NDE’s

Let me get straight to the point, here.  People claim to have had Near Death Experiences  [ which I’m not at all refuting, btw, I totally believe in the phenomena of Near Death Experiences ] and they’ve spent time experiencing their existence in the purest of forms, and in the presence of “everything”; all knowledge, all time, all of everything that ever was and everything that will ever be, and yet … not a single one has ever come back from that grand adventure and changed the world.  

Why is that?  

That’s the question I ask myself, more than any other question, when I think about the subject of “consciousness”.  These people, literally, experienced ‘all of everything’ that there ever has been, and that there ever will be, and all they came back with was a “I died, went to the great beyond, and all I got was this stinkin’ T-Shirt”? It’s kind of a downer, isn’t it?  Not a single one has returned with a genuine benefit for humanity. A non-personal-gain-benefit that is such a powerful message, experience, or ability, that it clearly exists within this person's capabilities almost exclusively to serve humanity; or, to at least serve 'humanity' as a primary focus.

I know, I know, they all told their story and that’s a gift, isn’t it?  Well, yah … and no.  Great, they no longer fear death and neither should the rest of us, but really…  that’s their personal experience.  Where’s the insight into humanity’s future, or even its past? Where’s the revolutionary concept that’s never been thought before, but has been brought to our collective mentality by that 1 person who returned with something capable of enlightening the human race toward a better tomorrow?  Why aren’t we thinking 'bigger than big' here?  Yes, this person escaped the inevitable and returned to tell the tale, but isn’t that all it amounts to at this point?  

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not just ‘saying’ I believe in Near Death Experiences.  I do.  It’s not a line. I straight-up honestly do.  I’m fascinated with the subject, actually.  But I’m also kind of a science geek, too.  Not nearly as hardcore as some people, but my skeptic edge has questions.  Always.  And my first one is, “why aren’t we expecting more from Near Death Experiencers”?  Every individual has a uniquely personal experience of the afterlife. I compare the stories they tell to –

How many mathematicians have had an NDE?  And how many have returned from the experience, having been in the presence of all of the knowledge in the entire universe, that has ever been and wil, with a brand new equation that will benefit humanity in some way?  How many diplomats have had an NDE and returned with a message of peace and a new set of communication skills that will undoubtedly rock the world to its foundation?  How many physicians have had an NDE and returned with some sort of insight into a new treatment for some affliction, or the cure for a disease that has plagued mankind for generations?  How many scientists have come back to us with a discovery people have solemnly agreed was “well ahead of its time”?

I wish I could quickly and easily ramble off a bunch of names that have changed the course of humanity for the better because of their Near Death Experiences, but I can’t.  Can you?  

I’ve seen plenty of people who have stories to tell, books to sell, and movies designed to ‘make bank’ at the box office, but is that really the crux of what their NDE has to offer? Fanfare? Does it really come down to “who can tell their story the biggest, loudest, and best”?  Here’s this incredible experience and the results are, generally speaking, “the same as the other guy’s”.  Sure, this person came out of their room with a painting of a car on a canvas, and that girl came out of her room with a collage of magazine photos glued all over her canvas, and they’re pretty vibrant spectacles to behold, but they’re both on canvas, and they both present in the same general manner with the same general and humanly relatable themes by the standards of today’s conceptual understandings.  We’re all happy they’re back among the living, and we’re grateful they have a story to tell, but what kind of impact are they making – really?  And who’s benefitting from that impact?  No one expects them to be martyrs to their experiences, but it would be quite irresponsible not to question where the benefit is for humanity given they were in the presence of ‘the all knowing everything’.  I guess that’s all I’m saying.  

I’ve been reading up on consciousness and I’m hoping I’ll find something that will cause me to write another blog entry completely contradicting this one.  Let’s hope I do.  I’m thinking I probably will.  It pains me to think that an experience so profound can be celebrated so superficially by the same people who should (and likely do) know better than any of the rest of us that it’s worth more than that. And it pains me to a greater degree to know we live in a time when we’re so busy being awe inspired by story tellers (and the media who cash in on those tellings) we don’t even realize that this is … the bulk of what we’re doing… being awe inspired. From my limited, personal, and probably narrow-minded perspective (which has many-an-imaginable-downfall, in and of, itself – I would never deny that) we should be questioning, with great fortitude, the meaning of it all and how it fits into the bigger picture of “existence”.  Because an NDE is a teaser and if it means nothing more than “I existed in my purest form in the presence of the creator and was sent back here to tell you … I existed in my purest form in the presence of the creator … the end …” then what’s the point of it all, really?  So much of humanity has an inherent belief in a (Divine) Creator already – be it God, The Source, Universal Life Force, Supreme Being… whatever you want to call it.  And of that population of believers, almost all believe that the next stage of “existence” is to stand in the presence of The Creator for one reason or another at the end of this physical life.  So an NDE experiencer who comes back with a story of, basically and essentially, doing that exact thing in their own unique way, is really telling humanity nothing that huge populations don’t already believe.  

I’m looking forward to reading more fascinating titles on the subject of Consciousness and Near Death Experiences.  So far I’ve only read of NDE’s as they’ve occurred in some of my titles dealing with the subject of Consciousness, so I’ll have to see what’s out there for straight up NDE accounts.  I’m imagining there has to be something out there where people share their personal stories.  I’ve looked on YouTube to see if people are sharing in video format, and that was a pretty successful search.  If you want to spend some mindless time watching interesting videos on the internet, look up “Near Death Experience” on YouTube.  There are some really interesting stories to be viewed! You could easily waste away your day just listening to these people talk.