Not to derail, but honest question: how open to discussing NDEs are any of the forum members here? I notice they really aren't mentioned very much here. Are they considered an annoyance, or worse? I've avoided bringing them up, but mainly because no-one else seems to. I've no burning desire to, but could in some depth given the number I've studied. Don't wish to go against the grain, however.
I can say on the basis of extensive personal experience with IANDS (International Association for Near Death Studies), the "NDE community" is as unwelcoming toward Christians as many hardline Christian communities tend to be toward NDE experiencers. The hardline Christian communities tend to put NDEs in the "Satanic deception" category (or at least the "to be feared" category) - which, after studying them for more than 30 years, I believe is utter nonsense. Thanks to some of the early NDE researchers, notably Ken Ring, the NDE community very early veered off in a distinctly New Age direction, and thus the "judgmental" aspect of Christianity sticks in their craw in a big way. At least when I was active, IANDS was little more than a New Age cult. They were infinitely more accepting of Buddhism.
The fact is, as I'm sure you know, NDEs are all over the map in terms of content. Virtually all of the elaborate, content-laden ones -
definitely including the explicitly "Christian" ones - are
highly suspect; I attach no value to any of them in terms of theological content. The primary value of NDEs, as I see it, is that (1) they may well be evidence for the survival of consciousness after bodily death (which Christians already believe, but confirming evidence is always nice); (2) the core phenomenon as described by Raymond Moody and others meshes almost unbelievably well with Christian theology even if it isn't explicitly Christian; and (3) NDEs do almost always have a transforming effect on the experiencer (not always a positive one, but often there is a heightened spirituality).
To me, the most convincing argument for NDEs being something truly out of the ordinary is the consistent appearance of deceased friends and relatives. Often these are remote friends and relatives, not at all the people a dying brain might have been expected to invent. Sometimes the experiencer didn't even know the individual had died. I myself have had a number of After Death Communications from friends and relatives, and they were in this same vein - i.e., not who I necessarily would have "expected" to communicate. To anyone who has had an NDE or After Death Communication, or even who has studied them extensively, the notion that these are evil spirits masquerading as deceased friends and relatives is simply silly. (On the other hand,
inviting spirits into one's life through Ouija boards, séances and whatnot may indeed open doors you don't want to open.)
In short, in my opinion the hostility toward NDEs within many Christian communities is based largely on ignorance of the phenomenon and the general fear of anything and everything that might be described as paranormal. The hostility toward Christianity within much of the NDE community is a reflection of the overall hostility toward Christianity within our society and the desire to preserve the NDE community as a safe haven for New Age beliefs; I find this very odd because, as I have said, the core phenomenon seems to me to mesh nicely with Christianity.
You probably know that Dr. Michael Sabom, one of the early researchers (the famed Pam Reynolds case was "his"), is a fundamentalist Christian. He seemed to struggle with the importance and convincing nature of the scientific work he was doing versus his hardline beliefs. At the end of one of his books, as I recall, he felt obligated to include the standard disclaimer about "testing the spirits." If someone in the midst of a genuine Near Death Experience who was greeted by overwhelming feelings of love and comfort from her deceased grandmother felt the necessity to "test the spirit," I would find this quite bizarre.
One problem with NDEs is that the term has come to embrace many situations in which the experiencer was not near death at all. She simply experienced something that was "NDE-like," and the NDE community seems to accept these people pretty uncritically. Here, I'd be concerned about (1) possible mental illness, or (2) an affirmative attempt to induce the experience, which might actually invite spirits you don't want to meet. Alas, Raymond Moody has somewhat gone this route with his promotion of the use of a psychomanteum to induce contact.
