Richard Cox
Member
We all have our own perspective, yours is ok, However only a small proportion of NDEs are able to be accompanied by certified medical evidence. Even if there was a medical trauma, it may not be documented. I don't see rejecting 99.9% of NDEs (which might be a consequence of your proposal) as a useful or practical way forward.
Hello Alex and Typoz,
I’m not suggesting we dismiss or don’t pay attention to NDEs absent medical evidence. I interviewed an ND Experiencer without requesting to see any evidence that her tale is real. Furthermore, when massive amounts of these NDEs overlap, we can of course be highly confident that the experiences described are ‘real’. People really see dead relatives and encounter the Love of God etc. All the stuff Jeffery Long documented.
What I am saying is that a tiny percentage of NDE accounts promote the—what I consider to be—entirely psychologically destructive views of a theologically exclusive cult. Here, the aforementioned God of Love is transformed into a God of Judgement, who condemns those who don’t believe in him to fiery torment for all eternity.
I personally find it fascinating to take these accounts seriously and try and understand what gives rise to these different visions of the Almighty. Indeed, mystical literature throughout the ages contains accounts of Hellish visions transforming into Divine Love. But! I also think we must recognise that it would only take a small number of fabricated accounts in this area to convince us a phenomenon was going on that really isn’t. Then we’d be doing the equivalent of discussing how Peter Popoff performed his faith healing, without recognising he was simply a conman.
To put it another way, it will be fascinating to see if Scientologists ever start having Scientology themed NDEs. It might tell us a lot about the phenomenon. But we will have to also bear in mind that Scientology is a vicious cult, more than willing to fabricate accounts for its own promotion. I suggest the same standard be applied to Christianity.