Many people claim to have survived through the near-death experience (NDE). While some of those stories might as well be a product of circumstances and vivid imagination, I, indeed, do not exclude a possibility of the human encounter with the divine extraterrestrial life. Perhaps, a person's pre-existing spiritual beliefs dictate how the brain perceives a particular extraordinary event and affect the memories being recalled post factum. People are unable to foresee what the future bestows on them tomorrow, let alone next life. Mortality Paradox described by Cave in the previous chapters is driving humanity to explore life beyond earthly means. Shared stories bring hope to some and validate their faith by confirming that eternal life, in fact,
The book Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife, is a non-fiction work by Mary Roach, that explores the unanswered questions about the afterlife. The humorous and scientific exploration includes: whether there is a soul that survives death, reincarnation, near-death experiences and out of body experiences. This is a book about what scientists are doing and have done in their attempt to find evidence that when we die we don’t just turn into bones. Roach attempts to find and the define that soul using a scientific approach in order to determine the possibilities of an afterlife. To achieve this goal, she examines what scientists have discovered in their quest to find evidence for life after death.
Austrian-British philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once said, “The real question of life after death isn 't whether or not it exists, but even if it does what problem this really solves.” The idea that death is inevitable is well known by everyone, yet no one is certain as to what happens afterwards. Even though the subject of life after death has been argued for centuries by many philosophers and theologians. In the article Sign Here If You Exist, Jill Sisson Quinn adequately employs figurative language, rhetoric questionings, and personal anecdotes to demonstrate a controversial argument on the topic of life after death.
Meaning and significance of death in the light of the Christian narrative is addressed and shows a deep understanding, including a detailed description and many examples.
Fear of the unknown can be a fear of the dark or fear of what happens after we die. Children often experience fear of the dark typically because they imagined a danger like a monster that may be in the room but they cannot see inside to assure them that their perceived danger is absent. This fear of the unknown could result in the child hiding under his/her blankets or running to another family member’s room for safety. Similarly, people fear what happens when they die because there is no certainty other than someone’s faith or belief. Even being a person who experienced near death, I could not relieve someone’s fear by explaining that my experience was mind-blowing and amazing. Not only could their experience be different, but I do not know anything about what would have happened next.
Eben Alexander is a neurosurgeon who believed for many years that when people explained their near death experiences it was just the hard wiring of the brain. Of course ,though, he had refined medical training. It wasn't until Alexander had caught a rare disease which caused him to fall into a coma and had a near death experience himself. Alexander talks about his journey towards the afterlife in his book which leads to many questions to everyone as to whether it really happened or if it was all just a hallucination. The paper talks about how he recounts what happened during his experience
According to Kevin Nelson, a neuroscientist and the author of “The Spiritual Doorway in the Brain,” adults often have a sense of looking back over a life; young children, lacking that perspective, tend to report “castles and rainbows, often populated with pets, wizards, guardian angels, and like adults, they see relatives and religious figures, too.” It’s hard to convey to anyone who grew up without the idea of God just how fully the language, stories and “logic” of the Bible can dominate a young mind, even perhaps especially the mind of a toddler (Nelson, The Spiritual Doorway in the Brain”20-21.) There have been various accounts taken over the years regarding near death or life after death experiences. A known account of this situation is taken from Colton Burpo, in which a bestseller book published in 2010 and motion picture released in 2014 known as “Heaven is for Real” is based on. In 2003 three year-old Colton claimed to have visited Heaven during a near death experience where an emergency surgery was performed on him to save his life. Colton recounts the details of his amazing journey with childlike innocence and speaks about things that happened before his birth... things he could not possibly know. The next is the story of Dr. Eben Alexander, who is a proclaimed neurosurgeon and writer coming from a lineage of scholars and medical doctors. He
The film was all about Mark Watney’s life on Mars, and he was able to survive it. The film began with Watney’s six-member crew “Ares III” exploring the planet Mars. One sol (Martian solar day), a dust storm attacked their area in Mars. The five members of the crew left the planet Mars immediately and ride on the Hermes, as commanded by NASA. They left Mark Watney lost in the storm, assuming that he was dead.
Rosie the Riveter was a fictional character that was created to encourage women to join the work force during World War II. Men were sent off to war and they left production jobs, factory jobs, and many other positions that needed to be filled. Unprecedented numbers of women entered the world of work, marking the beginning of a major movement of women in industry.
First, the religious concept views death as the commencement of a new life (Campione, 2004). Next, the
that if X can be without Y then X and Y are distinct. This view that a
What I found in the literature was that, so-called spiritual experiences are part of every culture and have shaped spiritual and religious traditions. It is clear to me that “I” am not the physical body, but “I/God” is a consciousness in eternity,
With that being said, however, religion has offered an alternative answer, one which most definitely appeals to many humans; and more importantly gives humans a way out of death. Before moving forward it maybe important to clarify the term death and what its meaning is for the purposes of this essay. Obviously not even religion can save an individual from dying, humans are biological beings, thus time is never on
As humans, we all have fears, one of the most common being fear of death. The reason why several of us are scared of dying is because we know it’s going to happen, but we don’t know what happens afterwards. In the book “Heaven is For Real”, by Todd Burpo, we get a glimpse into a four year old boy’s near death experience where he shares his story of going to heaven. There are so many reasons to love this heartwarming, emotional and adventurous story.
The concept of life after death has been around practically as long as life itself. Our beliefs about life after death can have a profound effect on our attitudes toward life. Most individual's beliefs about life after death are directly related to their cultural or religious affiliations. According to Montagu, "Of all the many forms which natural religion has assumed none probably has exerted so deep and far reaching an influence on human life as the belief in immortality" (1955, p.15).
The fear I held as a child that my body would become a vessel for other souls to enter was intensified. This was my first impression of my first time in a cemetery and I was not off to a good start. As I grabbed a map to find my way around, I began to dread the walk through the cemetery and having to see all the lives lost, especially those who lost their lives before they even really began. However, to my surprise, as I made my way through the graveyard this feeling of sadness slipped away. The sun began to shine through the clouds of gray and illuminated both the cemetery and my mood. I was delighted to notice that many of the tombstones I encountered read that these lives that were lost were not taken too soon. Most of the people had lived over eighty years and were buried next to fellow family members who also lived just as long. It was nice to see that many people were laid to rest next to family so they wouldn’t have to enter the next life