Life after death

[Huansagain]

Now I'll admit I'm a bit of an agnostic. But I do tend to think most people follow a religion because of when, where and who they live with.

I was reading about near death experiences, and some saw heaven and some saw hell.

Humans have been here for 1000s of years, through numerous religions, Norse, Greek etc. We have the current religions Christianity, Islam etc.

So with NDEs are people influenced by their experiences and knowledge of the world now?

Do Hindus, for example, who have NDEs see their religious influences?

Any thoughts?

Disclaimer: I am no expert on this, but have read a little bit about it too.

In what I read, the striking thing about NDEs was that they tended to be very similar for all those who described having them. What I don't know, though, is whether this is because the people surveyed were coming from similar cultural backgrounds, or whether they were ethnically and religiously diverse.

My guess is that whether this was perceived as 'heavenly' or 'hellish' depended on how the individual her/himself felt about dying. If they were able, at that moment (even if not previously) as an end of suffering, as peace and calm, then the experience would be experienced as 'heavenly', whereas if they were still struggling against it, then it might be experienced as the opposite.

Personally, I'm a Christian, but I don't think that Christians as a group necessarily think about life-after-death in one particular way rather than another. Even within the Christian tradition there is a huge range of writings and thinkings about the afterlife and not, as far as I'm aware, an accepted orthodoxy about 'what it's really like'.

crescentmoon: Within Christian writings you find a huge range of imagery to refer to heaven: kingdom, garden, city...

Sorry: incomplete sentence above. "If they were able, at that moment to experience dying as an end of suffering, then..."

I'm so confused about life after death and I have major anxiety surrounding it.

I had a 'hellish' possible NDE when I was in labour. Was desperate not to die, and to 'get back' to my husband and baby so you might have a point there Tuo.

I have a sneaking suspicion there is a 'religious centre' in the brain that creates these experiences; I've had a lovely heavenly experience when meditating once and people often report NDEs when on mind altering drugs. Perhaps all acting on same brain region?

I'd LOVE to believe there was life after death but find it hard.