Near Death Experiences, or NDEs, are descriptions of dimensions beyond the typical earthly existence, provided by people who have returned from altered states of being (these are often states where bodily death was pending or was thought to have actually occurred). NDEs are sometimes interpreted as reassuring because they indicate that bodily death is not the end of conscious awareness, and that this conscious awareness continues in a realm of absolute peace and joy — a realm sometimes referred to as Heaven.
Many people would like to believe that NDEs are legitimate phenomena, because if it were so this could ease the extremely common fear of dying. Oftentimes then when someone becomes aware of NDEs they set out to “prove” that they are genuine. If they can do this to their satisfaction, their terror of death will go. Or so they believe.
But is it really so? Sometimes it is so, but often it is not.
People afraid of dying believe something called “fear of death” is their problem. But fear of death, and every other fear, is actually thought. Fear then is not the real problem — thinking is.
Do you find this hard to believe? Many people do.
Many people consider fear to be some solid external thing — something “out there”. This is incorrect. Fear is an internal process that comes about from thinking. Here is how fear works:
A thought stream occurs, sometimes in response to an external event and sometimes not. This thought stream essentially states ‘I am in danger’. The thought stream is typically given the stamp of validity automatically — it is accepted as truth, in other words — and in response an emotional reaction is generated that is labeled “fear”.
This is how fear happens, in every case. Without a corresponding thought stream first occurring, fear does not happen. No corresponding thought stream means no fear.
Check this out for yourself.
Observe how your fears happen, whether it be the fear of death or something else. Listen to the internal dialogue that accompanies your fears. This dialogue is always there, and in fact always occurs before the fear response shows up. Don’t take my word for it: watch your fear reactions and see this for yourself.
The fundamental issue in the case of fears is being completely identified with thought processes. Once we end this complete identification with thinking our fears will end because, at our core being, we are not afraid of death or anything else. We aren’t afraid, our ego is — and the ego is what generates fearful thought streams.
Know this as truth for yourself by ending complete identification with your thinking. How to do this? Go back to the observing I mentioned earlier. Observe your thinking, observe your emotions, and do it in a completely neutral way: no judging, no analyzing, no resistance to what comes up.
Make a habit of this — observe thinking and emotion, watch thinking and emotion, without judgment, without questions, without resistance. This is all you have to do.
But what of NDEs? Are they genuine events that prove immortality? My educated insight is yes, absolutely. NDEs are genuine events and what we call death is only the falling away of the body: consciousness continues on forever.
Below is a video that I believe provides compelling evidence of the legitimacy of NDEs, particularly when combined with the voluminous other data available about NDEs.
(Get more information about NDEs Here and Here.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL1oDuvQR08
