"The words we use in this world cannot be translated to the words in the world of God. My church is inside of me. God is a part of me and my experience. God is just a small word compared to what I experienced.
"When near-death experiencers encounter God, they are generally in an otherworldly realm. Thus, it is not surprising that God may appear variably to different NDErs:
I thought that if I were a Buddhist, perhaps he would look like Buddha. I was told, 'That is right. God appears in a familiar form.’
"The increased acceptance of the reality of God following near-death experiences is remarkable. From the survey, belief that God definitely exists rose from 37.3% before their NDEs to 71.7% after their NDEs. This is entirely consistent with the frequent awareness of God in NDEs. This extraordinary increased belief in God further shows that NDErs generally accept the reality of their experiences and change their beliefs in response to their NDEs.
"A small prospective study of near-death experiencers found they were statistically much more likely to have an inner sense of God’s presence in comparison to a control group that did not have NDEs. Retrospective studies have also shown that NDErs have an increased belief in God or become closer to God. An increased closeness to God after NDEs was the conclusion in a scholarly book chapter I co-authored that reviewed 30 years of previously published literature regarding NDEs:
For most, the result appears to be spiritual awakening. The NDE often brings with it spiritual certainty and an intense desire to conform one’s life to divine will. The new relationship with what is often a personal God becomes central to the NDErs’ lives.
"The NDERF study of God in near-death experiences found that the most common descriptor of God was love. Love in NDEs has already been discussed, but the awareness of love seems especially strong when God is encountered. Here are examples of what NDErs said about God’s love:
The light and the presence of the entity was clearly God. It was present everywhere and a part of everything. There were no limits to the power of God. There was unconditional acceptance, forgiveness, and love.
The entire encounter was about God, the ultimate power of God, and God's forgiveness. The message was, "Love is the greatest power in the universe.”
God does exist. I was aware that God is not a man or woman. God is everything as pure love energy. We are God because we are one entity.
"I could go on with vast numbers of quotes like these describing the powerful and unearthly love of God. A profound and reassuring message from near-death experiences is that God loves everyone."
Jeffrey Long, MD, "Evidence
for Survival of Consciousness in
Near-Death Experiences: Decades of Science and New Insights." In the
next several posts I will share excerpts from Long's 2021 article.
Footnotes
have been deleted. The complete text is available as a pdf at
https://www.nderf.org
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