The books which have
excited me the most recently are in the area of “death experiences”
- reports of people who cross over, and then return and tell about
it. There are also now many of these reports on YouTube which are
spoken by the actual experiencers, giving them an added
credibility and import.
The following
example is especially helpful because it contains a “distressing”
observation of hell. Most NDE accounts do not include that, and I am
grateful for, and fascinated by, the literature being written to
remedy that lack.
I have personally
had a glimpse into the abyss, and have witnessed a psychic attack,
and think that the old saying that “The devil’s most dangerous
trick is the lie that he doesn’t exist” is probably true. I think
it’s fair and helpful to admit that it exists, but also think it’s
not something that we can handle with just our own human powers.
I find that these
videos carry far more meaning to me than the many attempts to be
“scientific” about the experiences, devising variable-correlation
experiments to arrive at statistics for prediction and control.
The interest of the
ancient Egyptians in the subject is familiar to all of us, but
dealing with the problem of death has obviously confronted every
human being who ever lived.
I keep coming back
to Emanuel Swedenborg, whom I’ve been reading for fifty years, as
ultimately being the most helpful in my own attempts to deal with it. I think his
“memorable relations” of his talks and experiences with spirits
and angels are interesting and true, but the fact that he integrates
these experiences with such a large philosophy is what helps me
most.
Here is one page
from Swedenborg: Life and Teaching, by George
Trobridge, 1907, 1933, about the acceptance of his writings:
