Near Death Experiences and Sacred Scripture:Â The Parallel Messaging
By Douglas Charles Hodgson (www.o-books.com)
Consider life’s larger existential questions. What happens when we die? Is there an afterlife? Do each of us have a soul or consciousness that survives and transcends the death of our physical body or does our spirit or life-force dissipate into an empty void of nothingness when the brain ceases to function? Does God/Source/Creator exist? And is there a Heaven(s)? What are the purpose and meaning of our Earthly life and do each of us have a bespoke mission or assignment to complete during our Earthly sojourn? Are we judged on a reward-punishment basis or are we assisted in an eternal process of spiritual consciousness-raising through reflection, acknowledgment and cleansing with the assistance of higher beings in the context of a life-review? Do Universal Laws exist which underpin the operation of the cosmos? These are all fundamental metaphysical questions in the sense that they cannot be answered through objective study of material reality; they are largely beyond human sense perception, experience and understanding.
Eastern and Western religions have emerged over the millennia to assist in the answering of some of these questions and to provide a Divinely inspired framework for ethical and moral conduct. They form an integral part of many people’s lives. Whatever we conceive God to be and by whatever name we attribute to God, sacred scripture reveals the mind of God and the essence of the Divine message or universal precepts, the Word, the Law, the Dharma, the Teaching, the Tao or the Way (as the case may be). Various religions and belief systems – Baha’i, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Sikhism, Taoism and Zoroastrianism – have evolved from various common and unifying foundational principles and virtues. Underlying this religious diversity can be discovered a profound and liberating transcendental spiritual unity in so far as certain Divine attributes and virtues are recognized and shared across this religious spectrum: unconditional love and kindness, compassion, material and spiritual charity and service, belief in one God, detachment from the material world and its delusions, courage, steadfastness in faith, gentleness, humility, living by the so-called “Golden Rule†(do unto others as you would have them do unto you), patience, peacefulness, purity, quietude, acknowledgment of wrongdoing, self-restraint/moderation, righteousness, simplicity, truthfulness, wisdom and understanding. These religions also caution against certain types of behaviour or disposition: anger, aggression, greed, fear, hatred, stealing, lying, pride, over-indulgence, fault-finding, violence and killing, deceit and slander. Generally, these religions recognize the eternal or transcendent nature of the soul-consciousness/spirit/life-force which each of us possesses. They provide a means for the believer to become a better person and a pathway to salvation (or enlightenment, awakening or self-realization as the case may be).Â
Near death experiences transcend time, ethnicities, cultures, geographical regions and religion. They have had a deeply profound and life-changing effect upon those who have had them. They involve persons who were resuscitated after having been pronounced clinically dead by medically qualified staff or who came very close to death. Near death experiences have had a particular impact on how those who have undergone them perceive more clearly how we are supposed to live our life and what our purpose or mission is in the Earthly plane of existence. They have also significantly altered their views on death and the afterlife, with the fear of physical death having left them. They reject as human error the scientific materialist and reductionist conclusion that only physical matter and that which can be perceived by human sensory perception is real and that consciousness depends exclusively on a functioning human brain. But consciousness is eternal and exists both within and without the human body with only the vibrations and energy form being different. Many NDE’rs state that what they experienced was far different than a dream or hallucination and was more real than anything they have ever experienced in their waking Earthly consciousness, being able to vividly and accurately recall what happened to them many years later. The spiritually transformative nature of the near-death experience reaffirms the importance and value of core religious teachings on unconditional love, compassion, charity and service, and goodness.
While some NDE messages and concepts from beyond the veil appear beyond human comprehension and experience, many of the revelations are deceptively and disarmingly clear, logical and simple to understand. This latter category includes messages which are very similar to what is to be found in the sacred scriptures of Eastern and Western religions. It is these messages in particular in relation to which Near Death Experiences and Sacred Scripture: The Parallel Messaging concentrates on, seeking to identify the striking and uncanny synchronicities of the NDE messaging and the ethical exhortations to be found in the various religions. Each chapter of the book is introduced by a commentary section followed by the relevant NDE accounts and observations which are juxtaposed with relevant scriptural references from various religions to illustrate the parallel and often identical nature of the respective messaging.
Near Death Experiences and Sacred Scripture: The Parallel Messaging aims to reveal to readers the mutually affirming and corroborating nature of the revelations brought back by NDE’rs from the Other Side and the fundamental precepts and ethical exhortations contained in scripture representing diverse cultures, geographical regions and historical eras. It examines, for example, the interconnectedness and oneness of All That Is, the Universal Laws of reincarnation, karma and attraction, the absolute Ultimate Reality of the world of spirit compared with the relative illusory reality of the Earthly realm, the NDE observation that all religions are vain attempts to express the importance of the so-called “Golden Rule†in everyday life as well as the illusory nature of Time and Space restrictions experienced in the Earthly plane compared with the higher spiritual realms. Where necessary, this book identifies differences, such as the contrast between the prospect of judgment on a reward-punishment basis of the Abrahamic religions compared with the non-condemnatory, non-punitive and self-assessed life-review as well as the difference between religious faith, hope and trust versus certainty and proof of the existence of God and Heaven(s) as experienced by many NDE’rs.
This book also seeks to provide comfort and assurance to those who have fear or uncertainty concerning the inevitable demise of their physical bodies. It is to reassure them that their eternal souls are created by God and that a beautiful afterlife awaits (our true Home). It is to reveal that there is so much more to existence and reality than this life on Earth and our physical body. It is to reveal our purpose for being on Earth and observations and revelations on God, the Source and Creator, and Heaven(s) as well as universal metaphysical knowledge, understanding and different types of positive and negative energy. And finally, it is to reveal how each of our souls – unique to the cosmos – is a beautiful and eternal work-in-progress, evolving continuously towards communion with, and absorption into, the Light.
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Near Death Experiences and Sacred Scripture: The Parallel Messaging by Douglas Charles Hodgson is available from www.o-books.com and from wherever books are sold.