A Near-Death Experience?

[Philip]

A near-death experience? Kid thinks he visited Heaven: http://www.wistv.com/story/38118879/mir ... his-organs

[RickD]

I stopped reading after it said that his friend pressed on the "breaks" of the dune buggy.

[Philip]

Yeah, Einstein, because a misspelling is the point of the post!

[RickD]

[RickD]

From the article:

A day before doctors were set to pull the plug, Trenton started showing signs of cognition. He believes he was in heaven while he was gone.

"I was in an open field walking straight,” said Trenton. "There's no other explanation but God. There's no other way. Even doctors said it."

The kid said it, and doctors said it. And since I was told that doctors are here to help us, they seem like an honest lot. So, I believe them. He was walking on a field in heaven.

[Blessed]

This is what the enemy knows an NDE is powerful evidence of God. Especially with the "show me proof" crowd.

When you have people from all walks of life who don't know each other have similar experiences it becomes evidence at a certain point. It's like court ....and hundreds of witness in different places testified to hearing seeing smelling the same thing - even though there is no laboratory test proving it - that becomes credible circumstantial evidence.

Now you have a bunch of "witnesses" looking to make a quick buck, get their 15 minutes, making you tube videos with links to "buy my book" with a click bait news media to promote them. In other words - here comes the fakes. It becomes less and less credible as time goes on with all these fakes and liars or in the case of a little kid - it could be real BUT he is a little kid. When I was a kid got angry because my Mom wouldn't buy me a Nintendo. I peddled away as fast as I could to relieve being "mad" fell of my bike and smashed my forehead into the pavement. I had to be carried by a neighbor back to my Mom. Did I have an NDE while I was in "la la land" all busted up and bleeding? . Nope. But I can see how to a little kid it might feel that way.


I judge these NDE's based on 1) the content 2) the person and most importantly 3) How they live their lives after the NDE.

When someone's primary focus is 700 Club shows, getting attention, and selling books like Mary K Baxter - with her outrageous stories that cannot possibly be true by any stretch of the imagination - 40 days and 40 nights - yea right !!!! No way !!!

Or Bill Weiss. An NDE not precipitated by a medical emergency. Maybe it was real maybe it wasn't. But I refuse to believe him because he is a Realtor.

[Philip]

My post was because it's merely very interesting - NOT because I think it proves anything. But that the kid was clinically dead for 15 minutes and as he appeared brain dead for several days afterward, with parents having already signed donor papers - well, they couldn't make that up. It's certainly not a conspiratal scheme they could manufacture. The thing is, we can't know. But something astonishing happened with this little boy to come back into the land of the living, talking and joking - so much so incredible that his doctors are amazed. There are just too many NDE stories with high credibility - both medically speaking and for things the NDE patient could not have otherwise known, for them to ALL be baloney. And the ones that are obviously false don't tend to match up Scripturally, or their stories are all about "beautiful angelic beings, waterfalls and butterflies, etc."

Whatever the case, most people will never be convinced of an afterlife per such testimonies - I think they are more convincing to people who already believe there is something beyond mortal life. And that has much to do with the fact that many unbelievers don't want to learn of or consider anything that might challenge their Godless beliefs that there is nothing beyond mortality. And these stories have a range of levels of experiences while in a near-death state. This child's experience appears brief and vague. But do I doubt that it's at least POSSIBLE? Why should I? Even the Apostle Paul had an experience of Heaven.

[neo-x]

I think people may have NDE's (with or without divine purpose) but I hesitate in believing anything they say because there is simply no way of knowing if that is true.

Some data suggest that during NDE's people may lose the track of time and sometimes minutes can appear to be real to the mind. Maybe there are other things that are unknown to us.

[Kurieuo]

Given the inconsistency, from the angle of a person who has never had an NDE, I think the stories pertaining to NDEs from the neutral position of a bystander is up for grabs as to what they TRULY mean. As such, I simply focus on what I know. That God exists, and I believe in Christ. Nothing more is needed for me, and where someone tries to claim such towards spiritual or epistemological validation of some sort, it actually for me works in their disfavour i.e., makes me suspect. So then, the likes of B.W. have to prove their knowledge in other ways, because I've just seen so much hogwash -- to put politely... and, fwiw, I don't know what happened but I nonetheless see B.W. as a brother in Christ given my familiarity with him. Sorry B.W. if this is misplaced in some way, but whenever someone mentions NDE, I think of you and your experience.

[Philip]

Well, IF authentic, the NDE is mostly for its recipient. However, some have levels of detail that are astonishing, and we read of people who are radically changed to a faith in Christ not previously had. So, some of these would appear to be a witness. What is puzzling to me are Christians who don't believe they are possible - as Scripture conflicts with that. But we also must be aware that there are a wide range of such experiences, with many either being made up or deceptions they experienced. So, they are not all the same and we have to be very careful of what we buy into - so, being skeptical and Scripturally knowledgeable helps.

[Kurieuo]

But then, what of those that contradict and "Christian" experience? B.W. has an explanation for such, that there is a time-delay until non-Christians really experience the truth. But, how can we really know? The evidence seems to me as anti-Christian as it is Christian if we're to go by the totality of NDEs.

Hence, it is better we believe in what we can evaluate and rationally know, rather than be taken by charlatans of the likes of Benny Hinn. I may be Christian, but I consider myself nonetheless more reaonably skeptical than even perhaps your most staunch Atheists.

Sorry Phil, I know your original post and story is perhaps (?) to be read in a different, more positive, light. But, if I'm honest even before I entertain such stories, skepticism gets the better of me. That I actually do pre-judge in negative light from the get go. This might be more an issue I have, but then, I don't see anything necessarily wrong with such given I do believe in Christ. Nothing else is required of me.

I don't doubt whatever claimed "miracles" happened, in this instance, but then, neither do I find any sort of vindication that I'm right in what I believe. I think even that the latter, seeking vindication in such stories, can be dangerous.

[B. W.]

Is the picture from California or North Florida?
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[B. W.]

Given the inconsistency, from the angle of a person who has never had an NDE, I think the stories pertaining to NDEs from the neutral position of a bystander is up for grabs as to what they TRULY mean. As such, I simply focus on what I know. That God exists, and I believe in Christ. Nothing more is needed for me, and where someone tries to claim such towards spiritual or epistemological validation of some sort, it actually for me works in their disfavour i.e., makes me suspect. So then, the likes of B.W. have to prove their knowledge in other ways, because I've just seen so much hogwash -- to put politely... and, fwiw, I don't know what happened but I nonetheless see B.W. as a brother in Christ given my familiarity with him. Sorry B.W. if this is misplaced in some way, but whenever someone mentions NDE, I think of you and your experience.

No offense taken here!

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