Living Beyond: Making Sense of Near Death Experiences

NDEs are Individualised

Evidence abounds from NDEs themselves that they have been individualised by a supreme intelligence.

Returnees, please grasp this – your NDE involved seeing your own body below you, not another body, and meeting your friends and relatives, not someone else’s, and seeing your own life in review, not someone else’s, and so on – depending on how far your NDE progressed and who you are. It was obviously designed for you alone, without mistakes, and your experiences were therefore also chosen and planned carefully and appropriately. And the plan can only have originated in an omniscient intellect – which by definition is God.

Unfortunately, too much effort has been spent by investigators on seeking a formula approach for NDEs – kind of a general description of what to expect when one dies. This has limitations. It is similar to trying to produce a general description in advance for one individual’s life on Earth. Sure, we are all born, but that’s where the differences begin, and thereafter they widen, until a description in advance for the life of any particular person becomes nonsensical, excepting in the broadest of categories – we all have to breathe, to feed, to grow through childhood into maturity etc. It is the same with the next world – there is no formula – no ‘one size fits all’. The experiences have been carefully engineered to the best advantage of that particular NDEr, and take into account individual differences that include background and culture. Consequently every NDE will exhibit differences. Part of the adventure lies in discovering precisely what God has planned. Nevertheless, apparently to ease the NDEr into afterlife venues, there are sufficient similarities to life on Earth such that he or she does not feel totally alien. This easing into the new venues I call the ‘Transfer Principle’; it includes the people and circumstances met with there. This is a term I will use again later in this book.

And just as it is on Earth, that we all belong to different families in diverse cultures and beliefs, it is hardly surprising that the NDE reflects this difference. This is how it can provide a transfer of relevance on return to the person’s original circumstances – the Transfer Principle in action. Lessons learnt in the afterlife can thereby readily be imported back to Earth and implemented there. The principle is not precise, but I have found it to be a useful tool and guide for understanding NDE features. It has many applications – each new afterlife venue acting as a kind of halfway house to the next, such that all changes are progressively phased and easier to comprehend. For example, life on Earth can be like a halfway house to Paradise, which can be like a halfway house to Heaven.

The Transfer Principle means that, to a significant extent, previous life experiences, choices and expectations drive the subsequent NDE.

If NDErs found themselves with strangers from dissimilar cultures having different expectations, they would most likely be confused or distracted by the novel situations.

Indeed, different NDErs have described features that suggest God has arranged things carefully to enable their entry into the afterlife to be less traumatic. For example, an early meeting with a favoured relative, or pet, or the particular scenery encountered, or even a display of beloved items such as jewellery or a child’s toys, may be provided to help to facilitate the transition. However, please bear in mind that what an NDEr from one culture finds especially interesting or calming may not be so to someone from elsewhere!

Perhaps for the purpose of not confusing the NDEr, the Being of Light and the angels seldom identify themselves, leaving it up to the NDEr to draw his or her own conclusions.

Nor do the spirits of prominent people who have pre-deceased the NDEr identify themselves on the rare occasions they have been encountered in the afterlife. Where there have been exceptions to this, they have mostly identified themselves as persons or beings described in the Bible, and usually to those who would have no issues with this identification, people to whom this information would not be perplexing. It is as if there is sufficient novelty for the NDEr to adjust to in the afterlife without the addition of further confusing elements.