Near Death Experiences - 'The Void' vs 'Heaven' - what do you expect when you die?

What are you expecting to experience when you die?

A tunnel with a bright white light at the end? Loved ones who have died before you? Peace? Religious or spiritual figures? Angels? Clouds or meadows and gardens? A party for your arrival? A loving feeling of oneness with everyone? All those feel good things? The typical things most people think of?

Well, seems a lot of people who have Near Death Experiences don't experience those things. Most enter 'the void'. Black nothingness. And along with the nothingness comes a loss of self. "You" slip away and stop existing. Not even thoughts can happen.

There are many reddit threads on this with people relating their NDEs and most are 'the void'. I won't link them. it's not allowed to link to other discussion forums. But I did find a site that describes a few examples and I have posted it for your reading.

So are the 'feel good' NDEs just the dying brain releasing '___' and other chemicals? A dying psychosis of a sort? Or are those real along with 'the void' being real and it just depends on circumstances what kind of NDE/death you have? Ghosts exist so there is an afterlife for at least some people. Of course, some ghosts are not ghosts at all but are demonic ploys but that's a whole other topic. And there is reincarnation and some expect that as well.

What do you expect to happen when you die.

Some 'void' NDE's -
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...

An NDE of the “void” is an ontological encounter with a perceived vast emptiness, often a devastating scenario of aloneness, isolation, sometimes annihilation. A woman in childbirth found herself abruptly flying over the hospital and into deep, empty space. A group of circular entities informed her she never existed, that she had been allowed to imagine her life but it was a joke; she was not real. She argued with facts about her life and descriptions of Earth. “No,” they said, “none of that had ever been real; this is all there was.” She was left alone in space.2, pp. 1–5

Another woman in childbirth felt herself floating on water, but at a certain point, “It was no longer a peaceful feeling; it had become pure hell. I had become a light out in the heavens, and I was screaming, but no sound was going forth. It was worse than any nightmare. I was spinning around, and I realized that this was eternity; this was what forever was going to be…. I felt the aloneness, the emptiness of space, the vastness of the universe, except for me, a mere ball of light, screaming.”

A woman who attempted suicide felt herself sucked into a void: “I was being drawn into this dark abyss, or tunnel, or void…. I was not aware of my body as I know it…. I was terrified. I felt terror. I had expected nothingness; I expected the big sleep; I expected oblivion; and I found now that I was going to another plane … and it frightened me. I wanted nothingness, but this force was pulling me somewhere I didn’t want to go, but I never got beyond the fog.”

A man who was attacked by a hitchhiker felt himself rise out of his body: “I suddenly was surrounded by total blackness, floating in nothing but black space, with no up, no down, left, or right…. What seemed like an eternity went by. I fully lived it in this misery. I was only allowed to think and reflect.”

a reply to: FlyersFan2

Keep in mind we have absolutely no accounts of people that really do die. They are all ‘near death experiences’.

I’ve experienced the void. It was absolutely terrifying. Thankfully the experience didn’t last long, and it was followed by a very wonderful experience.

I think the void is the intermediary world. The world between worlds. Or limbo land as some would put it. I’m hoping at least.

originally posted by: KKLOCO
a reply to: FlyersFan2
I think the void is the intermediary world. The world between worlds. Or limbo land as some would put it. I’m hoping at least.

I'd say that it could line up with the Purgatory beliefs, but many 'Void' experiencers say they can't even think in the void and that they cease to exist. Purgatory you have to think about what you have done wrong and learn etc. So it can't be purgatory.

It could be a place between lives and before reincarnation happens you have to go to the void and forget your present life.

The Void matches up pretty well with the ancient Jewish belief in Sheol. Maybe people thousands of years ago had 'void' NDEs and they somehow found their way into the Jewish belief system.

From Wikipedia - Sheol in the Hebrew Bible is a place of still darkness which lies after death. Although not well defined in the Tanakh, Sheol in this view was a subterranean underworld where the souls of the dead went after the body died

I think you'd best be careful in using words like "most" when relating anecdotal experiences. I doubt seriously that the dominant, i.e.: most, experience is blackness. You really have no way to quantify that because you've read a few reddit posts. I do believe you will see what you expect to see, which is why people see "Jesus" or "God." They've programmed themselves to see what they believe.

My belief is that the brain is the TV set and consciousness is the program that manifests itself through the TV. When the TV set is destroyed, consciousness remains and is free of the TV set's constraints, constraints such as a set's inability to project in anything other than black and white, for example. A dog's sense of smell is another example. If consciousness wishes to examine and experience smell, doing so through a dog is far superior to doing so through a human.

I fully expect to experience a much richer environment once my current physical body dies. Indeed, I look forward to it.

originally posted by: KKLOCO
a reply to: FlyersFan2

I’ve experienced the void. It was absolutely terrifying..

What is your belief system? Christian? Buddhist? Hindu? Muslim? Jewish? Non mainstream? Atheist? etc etc
I'm just curious. Was the 'Void" a surprise?

a reply to: FlyersFan2

I've heard many accounts from people who were visited by dead loved ones, and they told them they were very happy.
It was peaceful and beautiful. Honestly , anything beats this current existence, even black nothingness.

originally posted by: schuyler
I think you'd best be careful in using words like "most" when relating anecdotal experiences.

I should have been more clear. I meant most in those threads, not most people in general.

I do believe you will see what you expect to see,

I pray the rosary daily so I hope to see Mary to help me cross over.
That being said, 'the void' reports do have me nervous.

I fully expect to experience a much richer environment once my current physical body dies. Indeed, I look forward to it.

same here.

originally posted by: FlyersFan2

originally posted by: KKLOCO
a reply to: FlyersFan2
I think the void is the intermediary world. The world between worlds. Or limbo land as some would put it. I’m hoping at least.

I'd say that it could line up with the Purgatory beliefs, but many 'Void' experiencers say they can't even think in the void and that they cease to exist. Purgatory you have to think about what you have done wrong and learn etc. So it can't be purgatory.

It could be a place between lives and before reincarnation happens you have to go to the void and forget your present life.

The Void matches up pretty well with the ancient Jewish belief in Sheol. Maybe people thousands of years ago had 'void' NDEs and they somehow found their way into the Jewish belief system.

From Wikipedia - Sheol in the Hebrew Bible is a place of still darkness which lies after death. Although not well defined in the Tanakh, Sheol in this view was a subterranean underworld where the souls of the dead went after the body died

If you're thinking you can't think aren't you thinking that? Or did they realize this later? It would still have had to register as a thought and so memory I would think?

a reply to: FlyersFan2

If the numerous religious people I've interacted with through the course of my life are to be believed, I am in for an eternity of hellfire. Of course I do not believe those hateful people. I honestly have no idea. Current scientific knowledge would point towards the void. We came from the void, and we will return to it. But who knows the true nature of reality? We can only hope there is more to it than just this life, then nothing.

a reply to: FlyersFan2

I'd say that it could line up with the Purgatory beliefs, but many 'Void' experiencers say they can't even think in the void and that they cease to exist. Purgatory you have to think about what you have done wrong and learn etc. So it can't be purgatory.

Yes, the way I described it after it happened was ‘a breathless black darkness’. My thoughts were definitely muted.

I actually found myself in fetal position on the ground, screaming at the top of my lungs in terror. This was back in 2006.

I never want to experience it ever again. However, if I did I think I would handle it better as I’ve been there before. Just wait it out.

Now that I think about it, I’ve actually experienced it twice. The other time was 2008. Where I felt like I was an ornament on a wall. No thoughts or memories of anything in that state.

originally posted by: ancientlight
If you're thinking you can't think aren't you thinking that? Or did they realize this later? It would still have had to register as a thought and so memory I would think?

Their minds were blank and unable to hold a thought, even the thought that they couldn't think couldn't happen.
They ceased to exist. It was 'nothing'.

a reply to: FlyersFan2

Having read or watched more NDE's than I would care to count, and having listened to a handful of stories in person, I can only conclude that NDE's as an indicator of the afterlife are unreliable at best. For most it seems, their belief system dictates their NDE, with few exceptions.

Even those who claim to be atheist but have a Christian experience, or claim to be Christian and have more of a universal or mystical experience, only serves to show that their inner and outer beliefs are at odds with one another.

ETA: That's not to say NDE's can't be life changing. They often are, but it's understandable when one is faced with their mortality.

originally posted by: MetalChickAmy
a reply to: FlyersFan2
Current scientific knowledge would point towards the void. .

True.
And it's a bit of a shock to the system when all your life you are expecting the typical heaven experience.

a reply to: FlyersFan2

I had to add this

a reply to: FlyersFan2

Did any of them mention the feeling of being observed?

Near Death Experiences - 'The Void' vs 'Heaven' - what do you expect when you die?

I'm not afraid of death, I just don't want to be there when it happens......Woody

originally posted by: hjesterium
a reply to: FlyersFan2

Did any of them mention the feeling of being observed?

yeah some did. Not in 'The Void' but other NDEs did.

I hope to meet my dog again.

Some of you might like Peter F Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy:

www.goodreads.com...

These are the type of tunnels I hope to go through upon departure from this life. Then rest on eternal crystal shores. I don’t care who’s there or who’s not. I’m going to be busy playing in Gods perfect creation. Good times!