Near-Death

Near Death Experiences (NDE)	Created Date: 11-May-2016
	Last updated: 29-Sep-2023
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Sections

1	Classical Definition of NDE	2	Questions to Ask
3	Firsthand Knowledge	4	The World Hides NDEs
5	Emergency Rooms, Intensive Care Units	6	Two Well-Known Christian NDEs
7	Appointed to Die Once	8	The Bible

Classically definition of NDE

From wiki "A near-death experience is a personal experience associated with death or impending death. Such experiences may encompass a variety of sensations including detachment from the body, feelings of levitation, total serenity, security, warmth, the experience of absolute dissolution, and the presence of a light. NDEs are a recognized part of some transcendental and religious beliefs in an afterlife."

Questions to Ask

The secular world has come out with explanations of NDE as dealing with the brain's ability to keep working when the heart stops. The time-of-death pronouncement by Doctors is taken at the moment the heart stops beating. Some medical documentation websites state that the brain does a shut-down like a computer within two to twenty seconds after the heart stops beating., therefore medically theory would state there cannot be any ability for the human body to have any senses retrieving data of actual experiences occurring around the dead body.

The ability for the human brain to continue to process through electrical charges after death can be possibly measured where the synapses are continuing to work until there is no energy available. The questions to consider, beyond a medical explanation, when reading further in this topic for those people who have experienced an NDE are:

The brain uses roughly an estimated 20% of the body's energy to process and work. When the heart stops, is the energy still available?
If the heart stops, does the ability to use the ears to hear conversations around themselves continue for a short or even long period of time?
If the heart stops, does the person still have use of their eyes to see in 360 degrees, in all directions simultaneously, for a short or long period of time?

Firsthand Knowledge

It is most likely that only a very small part of the population of the world actually knows or met someone who has had a NDE. This author has met one back in the 1980s who had fallen three stories onto concrete and was found dead with no pulse before being revived after an estimated 10 plus minutes. His body suffered some temporary complications that including brain hemorrhaging after being taken to the hospital. When I met him and became friends with him, it was two years after the event. He told me that he met and talked with relatives that had died many years ago. The key points of his NDE were:

He felt a great sense of peace, tranquility and love.
He was at some location that he was told was part of entrance into heaven which his senses and thoughts already imparted to him.
He was told, by the people that he was visiting that were family and friends that had died, that he was not allowed to stay at this point, but they would see him again.

The World Hides NDEs

It does not surprise many Christians when the secular world ignores the full documentation and knowledge of NDEs as the preponderance of quantity of NDEs point to a reality of an afterlife. It is hard to dispute the evidence of a person who was pronounced dead, which in some cases are for more than 10 minutes and when the person was brought back to life will share amazing information.

Many NDE people have given some or all of the following items of what transpired when they were dead, which science and biology state is impossible:

They can give an account of the conversations had in the area after the death, be it a hospital or where they died.
They can give an account of conversations which were held near the scene of the death. It is as if their hearing has increased abilities.
They can give an account of activities being held around them as they appear to hover over their own bodies and watching what is going on.
They have the ability to see 360 Degrees, in all directions simultaneously, around the place their body has died.
They were cognizant of their earthly body being dead.
They are sometimes guided to what they perceived was an entrance into heaven or even being guided to the bad compartment of Sheol which they describe as Hell.
They speak about having conversations with family and friends who have died in the past that sometimes involves bring back verification messages to other loved ones which the person who had the NDE could not have known about. This is similar to:

Matthew 27:51-53

51 Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, 52 and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; 53 and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.

Unfortunately, there is also the ability to find books, Internet Sites and Documentary Videos from people who are deliberately using deception with false documentation of events that never happened for the purpose of making money.

Emergency Rooms, Intensive Care Units

One of this author's friend's wife is an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) nurse. It is apparently common, when a patient is near death, for the nurses to walk into a patient's area and hear the patient talking to someone or others, when there is no one visibly there in the area. The nurses sometimes will hear from the patient, "I want you to meet my dear brother, sister, father, mother, or good friend".

The nurses then will tell the other nurses that the patient is about to leave as he or she is receiving relatives that are not visibly there. Note that when this happens, it seems to happen mostly with older patients and there is no perceived stress or narcotic prescription according to my friend's wife.

Two well-known Christian NDEs

At the time of writing of this topic, the best two known NDE experiences that this author is aware of are:

"90 Minutes in Heaven Book" which details the NDE by Don Piper. This author has heard him speak several times on Radio interviews from many years ago and his book is an easy read. His account of being dead for 90 minutes which is extremely well documented and witnessed so that there cannot be any disagreements that Don Piper was clinically dead past the point that he should have been able to be resuscitated other than by a power outside of our earthly understanding, obviously God.
"Placebo" which details an NDE by Howard Pittman. His book gives a tour of the Satanic World's hierarchy and is a great read.

Both of these authors do not bring any type of sensationalism, glory or pretentiousness to themselves in their books. In fact, at most specific areas in the books, everything is described in a very matter of fact type of tone that conveys the feeling of a friend speaking to a friend.

As of 2023, there are many websites with people giving their NDE stories. Here are just a few that this author found intersting:

Near Death Storeies

Appointed to Die Once

There is often the scripture quoted by some Theologians that it is impossible for a person to die more than one time based on a misunderstanding of Hebrews 9:27:

Hebrews 9:27

23 It was necessary therefore that the copies of the things in the heavens should be cleansed with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ entered not into a holy place made with hands, like in pattern to the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us: 25 nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place year by year with blood not his own; 26 else must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once at the end of the ages hath he been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 And inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment; 28 so Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for him, unto salvation.

When verse 27 is kept in context of verses 23 through 28, the scriptures are speaking about Jesus Christ died once, for all of mankind and His Death for each person's life that was lived. The High Priest would enter the Holy of Hollies in the Temple once a year on Yom Kippur, Day of Atonement, for a special cleansing that had to be done every year where Christ's Death, was once and once only.

Additionally, the "unto men once to die" could not mean that a person only dies once as evidenced by many scriptures such as Lazarus in John 11:38-44. The "judgment" is for all of mankind after the life lived. This is also an argument against reincarnation as no one gets to live additional separate lives.

John 11:38-44

38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 “Take away the stone,” he said. “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.” 40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

The Bible

It has to be written that the best authority for us all to have Faith in an after-life is the Bible. NDEs are just an ancillary proof where we all need to always look at God's Word as the answer, salvation and proof of life after death.

What to read next?

What is Salvation? Is it possible to lose Salvation? We have eternal life. Evolution is not real. When a Christian suffers is there benefits from it. Rewards in heaven. Do we Tithe? What does the 3rd Commandment tell us? What is Grace and Mercy? Is there an Age of Accountability? Is there a place of unending punishment and exile form God?