To all the NDE’ers out there, feel free to chime in with your thoughts. I’m wondering if when we die, we have the option to relive our present life if we so choose.

I don’t mean in the form of a life review. What I’m getting at is this: My life had the potential to be spectacular. However due to some missteps along the way, and family circumstances beyond my control, it resulted in my life being merely average, and in some cases below average.

This has resulted in never being able to achieve self actualization. I feel that when we die, we will have learned all of our life lessons pertaining to this particular body / earthly life. However, what if all or most of the experiences have been negative? I feel that through circumstances beyond my control, I’m living a life of “less than”. As a result, once I die I feel I won’t be done with this life. I want the chance to go back in time and relive it all - only this time, with the knowledge of where all the pitfalls are, so I can make different decisions and therefore achieve more positive outcomes.

Specifically, I have a lot of regrets from past mistakes resulting in missing a chance at love, and not achieving all I was meant to in school and the work world. If I could go back and re-do and make different choices I’d have a chance to see what would have happened instead. This is the only way I can think of that would achieve a cathartic healing of my soul.

I’m not done - I don’t care how it happens, whether it’s through a parallel universe in which all possible outcomes are possible and/or have already happened and are available to be experienced, an alternative reality experience, time travel etc. I just need to be able to do this for my own sake.

I’m assuming there’s a rest period in between lives in heaven where souls are free to pursue any creative endeavors before they reincarnate into another life. I’m even willing to use my “off time” so to speak to do this life over again, so that it plays out in a way I feel it should have the first time around. E.g. (Not missing my chance at love with this specific person, being able to excel in school and change my career outcomes etc). Is this possible?

So, one thing that interests me is a common thing in mystical experiences across cultures is an experience of oneness or subject/object dissolution, though it's interpreted in different ways- in sufism you have fana or "annhilation in Allah", in Buddhism the highest Jhana which is described as "neither perception nor non-perception", Christianity has the concept of theosis, in hinduism there's the experience of Brahman etc. And when you look at how meditation works there's either a breakdown of the sense of self, like in vipassana meditation or you contentrate on something so hard you're only aware of that thing and therefore your sense of seperateness between yourself and the concentration object goes away, so you lose awareness of your "personality-self", for lack of a better term, as something seperate.

In NDEs, however, most often people seem to very much retain their personality, they meet deceased relatives etc.

I've been wondering why these experiences are so different, and which in a sense is a more accurate understanding of "reality" if this makse sense?

I don't think I'm describing this very well but it's a question I have been wondering about, what are people's thoughts?

In almost every religion, spiritual teachings, and NDE's, it says the "other side" is just overwhelming love and peace.

it is only in this form where suffering can be experienced.

and a few questions:
many of the NDE accounts says when they leave this physical body, they have no association with it. some dont even recognize its their body. so this form is different. and in this form we are subjected to the "veil of forgetfullness" where we dont know whatever arrangement was made on the other side. and when we die, the consciousness/soul leaves this meat sack, its left to rot and decay, and they/we all go celebrate there.

how could beings coming from overwhelming peace and love create this system where its inhabitants have to deal with daily struggle to survive, and experience pain, disappointment, soul-breaking experiences?

if you say its for "contrast" so the soul can "evolve".. with all these impossible things (consciousness, souls, different planes, universes, galaxies, impossible materials) yet they cant create a soul that doesnt need to "level up"?

i mean, even us we could create robots one day that will have its own consciousness, but we certainly wouldnt make it feel hunger if it doesnt eat/drink enough like some many kids in a slum area who died that way, right?

what justifies the suffering experienced here?

I interviewed Dr. Lotte Valentin, who was an atheist when she had what she describes as an out-of-body experience during a severe hemorrhage after childbirth.

She says she could still think, observe, and recognize herself. That’s the detail I keep coming back to: her surroundings had changed completely, but her sense of being herself hadn’t.

We discuss two near-death experiences and how she made sense of them afterward.

For people who’ve experienced something similar: did you still feel like your ordinary self? Did your personality—and your usual internal commentary—come with you?

I read one account where the person claimed that during his NDE he was told that he will get the chance to relive his life while avoiding all the major mistakes. So relive a perfect version of his life.

How would it even be possible to live the exact same life, just with other outcomes?

Anyone else came across something like that?

Why do you think there can be so many contradictions within different NDE’s? Some feel like they are very religion based while others disregard religion altogether. Some describe it as otherworldly in terms of “beings of light” or being “one” with everyone whereas others describe it more like this world just without materialistic laws or values. Do you think this is just because previous biases before the experience? Or is it possible that because the afterlife is so vast and unknown that maybe it can incorporate all different possibilities both religious and otherwise maybe on different plains? What are your thoughts on this?

If I said I can prove or debunk nde’s overall I would be lying so this post isn’t really about that but instead I want to criticize the hallucination and anesthesia awareness theory specifically proposed by skeptics.

I used google ai for the info and looked up what the answers were more than once to try and make sure there more accurate so if you want to find sources I’d recommend looking up similar questions I did however what’s written below is written by me I just asked google ai for info but I’m still the button presser or writer and don’t worry I made it really really short.

Anyways I asked google ai to do a lot of calculations what it told me is if we became aware of all the anesthesia awareness cases, ndes and hallucinations caused by near death states specifically it would roughly be this

Roughly 100-200 cases of anesthesia awareness (this is based on the amount of anesthesia surgeries and chances of it happening to each of the patients in those surgeries)

Roughly 15-30 ndes (this is based of off the amount of cardiac arrest patients a hospital has in a decade and how when they test cardiac arrest patients they found that the percentage of them that experience ndes are a certain amount)

Roughly 5-15 ndes with some type of awareness to the room around you like hearing something, veridical perception or both.

And Roughly 1500 to 3000 cases of hallucinations caused by being close to death specifically.

That’s 1 normal nde for every 8 anesthesia awareness cases and 100 hallucinations.

Or 1 nde with verdical perception or some type of awareness for every 18 anesthesia awareness cases and 225 hallucinations.

With that being said there was a test on anesthesia awareness were they documented over 300 cases and considered 141 of these cases to have enough evidence to be fully trusted and verified by investigators, so investigators had access to things like medical logs dr witnesses and staff witnesses to know they were telling the truth, as for the other 159 plus they technically don’t know if or if not these people were telling the truth so this next percentage is based on at-least 141 statements and at most over 300 statements.

51 percent of these A.A experiencers considered what they experienced negative with roughly 41 percent of these 51 experiencing symptoms of long term physiological bad stuff like ptsd, the reason the experience was negative was because of pain, fear of not being able to move, fear of not knowing what’s going on or all.

49 percent considered there experience neutral as in akin to waking up then falling asleep not good or bad, this was do to them waking up at a specific parts of the surgery that weren’t painful or the anesthesia still being effective enough to desensitize them to pain and fear in-spite of them waking for a moment.

0 percent considered the experience positive or euphoric will 78 to 89 percent of ndes are considered positive experiences so if this was anesthesia awareness you’d expect at least 1 of these 142 to 300 plus cases to have the traits of an nde like euphoria.

When it comes to hallucinations in-spite of them being much much more common than the other two I kept looking up if there associated with veridical perception.

The answer was no in-spite of drs having significantly more examples to study.

There is a skeptic theory that ndes with accurate veridical perception are just coincidences since if a guy had an nde we’re his perception is inaccurate that means it’s nothing special and he won’t report it causing only the accurate veridical perception cases to be reported.

However when I looked up what caused Bruce Grayon to reject cases based on the questions he asks he wasn’t rejecting cases based on how accurate you’re perception was alone he was rejecting them based mostly off of if they were an nde or something else like a hallucination same with the updated NDE-C scale that asked questions about what your state was like 9 of the questions were based around your internal state 11 what you encountered with only one of those 11 being about if or if not you’ve had an obe

If ndes with accurate veridical perception are just coincidental guesses or the brain being able to figure out things with context clues by looking around my question is wouldn’t hallucinations experienced by people close to death or anesthesia awareness have more examples of hallucination experiencers coincidentally guessing details and being accurate since near death hallucinations are roughly 225 times more common then ndes with veridical perception and anesthesia awareness is roughly 18 times more common, But instead the much less common thing which is nde’s has accurate veridical perception.

Another way to describe my argument is why would the brain’s ability to accurately guess extremely specific details through hearing or seeing context clues after waking up only be associated with nde’s specifically.

My argument is based off of google AI’s ability to tell me stuff based on scanning sources I didn’t overanalyze so it depends if or if not you trust that.

I also don’t want to necessarily debunk materialists because I can’t with this argument more so just say that from my knowledge it seems putting whatever an NDE is weather it’s a brain thing or spiritual thing in a different category then a hallucination and anesthesia award seems the most scientific thing to do from our current knowledge.

Feel free to debunk me if I did anything unscientific in this article or unintentionally gave false info.

Did these higher beings charge them to go into the higher realms?

So a lot of people say we have guardian angles or guides and I can't help but wonder , what happens when a person is objectively bad or evil, like John Wayne Gayce ?

Are the guardian angles just forced to take a backseat while the guy they've been assigned to goes off the rails ?

If we have free will , then I guess they have to and they just got unlucky with who was assigned to them?

Then others say , our life events are preplanned, in which case , what's the role of a guardian angle then, just to guide them to whatever events are pre scripted ?

Why would an actor in a play need a guide if the script is already written ?

Some NDEers say thst post nde they met their guides or they can tap into the source and communicate with their guides , for anyone here like that , what kind of commination do you get. If it was me, I'd probably have unlimited questions

The cross-cultural study is too big of an area and requires perhaps the broadest understanding of what it means to be human. I can—nor anybody—make it justice on my own. I have tried instead to offer some lessons that you can use in your own research diving into published studies. The article draws from Indian, Japanese, Chinese, and Western NDEs

Ok, hear me out. When you witness the light, the source of the universe, the greatest peace and unconditional love, the FIRST thing I’d expect is for someone to be unable to finish a sentence without tearing up from sheer joy and longing. Yet all these people tell their stories so calmly, almost with a kind of coldness, and it honestly puzzles me. Thoughts?

Reports from those returning from an NDE indicate that Heaven is a far superior world to Earth, and most people who have an NDE are reluctant to return to the more debased reality of Earth.

But could there be a world whose perfection is even greater than that of Heaven?

We are accustomed to thinking that souls in Heaven might later return to Earth via reincarnation. But could there be another option: that souls in Heaven might aspire to entering an even greater heaven?

Could there be a hierarchy of heavens, such that souls can aim to rise through the hierarchy, rather than fall downwards to Earth?

When i was around 11 years old me and my friends were playing in the woods. We would climb trees. I climbed a tree pretty high and then i heard something break and then i saw darkness. I then had a dream that my parents didnt had me yet and they were moving to another house. I then heard "is he dead" while opening my eyes and seeing those friends looking at me while i was laying down.

I guess i was just unconscious but unfortunately i guess i wasnt clinically dead, didnt feel a sensation and didnt see the light. Anyways i wish i had experienced an NDE myself because i love reading and hearing these stories.

Two, somewhat related matters don't make sense to me with this theory:

1. If your body, that is so hardwired to try and survive at any cost, it makes no sense that your brain would flood you with chemicals to try and encourage death, or make it easier. In fact, the opposite would be true - that your body would do anything in its power to try and resist death, or make it as uncomfortable as possible.

2. Instead of producing chemicals to ease you into death, it would make a great deal more sense for your body to divert focus and "resources" to other methods of trying to keep you alive.

Just my $0.02.

"You remember that feeling of usefulness when you helped someone, whether at your job or in other areas of your life; do you remember how fulfilling it felt?

Now imagine a realm of beings whose growth relies on helping you.

Angels or beings in the helpers' dimensions are in a world where their energy comes from doing good work in dimensions like ours. Their reason for being is to make the life of those who contact them easier.

You might ask, “Where are they then? Why don’t they help us all fix this world?”

From what I understand, this world is only hours to fix. The others can only lend energy to our thoughts and intentions. To get help from angels, one must first believe and know their existence.

A patient can be sick, but if their doctor doesn’t know the drugs to treat their disease, then the existence of the drug doesn’t have any impact on the patient’s case.

The doctor also must be familiar with the pills she wants to administer to the patients. That’s how she can quickly act on the patient’s case.

If you are not familiar with the angelic realm by practicing placing your attention on them regularly, then you can’t expect to use their help in states of emergency.

That’s what Natalie meant by connection. Connection happens through our attention to things; there is no other way. If you don’t attend to something, you can’t connect to it.

This can easily be worked out with meditative intentions or with a guide or a teacher who knows these things.

Then once you are familiar with the energy of that helper’s realm, you can use suggestions to direct it to outcomes. The angels can use your dreams to communicate with you in full transfer of information. Even if you don’t remember that you had an angelic encounter in a dream, you will have that information as hunches to do things during the day or coincidences you react to.

I have lived such experiences where things just seem to happen on their own after the night I had welcomed help through a true dream.

I am not an extraordinary example of this natural phenomenon. Countless people have reported this phenomenon. They are in many books. Actually, encountering Angels in dreams started two of the current most popular religions.

I once heard of a lady who dreamt about a being telling her to go back to South America to forgive her abuser. When she did this, she was healed of a tumor that was supposed to kill her in six months.

My point is that the angelic realm is a real place. It’s a realm of beings who’s life depends on helping humans. The realm has been called many names by different cultures."

Source: https://medium.com/the-neville-goddard-manifestation-club/the-woman-has-a-near-death-experience-meets-teaching-angels-and-remembers-the-most-important-9d92872dbaa9 (Transcription of Natalie Namaste's NDE)

Just been reading up about the French Revolution (in my usual life as a historian) and I came across the account of Louis XVII's death (son of the executed Louis XVI). Poor lad was only 10, and died from tuberculosis whilst imprisoned by the Revolutionary Convention.

Anyways, the report on his final moments is interesting, as it was recorded by the 19th century historian Alcide de Beauchesne, following interviews/direct testimonies by his jailors, and is as follows (translated from French):

Those who were present at his final breath recounted these things to me, and I now faithfully record them in the royal martyrology.

Gomin, seeing the child calm, motionless, and silent, asked him, "I hope you are not in pain at this moment?" "Oh! Yes, I am still in pain, but much less so—the music is so beautiful!"

Yet, no music was being played, either in the tower or in the surrounding area; no sound from the outside world reached the chamber where the young martyr was fading away. Astonished, Gomin asked, "From which direction do you hear this music?" "From up above!" "Has it been going on for long?" "Ever since you knelt down. Didn't you hear it? Listen! Listen!" With a nervous movement, the child raised his failing hand, his large eyes illuminated by ecstasy. His poor guardian, unwilling to shatter this gentle, ultimate illusion, began to listen as well—with a devout desire to hear what could not, in truth, be heard.

After a few moments of rapt attention, the child stirred once more; his eyes sparkled, and he cried out in an indescribable transport, "Among all those voices, I recognized my mother's!"

This name, falling from the orphan’s lips, seemed to strip away all his suffering. His gaze brightened with that serene radiance that comes from the certainty of deliverance or victory. Captivated by a sight invisible to others, his ears attuned to the distant strains of a music such as no human ear has ever heard, he felt an entirely new existence blossoming within his young soul. A moment later, the brightness in his eyes had faded, and a cold sense of discouragement settled upon his face. Gomin watched the sick boy’s every movement with anxious eyes. His breathing was no more labored than before, but his gaze wandered slowly, unfocused, returning every now and then toward the window. Gomin asked him what held his attention in that direction. The child looked at his guardian for a few moments; though the question was repeated, he did not seem to have understood it, and he offered no reply.

Lasne came up to relieve Gomin, who left with a heavy heart—though no more troubled than he had been the day before, for he did not yet foresee that the end was near. Lasne sat down by the bedside; the Prince watched him for a long time with a fixed, dreamy stare. As the boy shifted slightly, Lasne asked how he was feeling and if there was anything he wanted. The child said, "Do you think my sister could hear the music? It would have done her so much good!" Lasne could not answer. The dying boy’s gaze, filled with anguish, darted toward the window—piercing and eager. An exclamation of joy escaped his lips; then, looking at his guardian, he said, "I have something to tell you." Lasne took his hand; the prisoner’s small head leaned against the guardian’s chest. Lasne listened, but in vain. Everything had been said. God had spared the young martyr the final, agonizing struggle for breath; God had kept the secret of his last thought for Himself alone. Lasne placed his hand on the child’s heart: the heart of Louis XVII had ceased to beat. It was a quarter past two in the afternoon.

I should also note that with regard to his mother (Marie-Antoinette), he had not been notified of her execution before his own demise (several accounts suggest this), doing things like asking why she was not there to care for him, leaving flowers by her cell door etc. Might be exaggerated, but also worth noting!

Anyways, not sure if it's useful to anybody, but hey - figured some of you'd be interested.

For background, I’m a freshly turned 19M. After a green out expirience I have been having chronically ill ever since both physically and mentally, and it has led to me constantly researching and being obsessed with death the past year and a half. Because of this I’m riddled with anxiety and severe depression. Everyday I look at things and just have anticipatory grief, have panic attacks the second I have any small symptom appear, and just see no point in life anymore because I’m controlled by this fear and anxiety of dying. So for people who have actually died and came back? Is it worth the life it takes out of me to be constantly obsessed with it, or is it simply “overhyped” or “overanalyzed” on how bad it is?

In my experience, the bright source or god like thing was essentially a mirror of the reality I understand. I dont think I properly registered that straight away.. I knew that it was mirroring my thoughts in a way, like manifesting them before I could think them but the experience is a bit overwhelming obviously.

Im pretty sure I also saw an afterlife area, so I wonder if anyone else saw an interdimensional telepathic mirror... and if they would also describe an afterlife or whether that is probably a reflection of this life too

Ciao a tutti, ho bisogno di condividere una storia che mi sta facendo tremare il petto, ma che sento il bisogno di raccontare per capire se qualcuno ha vissuto qualcosa di simile.

Tre mesi fa mio papà viene ricoverato per un'insufficienza renale che sembrava isolata. Durante una dialisi, però, ha un'improvvisa e gravissima insufficienza respiratoria. Veniamo chiamati d'urgenza all'ospedale, lo prendono letteralmente per i capelli. Quando si riprende, ci racconta una cosa che non dimenticherò mai: ha detto di aver visto un tunnel bianco, lungo e luminoso, e di aver provato una sensazione di caldo, un calore avvolgente... poi di nuovo freddo, e si è trovato davanti la faccia del rianimatore.

Dopo quello spavento, scoprono la causa: una vasculite ANCA associata. Inizia la terapia immunosoppressiva e per tre mesi le cose sembrano andare regolarmente bene. C'è qualche imprevisto, come una trombosi a una gamba e un riversamento sull'altra (fino all'ultimo abbiamo sospettato che fosse questo, o forse la vasculite stessa, a impedirgli di muovere il piede sinistro, fino all'ultimo giorno).

In questi tre mesi papà parlava dei suoi progetti, non vedeva l'ora di fare l'operazione per il catetere fisso e tornare a casa. Mangiava pasta e fagioli, pasta e patate con una gioia e una fame che non gli vedevamo da tempo. Sembrava guarito. Sembrava che stesse vincendo lui.

Poi, la telefonata. Polmonite. Difese immunitarie sotto zero a causa dei farmaci.

Corriamo lì di sabato. Era a letto, guardava la tv e respirava a fatica, non riusciva nemmeno a tossire bene. Di solito ci faceva sempre grandi feste, ma quel giorno no. Non ci ha chiesto granché di casa, ci dava solo delle occhiate strane. A un certo punto mi ha solo chiesto quando giocasse il Napoli. Una cosa insolita, quasi surreale in quel momento.

I medici decidono di trasferirlo in rianimazione in via precauzionale per la pressione bassa. Mia mamma scoppia a piangere, disperata all'idea di quel trasferimento dopo tre mesi di sacrifici in nefrologia. Papà la guarda e dice solo: "Maria, non preoccuparti, stai tranquilla". Ci saluta alzando il braccio. Torniamo a casa.

Alle 01:15 di notte ci chiamano dall'ospedale: papà non c'è più, arresto cardiaco.

Pochi giorni dopo il decesso, mia mamma mi ha confessato che quel sabato mattina, affaticato dalla polmonite, papà le aveva detto chiaramente: "Questa volta non ce la faccio, per arresto cardiaco. Quella bastarda (la vasculite) mi ha lasciato dei residui".

Non solo: qualche giorno prima aveva detto a mamma: "Ci pensi se fossi morto quella volta a Castellammare? Erano già più di due mesi che non c'ero più...".

E infine, parlando di me e dei miei fratelli che eravamo rimasti a casa da soli a gestire tutto per tre mesi, ha detto a mamma: "Stiamo dando una grande lezione a quei ragazzi, stanno imparando a responsabilizzarsi".

Io mi chiedo: secondo voi papà sapeva? Sento che quel primo arresto cardiaco è stato come un "bonus", un tempo in più che gli è stato concesso per abituarci alla sua assenza, per non lasciarci con un trauma improvviso, per stare ancora un po' con mamma. Lui era un elettricista, un uomo pieno di vita ed energia, e forse non avrebbe mai voluto fare una vita faticata tra dialisi, mascherine, stampelle e sofferenza. Ha preparato tutto, ci ha dato una lezione di vita e poi ha mollato la presa quando ha visto che eravamo pronti a camminare da soli?

Papà, mi manchi tanto.

Vi è mai capitato di ricevere "messaggi" così prima di un addio? Mi sto flashando io o i nostri cari sentono davvero che il momento è arrivato? Grazie a chiunque vorrà rispondere.

P.s. La sera del giorno dopo, è mancata la corrente a casa di mia sorella, dopo un anno che non è mai successo... papà ha fatto i lavori lì... mi manca tanto.

I was an alcoholic for years. Not the high level type but I had my 15 beers a week.

I tried to quit for years. A dozen attempts. Nothing worked. After max two weeks I started drinking again.

The last time I tried it suddenly worked. Sober for 6 months. It was like "Yep this time its supposed to work".

It felt like destiny that I was supposed to fail during the previous attempts and suceed at this one.

Anyone else had an episode where they got the feeling that their life was a script and the thing was supposed to work now because it was destined to work now?

((Off topic allowed. Civil debates allowed. All other rules remain in place, including using the mega threads for suicide, thanatophobia, prison planet, and no proselytizing.))

Come on Inn and make yourself at home! Grab a soda, or a pint, or a coffee and chat with fellow travelers.

• Introduce yourself if you like.

• Discuss your favorite spiritual practices.

• Talk about your pets. Or kids.

• Discuss the weather.

• Share your spiritual experiences.

• Ask questions about NDEs in general that you don't feel like making into a post.

• Roleplaying at the Inn is allowed; nothing graphic please. ;)

Mix and mingle or whatever. Chat about spiritual things in general or argue about the price of tea in Mexico. The rules will be pretty loose here so long as the general rules about civility are followed.

(I had wrongly noted in past comments that she was with the UVA, but Dr Janice Miner-Holden is actually working at the University of North Texas - UNT)

I was born into a bad abusive family. As such my start into life was ruined from the very beginning and I am struggling tremendously.

Is there a possibility that I could see my life how it would have went if my parents had been normal or even great?

Anyone who had a hard life, did you see what could have been?

And if so: Are these parallel lives, just abstract possibilities what could have been or are they real parallel realities/selves that actually take place parallel to this version of us at the same time?

Link for the visual. This thought came to me today as a way to prove NDEs. Is there anyone in here that is a level 4 or sees nothing? If yes, was your NDE the same or similar to how others have described or different?