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

a reply to: FlyersFan2

I haven't had a near death experience, but when I was in my teens, I had a dream that I was walking up a stairway because I'd died. The stairs didn't go up much farther than the roof of a one-story home but the color of these stairs were unexplainable and I'd never before seen these colors before, still haven't. My grandmother, however, had emergency surgery to have her gall bladder removed in the late 60's. She died on the operating table, recalled her body floating up as she looked down at my grandfather and their 4 children gathered around her, holding hands and crying, she said she saw her friends that were in another room waiting for her. She said suddenly she began to hear the most beautiful music she'd ever heard and then she heard a voice say that it was not her time, then she opened her eyes as her heart began to beat again. She'd passed out before she ever made it to the hospital so it was impossible for her to know these things, especially naming her friends who were there but in another room. She was just in her early 40's at the time, and a few years later, my grandfather passed away from a blood clot. Had she died on that table, my mom and Aunt would've had to go somewhere else to live as they were still teens in school when my grandfather died. My grandmother would go on to live until 2020 and passed at the age of 94. During her last few days alive, she would randomly reach into the air from her little rehabilitation bed and say "Jim, is that you honey?" Thanks to covid, we couldn't visit her much, but on her last day when she was still alive but unresponsive, the nurse called my mom and asked what my grandmother's favorite song was. The nurse hummed the tune of that song and a tear rolled from the closed eye of my grandmother and then she left this world behind.

a reply to: FlyersFan2

Faith should dissuade you from getting nervous about anything like that.

My father talked about his NDE a few times. He drowned as a kid trying to save his older brother. That river took an Aunty and Uncle from me.

Anyway, my father felt his lungs scream like never before trapped under the water. Then when he could no longer handle the pain it just all want away in a wave of peace. From there he saw some unknown ancestors on the way to to the light. It was not his time as he woke up on the bank of the river as someone dragged him out.

I don't know? For those looking it is one puzzle piece.

originally posted by: FlyersFan2
What are you expecting to experience when you die?

My assumption, and it's onlyt an assumption, is that there's nothing, no tangible 'thing' or emptyness or blackness as even those are 'things'.

I equate it to when you go for an operation or have some heavy aneasthetics and you effectively 'switch off' for a set period of time with no memory or dream; as far as your concsiousness goes, you were 'turned off'.

When I had an operation many years ago, it took, apparently, 3 hours. But when I started counting down to when I woke up, it was instant. For me, no time had passed. It wasn't like being asleep and having a dream or even darkness. It was non-existence.

And this is what I assume being dead is; literally ceasing to exist as all the chemical, biological and electrical processes in your brain that give you consciousness are no longer there.

To date, I have seen zero evidence of life after death as every single instance is near death, not dead people communicating back.

Thing is, no one knows. No one. Regardless of those ATSers that say, 'Well actually I do know'. no - you don't. Because you're alive.

But i suspect my idea is true. Not that I like it. I would prefer to live forever. I don't want to die.

a reply to: andy06shake

This is why debate is futile. Because you are right. That's the belief you've chosen and it's true.

originally posted by: noonebutme

To date, I have seen zero evidence of life after death ....

What about ghosts?

All probabilities exist. The probability field is infinite. For every possible outcome you can imagine (and many that you can't imagine) there is a probability--a potential. That's predetermination.

You choose which probabilities you will into your awareness. Even by not consciously choosing, you are still making the choice. That's free will.

Not all probabilities are likely to occur. Some are either meaningless or so farfetched that the amount of mind bending & mental gymnastics you'd have to go through to arrive at them don't seem worth the effort.

That's the thing. You choose for yourself which ones you believe are worth exploring by the meaning you attach to them. We all derive meaning differently. When you decide what is most meaningful to you, that's the compass to guide you through your own field of probability.

originally posted by: LSU2018
a reply to: FlyersFan2

Faith should dissuade you from getting nervous about anything like that.

Everyone has doubts from time to time.

Hmm, familiar name there, OP- we used to have a FlyersFan around here, I remember the name. Same person- or?

Anyways, interesting subject. I was of the opinion that we pretty much scatter into nothingness, and just cease to exist. But then I saw some very interesting stories of supposed reincarnation- like the 6 year old boy who was once a pilot that got shot down in WWII. You remember that one? Pretty trippy, for sure. He told everyone this, and where the plane was, and kept insisting that's who he was. They later found the exact plane, in the exact spot he said it was.

Stories like that have had me wondering ever since, just exactly what happens on the other side.

And then there is astral projection and out of body experiences (OBE's). Some say that you will see similar when you die- the difference being that the "silver cord to the spine" is actually severed instead of still being attached. I will say, that given what I saw when I went OBE, it won't necessarily be a pleasant experience. There are things out there that will most definitely scare you. To be thrust into that world permanently is what I am hoping doesn't happen when the cord is cut.

Maybe the NDE who experience the 'void' have in some way bargained away or otherwise lost their soul.

a reply to: socialmediaclown

Don’t be afraid of a little mind bending and mental gymnastics, they keep you flexible and allow you to see things in new ways. Not exactly a bad thing. It’s like physical exercise, tough getting started but easy once you do it regularly.

a reply to: VforVendettea

Or it’s the reverse of “seeing the light”, the most popular claim of anyone pretending to have had an NDE. If everyone is claiming to have seen a void, it’s the same BS in a different can. Real NDEs are unique experiences, I’ve had hundreds and no two are the same, but they all reveal the same thing… Life. It’s then and only then that you discover we’ve got it backwards. You have to see it to believe it.

a reply to: VforVendettea

You can’t bargain away your soul, only the opportunity your soul has here. You bargain that away by trading suffering for success.

a reply to: ARM1986

I am very surprised to find someone that thinks exactly like I do...I do believe in exactly this, Big Bang happened, the universe started its expansion towards the present time and sometime in the distant future everything will happen exactly again as it happened before countless times and we get to experience it again. For some this might be the configuration of hell, but not for me, I look forward to it.

a reply to: HeirHeart

That's true. Stretching the imagination along with strengthening your conviction is really the only way to break free from the excessively restrictive belief systems we were indoctrinated into from the moment we inhabited this place called Earth.

a reply to: Jumpei

The Big Bang was YOU, your soul going into a state of division. It’s the singularity you started from in the womb.

a reply to: socialmediaclown

It’s called Earth because it’s the Heart of the universe. The universe is the Human body at maximum scale. It’s you seeing your own body from the perspective of a single atom within it. Your beliefs are what you choose to believe, most just don’t exercise that choice because it means thinking for yourself. That means forging your own path and most prefer the safety of a guided tour. The name of the game here is suffering. It’s the “Masters Game”… the proving ground of the Gods. The God is you as a player, the Man is the character you’re playing.

If there is a afterlife.
I'd imagine it's closest to what we see in the Robin Williams film "What Dreams May Come".

I hate what Stephen Hawking said in a Gaurdian interview...

"As for life after death, Hawking told the Guardian he believes the brain is like a computer that will simply shut off. "There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark," he told the Guardian"

Say it's not so.......

All the best

a reply to: Quadlink

Given that he was materialist is it any surprise?