cc100jr@gitpyr.gatech.EDU (Joel Rives) (10/20/86)
In article <6310@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU> root@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU (Charles Hedrick) writes: >Does anyone know what near-death experiences are like in non-Christian >cultures? If even those who had never heard of Christ met him under >those circumstances, it would be very convincing indeed. If people >always encounter the supreme being of their own religious tradition, >it might or might not support the idea of a supreme being, but would >give no evidence as to his nature. You might find a reading of the Tibetan Book of the Dead interesting. -- Joel Rives gatech!gitpyr!cc100jr There is no place to seek the mind; It is like the footprints of the birds in the sky.
wfi@rti-sel.UUCP (William Ingogly) (10/20/86)
In article <7775@tekecs.TEK.COM> mikes@tekecs.TEK.COM (Michael Sellers) writes: > ... For the non-religious/non-Christian, >you might want to read Dr. Ritchie's book (it could easily be read in a few >hours), if for no other reason than to get a very good insight as to why >many Christians feel as strongly and certainly as they do about their faith. In his book titled (I think) "Eternal Life?", theologian Hans Kung dismisses such experiences as evidence of life beyond the grave on the grounds that they represent the last stages of life rather than the first stages of an afterlife. I've also read that non-Christians (i.e., Buddhists, Hindus, etc.) experience NDEs somewhat differently: although certain aspects of the experience (the dark tunnel/light at the end) seem to be fairly constant, the manifestations of a religious nature differ depending on your religious upbringing. So a Christian has an encounter with Christ, and a Hindu has an encounter with Krishna. I've also never heard anyone claim that EVERYONE who is brought back from the edge of death has an experience of this sort... seems like pretty weak evidence for a "Christian" afterlife. -- Cheers, Bill Ingogly
mikes@tekecs.UUCP (10/27/86)
In article <1235@hoptoad.uucp>, sunny@hoptoad.uucp (Sunny Kirsten) writes: > I know a very psychic lady who has particulary been that way ever since she > had to push open her own drawer at the morgue. Commonly reported is a total > awareness of what was going on while out of body. The real factor involved > in death, is the attachment by the silver cord from the physical body's > 3rd chackra to the astral body's 3rd chackra. When you are asleep, or in a > coma, you still have that connecting cord. When that cord is broken, the > spirit has left that body, and the body has become "dead". Note that, > the wonders of modern medical science are perfectly capable of sustaining > the mass of cells in the usual pattern of blood circulation and respiration, > but without the spirit, that is, without the connected astral body, it's just > so much dead meat. > > Sunny When I originally posted an article to BOTH net.med and talk.religion.misc, I knew it was a chancey thing. There may be both religious and medical aspects to NDEs (as well as personal/testimonial ones), and I had hoped that the two could at worst be treated separately, if not complementarily. Oh well. What I *specifically* want to stay away from are people giving pat answers based on religious or cultural tradition that are unverifiable and possess little in the way of informational content. I would like to see the discussion of NDEs go on. I would not like it to become (yet another) place for postulating our own particular conclusions for what causes them (theories, hypotheses, and ideas are different). Has there been any research done on them in the past 50 years or so? Has anyone on the net had an NDE? If they are a product of acute anoxia, why do they only happen when someone dies (as opposed to being comatose or in a different sort of anoxic condition such as drowning)? What about the hypothesis that they are caused by massive release of endorphins? Can we test this? What about cross-cultural studies? Have any Hindus come back and suddenly switched to Christianity (or vice versa)? Can we distinguish between people who have really had these experiences and those who are pretending (I think we can)? What does it mean if we can't explain them with science? Are they unexplicable or just beyond our present means? Craig, do you have any med school stories/ rumors/legends/theories (take your pick :-) about these things? These are just a few of the questions I'd like to get opinions on. Stuff about the names of the cherubim that greet you or the length of the dark tunnel or which chakra it is that the silver cord is attached to have little meaning or place here. 'Nuff said. On with the show. -- Mike Sellers UUCP: {...your spinal column here...}!tektronix!tekecs!mikes "The goal of AI is not yet insight."
larry@kitty.UUCP (Larry Lippman) (10/27/86)
In article <1235@hoptoad.uucp>, sunny@hoptoad.uucp (Sunny Kirsten) writes: > I know a very psychic lady who has particulary been that way ever since she > had to push open her own drawer at the morgue. Commonly reported is a total > awareness of what was going on while out of body. The real factor involved > in death, is the attachment by the silver cord from the physical body's > 3rd chackra to the astral body's 3rd chackra. ... ^^^^^^^^^^^ Uh, do you think you could enlighten some of us as to WHERE the ``3rd chackra'' along with the 1st and 2nd of same are located in the human body? I checked in a medical dictionary, two anatomy reference texts, and an unabridged English language dictionary, and can't seem to find the term listed anywhere. Also, do cats have any chackra(e)? ==> Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp., Clarence, New York ==> UUCP: {allegra|decvax|rocksanne|rocksvax|watmath}!sunybcs!kitty!larry ==> VOICE: 716/688-1231 {hplabs|ihnp4|seismo|utzoo}!/ ==> FAX: 716/741-9635 {G1,G2,G3} "Have you hugged your cat today?"