| We hope you enjoy your visit! You're currently viewing Catholic CyberForum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our online cyberparish, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. Join our community! Messages posted to this board must be polite and free of abuse, personal attacks, blasphemy, racism, threats, harrassment, and crude or sexually-explicit language. If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features: |
| Near Death Experience; short experience of afterlife ? | |
|---|---|
| Topic Started: Saturday, 9. June 2007, 23:12 (223 Views) | |
| James | Saturday, 9. June 2007, 23:12 Post #1 |
|
James
|
There are many stories told by people who had died and were brought back. They range from an experience of floating above and looking down on their bodies and being aware of all going on in the immediate vicinity to moving very fast through a tunnel with a light at the end. Then there was an experience of meeting beings of light and a great sense of peace. Then they were suddenly back in their own bodies again but the experience remained. Has anybody had a similar experience or what do you make of it all ? |
![]() |
|
| MickCook | Sunday, 10. June 2007, 21:35 Post #2 |
![]()
|
According to a recent news item of Yahoo, medical scientists can now explain Deja vu as a short-circuit in the brain. I suspect that they will come up with some explanation for near-death experiences, so that any belief in an afterlife will remain nothing more than a belief. Apart from stepping into the road and almost getting flattened by a truck, I have no experience of this kind. Nevertheless, there are those who have "flatlined" and have been brought back, some with a memory of a strange experience, some with no memory of anything. Nevertheless, I have had inexplicable experiences that no amount of science can explain. One such experience I had before I married gave me a glimpse of heaven, or God's presence around us (it's hard to describe it). It wasn't until Karin and I were married that I discovered she had experienced the same thing. It is perhaps for this reason that my response to science in these matters consists of a single word that cannot be repeated here! :o |
|
:) Mick The Cook Companies | |
![]() |
|
| Josephine | Monday, 11. June 2007, 15:21 Post #3 |
![]()
|
I had an unique experience whilst in the intensive care unit a few years ago. I can remember asking my husband to get a priest before the doctors sent me for a scan. While I was in the scanner I was examining conscience for what I thought would be my last confession. I must have passed out because the next thing I remember is seeing a nurse sitting by my bed in I.T.U. watching me. I asked about the priest and she said that he came but I was asleep so he anointed me. In the interim, while I was "asleep" I had been aware of being somewhere which I assumed was very high up because far below there were tiny lights. I was surrouded by darkness. I knew the tiny lights were the town where I lived. I had a tremendous sense of freedom. When I came to and I saw the nurse I was aware of the hardness of the bed I was lying on, the fabric of hospital gown I was wearing and the sheer tremendous heaviness of my body around me. (I weighed 8 stone - 112 pounds). None of these sensations had been present before. I was dying when I went into I.T.U. (Doctors told me I was "seriously ill" and they were "very worried" about my x and my x, etc., etc. "Seriously ill" is an euphemism. They don't use words like dying or death here.) Looking down on the place where I live, I was at peace. Completely alone at that instant but at peace. I am absolutely certain there is life after death. Saying in the Creed, the resurrection of the dead, the life in the world to come used to be an act of faith because I believed it but I didn't really know. Now I know - it is true. Only the body dies. We live. There is nothing to be afraid of. There is freedom, and peace, and I only got to the beginning of it. One question though. Perhaps the forum members who have much more knowledge of theology than I have can help. If I had departed this life without confessing, without last rites (yes I know that's not what it's called anymore, but that's what it would have been)..... .....even though the confession was fully formed in my head and the intention was there I didn't actually confess or receive the sacrament, so how would I have stood before G-d? What does anointing "do"? Does it "count" like last rites if a person can't confess? Josephine |
![]() |
|
| maklavan | Monday, 11. June 2007, 17:20 Post #4 |
|
"I suspect that they will come up with some explanation for near-death experiences" They already have. I recall seeing a documentary in which a Swedish scientist was explaining that "near-death experiences are triggered off by certain impulses in the brain. He was actually able to reproduce them with volunteers in the laboratory. I would place them alongside visions and private revelations: You either believe in them or you don't. Nevertheless, the work of Raymond Moody and Eilisabeth Kuhbler Ross in this field remains very fascinating and readable even today. |
![]() |
|
| Deleted User | Monday, 11. June 2007, 19:53 Post #5 |
|
Deleted User
|
Even without the last rites, you could have obtained a plenary indulgence in articulo mortis
KatyA |
|
|
| James | Wednesday, 13. June 2007, 21:49 Post #6 |
|
James
|
I also seem to remember another argument which nullified this in that many of the people concerned - not in experiment - were able to relate actual conversations and activities going on elsewhere in the building when it would be impossible for them to know these things. It was a sort of "out of the body experience" not an "induced hallucination". |
![]() |
|
| JARay | Friday, 15. June 2007, 09:05 Post #7 |
|
Josephine wrote:-
Josephine, you received the "Last Rites". Because you were unable to confess, you actually did 'confess'. Your sins, such as they were, were forgiven by the sacrament which you received. Only a priest can forgive sins (or a bishop, etc) and the normal way is by you speaking out in confession, but when this is not possible, the priest forgives your sins in this sacrament. All that is necessary for you is for you to have that intention, which you most certainly did. That is why this sacrament is most important for anyone who is on the point of death. If you can actually confess, then you must, but if you cannot confess then the application of this sacrament does it. Also, as Katy A. says, even without the sacrament one can indeed gain a plenary indulgence at the point of death, by doing exactly what you did do. You willed to make confession but were prevented. In that case the Church decrees that all of the conditions necessary for gaining a plenary indulgence are fulfilled because circumstances prevented you from doing what you would have done had those circumstances not existed. All of this is great news for any faithful Catholic. God, in His bounty, makes special provision for you. JARay |
![]() |
|
| James | Friday, 15. June 2007, 09:34 Post #8 |
|
James
|
It is indeed a great comfort to know this and it was touched upon in the parable of the labourers in the vinyard and the prodical son. However, I would not recommend that anybody used it as a "last minute insurance policy" to live another type of lifestyle deliberately with the intention of repentance at the last minute. There could be a deception here, which only God and the person at death's door know, so it is very important that the person is genuinely repenting. |
![]() |
|
| PJD | Friday, 15. June 2007, 19:18 Post #9 |
|
Yes, thank you for that JARay. PJD |
![]() |
|
| 1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous) | |
| « Previous Topic · Archived Discussions · Next Topic » |






3:44 PM Jul 11