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03-11-2010, 09:11 PM | #26 |
Avalon Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 360
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Re: A Most Amazing NDE
here's his website
http://www.mellen-thomas.com/darshom.htm the interview oliver posted (above) is really uplifting, he sounds a really nice and sincere person..i enjoyed listening to his account very much, so many things to learn from it..for a short while during that interview (towards the end) he spoke of his newly learned skill - bringing back the beings, namely pets, from the other side back to this one...that disturbed me ..he stopped short of giving particulars..he just said that he planned to bring his own dog back..he also said he planned to give a series of lectures on the subject...i got really very perplexed there..don't know hat to think since.. does anybody remember this detail? oliver, do you remembr it? l _______________________ |
03-12-2010, 02:36 AM | #27 |
Project Avalon Member
Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 4
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Re: A Most Amazing NDE
Hi, new here. I'm here because I had a NDE so much like Mellen-Thomas Benedict's that the two experiences could be said to be virtually identical. I've carried this experience around in my head for over 40 years. I've tried talking about it with a few trusted friends, but I always run out of words. I just discovered Mellen's website last night, and now I feel less alone, and able to attempt to speak about it in public.
The problem with making sense of a personal NDE is that the experience is beyond intellect and logic. It's not the product of a mathematical or philosophical "Eureka!" moment that can be imparted to someone else, using language. Because it's an experience outside the normal frame of cognitive reference for conscious volition, and it happens completely within the mind of the person who has the experience, it isn't until after returning from whatever place one journeys to that the intellect takes over, and language and imagination begin to play a role in interpreting the experience. To me, that's the biggest problem in talking about it, or trying to explain it, or even trying to understand just where it was that I went, or what I actually experienced. After returning, intellect, logic, imagination and language - with all of their inherent limitations - take over. Suddenly you may find yourself able to weave a tale that enthralls the listener, but how much of it is true? I don't mean how much of it is true, and how much of it is deliberate deception. An analogy would be the difficulty in relating any journey one might take - even a vacation to some exotic location. The more exotic it is, the more it expands your consciousness, and the less like everyday life it becomes. But what happens when you get home? Friends see your tan, and that's about it. The rest is in your head, and trying to explain your experience meets with little success. As time passes, memory takes its toll, and the story begins to evolve. At any rate, I'm not sure we are even meant to talk about these things, so I'm feeling a little trepidation about it. This is how religions are born, and I have a sneaking suspicion that starting a religion is its own reward. What I mean is that I suspect that as soon as someone experiences a moment of enlightenment, he or she immediately must make a choice between humility and taking the next fork in the path, or stopping to enjoy the power that one can have by capitalizing on this knowledge. I also suspect that if one chooses to stop, the temptation to deceive oneself with embellishments on the NDE may be too strong to resist, and imagination and intellect may take over completely. If that happens, there is no longer a spiritual aspect to it, and it's all human. It may have all the trappings of spirituality, but it's all invented, and the experience of enlightenment fades away, to be replaced by man-made theology and dogma. I don't know if I'm making any sense at all, and if all of this sounds drearily familiar, my apologies. Rob Wood |
03-18-2010, 07:19 AM | #28 |
Avalon Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
Posts: 120
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Re: A Most Amazing NDE
Dear Rob--
Welcome to the forum, Rob, and thanks so much for sharing. I really appreciate that you have an aversion to the idea of capitalizing on your NDE, and a healthy wariness of ego's tendency to succumb to a desire to exhault itself. This definitely speaks to the purity of your heart! Yet, on the other hand, Rob, you admitted yourself that knowing about Benedict's experience and its similarity to your own was actually freeing for you. I think people like you who have experienced such a phenomenon are greatly privileged and blessed. And, by extension, so are those of us who are fortunate enough to get to hear your story! The very fact that you are worried about "tainting the purity" of this precious experience--either by inadvertently drawing attention away from the message & toward the messenger (ego's trick) or by the necessity of trying to "contain it" within the confines of human language--this essential concern you have is the BEST Protection you could have against these unwanted outcomes. so my advice about this, rob, would be to focus on this experience and your concerns in your prayer/meditation-time, asking to be open to share the story with whomever "has ears to hear." we are advised not to "cast our pearls before swine" (people who aren't ready to "hear" yet), and God, your guides, or your higher self will help you discern when TO and when NOT-TO share. Actually, you can't really go wrong here, rob. God's so good, that even if we technically make a "mistake" in our discernment--God Always honors our Intention and makes it right! Hope this helps some. love, hippihillbobbi Last edited by hippihillbobbi; 03-18-2010 at 07:23 AM. |
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