A Jewish NDE

Shalom--
I believe this account to be true. I remember as a little girl I heard a similar story of a man in Turkey who died. His soul experienced questioning in the grave for what seemed an eternity only about his mule that he used for work. He was so terrified that when he came back to life, his hair was completely white!

I never experienced NDE. I personally have noticed that not many Jews or Muslims report NDEs. However, I experienced a very real dream when I was little. I grew up in a fairly non-religious society (at least my parents' generations). It was communism, so people feared yugoslavian Tito more than God. Many cursed God openly, unfortunately people in my family as well :(. Well, I (I hate to remember this!) picked up on their cussing and started doing the same thing as a little girl.

One night, though, I dreamt of this old man. He had long white robe, white beard. He took me by my hand and without talking to me took me to something that looked like a glass elevator. It felt that we were descending to something dark and fiery. He motioned with his free hand and all I could see around our glass elevator fire. Pure fire. Eternal sea of fire. I heard screams. People screaming like I never heard before. Deep, throat deep, painful screams... I saw that people were in the fire naked (I concluded so by seeing that their shoulders, legs and arms were naked). I understood that my dream meant to be a warning. I was not even in school when I had the dream, but I still remember it like I dreamt it last night and I can still feel the echo of the screams in my ears/my mind.
The dream changed me in many ways.

Today, I hope that I am a better person. I have turned back to my faith (Islam). I hope that I and no one else in the world, ever experiences what I saw in my dream.

Peace.
 
Interesting - I know there are accounts of hellish NDE's, especially from Christians.

Personally speaking, everything I saw once I was in the light was utterly beyond human comprehension, and human frames of reference were absolutely irrelevant. It was kind of like the human mind was only as big as an ant when in the light.

I became realised as a sphere of consciousness I later called the "True Self", because something of that consciousness was in my own state of being as a human, though the human form was far too simple and small to contain any but a fraction.

Yet there were seemingly infinite True Selves, and every one of them was being experienced by some form of life somewhere in the universe, and seemingly at in the same instant (because time as we know it was meaningless - not longer a series of events, but a single one). Together, in their unity, was an expression of God in the gestalt oneness of it all - God as the sum of all unbridled conscious expression.

It's the scale of everything that makes an NDE different to a dream, in my opinion. You can dream, you can hallucinate, but an NDE is magnitudes beyond everything.

My NDE was entirely abstract, though some people see human figures or recognisably human concepts.

Interestingly enough, I died at birth - strangled by my own umbilical cord - so I've often wondered if my own NDE-like experience was in fact a reliving of that original moment, and hence why it was completely removed of normal human frames of reference.

2c.
 
I have had the good fortune to have three near death experiences. Each one involved getting a crack on the back of my head, practically in the same place each time. The first time I fell headfirst off of some playground equipment, and hit so hard people heard the report from inside of a nearby building. The second and third times were at the bottoms of swimming pools. Each time, to me it seemed as though I'd heard a very loud bang -- like a tire exploding from too much air. Then sometimes I would have a quick thought along the lines of 'Oh no' and my vision would shrink to a dot, like a TV that's just been turned off. I have also twice fallen butt-first off of playground equipment, but that does not count as near death since I did not have the good fortune to lose consciousness on those occasions. Anyway, non of it counts, because I'm not Jewish.
 
I said:
Interesting - I know there are accounts of hellish NDE's, especially from Christians.

Personally speaking, everything I saw once I was in the light was utterly beyond human comprehension, and human frames of reference were absolutely irrelevant. It was kind of like the human mind was only as big as an ant when in the light.

I became realised as a sphere of consciousness I later called the "True Self", because something of that consciousness was in my own state of being as a human, though the human form was far too simple and small to contain any but a fraction.

Yet there were seemingly infinite True Selves, and every one of them was being experienced by some form of life somewhere in the universe, and seemingly at in the same instant (because time as we know it was meaningless - not longer a series of events, but a single one). Together, in their unity, was an expression of God in the gestalt oneness of it all - God as the sum of all unbridled conscious expression.

It's the scale of everything that makes an NDE different to a dream, in my opinion. You can dream, you can hallucinate, but an NDE is magnitudes beyond everything.

My NDE was entirely abstract, though some people see human figures or recognisably human concepts.

Interestingly enough, I died at birth - strangled by my own umbilical cord - so I've often wondered if my own NDE-like experience was in fact a reliving of that original moment, and hence why it was completely removed of normal human frames of reference.

2c.
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I've never had a NDE, but I did have an experience that started as an OBE and then became something like what you're talking about Brian. I've had a fair number of mystical experiences, but that was something beyond the beyond, if you know what I mean.

It changed my conceptualization of myself, God, everything really. It's very hard to explain what it was like, and difficult to live it day by day.

I still do not know why I had it or exactly what happened to my body at that point. When I went through the gateway from being OBE to being elsewhere, I thought I could never go back and chose to go anyway; I couldn't resist it. I'm glad I didn't. It was the most amazing experience I've ever had and I think it gave me a sense of a reality that, though inexpressible, informs my deepest self and reminds me of what is really real.

Never experienced anything hellish like this NDE, though I've had many lucid dreams that were unpleasant and dealt with the end of worlds, wars, famines, etc. But none were punishment to me personally.
 
BB,

Is this account consistent with an orthodox view of mitzvot, teshuva, tikunim, and the purification process of gehenom toward gan eden? (I do realize that the afterlife is not a prime concern for most Jews, that life is lived in the present, but still I can't help but wonder if something like this doesn't cross a Jew's mind)
 
it could be, but it sounds far more like the guy has mental health issues and serious problems with women and sex, which have been exacerbated by kiruv-mongers messing with his head.

b'shalom

bananabrain
 
bananabrain said:
it could be, but it sounds far more like the guy has mental health issues and serious problems with women and sex, which have been exacerbated by kiruv-mongers messing with his head.

b'shalom

bananabrain
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I used to disbelieve so much of what I heard as it was out of my paradigm. I find now that I say "Yeah, right" a lot less, as I've discovered a number of times what I thought was ludicrous...was real.
 
seriously - i cannot make a judgement on whether some ba'al teshuvah's NDE is an authentic experience or not. it might be, or it might not. i don't know. if it is, then it's really not a very pleasant one.

b'shalom

bananabrain
 
bananabrain said:
it could be, but it sounds far more like the guy has mental health issues and serious problems with women and sex, which have been exacerbated by kiruv-mongers messing with his head.

b'shalom

bananabrain
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Yeah, and normally I would dismiss it based on what you've stated above.

But then this guy had a very similiar experience:

The Seal of Truth


BTW, by kiruv-monger, are you implying that this testimony is a tactic for orthodox Jews to reach out to non-jews? While I understand that Jews don't normally proselytize, I don't see any reason not to extend a hand of fellowship toward the gentiles.
 
Josh and I like to watch the photography portions- they're often very creative and the make-up/hair is often to die for in terms of art. But we watch with the sound turned to mute. LOL :)

And Dondi- I would wager that it is possible more than one person in the world can have a similar mental illness combined with similar experience that would yield these kinds of details. But I don't know- maybe some people have frightful journeys in the afterlife.

The most common NDE, on which has been written tons of books, is the type in which you go through the tunnel toward the light, find a being of light and love, and sometimes review your life. Those seem to happen to all sorts of people. Some have hypothesized this is a memory from birth that is remembered as you die. I don't think so; I have my reasons for thinking it is similar to birth, yes, but not remembrance of physical birth.
 
path_of_one said:
Some have hypothesized this is a memory from birth that is remembered as you die. I don't think so; I have my reasons for thinking it is similar to birth, yes, but not remembrance of physical birth.
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I agree with you on this. I don't remember my birth, but it seems unlikely that it would be impressed upon me as a journey down a long tunnel with light visible at the end.

Intense squeezing and then sudden light would seem more likely.
 
Dondi said:
Yeah, and normally I would dismiss it based on what you've stated above.

But then this guy had a very similiar experience:

The Seal of Truth


BTW, by kiruv-monger, are you implying that this testimony is a tactic for orthodox Jews to reach out to non-jews? While I understand that Jews don't normally proselytize, I don't see any reason not to extend a hand of fellowship toward the gentiles.
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I watched the entire video. Thanks for posting it.
 
lunamoth said:
I agree with you on this. I don't remember my birth, but it seems unlikely that it would be impressed upon me as a journey down a long tunnel with light visible at the end.

Intense squeezing and then sudden light would seem more likely.
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LOL- I have never thought about the squeezing. LOL For some reason, it strikes me as very amusing to think of our entrance to the afterlife involving squishing us. LOL
 
I think there is some very good moral to this stroy. I was suprised this kind of NDE from a Jewish perspective though.

It has kind of a strict moral conduct to the story how every little thing we do is measured and effects us and others around us. I'd say its very possible that this is a genuine NDE. If not its still a good stroy to tell kids.
 
by kiruv-monger, are you implying that this testimony is a tactic for orthodox Jews to reach out to non-jews? While I understand that Jews don't normally proselytize, I don't see any reason not to extend a hand of fellowship toward the gentiles.
Click to expand...
no, not for non-jews, kiruv ("indrawing") is just about convincing non-observant or assimilated jews to become religious. it's only "internal proselytisation", but it shares a great deal in terms of techniques with evangelism, whether by born-again christians, or the techniques of groups such as scientology.

b'shalom

bananabrain
 
Postmaster said:
I think there is some very good moral to this stroy. I was suprised this kind of NDE from a Jewish perspective though.

It has kind of a strict moral conduct to the story how every little thing we do is measured and effects us and others around us. I'd say its very possible that this is a genuine NDE. If not its still a good stroy to tell kids.
Click to expand...

Agreed.

To me, it speaks volumes on the merits of one's actions. However strict the moral code seems, it paints a very detailed picture on how we need to treat others. I wonder how often I've said or done something that seemed trivial to me, but meant a great deal to the other person, whether it was good or bad. This is also a common theme I've noticed in othe NDEs, when in a life review, the person will discover that the things that he/she thought was important in his relationships paled in comparision to the things he believed had little impact.
 
bananabrain said:
no, not for non-jews, kiruv ("indrawing") is just about convincing non-observant or assimilated jews to become religious. it's only "internal proselytisation", but it shares a great deal in terms of techniques with evangelism, whether by born-again christians, or the techniques of groups such as scientology.

b'shalom

bananabrain
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Ok, it is an internal thing. But you seem to have taken objection to this. Why? Is one not supposed to encourage one another toward good works and obedience?
 
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