I really liked when the voice said, “you are made in the image and likeness of God. I am the original.”
Yes it was a very positive . Although I kinda like it a lot more when they get a punch on the nose as well as well as the hugs and love stuff. I mean which of us, in talking to God , would not benefit from a good swift kick up the ass? But this so rarely seems to happen in these near death experiences. I keep waiting for the setting straight moment, which never ever comes. Its kinda too sugary sweet often. I mean I very,very often see no shadow of the Cross, just the Age of Aquarius. I'm far, far to old and cranky and sour to be a hippy.
I know what you mean. I am left with " really? Its that easy?" But what about Lucia's friend. OurLady said she would be in Purgatory til the end of the world. I worry about clever deceptions. All sweetness and light with no judgement. No mention of Jesus in this NDE. We know the devil's are very active at the moment of our death. That is why we beg the Blessed Mother to be with us. Scratching my head. Is this all part of the great delusion St Paul speaks of?
It's true Our Blessed Lady time and time and time again in her apparitions has a , 'Setting you straight moment '. Even several such moments. I recall Our Lady of Good Success saying that in our day many priests would become, 'Cesspits of impurity'. It doesn't get any more straight talking than that.
I have the impression that in NDE’s the deceased never fully goes through the door. Unless one is a saint Purgatory is a lot more uncomfortable and takes longer than Rosemary’s experience. She never got through the door. I think that’s key. The warm welcome she received may have been due to her having lacked love from those she might have expected it from. She seemed to have been rather sad and felt unappreciated. I gather that not all NDE’s are pleasant experiences (see Gloria Polo) but I suspect that those souls who were on the brink of hell aren’t so eager to speak of it. Just my thoughts. I prefer Sondra Abrahams account.
imho, all the more reason for a "swift kick" ~ Then you realize how much work needs to be done before that "final end"
Discernment in these matters reminds me of a well trod trail through the forest. We look to Scripture and the Teachings of the Church to see where they have walked before us on the Trail. Then we look to where the Fathers of the Church , the saints and the mystics have walked before. So long as we are confident that others have walked the forest path before we can be sure we walk safely. But when we see novelty, something outside tradition, our spidey senses shoot a warning. For instance Rosemary spoke of music being like fireworks. This is something I have never read anywhere else and so is a novelty. I know of no such description elsewhere. So it is off the well trod path and so is of concern.
A priest of the Orthodox Church, Fr Seraphim Rose, wrote a book called 'The Soul After Death', back in the seventies, which dealt with near-death experiences in detail. The book is sobering. There are differences in detail from Catholic teaching, or perhaps it is only between the narratives of East and West, but on the whole I'd think it sound doctrine and it would lead me to be very wary of 'nice', 'cuddly' stories of near-death. Fr Rose comes across as quite critical of the Catholic Church, but since he lived in the California of the sixties and seventies, this might be understandable. Perhaps he met nobody but hippy Catholic priests, in the full flow of the spirit of VII.
This reminds me of a Franciscan priest who visited the Monastery one time and who was supposed to receive visits from the Blessed Virgin on a regular basis. I was curious about him and asked the lady who ran the guest house where he stayed about him. She said she did not know about him seeing Our Lady but that he had had her tortured during his stay there. The eggs had to boiled to exactly the right temperature, his bad had to made up in just such a way. The heating had to be set at just so and on and on and on.. At once I stopped believing that the Our Lady was appearing to the Father. It just didn't compute. But it reminded me that all that glitters is often not gold. That we need to dig a little deeper for good discernment. That we shouldn't be just too quick to buy into things.
One thing Our Lady has to say to people when she appears is, 'Do not be afraid'. Its not all about being pleasant. It can be scary. This comes across so well in the Old Testament and in the New. We are reminded that it is a fearsome thing to Encounter the Living God. In fact people were inclined to believe that they would die at once when so doing. Look at the children at Fatima being shown hell. That is the main trouble with us in the Church at the moment, we want to buy into the nice stuff and dump anything that seems challenging or the least bit unpleasant. We want to turn our Faith into a kind of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
Father Rose made the point repeatedly that a being that one might meet in a near-death experience could easily be a devil posing as a benevolent being. Most people nowadays do not believe in devils. How many people nowadays would think to invoke the name of Jesus Christ or Our Lady, in the event of such an encounter, in order to test the being concerned?
I watched the video and was glad at least a mention of God was made. So many of these videos are very New Age. I had an apparition that seemed to me like a near death experience. I had a very different encounter with Jesus however in that although I wasn't "judged" or shown my sins, because of His great love for me that I too experienced I came out with a huge sense of how I had sinned against God and a hatred and horror of all sin. Mostly the first commandment in ignoring Him all my life. I sobbed for two weeks afterward because of my sorrow for my sins. He also specifically warned me that I would go to Hell if chose to pursue adultery. (My husband had left for another woman, and I was contemplating how I could get an annulment and find a new man as I was only in my early thirties.) So I feel a little let down in this woman's experience that it was another "care bear" experience. Also that she mentions calling God a "she" sometimes and her other offhand descriptions of Him. In my experience, He was a majestic warrior, and I would NEVER DARE to describe Him as anything but HOLY and MAJESTIC. In fact having met Him I would feel it demonic to do so and even fear for my life. The King is no one to be trifled with. Also I was directly led back to confession, the Mass and obedience to the Church and those God put over me in this life. But if these videos at least help people who are away from God to believe at all, I guess they are not a bad thing....
