From: kimbawlionATaolDOTcom@127.0.0.1   
      
   On 17 May 2004 09:05:36 GMT, epochii@aol.com (Epoch II) wrote:   
      
   > What worries me is how people over analyze the Near Death Experience until it   
   >borders on existentialism, and we forget that all we are doing is speculating   
   >on what cannot be currently known to us.   
      
   One can hardly blame a person for doing that. Having had a glimpse beyond   
   this world, a person wants to try to understand it as much as possible. And   
   it's not an experience that can be replicated over and over.   
      
   > What results is a misinterpretation of the spiritual which may confuse or   
   >worry people, or even result in fear.   
      
   This is true. Our language is woefully lacking in words and concepts to   
   explain such things, and reducing the experience to words often does   
   trigger the wrong perceptions in others.   
      
   >put together everything you feel that matters in your life. The people   
   >you love, the animals you love, the scenes you love, the smells you love. Your   
   >own individuality, and everything else. And then remind yourself that if   
   >there's anything the NDE tries to convey it's that these are the things we   
   >preserve after dying.   
      
   I agree completely.   
      
   >when somebody experiences what they describe as returning to the   
   >'Oneness' and becoming 'One with Everything' it doesn't mean that person has   
   >discarded who they were and returned to the lonely old singular God who   
   doesn't   
   >have anything to do but reincarnate himself over and over again as human   
   >beings, it means something far different:   
      
   I believe you're absolutely right and I think you helped me put two things   
   together.   
      
   I also experienced this sense of oneness and it was a sense of unity that   
   was impossible to deny. Then, after reading people's discussions of   
   returning to oneness, I tried to reconcile that idea with my own strong   
   sense of individuality. I didn't manage to do that.   
      
   But now I realize I was given the answer, only I didn't recognize it. The   
   spiritual experience that I had occurred when I was fully awake and   
   standing in my bedroom. I was enveloped by the spirit of someone I had been   
   with in a previous life. This was a total, joyful, expression of love. For   
   the duration of this "soul hug" I experienced oneness with this spirit. I   
   knew I was still me, and he was still he, but I also experienced a new   
   sense of identity, a combination of the two of us.   
      
   So, extending this experience, what if the oneness that people experience   
   with all of creation is a result of everyone and everything being united in   
   enveloping Love? There is a joyful union, a complete opening up to and   
   melding with all of creation, without any loss of individuality.   
      
   >So therefore, jumping to conclusions like "Our individuality means nothing "   
   >based upon peoples descriptions of 'oneness' is highly illogical.   
      
   Agreed. I also detect a note of pessimism in some who put forth that point   
   of view. It may be a natural reaction, given the enormity of the   
   experience.   
      
   >look around in your everyday life, the connections we make, the   
   >things we love, the things we experience, and basic companionship. This is   
   what   
   >matters in life. This is the universe.   
      
   Agreed again.   
      
   > Fourthly, another human word which I feel is inadequately describing   
   something   
   >is 'Love.'   
      
   True. The misunderstanding of what love really is leads to so much   
   unhappiness.   
      
   >Needless to say, it's difficult trying to accurately bundle everything that's   
   >wonderful about being human into one little package called 'Love.' But, this   
   is   
   >the package that we take with us after we die.   
   >   
   > So, what is there to worry about?   
      
   That is the lesson I most need to remember from my experiences. There is   
   really nothing to worry about, in the big view of things. It's hard to not   
   get caught up in the worries the world throws at us, though.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)