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God and the Afterlife a book by Jeffery Long
In the early 70’s, I went with a few community members, to a talk given by Kubler Ross on the Near-Death-Experience (NDE). Even though it was 45 years ago, I can still remember the talk clearly. In the audience was also a young man, named Raymond Moody, whose book was soon to be released. He stood up in the audience when Kubler Ross asked him to present himself. From that point on I have been an avid student of this phenomena.
Jeffery Long started the Near Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF). His website has been in existence since 1998 (WWW.nderf.org) and one of the best sites on the web that deal with this subject. He brings to light for the general audience how important this experience is, which has in fact been something that millions of people, still alive, have experienced. He also has a questionnaire that people who have had an NDE can fill out and their stories may be shared on his site.
There are those who of course are very skeptical about NDEs, and that is good. They can raise objections to these phenomena and those who write about the validity of the NDE, need to answer. From what I have read, all objections have been dealt with, though of course, not to the liking of everyone.
As a man of the 21st century, even though I have faith in God and take that seriously, I believe that most who live in this period of human history, do have some real difficulty in believing that death is not final. Yet, for many, faith also persists, despite doubts. It can cause a very creative inner tension that can lead to an intense search for the truth about this phenomenon.
I do know that once an individual has a powerful, life-changing, NDE, they can never go back to what was before. I cannot imagine what it would be for me to have an NDE, to experience another reality that is more real than the one I live in daily, and to pretend that life will go on as usual. PM Atwater deals with the struggles that many go through after they return to this ‘world of boxes’, as Jung stated after he returned from an NDE.
In the book, “God and the Afterlife”, what comes to the fore is the experience of God’s Infinite Love for each of us. However, that does not mean that we must not take responsibility for our lives, and the ‘life review’ that many go through, perhaps we all go through, brings that out fully. In other words, we must experience all the joy and pain that we have put others through as if we did it to ourselves. Not sure that is really good news, at least as far as the pain and shame that will be present for such an experience. Yet it is done in the presence of God and the
unconditional love, but a love that demands that we grow in love, which is our true nature. Anything else leads to pain, suffering, and still, for some perhaps, a spiritual and eternal death. There are hellish NDE.
If a man or woman of faith has a profound experience of God’s love that is not an actual NDE, it brings profound modifications in their lives. So if one ‘dies’, and then experiences the reality that we don’t ‘die’, one can only imagine what changes that will bring. It can be a very painful process for families, friends, and religious believers to deal with this. Some marriages end, and some NDE experiencers have trouble relating to concepts and language that they were once comfortable with but now seem inadequate.
If a man or a woman has an experience of the importance of love in one’s life, that all else is secondary, how can that be lived out in such a way that others will understand? We are all used to the paradoxical nature of faith, yet when a man or a woman experiences the importance of love in this life, the reversal of values can be startling for those who know them. They can come across as someone who has lost mental balance and all common sense.
The book “God and the Afterlife” points to the reality that the NDE experience can be a way that God is trying to reach modern men and women in such a way that they will be forced to rethink their beliefs about the nature of reality and the deep mystery of what we call ‘God’. If we live in a universe devoid of all Spiritual realities, how is it possible to even have such experiences? OBEs for instance come back with veridical evidence.
When the heart stops beating and blood to the brain ceases, consciousness would be impossible, yet it happens. This alone should point to the reality that something else is at play here. At death, we experience leaving the body, for many, going down a tunnel and then the profound experience of the ‘Light”, infinite and loving. Then the ‘life review’ goes over every aspect of one’s life, how one treated others, loved them or not, and lived out all the pain and joy that the experience caused others.
What is the point of the NDE? How did it evolve, and if it did, how is it helpful for our survival as a species? The NDE opens up many questions for those who take the time to study this profound and increasingly common, experience of those who come near death and come back.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the Near-Death-Experience. -BrMD
