What are Near Death Experiences (NDEs) about?

2 February 2022

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Send by mail Imprimer

Near Death Experiences (NDE) are intriguing. Much literature and films talk of people who have experienced near death and testify to having made a passage into the “other world”. What are NDEs about? What to make of them with regard Catholic faith? Are they death as such?

The accounts of such experiences are very similar.  To start with, one speaks of going through an out-of-body experience, of actually being under the impression of coming out one’s body. Then one gets aspired through a tunnel from the bottom of which glimmers a dazzling light. Moreover, many attest of an encounter with spiritual beings and especially with “a being of light” from whom oozes infinite love.

What to make of them with regard Catholic faith?

Primarily these “super natural” experiences seem, on one hand, congruent with Christian anthropology which believes that a human being is not merely a body but also a soul. Thus being both spiritual and immortal.

Besides, NDEs have been reported as positive, whilst others, as negative. Regarding the former, the person encounters an individual that is said to be love; moreover, the person attests of being in a state of peace and wholeness that resemble that of a soul in heaven. On the opposite, descriptions of negative NDEs description are horrid and despairing. Relators speak of an appalling sense of solitude, and of a sensation of contempt and despair, somewhat very similar to the reality of hell.

Additionally, people who have experienced a near-death-experience speak of sensing the presence of relatives and attest of the persistence of beyond death relationships and beings, in contrast with reincarnation. This is also what the Christian faith asserts.

Lastly, these phenomena deeply alter the existence of the people who experienced them. Life does not remain the same as one came close to dying, as one had a foretaste of supra-natural love, or on the contrary, experienced abyssal despair. Hence, if they allow for self-giving and a more fruitful way of living, NDEs are a luminous limestone on the way to eternal life.  

Are they death as such?

However, if such experiences are close to that of death, they are not death as such.

The out-of-body experience endured by consciousness does not match up the factual partition of the soul from the body taking place when death occurs, a process which, in contrast, is always irretrievable.

Therefore, NDEs cannot constitute definite evidence of eternal life or of the after-life. Moreover, our faith is not grounded on tracks but on an event: that of the Resurrection of Christ.


Rev. Fr. Paul Denizot, Rector, CE Magazine n°299.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Most read posts

Notre-Dame Libératrice

Prayer to Our Lady of Montligeon

Our Lady of Deliverance, Have compassion on all our departed,Especially those who are most in need of the Lord’s mercy.Intercede for all those who have gone before usAnd may the purifying love of God lead them to full deliverance.May our prayer, united with the prayer […]

Read post

Resurrection, reincarnation, what’s the difference?

Reincarnation or metempsychosis are trendy in our Western societies. These beliefs steeped in Buddhism and Hinduism confess an afterlife and a righteousness that rewards our acts at the end of our earthly life. This assertion is shared by the Christian faith in the resurrection. However, […]

Read post

To see also

Inscription à
la fraternité

>

Continue reading

The Communion of Saints, the unfamiliar treasure

What is the communion of saints? It is like an immense love bank that connects Heaven, earth and the deceased in purgatory. Christ is the Chief and He seeks to get us partake in one another’s salvation. The communion of saints is an unlimited source […]

Lire l'article

Should wakes still occur?

Nowadays, in some countries like France,  the ritual of the wake, especially at the home of the deceased,  seems a morbid practice from the dark ages. Why are wakes ancient history?   What is their meaning as far as the Catholic Church is concerned?   What is […]

Lire l'article

What can one do after the demise of a beloved? Encounter Oliver.

What can one do after the demise of a beloved? Four months after his spouse’s demise, Oliver travelled with his children from Ivory Coast to Montligeon. Why make such a step? Why come to Montligeon? Listen to his testimony. Why make such a step? Four […]

Lire l'article
Subscribe to the newsletter