These Near-Death Experiences Describe Direct Experiences With God
What do near-death experiences suggest about the ultimate source of reality, spirituality, and what many call “God?” Psychiatrist Raymond Moody explains the answer to this question in his latest book “God Is Bigger Than the Bible.”
Dr. Raymond Moody has spent more than four decades studying the afterlife. In his 1975 book “Life After Life” he first presented his research on the “near-death experience” or NDE, the transcendent experience of death that radically transforms the life of the person who lives to tell about it. In his new book, Dr. Moody presents his thoughts on God, drawn from the accounts of the thousands of people he has interviewed about their near-death experiences.
“You know, when I was a kid I didn’t think about God. I can’t say I was an atheist because I never really thought about God,” Dr. Moody said. “Then I went to college and got interested in these near-death experiences through Plato, and subsequently have heard of thousands of these from people all over the world who have this same kind of experience—many of them have conversations with God. So that is how I came to God, you know God has become just a big part of my life in the last few decades.”
Dr. Moody’s motivation for writing his latest book is to provide readers with an understanding of God, or source, that is entirely outside the realm of organized religion. To Dr. Moody, idealized religion can present a fearsome image of God that has scared many away from developing a personal relationship with the divine.
“Well, before I started hearing of people with near-death experiences, my notion of God was that people had this imaginary figure who was watching their every step with a little book, trying to see if they’re going to stumble or something,” Dr. Moody said. “But when I started hearing these people with near-death experiences it was a whole different take on God. People say that when they had their cardiac arrest or whatever, that they left their bodies and dissolved into this light, almost. People say that whatever kind of love that you have experienced while you’re alive, that is just beyond description. You go through a passageway to this light of complete comfort, peace, and love, you feel sort of wrapped up in it.”
A common component of the NDE is what is known as the “life review.”
“People say they’re surrounded by a holographic panorama consisting of everything they’ve ever done, and they witness it from the point of view of the other people they’ve interacted with. And all of this is being experienced in the presence of a being of complete compassion and love, who sees all those things they’ve done there, but there’s no judgment coming from this—that this being is helping you evaluate these things. They say that there are no words but that the thought comes through. The question that comes from this being is ‘how have you learned to love?’ People learn a lot about themselves from these encounters with God,” Dr. Moody said.
Through his research, both with near-death experiencers and the elderly, Dr. Moody has come to an understanding of God as the writer of our life stories.
“What is your life but your story? Your whole consciousness is geared to create a story. As soon as some new event happens in your life, your mind immediately starts to weave it into your life story. What this life has to do with is our stories, and we go through one story and then we go through some sort of incomprehensible process, and then we come back on another storyline. To what degree God helps us choose the plot, I don’t know. My guess would be is that there would be some kind of advice process, that’s the sense I get,” Dr. Moody said.
After decades of research, Dr. Moody feels like there is now a growing shift in understandings of the afterlife.
“We are beginning to understand, I think better, what it might mean to say that our consciousness can go on even after we die. The world is about to open up, we will have whole new ways of addressing the question of the afterlife. You know, people say that in their near-death experiences, when they get over to the other side, that God is much more accessible there. And my question is if we get closer to a rational comprehension of life after death, will that bring us closer to God? When people begin to comprehend the whole notion of an afterlife with entirely new systems of thinking then that will open them up more to personal contact with God,” Dr. Moody said.
And for Dr. Moody, it is that personal contact that makes all the difference.
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Another Mysterious Hum Has Been Reported Near Rochester, NY
Another mysterious humming noise is plaguing residents in the community of Highland Park outside of Rochester, NY. The monotonous droning sound adds itself to a growing list of cities across the world experiencing a similar phenomenon that persists without clear explanation.
Described as a throbbing pulse, or distant fog horn, residents of Highland Park are demanding an answer, or at least a stop to the insufferable hum heard throughout the day. They say the hum keeps them awake at night and distracts them from being able to focus on daily tasks or enjoy leisure time.
According to one Highland Park resident, the hum never stops. And though she says she has only found about two dozen others in her city who hear it, a recent investigation by a local news affiliate was able to record the hum in multiple locations with the same tone.
Other cities from disparate points on the globe have reported a similar hum, including Windsor, ON; Taos, NM; Bristol, UK; and Auckland, NZ. But what makes these strange sounds so bizarre is that they are only naturally audible to a small fraction of the population. The hum has driven those who hear it wildly frustrated, while most of their neighbors are entirely unbothered.
Gaia recently spoke to a resident of Taos who is, unfortunately, privy to its hum, describing it as sounding similar to an idling diesel truck engine or the low end of a stereo system – sometimes droning on for weeks at a time. She said it occasionally leads her to consider moving out of the city.
The Windsor Hum in Ontario has probably received the most media coverage as of late, with thousands reporting it to government agencies. Most residents believe its source is a massive, and somewhat clandestine, steel operation in the middle of the Detroit River, on Zug Island. Access to the island is restricted by local and federal authorities, leading many to believe the steel industry’s operations are not only the source of their sonic sorrow, but also incredibly detrimental to the environment.
Residents of Windsor say the hum is more than a mere annoyance, but that it has started to cause health issues, including insomnia, nausea, heart palpitations, and depression.
Aside from industrial operations, a number of other theories have surfaced in an attempt to explain the hum. Some say it could be caused by top-secret military programs involving ELF radiation. Others say it may be the result of subtle vibrations given off by the microseisms; faint tremors caused by the ocean moving against the planet’s surface. While others say it’s simply tinnitus — though it seems silly and offensive to write off a phenomenon this large with such a simple explanation.
For now, residents experiencing the hum continue to conduct their own research with some help from local news stations. But unfortunately, most explanations have not sufficed. As this obnoxious phenomenon continues to spread, one can only hope that their range of hearing won’t pick up on the hum if it ever plagues their local neighborhood. But just because we can’t hear it doesn’t mean it might not have negative health impacts on the population at large. It seems this may be something worth paying more attention to.
Jeromy Johnson provides information on how to create an EMF-free zone in this episode of Open Minds:
