the aim of the present book is to fold first to give an explanation in terms of
the orthodox christian doctrine of life after death of the present day after death
experiences that have caused so much interest in some religious and scientific
circles and second to present the basic sources and texts which
contain the orthodox teaching on life after death if the orthodox teaching is so little
understood today it is largely because these stacks have been so neglected
and have become so unfashionable in our enlightened times and our attempt
has been to make this tax more understandable and accessible to present-day readers
needless to say they constitute a reading material infinitely more profound and more
profitable than the popular after death books of our day
which even when they are not merely sensational simply cannot go much below the
spectacular surface of the day's experiences for want of a coherent and true teaching
on the whole subject of life after death the orthodox teaching presented in this
book will doubtless be criticized by some as being too simple or even
naive for a 20th century meant to believe it should therefore be emphasized that
this teaching is not that of a few isolated or untypical teachers
in the orthodox church but is the teaching which the orthodox church of christ has handed down from
her very beginning which is expressed in countless platouristical writings and
lives of saints and in the divine services of the orthodox church and
which has been taught uninterruptedly in the church even down to our own day the simplicity of
this teaching is the simplicity of truth itself which whether it is expressed in
this or in other teachings of the church comes as a refreshing fountain of
clarity in the midst of the dark confusion caused in modern minds by the various
errors and empty speculations of recent centuries
each chapter of this book attempts to point to the plateuristic and had geographical sources which
contain this teaching the chief inspiration for the writing of this
book has been a 19th century russian orthodox father bishop ignatius
branca ninov who was perhaps the first great orthodox theologian
to face squarely the very problem which has become so acute in our own
days how to preserve the authentic christian tradition and teaching in a world that has become
entirely foreign to orthodoxy and strives either to overthrow and dismiss it or
else reinterpret it so that it can be made compatible with a worldly way of
life and thinking acutely aware of the roman catholic and other western
influences which were striving to modernize orthodoxy even in his days bishop ignatius
prepared for the defense of orthodoxy both by delving deeply into
the authentic orthodox sources whose teaching he absorbed in some of the best orthodox monastic
centers of his time and by familiarizing himself also
with the scientific and literary culture of his century he attended an engineering
school not a theological seminary armed thus with a knowledge
both of orthodox theology and of secular knowledge he devoted his life to the defense of
authentic orthodoxy and to an exposure of the modern deviation from it
it is no exaggeration to say that no other orthodox country in the 19th
century possessed such a defender of orthodoxy against the temptations and errors of
modern times his only arrival perhaps was his fellow
countrymen bishop to founder reclose who did much the same thing
on a less sophisticated level one volume of bishop ignatius collected
works volume 3 was devoted specifically to the question of the church's teaching
on life after death which he defended against the roman catholic and other moderate
distortions of it it is chiefly from this volume that we have borrowed our own discussion
in the present book on subjects like tall houses and the aberrations of
spirits teachings which for some reason the modern mind finds it impossible to
accept in a simple way but insists on reinterpreting them
or rejecting them altogether bishop tophan also of course taught the
same teaching and we have also made use of his words and in our own century another great
russian orthodox theologian archbishop john maximovich of blessed memory
repeated this teaching so clearly and simply that we have used his words to form most
of the conclusion of the present book that the orthodox
doctrine on life after death has been taught so explicitly and clearly by
great orthodox teachers in modern times right down to our own day is an immense
help to us who are striving today to preserve the true orthodoxy of the past
not merely in its correctly transmitted words but even more in the authentically
orthodox interpretation of these words in this book in addition to
the orthodox sources and interpretations mentioned above we have made considerable use of today's
non-orthodox after-death literature as well as of some occult texts on this subject
in this we have followed bishop ignacio's example in presenting a false
teaching as fully and fairly as needed to expose its falsity
so that orthodox christians will not be tempted by it and we have also found
like him that non-orthodox texts when it is a matter of actual
experiences that are being described and not mere opinions and interpretations often
provide striking confirmations of orthodox truths our chief aim in this book has been to
present as detailed a contrast as necessary to point out the full difference that
exists between the orthodox teaching and the experience of orthodox saints on
the one hand and the occult teaching and modern experiences on the other if we had merely presented
the orthodox teaching without this contrast it would have been convincing
to few save the already convinced but now perhaps some even of those who have been
involved in the modern experiences will be awakened to the vast difference
between their experience and genuine spiritual experience however the very fact that a
good part of this book discusses experiences both christian and non-christian also
means that not everything here is a simple presentation of the church's
teaching on life after death but also contains the author's interpretations of these
various experiences concerning these interpretations of course
there is a room for a legitimate difference of opinion among orthodox christians
we have tried as far as possible to present these interpretations in a provisional
way without trying to define such matters of experience
in the same way that the church's general teaching on life after death can be defined
specifically regarding occult out of body experiences and the astral plane
we have simply presented these as they have been described by participants
in them and compared them to similar manifestations in orthodox literature without trying to
define the precise nature of such experiences but we have accepted them as real
experiences wherein actual demonic forces are contacted
and not as meh hallucinations let the reader judge for himself how
adequate this approach has been it should be obvious that this book has by no means exhausted
the orthodox teaching on life after death it is only an introduction to it in
reality however there is no complete teaching on this subject
and there are no orthodox experts on it we we live on earth can hardly even
begin to understand the reality of the spiritual world until we
ourselves come to dwell in it this is a process that begins now in this life but
ends only in eternity when we will behold face to face what we now see only
through a glass darkly one corinthians 13 12. but the orthodox sources to which we
have pointed in this book give us a basic outline of this teaching
and this is sufficient to inspire us not to acquire a precise knowledge of
something which is after all beyond us but to begin to
struggle to attain the heavenly kingdom which is the goal of our christian
life and to avoid the demonic pitfalls which are spread everywhere in the way
of christian strugglers by the enemy of our salvation the other
world is realer and closer than we usually think and the path to it is right here
in front of us in the life of spiritual discipline and prayer which the church has handed down to us
as the way to salvation this book is dedicated and addressed to those who
wish to lead such a life chapter 1 some aspects of today's
experiences the subject of life after death quite suddenly has become
one of widespread popular interest in the western world in particular a number of books
purporting to describe after death experiences have been published in the past two
years and reputable scientists and physicians have either authored such books
themselves or given them their whole-hearted endorsement
one of this the world-renowned physician and expert on problems of death and
dying elizabeth kubler-ross finds that these researchers into after-death experiences
will enlighten many and will confirm what we have been taught for 2 000 years that there is life
after death only this of course is an abrupt departure from the hitherto
prevailing atmosphere in medical and scientific circles which in general have viewed death as
a taboo subject and relegated any idea of after death survival
as belonging to the realm of fantasy or superstition or at best as a matter of private belief
for which there is no objective evidence the outward cause of this sudden change
of opinion is a simple one new techniques of resuscitating the
dead in particular by stimulation of the heart when it has stopped beating have come
into widespread use in recent years thus people who have been technically dead
without pulse or heartbeat have been restored to life in large numbers
and many of these people once the taboo on this subject and the fear of being considered crazy
had worn off are now speaking about it openly but it is the inward cause of
this change as well as its ideology that are most interesting to us why
should this phenomenon have become suddenly so immensely popular and in
terms of what religious or philosophical view is it being generally understood
it has already become one of the signs of the times a symptom of the religious interest of
our day what then is its significance we shall return to these questions
after closer examination of the phenomenon itself but first we must ask
on what basis are we to judge this phenomenon those who describe it themselves have no
clear interpretation of it often they are searching for such an interpretation
in occultist or spiritistic texts some religious people as well as
scientists sensing a danger to their established beliefs
simply deny the experiences as they are described relegating them
usually to the realm of hallucinations this has been done by some protestants
who are committed to the opinion either that the soul is in a state of unconsciousness after
death or that it goes immediately to be with christ likewise doctrina unbelievers reject the
idea that the soul survives at all no matter what evidence is presented to them
but such experiences cannot be explained merely by denying them they must be
properly understood both in themselves and in the whole context of what we know
concerning the fate of the soul after death unfortunately some orthodox christians
also under the influence of modern materialistic ideas
as filtered through protestantism and roman catholicism have come to have rather vague and
indefinite ideas of the afterlife the author of one of the new books on after death
experiences david r wheeler journey to the other side ace books new
york 1977 made a point of asking the opinions of various sects
on the state of the soul after death thus he called a priest of the greek
orthodox archdiocese and was given a very general opinion of
the existence of heaven and hell but was told that orthodoxy does not
have any specific idea of what the hereafter would be like
the author could only conclude that the greek orthodox view of the hereafter
is not clear page 130 on the contrary of course orthodox
christianity has a quite precise doctrine and view of life after death
beginning from the very moment of death itself this doctrine is contained in the holy
scripture interpreted in the whole context of christian doctrine in writings of the holy fathers and
especially as regards the specific experiences of the soul after death
in many lives of saints and anthologies of personal experiences of this
sort the entire fourth book of the dialogues of saint gregory the
great pope of rome who reposed in 604 for example is devoted to this subject
in our own days on anthology of these experiences taken both from ancient lives of saints
and more recent accounts has appeared in english eternal mysteries beyond the grave
jordanville new york 1968 and just recently there was reprinted an english
translation of a remarkable text written in the late 19th century
by someone who returned to life after being dead for 36 hours k
uk school unbelievable for many but actually a true occurrence orthodox life july august 1976
the orthodox christian thus has a whole wealth of literature at his disposal by means of which it is
possible to understand the new after death experiences and evaluate them in the light of the
whole christian doctrine of life after death the book that has kindled the contemporary
interest in this subject was published in november 1975 and was
written by a young psychiatrist in the southern united states dr raymond a modi junior
life after life mockingbird books atlanta 1975.
he was not then aware of any other studies or literature on this subject but even as
the book was being printed it became evident that there was already
great interest in this subject and much had already been written about it the
overwhelming success of dr moody's book with over 2 million copies sold
brought the experiences of the dying into the light of widespread publicity and in the four
years since then a number of books and articles on these experiences
have appeared in print among the most important are the articles and forthcoming book of
dr elizabeth kubler-ross whose findings duplicated those of dr
moody and the scientific studies of doctors orsis and harold's son dr moody himself
has written a sequel to his book reflections on life after life a baton mockingbird book
1977 with supplementary material and further reflections on the subject
the findings of these and other new books all of which are in basic agreement
concerning the phenomena in question will be discussed below as a starting
point we will examine dr moody's first book which is a fairly objective
and systematic approach to the whole subject dr modi in the past 10 years has
collected the personal testimonies of some 150 persons
who have had actual death or near-death experiences or who have related to him
the experiences of others as they were dying out of this he has
concentrated on some 50 persons with whom he has conducted detailed
interviews he attempts to be objective in presenting this
evidence although he admits that the book naturally reflects the background
opinions and prejudices of its author page 9 who by religious affiliation is a
methodist of rather liberal views and in fact there are some drawbacks to the book as an
objective study of after death phenomena first the author does not give a single entire
death experience from start to finish but gives only excerpts usually very brief from each of 15
separate elements which form his model of the complete experience of
death but in actual fact the experiences of the dying as described in this and other
recent books are often so different in details one from the other
that it seems to be at best premature to try to include them all in one model dr modi's model
seems in places artificial and contrived although this of course does not lessen
the value of the actual testimonies which he gives second the author has joined together
two rather different experiences actual experiences of clinical death
and near-death experiences the author admits the difference between them but
claims that they form a continuum page 20 and should be studied together
in cases where experiences which begin before death and in the experience of death
itself whether or not the person is revived there is indeed a continuum of experience
but several of the experiences which he describes the recalling of the events of one's
life in a rapid order when one is in danger of drowning
the experience of entering a tunnel when one is administered an anesthetic
like ether are fairly commonly experienced by people who have never experienced
clinical death and so they perhaps belong to the model of
some more general experience and may be only incidental to the experience of
dying some of the books now appearing are even less discriminating in their selection
of experiences to record including out of body experiences in general
together with the actual experiences of death and dying third the very fact
that the author approaches this phenomena scientifically with no clear conception in advance of
what the soul actually undergoes at death lays him open to numerous confusions and
misconceptions about this experience which can never be removed by a mere collection of
descriptions of it those who describe it themselves inevitably add their own interpretations
to it the author himself admits that it is actually impossible to study this
question scientifically and in fact he turns for an explanation of it to
parallel experiences in such a cultural writings as those of swedenborg and the tibetan
book of the dead noting that he intends now to look more closely at the vast
literature on paranormal and occult phenomena to increase his understanding of the
events he has studied page 9. all of these factors
will lead us not to expect too much from this book and other similar books
they will not give us a complete and coherent account of what happens to the soul after death
still there is a sufficient residue of actual experiences of clinical death
in this and other new books to merit one's serious attention especially in
view of the fact that some people are already interpreting these experiences in a way hostile to
the traditional christian view of the afterlife as though they disprove the existence
either of heaven or especially of hell how then are we to understand these
experiences the 15 elements dr moody describes as
belonging to the complete experience of dying may be reduced for purposes of
discussion to several main characteristics of the experience
which we shall here present and compare with the orthodox literature on this
subject one the out of body experience
the first thing that happens to a person who has died according to these accounts is that he
leaves his body and exists entirely separate from it without once losing
consciousness he is often able to observe everything around him including his
own dead body and the resuscitation attempts on it he feels himself to be in a state of
painless warmth and ease rather as if he were floating
he is totally unable to affect his environment by speech or touch and thus often feels a great
loneliness his thought processes usually become much quicker than
they had been in the body here are some brief excerpts from these experiences the day was bitterly
cold yet while i was in that blackness all i felt was warmth and the most
extreme comfort i have ever experienced i remember thinking i must be dead page 27
i began to experience the most wonderful feelings i couldn't feel a thing in the world
except peace comfort is just quietness page 27 i saw them resuscitating me
it was really strange i wasn't very high it was almost like i was on a pedestal
but not above them to any great extent just maybe looking over them i tried
talking to them but nobody could hear me nobody would listen to me
page 37 people were walking up from all directions to get to the
wreck as they came real close i would try to turn around to get out of their way
but they would just walk through me page 37
i was unable to touch anything unable to communicate with any of the people
around it was an awesome lonely feeling a feeling of complete isolation i knew that i was
completely alone by myself page 43. occasionally there is striking objective
proof that the person is actually outside the body at this time as when people are able to
relate conversations or give precise details of events that
occurred even in adjoining rooms or further away while they were dead among other
examples like this dr kubler-ross mentions one remarkable
case where a blind person saw and later described everything
clearly in the room where she died although when she came back to life
she was once again blind a striking evidence that it is not the eye that sees nor the
brain that things for the mental faculties become quicker after death but rather the soul
that performs these actions through the physical organs as long as the body is alive
but by its own power when the body is dead dr elizabeth kubler wrote death does not
exist the co-evolution quarterly summer 1977
pages 103 104 none of this should sound very strange
to an orthodox christian the experience here described is what
christians know as the separation of the soul from the body at the moment of death it is
characteristic of our times of unbelief that these people seldom use
the christian vocabulary or realize that it is their soul
that has been set free from the body and now experiences everything they are
usually simply puzzled at the new state they find themselves in the account of
an after death experience entitled unbelievable for many but actually a
true occurrence was written by just such a person a baptized orthodox christian who in the
spirit of the late 19th century remained indifferent to the truths of
his own fate and even disbelieved in life after death his experience of
some 80 years ago is of great value to us today and seems even
providential in view of the new after death experiences of today
because it is a single whole experience of what happens to the soul after death
going far beyond the brief and fragmentary experiences described in the new books made by a
sensitive individual who began from the modern state of unbelief
and ended by recognizing the truths of orthodox christianity to such an extent
that he ended his days as a monk this little book actually may serve as a
test case against which to judge the new experiences it was approved as containing nothing
opposed to the orthodox teaching on life after death by one of the leading
orthodox missionary printers at the turn of the century archbishop
nikon of vologda after describing the final agony of physical
death and the terrible weight pressing him down to earth the author of this account
relates that suddenly i felt a calm within myself i opened my eyes
and everything that i saw in the course of that minute down to the slightest details registered
in my memory with complete clarity i saw that i was standing alone within a
room to the right of me standing about something in a semi-circle
the whole medical staff was crowded together this group struck me with surprise
at the place where they were standing there was a bed what was it that drew
the attention of these people what were they looking at when i already was not there when i was
standing in the midst of the room i moved forward and looked where they
all were looking there on the bed i was lying
i do not have any recollection of experiencing anything like fear when seeing my double
i only was perplexed how can this be i feel myself here and at the same time
i am there also i wanted to touch myself to take the left hand by the right
my hand went right through my body as through empty space i called the doctor
but the atmosphere in which i was found turned out to be entirely unfit for me
it did not receive and transmitted the sounds of my voice and i understood myself to be in a state
of utter dissociation from all that was about me i understood my
strange state of solitude and the feeling of panic came over me there really was
something inexpressibly horrible in this extraordinary solitude
i glanced and here only for the first time the thought emerged is it possible that that which
has happened to me in our language in the language of living people is defined by the word death
this occurs to me because the body lying on the bed had all the appearance of a corpse
with our understanding of the word death there is inextricably bound the idea
of some kind of destruction a cessation of life how could i think that i died
when i did not lose self-consciousness for one moment when i felt myself just as alive
hearing all seeing goal conscious of all capable of movement thought speech
the dissociation from everything around me that split in my personality
more than anything could have made me understand that which had taken place
if i should have believed in the existence of a soul if i were religious but this was not the
case and i was guided solely by that which i felt and the sensation of life was so
clear that i was only perplexed with the strange phenomenon
being completely unable to link my feelings with the traditional conception of death
that is to say while sensing and being conscious of myself to think that i do
not exist afterwards in recalling and thinking over my state of being at
the time i noticed only that my mental capacities functioned with striking energy and
swiftness pages 16 to 21
the state of the soul in the first minutes after death is not described in such detail
in the christian literature of antiquity there the whole emphasis is always on
the much more striking experiences that come later it is probably only in modern
times when the identification of life with life in the body
has become so complete and pervasive that we should expect to see such attention paid to those first few
minutes when the expectations of most modern men are turned so thoroughly upside down
with the realization death is not the end life continues a whole new state
opens up for the soul there is certainly nothing in this experience that
contradicts the orthodox teaching on the state of the soul immediately after death some in
criticizing this experience have raised doubts that a person is
actually dead if he is revived in a few minutes but this is only a technical question
which we will comment on in due time the fact remains that in this few
minutes sometimes in the minutes before death also there are often experiences
that cannot be explained as my hallucinations our task here
is to discover how we are to understand these experiences two
the meeting with others the soul remains in its initial state of solitude after
death for a very short time dr modi quotes several cases of
people who even before dying suddenly saw already dead relatives
and friends the doctor gave me up and told my relatives
that i was dying i realized that all these people were there almost in multitudes
it seems hovering around the ceiling of the room they were all people i had known in my
past life but who had passed on before i recognized my grandmother and a girl i
had known when i was in school and many other relatives and friends
it was a very happy occasion and i felt that they had come to protect or to
guide me page 44. this experience of meeting deceased friends and relatives
at death is by no means a new discovery even among modern scientists
over 50 years ago it was made the subject of a small book by a pioneer in
modern parapsychology or physical research sir william barrett
deathbed visions matuen london 1926 after the appearance of dr moody's
first book a much more detailed account of this experience
inspired by sir williams book was published and it turned out that the two
authors of this book had been doing systematic research on the experiences of the dying for many
years here we should say a word about the findings of this new book
carly's aussies and erlandur haraldson at the hour of death even books new york
1977 this book is the first thoroughly scientific one to appear on the
experiences of the dying it is based on the results of detailed questionnaires
and interviews with a randomly selected group of doctors and nurses in the eastern united
states and northern india the latter country being chosen for maximum objectivity
so as to test the differences in experience that might arise from the difference in
nationality psychology and religion the material thus obtained
includes over a thousand cases of apparitions and visions according to the dying and to a few who
returned after being clinically dead the authors find that in general dr moody's findings
are in harmony with theirs page 24 they find that apparitions of dead
relatives and friends and in india many apparitions of
hindu gods occur to the dying often within an hour and usually within a day before death
in about half as many cases there is a vision of some other worldly heaven-like
environment which produces the same feelings this heaven experience
will be discussed below this study is of special value in that it carefully distinguishes
rambling this worldly hallucinations from clearly seen otherworldly apparitions and visions
and statistically analyzes the presence of factors such as use of hallucinogenic drugs
high temperatures and disease and impairment of the brain all of which
could produce male hallucinations rather than actual experiences of
something outside the patient's own mind very significantly the authors find that
the most coherent and clearly otherworldly experiences occur to the patients who are the most
in contact with this worldly reality and the least likely to hallucinate in particular those who see
apparitions of the dead or spiritual beings are usually in full possession of the
mental faculties and see these beings with full awareness of their hospital surroundings
further they find that those who hallucinate usually see living persons whereas the
genuine apparitions of the dying seem rather to be of dead persons
the authors while cautious in their conclusions find themselves inclined to acceptance
of the afterlife hypothesis as the most tenable explanation of our data page 194
this book thus complements the findings of dr moody and impressively confirms the experience
of meeting with the dead and with spiritual beings at the time of death whether these
beings are actually those whom the dying take them to be is a question that will be discussed
below such findings of course are somewhat startling
when they come from the background of agnosticism and unbelief that has so long
characterized the assumptions of modern science for an orthodox christian on the other
hand there is nothing surprising in them we know death to be only a transition to
another form of existence and are familiar with many apparitions
and visions which occurred to the dying both saints and ordinary sinners
saint gregory the great in describing many of these experiences in his
dialogues explains this phenomenon of meeting others
it frequently happens that a soul on the point of death recognizes those with whom it is
to share the same eternal dwelling for equal blame or reward
dialogues 4 36 and specifically with regard to those who have
led a righteous life saint gregory notes that it often happens that the
saints of heaven appear to the righteous at the hour of death in order to reassure them
and with the vision of the heavenly company before their minds they die without experiencing any fear
or agony dialogues 4 12 he gives examples when angels martyrs
the apostle peter the mother of god and christ himself have appeared to the
dying 4 13 18.
dr moody gives one example of a dying person's encounter
not with any relative or spiritual being but with a total stranger one woman
told of seeing during her out of body experience not only her own transparent spiritual
body but also another one that of another person who had
died very recently she did not know who this person was
life after life page 45 saint gregory describes a similar
phenomenon in the dialogues he relates several incidents when a dying man calls out the
name of someone who is dying at the same time in another place and this is not at all
a matter of clairvoyance experienced only by saints for saint gregory describes how
one ordinary sinner apparently destined for hell sends for a certain stephen who
unknown to him is to die at the same time to tell him that our ship is ready to
take us to sicily sicily being a place of much volcanic activity
reminiscent of hell dialogues 4 36 evidently this is a matter of
what is now called extrasensory perception esp which becomes particularly acute in
many just before death and of course continues after death when the soul is outside
the realm of the physical senses entirely thus this particular discovery of modern
physical research only confirms what the reader of ancient christian literature
already knows concerning encounters at the time of death these encounters
while they do not seem by any means to occur to everyone before
death still can be called universal in the sense that they occur without
regard to nationality religion or holiness of life
the experience of a christian saint on the other hand while sharing the general
characteristics which seemingly anyone can experience has about it another dimension entirely
one that is not subject to definition by psychic researchers
in this experience special signs of god's favor often are manifest and the vision from
the other world is often visible to all or many who are near
not just to the dying person let us quote just one such example from the same
dialogues of saint gregory while they stood around romulus bed at midnight
a light suddenly shone down from heaven flooding the entire room its splendor
and brilliance struck fear and dread into their hearts then they heard the sound of an immense
throng the door of the room was thrown wide open as if a great number of persons were
pushing their way in those who stood around the bed had the impression
that the room was being crowded with people but because of the excessive fear and
extreme brightness they were unable to see fear paralyzed
them and the brilliant light dazzled their eyes
just then a delightful odor filled the air and which fragrance
calmed their souls which were still terrified by the sudden light
looking at her spiritual mother redempta she said in a pleasant voice do not fear
mother i shall not die yet for three days the fragrance remained
and on the fourth night ramula again called her mistress and asked to receive
holy communion scarcely had redempta and her other disciple left the bad side
when they saw two choirs of singers standing in the square in front of the convent the soul of
romula was set free from the body to be conducted directly to heaven
and as the choirs escorted her soul rising higher and higher the sound of
their singing gradually diminished until finally the music of the psalms and the
sweetness of the odor vanished altogether dialogues 4
17 orthodox christians will remember similar incidents in the lives of many
saints saint cesawis singh thighs blasphemophilus of
kiev etc as we advance further in the study of the experiences
of dying and death we should keep well in mind the great differences that exist between the
general experience of dying which is now arousing so much interest
and the grace given experience of death which occurs to righteous orthodox christians
this will help us the better to understand some of the puzzling aspects of the
death experiences that are now occurring and are being described
an awareness of this distinction for example can help us to identify the apparitions
which the dying see do relatives and friends actually come from the realm of the dead
in order to appear to the dying and are these apparitions themselves
different from the appearances of saints to righteous christians at their death
to answer the first of these questions let us remember that doctors orcis and haralson
report that many dying hindus see the gods of their hindu pantheon krishna
shiva kali etc rather than those close relatives and friends
commonly reported in america yet as saint paul so clearly teaches these
gods are nothing in reality 1 corinthians chapter 8 verses 4 5. any real
experience of gods involves demons 1 corinthians chapter 10
verse 20. who then do these dying hindus actually see doctors
aussies and harassment believe that the identification of the beings who are
encountered is largely the product of subjective interpretation
based on religious cultural and personal background
and this seems indeed a reasonable judgment that will fit most cases in the american
cases also it must be that the dead relatives who are seen are not actually present
as the dying believe them to be saint gregory the great says only that the dying man recognizes
people whereas to the righteous the saints of heaven appear a distinction which not
merely indicates the different experience of the righteous and ordinary sinners when they die
but also is directly bound up with the different afterlife state of the saints and
ordinary sinners the saints have great freedom to intercede for the
living and to come to their aid whereas deceased sinners saving very special
cases have no contact with the living this distinction
is set forth quite clearly by blessed augustine the 5th century latin father
in the treaties which he wrote at the request of saint paulinus of nola
concerning the care of the dead where he tries to reconcile the
undoubted fact that saints such as the martyr felix of nola have clearly appeared
to believers with the equally undoubted fact that the dead as a general rule
do not appear to the living after giving the orthodox teaching based
on holy scripture that the souls of the dead are in a place where they do not see the things
which go on and transpire in this mortal life chapter 13 and his opinion that
cases of the seeming manifestations of the dead to the living
are usually either through the workings of angels or are false visions through the
workings of devils who have in mind such purposes as leading man into a false teaching of
the afterlife chapter 10 blessed august and proceeds to
distinguish between the seeming manifestations of the dead and the true manifestations of saints
how do the martyrs by their very benefactions which are given to those who seek
indicate that they are interested in human affairs if the dead do not know what the living
are doing for not alone by the operations of his benefactions
but even to the very eyes of man did felix the confessor appear when
nola was being besieged by the barbarians you bishop paulinus take pious delight
in this appearance of his we heard of this not by uncertain rumors
but from trustworthy witnesses in truth things are divinely shown which are
different from the usual order nature has given to the separate kinds
of created things just because our lord when he wished suddenly turned water into wine is no
excuse for us not to understand the proper value of water as water this is a rare
in fact an isolated instance of such divine operation
again the fact that lazarus rose from the dead does not mean that every dead person
arises when he wishes or that a lifeless person is called back
by a living one just as a sleeping person is aroused by
one who is awake some events are characteristic of human action others manifest the signs
of divine power some things happen naturally others are done in a
miraculous manner although god is present in the natural process
and nature accompanies the miraculous one must not think then that
any of the dead can intervene in the affairs of the living merely because the martyrs are present
for the healing or the aiding of certain ones rather one should think this the martyrs
through divine power take part in the affairs of the living but the dead of themselves have no power
to intervene in the affairs of the living care for the dead chapter 16 in
saint augustine treaties on marriage and other subjects the fathers of the church
volume 27 new york 1955 page 378. in indeed to take one example
holy fathers of recent times such as elder ambrose of optina teach that the beings
contacted at spiritistic senses are demons rather than the spirits of
the dead and those who have thoroughly investigated the phenomena of spiritism
if they have any christian standard of judgment at all have come to the same conclusion
see for example simone a blackmore sj spiritism facts and frauds benzene george bros
new york 1924 thus we need not doubt that the saints
actually appear to the righteous at death as is described in many lives of
saints to ordinary sinners on the other hand there are often apparitions of relatives
friends or gods which correspond to what the dying either expect or are prepared to see
the exact nature of these letter apparitions it is probably impossible to define
they are certainly not male hallucinations but seem to be a part of the natural
experience of death assigned to the dying person as it were that he is about to enter a
new realm where the laws of ordinary material reality no longer hold there is nothing
very extraordinary about this experience which seems to hold constant for
different times places and religions the experience of meeting with others
commonly occurs just before death and is not to be confused with the
rather different meeting we will now describe that with the being of light
3. the being of light this experience dr moody describes as perhaps the most
incredible common element in the accounts i have studied and certainly the element which has the
most profound effect upon the individual life after life
page 45 most people describe this experience as the appearance of a
light which rapidly increases in brightness and all recognize it as some kind of
personal being filled with worth and love to whom the newly deceased is drawn by a
kind of magnetic attraction the identification of this
being seems to depend on one's religious background in itself it has no
recognizable form some call it christ others call it an angel
all seem to understand that it is a being sent from somewhere to guide them here are
some accounts of this experience i heard the doctors say that i was dead and that's when i began
to feel as though i were tumbling actually kind of floating
everything was black except that way off from me i could see this light
it was a very very brilliant light but not too large at first it grew
larger as i came nearer and nearer to it page 48 after another person
died he felt himself floating up into this pure crystal clear light
it's not any kind of light you can describe on earth i didn't actually see a person in
this light and yet it has a special identity it definitely does it is a light of
perfect understanding and perfect love page 48
i was out of my body there's no doubt about it because i could see my own body there on
the operating room table my soul was out all this made me feel
very bad at first but then this really bright light came it did seem that it was a little
dim at first but then it was this huge beam at first when the light came i wasn't
sure what was happening but then i asked it kind of asked me if i was
ready to die page 48 almost always this being begins to
communicate with the newly deceased more by a kind of thought transference
than by spoken words what he says to them is always the same
thing which is interpreted by those who experience it as
are you prepared to die or what have you done with your life to show me
page 47 sometimes also in connection with this being the
dying person sees a kind of flashback of the past events of his life
all emphasize however that this being in no way offers any judgment of their
lives or actions he merely provokes them to reflect on their lives
doctors orcis and haralson have also noted some experiences of such a being
in their studies remarking that the experience of light is
a typical quality of other worldly visitors page 38 and preferring to follow dr
moody in calling the beings seen or felt in this light simply as
figures of light rather than the spiritual beings and deities
the dying often identify them as who or what are these beings of light
many call these beings angels and point to their positive qualities
their beings of light are full of love and understanding and inculcate the idea of responsibility
for one's life but the angels known to orthodox christian experience are very
much more definite both in appearance and in function than these beings of light
in order to understand this and to begin to see what these beings of light may be it will be
necessary here to set forth the orthodox christian doctrine of angels
and then to examine in particular the nature of the guiding angels of the
afterlife
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