Dead for 45 minutes; an interesting near-death experience

[CleanShavenJesus]

Seeing this circling around social media websites...I wouldn't view it as any more interesting than any other NDEs, but, whatever.

We all die.

But death, the Baha’i teachings say, should not cause us fear or trepidation. Death, for Baha’is, signifies the exact same kind of joyous transition as birth – we leave one state of existence and move through that experience to the next:

Baha’is believe strongly in an afterlife, a spiritual world where all human beings progress through the next stages of their eternal spiritual existence. For Baha’is, who also believe in the agreement of science and religion, near-death experiences can have a particularly confirming effect, in both religious and scientific ways.

No matter what their beliefs, those who have near-death experiences (NDEs) undergo many common elements − traveling through a long tunnel; witnessing an all-encompassing light and/or seeing a Being of Light; becoming merged into the light; crossing a river; meeting loved ones who have previously passed away; feeling complete happiness. Also, nearly everyone who has an NDE and then returns to life on this plane and planet wish they could have remained in that spiritual world.

Renee Pasarow was a teenager when she had her first NDE, caused by an extreme allergic reaction. An excellent student, pretty and popular in school, and renowned for her scholarship, she also had a deep spiritual hunger.

Renee died at her parent’s home in Southern California in 1966, and was clinically dead for 45 minutes before a doctor could finally revive her. Propelled to new heights after passing out of her body, Renee first witnessed and began to feel the connectedness and unity of all things. She heard the world singing in harmony, even at a cellular level. She felt immersed in a sea of light and aware of a Sun in its center. Then she felt that her consciousness was “gathered as sands on the shore in some form” and she experienced her day of judgment, recalling the deeds of her short life and accounting for her choices.

In that experience, Renee learned the importance of her motivation for these choices, their intent, and the state of her heart in performing those deeds. She observed how every action, if loving, touches one person and has a ripple effect, touching another, and then another. She saw that actions done with love possessed more importance than any earthly riches or intellectual attainments. She also learned the contrary: any selfish or cruel act spread out and affected all, causing great turmoil and pain.

A few years before Renee had been a volunteer at a summer camp for special-needs children, spending eight hours daily there. She remembered encountering one child who nobody seemed to like, and she remembered wanting him to feel loved. She gave him a cool glass of water to drink, and tried to calm his agitated nature.

No one noticed or rewarded Renee’s action that day. But in her NDE, this one simple, selfless action born of love and of love for God, which she had since completely forgotten, counted as the most meritorious of her young life’s deeds. Renee said, “Love had brought me into existence and had guided me in my whole life and had accompanied me through my life. I could not have done anything to have been worthy of that love, immeasurable love that I was receiving and that all individuals receive.” (You can see and hear Renee Pasarow speak about her NDE here: http://www.lightafterlife.com)

But Renee’s time on earth had not ended. After returning from her clinical death, the beautiful visions she saw in her NDE led her to the Baha’i Faith. They affirmed the meaning of the statement attributed to Abdul’l-Baha: “Whatever is done in love is never any trouble, and – there is always time.” – Daily Lessons Received at Akka, January 1908 by Helens S. Goodall and Ella Goodall Cooper, p. 42. And they reinforced, again, the lessons this life attempts to teach us all before the next step on our journey – kindness, selflessness and true service to others.

http://bahaiteachings.org/love-light-and...experience

[Creed of Heresy]

Funny, I've had four NDEs, all I saw was a light, and I know what that light is; it's the synapses in the brain misfiring in rapid succession as they are deprived of oxygen and begin missing connections due to the other connections beginning to cease reception. I didn't see my long-dead parents the first three times. Funny thing, I never knew what my parents looked like until some time after the third of those NDEs. But the fourth time, I did! And how strange, they looked just like they did in the videos I saw, even though they had died two and ten years later. It's almost like it was my brain grasping onto some comforts in what it thought to be its last moments.

People who have NDEs and go all spiritual are full of bullshit. They become terrified of the mortality of their existence, and they either learn to face it or they become fanatically desperate to never have to endure that fear again. Oh yes they claim they wish they could go back because they remember those last moments being happy but in truth they realize at the root of the core of their being that what follows right after that is absolute termination of everything and they're horrified about it.

[Rahul]

Funny, I've had four NDEs, all I saw was a light, and I know what that light is; it's the synapses in the brain misfiring in rapid succession as they are deprived of oxygen and begin missing connections due to the other connections beginning to cease reception.

You've had 4 NDEs? What have you been doing, man? Shooting up heroin?

[Minimalist]

[DeistPaladin]

But death, the Baha’i teachings say, should not cause us fear or trepidation.

I don't fear death either. Worst case scenario is I'm no worse off than when I started (before I was born). I don't remember minding it then. Plus, as a bonus, no wish will go unfulfilled.

[Creed of Heresy]

Funny, I've had four NDEs, all I saw was a light, and I know what that light is; it's the synapses in the brain misfiring in rapid succession as they are deprived of oxygen and begin missing connections due to the other connections beginning to cease reception.

You've had 4 NDEs? What have you been doing, man? Shooting up heroin?

Once upon a time, Rahul. Once upon a time...

[Captain Colostomy]

The time immediately following my sis-in-law's NDE were the most exasperating in my life. Her mad scramble to make sense of it all drove me crazy...and I was a relatively passive observer. She really should have dismissed the lunacy, and focused instead on suing the shit out of the hospital. Angelology, my fallen ass...

[ITChick]

She was dead for 45 minutes!?

Wow - I assume that makes her female Jesus.

[Slave]

Interesting. Well, regardless of what Baha’i says, I fear death. Not in my every waking moment do I consider my mortality but, when I do consider it, I really, really, really don't want to die. I'd like to just keep on living. I like life. It's pretty cool. I mean, it's all I know, so.

And Jesus Creed, 4 NDEs are 4 too many. Do you think you're a cat?

[Walking Void]

She heard the world singing in harmony, even at a cellular level. She felt immersed in a sea of light and aware of a Sun in its center.

That is the most infantile thing I have ever heard.