Evolving: a cosmic life, a divine life, life on earth

Biologist Charles Birch (1918-2009) in A Purpose for Everything writes: “Either we and the rest of the creation have no permanent value or else we may say that there is a cosmic life, a divine life, able to appropriate and retain as experiences in its life our lesser lives and that of other individuals of creation. Either we and the rest live for what transcends ourselves or we live without ultimate meaning and ultimate purpose."

"To have self-determination is to exhibit mind. It is to have some degree of freedom, no doubt minute at the molecular level. I am not saying that having investigated the life of the cell and its molecules biologist have found mind. What they have found is more consistent with the proposition that the cell as an entity and the DNA molecule as an entity have internal relations."

"There is but one theory, known to me, that casts any positive light on the ability of brain cells to furnish us with feelings. It is that brain cells can feel! What gives brain cells feelings? It is by the same logic that we may say—their molecules. And so on down the line to those individuals we call electrons, protons and the like. The theory is that things that feel are made of things that feel."

"Because of the unity of life, human love is something that can be extended to the whole creation. The humanist loves his fellow humans and appreciates nature. The ecological model of life implies that human love is to be extended to the rest of nature in the sense of sympathetic identification with the life of other sentient organisms."

"The old notion of a divine being controlling the universe from outside is no longer credible. The relevant question now is, in what sense, if any, is there divine activity in the universe."

"The power of the Christian gospel is the experience of divine love that transforms life. We experience God first and then spend the rest of our lives trying to understand that experience and its relevance to the whole world. The God of the universe touches us as we experience life in its fullness. But God is vaster than our experience. When I go down to the ocean and swim on its shore, I get to know one part of the ocean—its near end. But there is a vast extent of ocean way beyond my ken that is nevertheless continuous with that bit of the ocean I know. So it is with God. We touch God at the near end, yet that same God extends into the farthest reaches of the universe and there too is pervasive love. This is the full meaning of incarnation. The universe exists by its incarnation of God in itself. It is the sort of universe in which God can be incarnate. God could not be incarnate in a machine! The divine Eros works in the universe through influence (literally meaning inflowing) as its universal mode of causation."

"To see the universe as a whole in this way, with the same God working in the universe at large, and in the life of Jesus, and in the lives of all of us, was put in highly symbolic language by the apostle Paul in his letter about the ‘Cosmic Christ’ in Colossians 1. In verse 4 is the phrase ‘In him all things hang together.’ This affirmation is repeated no less than five times in this chapter. It was Paul’s conviction that the same spirit which was in Jesus animated the whole universe. The universal principle of reality is the free act of experiencing. For many people in his time the world was a dualism. Not so for Paul. God is the God of ‘all things.’ Nature as well as human history is the theater of grace."

 

Charles Birch, A Purpose for Everything: Religion in a Postmodern Worldview (Twenty-Third Publications, 1990).

Spiritual: "A City Called Heaven"

I am a pilgrim, a pilgrim of sorrow,  

I’m left in this wide world, this wide world a-lone.

I have no hope, have no hope for to-morrow.  

But I'm tryin’ to make heaven my home.

Sometimes I’m tossed, Lord, and sometimes I’m driven.

Sometimes I just don’t know, just where I’m to go.

But I’ve heard of a city, the city of heaven.

And I’m tryin’ to make heaven my home.

 

Renaissance, Bethel University’s Performing Arts Experience

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjA3mesoAVU

Adrianne G's NDE (translated from Spanish)

In 2005, I went to the hospital because I tried to drink a cup of coffee and where I thought it was, I couldn’t grab it. It was 6 inches from the place where I saw it. I got scared and ran to the hospital without worrying about a cough that didn’t even allow me to speak. There, they diagnosed me with atypical pneumonia but I didn’t have phlegm or expectorations, only a lot of coughing. It was all caused by a generalized lupus erythematosus.

After 15 days, I left the hospital with the recommended doses of cortisone and medications for joint pain that were sufficiently strong to control the lupus, but which wouldn’t affect other parts of my body.

That’s how the years passed until December 5, 2015. I entered the hospital because I couldn’t breathe. I was kept in the hospital for tests and they didn’t find anything abnormal. I left on the 12th to return on the 18th with a new crisis in my lungs that was keeping me from breathing. I had pulmonary edema. This time they took a liter of blood from my lungs. I was there until December 26, and they told me that the danger had passed and that I was well.

I returned to the hospital on February 23 with a great deal of fatigue and unable to breathe again. On this occasion I put myself in God’s hands, because I felt it that it was already the end and in fact it I already wanted to die because I was very tired. I had already endured ten years of continual joint pain, constant fatigue, and being overweight by 110 pounds caused by so many steroids and so much cortisone that I was given to control the inflammation in my joints So I was really exhausted.

So I said goodbye to everyone and on just the second day in the hospital, they transferred me to intensive care, first with nasal ports for oxygen, then a mask, and later they intubated me with a feeding tube and fed me this way for eight days. After that, they removed the tube and gave me a tracheotomy. Because I was in this condition, my doctors gave my husband a very discouraging prognosis. They told him that I had no possibility of recovering, and that if I recovered at all, I would have to be in a wheelchair and connected to an oxygen machine because my lungs were not able to regenerate enough because the damage had been so great.

In the process of the tracheotomy, which they did only to keep administering Mab Thera, a medicine recommended by my rheumatologist after the pneumologist said there was nothing else to be done, they let me go. The medicine was supposed to take effect in no later than two days, but five days passed and I only became more critical. The doctors had already given up, when suddenly the pneumologist jumped up and told my husband he didn’t know whose opinion we were respecting, but that we should listen to him because something unexpected was happening. My body began to show very slight signs of improvement, but to him the improvements were enormous.

At that moment, I had left my body and began to return home. I suddenly saw myself as a light, floating in a universe full of colors and forms that opened and closed, and I entered them and went through them full of joy, of happiness, of peace—a joy which there are no words to explain--until I came to another portal, so to speak, in which there was a female figure. She was only a light, but when she spoke, she identified herself as an aunt who had died four months before. And she told me, “Adriana, if you pass through here, you will not be able to return.” I understood that she was giving me a choice. I was still me, Adriana. I was not my body, but I was my essence, and I began to ask myself what there was to return to? Why leave that place where I was so happy, so full, and with such great joy and love in my heart, when I heard my daughter’s voice, telling me, “Mom, I need you for my wedding.” She didn’t have a boyfriend and during the 45 days that I had been in intensive care, she always told me that if I was exhausted, to leave, not to stay for them. But this day was different. She asked me to come back. I understood that we are in this world for love, because only a love of that magnitude could make us leave that peace and the unimaginable joy of that plane.

 

When I made the decision to return, I heard a male voice, telling me, “It is not going to be easy, but the best years of your life were still to come.” And so it was, from that point on, my recovery was wonderful. My alveolus began to function, my tracheotomy tube was removed. They told me I would not be able to talk without covering the hole for three to five days while it healed, and that evening I was talking and taking medication as if I had never had the tracheotomy. And it’s been that way since. Today, I breathe without oxygen, I walk, I travel. Only at altitudes of over 1600 feet above sea level do I need a little extra oxygen. My life is completely normal. I weigh 180 pounds, nothing hurts, and I feel better than ever.

 

From NDERF.org

Annalise E's NDE altered her life in many ways

I was 16 years old. I had been admitted for general surgery to remove four teeth that had grown through the roof of my mouth.

I was taken down to the operating room. There were two nurses in attendance and an anesthesiologist. All were fully gowned so I could not see their faces. I was sedated.

At some point during the surgery, my heart stopped and I stopped breathing. Then I became conscious.

I was floating. There was no ceiling or walls. But, there was an arched structure that was possibly a tunnel. I was aware of the light energy being bent around me, although this was not a conscious thought at the time.

The light was excessively bright. If I had seen this on earth, it would have burnt my retinas. But it was the most beautiful light and it did not hurt at all. In fact, I would say it was as soft as it was bright.

I did not exist as a body, but was energy. I was an energy that was joined to all other energies; those that had been before and those that will be after. I became aware that we are all just energy and we are all intrinsically linked.

I recall no sound. Communication was or would have been via telepathy or just knowing; just knowing feels more appropriate.

There is no human word for how amazing and peaceful this state of being feels. I felt like this earth does not exist, nor does anyone in it. If they did exist, I'd be linked to them via energy because we are all one.

This place was familiar, like I had been here before. I may have even come from here.

I did not want to come back, but was made to come back. I felt myself being pulled back to the operating room. I did not want to come back. I did not want to leave that perfect feeling.

I was then on the ceiling of the operating theatre, looking down on the proceedings. There were more people in the room. I could see a girl fighting with them as they tried to bring her back to life. The machines would bring her back with a shock and then she'd kick and punch at them. Then the machines would show her still and lifeless form again. I recall thinking she was a rude and bad girl. I saw her punch a nurse in the face and sprain another nurse's wrist.

I realized the girl was me when I was no longer separate from her. I recalled nothing until I woke up the next day. I asked if I had died and was told someone would come to talk to me. Nobody came to talk with me.

Then there was a nurse who came onto the ward and I asked, 'How is your wrist?' She said, 'Still sore. How did you know about that?' I said, 'Well, I did it. I saw myself.' She replied, 'You're right, you did.' We talked some more and she confirmed that I had to be resuscitated midway through the surgery.

Since that time, no watches would work on me. My heart rate has been erratic.

This experience caused me to become exceedingly empathic, picking up on others' feelings and fears. I have had three of four clear premonitions, but on the whole, I know stuff about people, their motivations and intent. I know what is missing from files and information. So much so, that others question how I can know this stuff on a regular basis.

Either shortly before or shortly after this experience I attempted to kill myself. I can't quite remember the timing. I was told not to talk about it, so I tried to bury the experience for many years.

My mother asked me, while heavily sedated and on her deathbed, if heaven existed because I told her I had been there. I found this odd, as it was not something we talked about and she frowned upon it as she was a devout Christian. I told her it would be whatever she believed it to be and it would also be better than anything she could imagine.

My father asked me on his deathbed, if it was his choice when to die. I told him it was his choice and he died within 10 minutes after that. At the time of his death, he was clearly having 'silent' conversations with entities I could not see in the room. I had gone to check on him. I thought I heard him and my partner having a conversation. My father was the only one in the room. My partner was asleep in another room. The second person was nowhere to be seen. Yet my father was awake. We had been told he probably had a few months to live. However, I knew I had to stay awake that night.

I was aware of my grandmother's death prior to it being called. My grandmother subsequently visited me after her death in 1979 when I was 10 years old.

After my NDE incident, I had a vision of my grandfather who died when I was 2 years old. I was able to fully describe the house that he lived in and other family members who were by then deceased. I was aware of my grandfather's death prior to us being contacted about it.

 

From NDERF.org

Tony G reports seeing several deceased persons

Firstly, I am a retired police officer from Queensland in Australia. I hold a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology/sociology. I am non-religious, nor am I superstitious. I have two highly-educated young adults and one of them is a clinical neuro-psychologist; the other has a PhD in IT.

I don’t see religious figures, get lotto numbers or believe in tarot cards or play with Ouija boards.

My experiences are very human-related, mostly of seeing people who have passed on. My first experience was when I was young. My uncle, who had passed on, came to me and said goodbye. Since this experience, I have seen quite a few deceased people who were usually visiting to say goodbye. They were wearing recognizable clothes and appeared like they were in another dimension. I also saw three dead women overseeing a fatal crash where they were killed. They were hugging each other and overlooking the scene. These are rare experiences for me, but I will outline the most significant visit which happened in the mid-1980’s in Victoria, Australia.

My wife and I had visited my wife and her family in Tasmania for a quick visit. This was many years before this happened. My sister and I rarely spoke on the phone and email was not available. Essentially, we had little contact.

I was visiting my parents as they had rented a holiday house. My sister also came up from Tasmania with her three boys. My sister’s husband was killed in a motorcycle crash in Tasmania about a year before this experience. I did not attend the funeral due to work, and never spoke to her as my mother conveyed the news. I was never told the details of his death except that he ran into the back of a truck and was killed.

Later in the day, I was relaxing reading a magazine in the lounge room; I had to go to work that evening. My sister was doing dishes in the kitchen. I noticed a figure standing, with his arms folded, and looking out of the window. He wore a white shirt with horizontal green stripes, fawn-colored pants and black shoes. He did not seem happy. I yelled jokingly to my sister that someone was here. She entered the room and I described what I saw. She stated that it was her husband, wearing what she had buried him in. She brought the clothes especially for his burial. He came toward us and I could hear him clearly. He was not happy about a boyfriend she was seeing, what she was doing on their small farm, and other issues. She answered when I relayed his questions to her. She appeared to know what he was talking about. I had no knowledge of her activities or relationships. This went on for about 10 minutes. He then moved away, kept a distance for a short time, and then left.

When we told my mother, she was shocked. She is a practicing Catholic. When talking to my sister's husband, I noticed that his shirt collar was done up to the top of his neck and that one side of the collar was lifted up at an angle. I never mentioned the collar to my sister, but did mentioned it to my mother who did attend the funeral. She said they had to raise the collar due to injuries he had received. I had presumed he would have received chest injuries.

I have many science books, books on NDEs, and have been looking for a scientific answer to this occurrence for many years; but, to date, cannot find it. If any light can be shown on an explanation, scientifically I would be very pleased. Just for your information, I am glad science is tackling the issues of NDEs. I can also see auras and do not take drugs, drink or have psychological issues.

Reported to NDERF.org

Ashley M’s near-death experience

It was nearly 28 years ago when I had my near death experience. I was twelve years old and in junior high school. I had an accident at a school function, and was accidentally hung by a rope around my neck. I was alone at the time of the accident, and I remember looking for something to stand on to pull myself up. I was frantic! 

Then I remember looking at myself from an outside perspective. The next thing I saw was a bright loving light. It looked like a million light bulbs close together, forming one huge, loving light. I went towards it and was pulled through to a place where I remember feeling peace and love beyond measure. I was then welcomed by so many people I knew and loved! Some were people I knew only in heaven before coming to earth. The love and happiness was so strong! I don't remember seeing bodies, only energies or auras. We communicated telepathically. They were surprised I was there so soon. Then I was shown to a spirit guide who led me to a building that had Greek columns out front. It was a massive building.

 
Then I was brought to a room full of other people and their spirit guides. Each of us were standing around something like a circular table. It had a dome in the center of the table. I looked into the dome and started my life review. I could witness and experience my life from many different perspectives. I felt what others felt from my actions from their point of view. It was hard to go through, but I knew it was to learn and grow from my time on earth. I remember hearing others cry, laugh, and other things because of what they did on Earth. My spirit guide told me it was okay, and that we are all loved; that this was not a judgment. I was told that we all learn best by experiencing it ourselves. God does not judge us. We are all learning beings. The hardest of part of judgment comes from feeling our lives from so many different perspectives. I could take as long as I wanted because this review was to learn and gain empathy.

Then, I was taken to a room where the energies that had a really hard time with the life review were put to sleep to recover and heal. They were surrounded by a loving white light. I was shown a place where everyone has a pre-set life on record, chosen by us. I was shown my life path. Reincarnation is real, but it is our choice to incarnate. We do so to learn and grow. God is Love. We are sent to Earth to love and be loved unconditionally. Heaven looks just like Earth and is unbelievably beautiful. I could travel anywhere just by thinking about it. Time doesn't exist in heaven. We are all beautifully and wonderfully made. The image of God is the emotion/energy of Love.

I was then told that I would need to come back to Earth. I didn't want to come back and I fought it. But, I was told my mission was to speak to the world about my experience and to teach that God is love and our purpose here is to show love and kindness to everyone. Heaven is REAL.

The next thing I knew, I was on the ground being given CPR. For months later, I remember being depressed because I wanted to go back. I have only shared this experience with a handful of people. However, I am feeling the pull to share my story. It is difficult because I am a teacher, and I live in a very conservative area. Many of the things I experienced even go against my Christian religion. I do not hold all the answers. I believe that there is a God, and I cannot deny the existence of Heaven.

I believe that whatever I believe, that if it resonates with me, helps demonstrates love to others, and gives me peace, then that is my truth. I can have bits and pieces of what I personally experienced in a NDE and still find peace going to church or hiking in the mountains etc. It is my connection to God's Love that matters.

I have been highly sensitive to iridescent lights and loud sounds since my NDE. I also find myself to be highly empathic, and it seems all my senses were extremely heightened since this experience. I'm not sure why I remember so much from my NDE. I feel blessed to not fear death. I know we are all here for a purpose. I am more aware of my actions and behavior towards others. I try to show kindness and love to others. Life is a constant work in progress. I know that God is Love and Heaven is real. I hope this gives some of you comfort. Thank you for letting me share.

 

Posted at NDERF.org

NDERF.org report translated from French

I was 16 years old and born into a practicing, Catholic family. On Saturday in January 1982, I was walking to church to attend mass. I was very disappointed to not be allowed to go to a dance party with a friend. I had just left her house, saying this prayer inwardly, 'Lord, you see what this sacrifice is costing me, make it at least so that it’s not in vain!' 

I crossed a bridge and came to an intersection, where I entered the crosswalk. The last image I saw was the horrified face of the driver in the car. Simultaneously, I heard a terrifying sound of brakes. I told myself, 'I'm going to die!'

I flew over the vehicle, and was dragged under the wheels of the car behind that one. At that moment, I saw the scene from above, in 360° spherical vision but without realizing that this scene was about me. I saw disturbed onlookers, a crowd, and heard the shouts and howls.

I was thinking, 'Why are they getting disturbed?' Then I moved and saw my parents run up to the bridge. I said to myself, 'Why is Mum in slippers? She looks distraught; there's something bad going on. Oh, hey, there's a wrecked car and some feet sticking out…” Then I saw a young man I knew who was watching.

I was able to tell him afterwards that I knew he was there on that day and I acurately described how he was dressed.

I was then suddenly sucked into a luminous tunnel. I saw an immense light. I moved toward the light, feeling intense Happiness and a fullness and peace I had never known. I felt my soul expand such that it felt like it encompassed the whole universe. It was wonderful as I was bathed in universal love. There were multitudes of people, but I couldn't see any faces. Instead, I 'felt' them. All my senses were heightened in an extraordinary way.

At that moment, I never wanted to go back or to leave this Happiness. Then a magnificent lady, who was dressed in a luminous, white dress, was standing in front of this great halo of light. I was sucked into this light. This woman was very beautiful, but above all because of the kindness that I saw in her smile and the way she looked at me. I knew I was loved. I thought then that it was my grandmother who had passed away shortly before this experience. She seemed to be fully listening to the person behind her whom I call 'the luminous star'. I wanted to move forward, but she stopped me by waving me back. It was a very painful rejection that stayed with me for several years. I insisted, without using words, that I wanted to stay with her. Words weren't necessary. She listened to the luminous star who seemed to speak to her but I couldn't hear it. Then she told me, 'You still have things to do on Earth; you must go back.'

Then I saw, as in a kaleidoscope, a kind of flashback movie showing all the moments of my life where I had not loved enough. There were some very concrete situations, but I can't remember exactly. What I remember is that all of those moments were like hot mud thrown in my face. It was very painful, so I begged God to stop this torture. I made a last prayer in what I thought was the Kingdom of the dead, 'If you save my life, I promise to make up for all these moments and to love more.'

I opened my eyes and saw the stretcher-bearers place me in the vacuum mattress. I was dazed and didn't speak. The police and firefighters told me that I should have died under the circumstances. They couldn't believe that I only had a few broken bones, bruises, and head trauma.

For two years, I had nightmares upon hearing the sound of the brakes. But each time, like a reassuring hand, the memory of the lady soothed me. Then I wrote a note to my mother who told me that from what I had written her, she thought that I had seen not my grandmother but the Virgin Mary. I couldn't tell anyone else, as I feared that I would be mocked, except I did tell my husband ten years later.

This brief moment of a few seconds is unforgettable. It helped me greatly in the following years to endure significantly painful ordeals. I had another serious accident that resulted in multiple transplant operations and one year of rehabilitation. I experienced the loss of our first baby. I had two acute pancreatitis attacks two years apart during the period of post-partum. I had several hospitalizations in intensive care. I have experienced five births and the departure of my grandfather, and then of my father.

Before this experience, my life was a black and white movie. Afterwards, it was a movie in color.

Each encounter and the words of the gospel, took an unexpected meaning in light of this experience. My faith was strengthened. I even thought I was called to religious life. Then I met my husband who also had an intense inner life.

I understood that we would be judged on Love (as St John of the Cross says) and that our life is only a trivial passage, but especially it is not real Life. True Life is blissful eternity, but we can begin to live this eternity right now. As I understood a few years later, it is no longer necessary to die to know or relive this experience: by loving here on earth, we explore the Heaven of our soul and live the communion of Saints in the anticipation of the Kingdom of God.