I stayed awake late night Saturday trying to finish reading some books which are due this week. I did not like any story plot so I turned the TV on. The gospel channel was showing King of Kings. The acting was flat and it suffers in comparison with Mel Gibson's version, The Passion of Christ. It ended half past twelve. At 12:00 I paused to say a little prayer. It was Resurrection. I remember my mom who told us kids to jump during this day so we would grow taller.
Glimpses of Heaven
It was the next feature that intrested me. It was entitled, Where Do we Go after we die? In the Apostles' Creed, it says that Jesus Christ descended into hell...which was explained to be an act of liberating the souls of people who died before the Redemption.
The intro of the special feature was showing clip photos of the celebrities like Elizabeth Taylor, Jayne Seymour , Sharon Stone, George Foreman and others I can not identify. So I knew that it was not some kind of religious program that asks the viewers to repent to earn heaven and avoid hell.
The first topic was about bed vision. This is about the last moments of the dying people. The narrator was a hospice nurse who had long years of experience with this phenomenon. One of these was an Arab woman who asked her what was the angel doing near her windows. She described the apparition to be 8 feet tall and was wearing white robe. She summoned her relatives, feeling that her time was due and the apparition was an angel who was escorting her.
My mother witnessed the last few days of my father here on earth. Although he died when my mother took a break in taking care of him in the hospital, she said that there were instances when my father who was comatose would call the names of his deceased parents and relatives as if they surrounded him in his bed.
Another patient was a man sick of cancer. He was so weak that any time, the nurse felt that he would die. All of a sudden, the man who was already comatose suddenly sat up with his arms wide open trying to welcome somebody that was invisible to the eyes of the nurse. Then he died.
Elizabeth Taylor was still alive when that program was originally shown. Hers was more of the NDE case, near death experience. One writer compiled cases about NDE for 30 years. Taylor was interviewed by Larry King about a surgery which she underwent where she flatlined before it was over. She saw her spirit rose, saw the doctors and nurses in that room and then she saw a bright light. At the end of the light was her husband Mike Todd who died in a plane crash. She said that it was so peaceful in that place that she almost did not want to go back but her husband told her, it was not yet time.
Sharon Stone, the actress of Basic Instinct had the same description when she lost consciousness for a few minutes. Jayne Seymour too had a near death experience.
Among the celebrities who did not have a pleasant NDE was George Foreman. He said that he experienced a hellish, frightening place of nothingness and despair He admitted that his depression of losing to Mohammad Ali and another young boxer and his money drove him to a lifestyle of vices, women and trouble. He changed his ways and became an ordained minister.
There was this four year old girl who claimed that she had already gone to heaven. Everything she saw in paradise, she drew and painted. The painting was so lifelike that parents believed her. Besides she did not have any lesson in painting.
Another young boy with an NDE had a car accident. Their car was totalled with him inside the van and his father was thrown several meters away. He ended up paralyzed from neck down. His parents were Atheists.
When the boy regained consciousness, he described how they were saved; his father's fall being cushioned by an angel, he was flown by a helicopter to a hospital and cars and people who he did not see since he was unconscious when they found him in the debris of the car.
The host mentioned that there are Eastern religions that believe in reincarnation of the souls for purification purposes. But not all souls evolved in their new lives. Some are believed to come back in lower forms such as animals depending on the kind of life they lived in their past lives. Some religions believe that souls die with the body and go back to nature.So these people do not believe in ghosts.
Pinaysaamerika
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