I believe of somewhere else

"Falling" by (me) Aleco, Pen on cardboard (2023)

    There have been a variety of studies that go into NDE'S. Near-death experiences have been a new obsession for me. I often forgot about these phenomena because I had my religion to fill my needs for something mystical. Now, questioning my faith, I have considered a near-death experience as more than just a spectacle. Usually contemplating death against my will, these experiences often feel real. Now, there are some moments that make me cringe. Like people who claim to channel the spirits of mother nature and such. I have looked at enough documentation on cults and spiritual scams to side eye someone who genuinely believes that they are speaking as a deity. I often believe that some people are gifted with a spiritual gift since their adolescence, while others may have just had an early onset of schizophrenia. However, it is not like the phenomenon can be fully dictated as real or not, simply due to data. 

    Because there isn't much statistically speaking of evidence that near-death experiences are a global reality, at least not at first. When looking up studies, the first thing that pops up is a Wikipedia fact with a study from 2011 created by the New York Academy of Sciences. The study states that in the US alone, there have been 9 million who have reported having a near-death experience. Another study from the National Institute of Health made in 2014 says that at least 17% of those who die report near-death experiences. One study, from May 2023, stated,“We are unable to make correlations of the observed neural signatures of consciousness with a corresponding experience in the same patients in this study. However, the observed findings are definitely exciting and provide a new framework for our understanding of covert consciousness in the dying humans,” said Dr. Mihaylova.-Earth.com. What was also on the site explored the similar themes within these near-death experiences. One, entering a tunnel that leads to light at the end of it. Two, encounters with dead relatives, and third, a life review. No matter the religion/background, there has been a consistency with these stories for a while now.

    I think what makes this interesting, is that many of the people who go there, beyond the veil of our existence, say that they don't want to come back. I have been grappling with this the more I hear it. It just seems entirely impossible that when you leave your family, you wouldn't want to come back. But the interesting reasoning for that is that most exclaim that the other side is filled with overwhelming love. Something that surpasses our own understanding of intimacy. And when talking to their spirit guides, some are told that they must go back. And in doing that, not only have people explained that they didn't intend to come back, but a select few have also exclaimed that there is a weight here. Not the weight of gravity, but something spiritual. Something so vastly different from the freedom of everlasting love that it cannot be ignored. And once people have had a taste of the divine light, they often struggle with depression and other forms of mental issues. When first looking at this, it was almost baffling that there was such a contrast between the end of their life, to their new beginning. But more so, it is also the fact that people have seen Jesus, God, Buddha, Allah, Spirit, Source, and so on. There is not one outcome for people in the afterlife in terms of deity. As a Christian, who is still trying to understand my faith, I came to a conclusion that the things in the Bible are not fully true. Or better yet, it is only a speck of what the divine really is. That if there is only one God, as said in the good book. Then is it possible that they show themselves in many faces. Could it be, this whole time we have been talking to the same deity?

    Now I know, I can envision the disgusted looks breathing down my neck. The pastors kid in me wants to throw a bible at my face to give me some common sense, but I often looked at the many teachings of the Bible to be....complex, to say the least. It wasn't until I got to my older years that I thought it was strange that we had so many denominations in the faith. That Christianity had several types of branches that all think they know better than the other. I also realize that the Bible is cherry-picked by everyone. That if we all would have truly followed every word in the Bible without adapting it to our modern age, then we wouldn't progress the way we do. It is in that, where I hit a brick wall because I realized certain communities were being targeted as something we "Never Change". We do not allow queers to serve in the church, at least if known they are living the lifestyle, or to be in a relationship. We don't allow all women to serve in the church, unless it is ordained by the man upstairs. And many have (just) felt led by the lord to give women the wiggle room. And there are many more contradicting and restrictive realities of the Bible.  So when looking at near-death experiences, there has not been much of the same in terms of where people went, and who they saw. What people do know is that there is a light, a voice, a creator of some sort. But this creator is not a man with blue eyes and long hair. Neither is this man an elephant with several arms and a glowing aura. Neither is this light man at all, but a spirit, a form of some sort. And how odd that no one can seem to figure out the whole truth because, you will only know when you make it to the other side. All in all, it is an interesting phenomenon I hope to hear more about in the near future. Who knows, maybe we are all waiting on that everlasting love in the end, however it presents itself.