I have to admit that my feelings of defeat in the face of my teacher about the non existence of a life after death left me when I received a comment on my last blog. This comment suggested that if there is indeed no afterlife how come so many near death experiences are similar despite the fact that each person has never met each other. One person who commented on my blog believed that the reason for this is could because religion leaves what Carl Jung describes as a collective subconscious in people's minds who then remember it at the time of death or because of an unexplained scientific phenomenon. I guess some people would even to go the extreme and say, as another person commented on my blog did, that the experiences cannot be used to point to a religious experience because similar things have happened to people after they have taken an hallucagenic drug. Whilst I am in no position to completely discount what these people say, I find it difficult to believe that the vast amount of people who had have the SAME EXPERIENCES are wrong. How could for example you explain away a near death experience of a child that is similar to an adults by saying that similar things have happened to people whilst on drugs? Between now and the next blog I therefore intend to research the Internet to see if I can find cases of children who have experienced similar near death experiences that are similar to adult accounts. This is because by doing so I believe that it would discount the secular idea that society or religion has instilled into them a cliche of what an afterlife is that they recall at the moment of death. For children are less likely to be affected by portrayals in the media or religious doctrines. Wish me luck!!
2 comments:
It is a good idea I think to look at the near death experiences of children. Reading the blog, I was reminded of a psychologist called Carl Jung, who said that there is a collective unconsciousness that everyone can access. It might imply that rather than there being an afterlife, there is this subconscious idea of an afterlife that, when people are near death, they can tap into, and see and experience similar things. It might be worth looking into that and seeing if that changes your idea of an afterlife.
I think you make a really good point and I will certainly look into it. This is because if there is a collective subconsciousness as Carl Jung suggests we might have a unconscious idea of what the afterlife is and retrieve it at the moment of death unknowingly. If this is true it may prove the non existence of an afterlife. I look forward to finding more out about this and I will keep you informed.
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