I think He will honor the wishes of those who think and believe when they die they are dead, that they cease to exist.

He will give them what they want, no more existence.

What a bizarre thing to say. What ever makes you think that those of us who don't believe there is a life after death, want it that way???

[garandgal]

My Grandmother had two sons; my father and my uncle.

My Uncle died of cancer years ago in his 40's. My dad was 62 when grandma passed away of heart failure in February 2005 in her 90's.

In her last days, she was constantly talking to those who had gone before, including her departed son (my uncle) and a good friend who passed away several days before she did (no one told her).

She suddenly turned to my Grandpa and said "Why have we lost BOTH sons?" My apparently healthy father was actually standing at her bedside at the time. We all said "wow, Grandma is really becoming incoherent."

Two months after Grandma died, Dad was diagnosed with inoperable bile duct cancer...he died last July.

"Someone" must have told her that Dad would be joining her soon.

[Ainast]

I had what I guess is an out-of-body experience once. I was in surgery sometime in the summer of 01 and I could like see the "wakeup room" and everything from an overhead view. I was extremely groggy though. I never came close to dying though (that I know about.)

I guess it was my imagination or something. It was kindof blurry and I could feel the burning effects of the (i guess it was) morphine that the doctors gave me for pain. I was in a great deal of pain and once the doctors gave me some extra morphine I snapped out of it. The "out-of-body" experience only lasted for I guess around 1 to 3 seconds.

The reason I think it was either a dream or my imagination is because I have a hard time believing in out-of-body experiences.

I believe that christ died for my sins and am a christian but I just can't believe what I haven't seen.

[A message]

Goose bumps!

Thanks Churchillbuff for the thread.

Thank you Jesus for your kindness and love.

[Ken H]

A careful reading of Scriptures will reveal to you that there are two groups in Heaven, the Bride of Christ and the invited guests; both are there because of what Jesus did for us.

Let's say someone has Hindu grandparents that they were very close to, and have passed on. Would the Hindu grandparents, assuming they were decent people, be invited guests? If not, then who gets to be invited guests?

[umgud]

I saw things in my OBE that I could not have seen due to my being unconscious. I also saw them from an elevated position. I also can't explain this.

[Eastbound]

God did not lie when he said on the day you partake of the fruit of the tree of good and evil you will surely die. According to our definition and concept of what life is, Adam and Eve lived a long time after they were banished. But the quality of that life was akin to death and it becomes evident they died spiritually, for death is separation from God.

Life and death has to be re-defined on a spiritual basis, not a physical basis, for there is a greater death than the death of the body.

And there is a greater life available to you here and now than the life you were given when you were born on earth.

The question that can be answered today is, can one begin partaking of that greater life and know they have entered into eternal life before their body is buried?

Well, that's the Good News!

But if we are only concerned with the question of retaining our conscious awareness, memory and identity after our physical body perishes, that can be answered by anyone who has ever had a wide-awake, out-of-body and bi-located.

[stubernx98]

I went to three Seances about 30 years ago. Quick summary, the medium was a working man living in a small house, no money exchanged hands, and he never knew my full name.

A woman whose daughter was going with my friend, was there to talk to her husband who died mysteriously in a boating accident.

About 9 of us went into a small bedroom with stuff all over the floor and two megaphones about 30 inches high with luminous bands around them so you could see them in the dark. He said the Lords Prayer, and the 23rd Psalm.

the spirits showed up and the megaphones flew around the room making a big racket(we could see the bands in the dark). The horn them went to the woman and she carried on a conversation with her husband, asking where securities were and other financial stuff. The horn came to me and I asked eho my spirit teacher was, it whispered back. I couldn't understand it.

A few months later went again with a friend, this time we were going to catch him. I grabbed the horn when it came around, and it was like set in concrete(Even Arnold S couldn't hold it that steady). My friend grabbed it and gasped, later on he told me there was a hand on the end cut off at the writs(?).

The third time I went a friend of mine that was killed in a PBY accident showed up. The medium described him perfectly. Then my Grandmother. Remember no money involved or names known.

The medium said that we are reincarnated with the objective to improve ourselves and move closer to God. I happen to be in my third life, and my wife (who only went to one session) is in her sixth(she must have been real bad in her first life hehehe).

I have an engineering education, and I could not think of a way he could have moved that horn around like that mechanically or?

Mass hypnosis? I doubt it, considering there were 8 - 9 people.

I am an agnostic, so pretty skeptical, but who knows. I leave the door open to the possibility - it would be nice.

There is more to the above than I related.

[jeremiah]

You ask a question that has no Earthly answer.Ask God when you see him, or just look around when you arrive.

[Ainast]

I was kindof awake during this I think. I kindof think I was hearing sounds and my mind was making vision to the sounds I heard.

The only thing I can compare it to is like my arm going to sleep. Except its my entire body.

[Chesterbelloc]

"I walked down a long corridor, and into a room...and they had me take a number..."

And told me from now on I'd be voting Democrat.

[Ken H]

Would the Hindu grandparents, assuming they were decent people, be invited guests [a second shot at Heaven]? If not, then who gets to be invited guests?

You ask a question that has no Earthly answer.

Fair enough. What are the scriptural answers to the two questions above?