This is all just my thoughts, and they are not set in stone.
Often during down times at work, I’ll scroll through the NDERF.com: a database of Near Death Experiences for researchers. People just post their experiences. (In the healthcare field, I see weird stuff like this, and it’s fascinating!)
Many of the posts are not real deaths but more of a coma or an anesthesia event, so I scroll pass them.
Yes, many are fake, but there is some truth because lives are drastically changed. You cannot deny somebody their experience. They might not know exactly what they experienced, but they definitely experienced something.
There are certain things that many have in common:
-the light at the end of the tunnel, out of body experience, they recognize people but can’t describe them, the euphoric feeling of all-encompassing love, a life review, beings speak to each other through thought, no locality/all are one but yet not one at the same time, a wall or a door that is a point of no return that the person cannot pass through, and a sense of omniscience.
The people experiencing this often assume this is the afterlife, but it seems to me to be some kind of holding place because the beings and “people” are often described as waiting and they cannot pass through the wall or door. I know that we are with God once we die, but maybe this is for those who are waiting judgement.
They each seem to think nothing of their life review. Few actually regret some things, but most have no thought about it. They also forget the “knowledge” they held in the experience once they come back to life.
The no locality sense must be because they are bodyless spirits. Which makes me appreciate God wanting us to have bodies. In eternity, we are to have bodies.
Since they all seem to be in this “holding place” they sometimes encounter “God” or a being of light, but not all the time. It all sounds gnostic to me. Like this isn’t heaven, just a place where souls and angel-beings talk and philosophy.
Of course, there’s the rare one where somebody speaks to Jesus and is forever changed. One such man who died in the 1970’s, while he was in his early 30’s was told to go back to earth and Jesus would return in his lifetime. That would make the man in his 80s now. He was an agnostic before, since then he had gone into ministry.
NDEs have a lot in common with DMT-a chemical in our brains associated with euphoria when induced by hallucinogenic drugs. Many people go on “DMT” trips just to experience this spiritual/out of body experience, like taking ayahuasca retreats. So that makes me wonder if those experiencing NDE’s are actually dead or just having some sort of separation from body experience. My theory is since the body and the spirit get separated, the person becomes open to demonic influence.
Often times, such influence manifests the same as NDEs and Gnostic beliefs. It seems that these are all tied together in some way. The euphoria is so strong that it’s addicting. Beings they encounter push the “release your divinity” and experience “enlightenment” type beliefs like Gnosticism and New Thought/ New Age.
My best friend succumbed to these beliefs as a Christian (which she openly says she no longer is a Christian). This is another reason why I research such things. She has officially become divine and received enlightenment, thanks to her spirit guide- in her words. Christians are stupid, manipulated by a machoistic god, who wants to withhold knowledge from us and prevent us from tapping into our divinity. The serpent is the hero.