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Whisper · 07-15-2003, 06:50 AM

Many near-death accounts reveal that the religions of this world are merely an external path whose ideal is to lead people inward toward true spirituality. People often confuse religion with spirituality. Religion is the outward form of worship and spirituality is the inward form of worship. People who have a near-death experience often return less religious and more spiritual.

As an example of spiritual change that often takes place in near-death experiencers can be found in Tom Harpur's excellent documentary entitled Life After Death. In it, he profiles a minister named Ken Martin who had a near-death experience. Upon his return from his experience, he discovered that everything he had previously known - his ministry, his calling, everything - was insignificant in comparison to his experience with the afterlife.

Summary

Heaven is not about religious beliefs, but about spiritual actions. It is not true, as some people believe, that we get to heaven by giving verbal assent to belief in God. It is love, not religious doctrines, that creates spiritual growth. Religions are cultural institutions but love is universal. (Kevin Williams)

Those religions which claim superiority over other religions or exclude people for various reasons, go against God's law to love others as we love ourselves. Although religion, in itself, is not important to God, all religions are necessary because there are people who need what they teach. For this reason, all religions are precious in the sight of God. (Kevin Williams)

All religions refer to the same God. All religions are different ways of explaining the same God. (Kevin Williams)

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Whisper re read the rules.

*edited by Muslimah*[/b:7576f0da7c][/color:7576f0da7c]

The difference between outward religion and inward spirituality

Heaven is about deeds, not creeds. Therefore, persons of many cultures and religions form the societies of heaven. (Emanuel Swedenborg)

Doctrine and creed and race mean nothing. No matter what we believe we were all children joined under one God. The only rule is God's true law: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. (May Eulitt)

God cares little about our religious affiliation or church membership. Love is not limited to any one religion or even religion at all. Religions are cultural institutions but love is universal. (Kevin Williams)

Jesus didn't come to preach a new religion. Jesus was Jewish. Jesus preached unconditional love. (Kevin Williams)

What is truly important is love, not religion. (Beth Hammond)

People who truly practice the "religion" of love will find themselves in a universal sphere where everyone understands that true religion is to love others as ourselves. (Nora Spurgin)

The best religion is the religion that brings you closest to God. (Rev. Howard Storm)

There is light that can be found in many, many other faiths. All faiths which stress love have this focus. All have their own paradise, but the devoted eventually learn the tremendous experience that all is one under God and that there is no division in purpose. There is one God of us all. (Margaret Tweddell)

There are only two "true" religions - the religion of love and the religion of fear. (Sandra Rogers)

It is not true, as some people think, that if we only give verbal assent to belief in God, that is our passport to heaven and everything will be all right. Not so. God helps those who help themselves. (Margaret Tweddell)

One does not have to be religious to dwell in the spirit world, but one inevitably will benefit from a thorough understanding and practice of a particular tradition. (Nora Spurgin)

Those religions which claim some singular relationship with God, claim superiority over others, or exclude people for various reasons, go against God's law that we love one another as we love ourselves. (Sandra Rogers)

Not all teachings described as religious are beneficial. Religion which is judgmental, prejudicial, critical, and narrow may impede the spirit’s natural growth. Where religion teaches love, there is growth. Where religion impedes love, there is stagnation. (Nora Spurgin)

Religious beliefs have little to do with what we experience in the transition from one realm to another, except that we are allowed to see briefly the teacher or guru that we followed. Regardless of cultural or religious beliefs, we have the same basic experience at death. (Betty Bethards)

Deeply held religious beliefs come into visible expression in the spirit realms, just as they do in the physical realm. We create our own experience. Eventually, restrictive minds slowly open and expand allowing them to accept greater understanding. Then they are ready to move from their limited concept of life to the eternal adventure, for there is ever more to know, to do, to be. (Jan Price)

There are problems with having fixed beliefs about the hereafter. Things change little in the hereafter. Suppose we have the fixed idea that we'll sleep until the resurrection of the body. Then suppose there isn't a resurrection of the body. We might sleep a very long time. (Arthur Yensen)

[b:7576f0da7c]Again re read the rules

we are being very patient this is second warning on one single post

*edited by Muslimah*[/b:7576f0da7c][/color:7576f0da7c]

 If we have no fixed beliefs about anything, we'd be free to adapt to the new surroundings and fit in where we belong with no unusual difficulty. Everything has its place. Fixed beliefs are useful in prayer where doubt is fatal. Yet doubt is always useful in sizing up religious dogma, reading junk mail, listening to commercials, and the promises of politicians. (Arthur Yensen)

 Religious beliefs can limit an open mind. (Kevin Williams) 

 Many people turned off by religion. Any complete body of knowledge is like a spoke in a wheel - pointing to the center of ultimate truth. Science, art, music, philosophy and religion run into trouble because they are not yet complete bodies of knowledge even though religion is advertised and sold as such. (Arthur Yensen) 

 Despite what some people think, heaven is not limited only to Christians. Jesus reveals the way, the truth, and the life. However, unless we can give someone the true Christian experience of the Christ, it is not right for us to say to them, 'You must not be a Buddhist - you must be a Christian.' (Margaret Tweddell) 

 Many religionists think they have the whole truth and the only short-cut to heaven. Some churches force their particular brand of God's love on people who were perfectly satisfied and thought they were on good terms with God already. But even though the churches have abused religion, I believe everyone should have some kind of a religion, or philosophy, to encourage them to think and grow spiritually. (Arthur Yensen) 

 God is not a member of any church or religion. It is the churches and the religions that are members within the vastness and the glory that is God. There is no one religion just as there is no "chosen" people or person, nor any single way of regarding what cannot be fully comprehended. (P.M.H. Atwater)

 The belief that we are separate from God is the only real "sin." (P.M.H. Atwater) 

 Evil and the devil do not exist. What people consider "evil" is really ignorance. Hitler was not an "evil" man. He was just so incredibly ignorant that he was practically retarded at a spiritual level. Such people are to be pitied and our unconditional love should extended even to him because it is hard to hate a retarded person. (Kevin Williams)

 There is no such thing as sin. There are only mistakes. Everything is a learning experience. We are here to make mistakes in order to learn and grow from them. (Jayne Smith)

 In the hell realms, there are souls who argue over some religious doctrine and try to kill those who do not agree with them. (Dr. George Ritchie) 

 The reason God did not give us only one religion is because each of us is at a different level of spiritual development and understanding. All religions are necessary because there are people who need what they teach. (Betty Eadie)

 We have no right to criticize any church or religion in any way. They are all precious in God's sight. Very special people with important missions have been placed in all religions that they might touch others. (Betty Eadie)

 God does not care which religion is best. God does not care what religion people practice. They are all a blooming facet of the whole. All religions refer to the same God. (Mellen-Thomas Benedict) 

 The different religions just have different ways of explaining the same Creator. (Dr. Liz Dale)

 If you read the Bible with the idea of finding contradictions and problems, you will find them. The Bible contains spiritual truth and it has to be read spiritually in order to understand it. It should be read prayerfully. When read prayerfully, it talks to you and reveals itself to you. (Rev. Howard Storm) 

 Some people believe that to be a spiritual person, we must renounce the world, give up worldly things and read the Bible all the time. But people who live this way create a mournful life for themselves and one that is not receptive of heavenly joy. Everyone's life on earth stays with them when they enter the afterlife. If people want to live a heavenly life, they must live a moral and civil life in the world. Living an inward life and not an outward life at the same time is like living in a house with no foundation which gradually develops cracks and collapses. (Emanuel Swedenborg)

 God created differences in religion because of the different lessons we all need to learn. (Sandra Rogers)

 Religions have a place and any one person in that religion is on the path of learning what is important for that soul. (Darlene Holman)

 The most important thing is to really live what our religion teaches. Even if we have the greatest religion of all, it won't do us any good if we don't put it into practice in our lives. Whatever we practice becomes a part of us. (Daniel Rosenblit)

 We are all different aspects of the same being who is not committed to one particular religion. (Mellen-Thomas Benedict)

 Religious figures including the founders of world religions, the saints and prophets, exist in various spirit realms. The similarity of one’s life, heart and knowledge to a particular figure determines one’s closeness to these religious figures. (Nora Spurgin) 

 Religion is used as a stepping stone to further knowledge. Each church fulfills spiritual needs that perhaps others cannot fill. No one church can fulfill everybody's needs at every level. As an individual raises his level of understanding about God and his own eternal progress, he might feel discontented with the teachings of his present church and seek a different philosophy or religion to fill that void. When this occurs he has reached another level of understanding and will long for further truth and knowledge, and for another opportunity to grow. And at every step of the way, these new opportunities to learn will be given. (Betty Eadie) 

 Insincere prayers of repetition have little, if any, light. These, having no power, are not heard. But there is no prayer greater than that of a mother for her children. (Betty Eadie) 

Religion in the afterlife 

 Death does not suddenly turn a non-religious person into a religious person. (Margaret Tweddell)

 Everyone, religious or not, believing in God or not, transitions to the spirit world as part of the natural process of life. Just as one does not need to be religious to live in the physical world, one does not need to profess a particular faith to live in the spirit world. (Nora Spurgin) 

 The religion we practice is inconsequential. What is important is how we show our love for God by the way we treat each other. What is important is that we love God and each other, and that it isn't what a person says, but the love in their being that is examined in the afterlife. (Sandra Rogers) 

 When we die, there is no so-called "Judgment Day" involving the hellfire and brimstone that is described in the Bible. God judges no one. The only judgment is self-judgment. (Sherry Gideon) 

 There is no doctrine and no belief to pursue other than knowing that the Being of Light is God. (Norman Paulsen)

 The Being of Light seen in near-death experiences can change into different figures, such as Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, mandalas, archetypal images and signs. Our beliefs shape the kind of feedback we get from this Being. If we were a Buddhist or Catholic or Fundamentalist, we would get a feedback loop of our own beliefs. (Mellen-Thomas Benedict)

 There is a tendency among certain religious people in the afterlife to congregate in their little groups and have their little sessions of what they feel are "heaven." Eventually they become very bored with this narrowness, and then their own helpers and teachers will try to give them another idea to help them to break away from this narrow mindset. (Margaret Tweddell) 

 [b:7576f0da7c]*edited by Muslimah*[/color:7576f0da7c][/b:7576f0da7c]

 The most difficult thing for a person who has been deeply steeped in a particular religious tradition is to realize that the form alone is not what elevates a person; it is the heart. Still, those who cling to an external form of religion will be most comfortable with others who practice the same rituals, whatever they may be. In this sense, congregations may continue centered around the particular religious traditions they practiced while on earth. (Nora Spurgin)

 In some dimensions of the afterlife, there exists denominations where people continue to practice the rites of their churches. But in the higher planes there is a unity of God-praise, not a segregation of the praise of God. (Margaret Tweddell) 

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 The famous spiritualist Arthur Ford described an example of the afterlife situation of a hellfire and brimstone preacher when he crosses over:

[b:7576f0da7c]*edited by Muslimah*[/b:7576f0da7c][/color:7576f0da7c]"At last the old souls gather around and explain to him that he is preaching a false doctrine; that heaven is within each man, and so is his private hell; that he has arrived, and nothing is being hidden from him. It is up to him to begin work on his own spiritual advancement, and he is retarding the progress of others by misleading them with false hopes of a promised land. For this is the promised land, and we make of it what we will through our own endeavors." (Ruth Montgomery)

 [b:7576f0da7c]*edited by Muslimah*[/b:7576f0da7c][/color:7576f0da7c]

 Some Christians enter the spirit world and are led into thoughts they had during their physical life about the soul's state after death, heaven, and hell, until they come to resent their former utter ignorance of things like this, and resent the Church's ignorance of such matters. (Emanuel Swedenborg)

 When we enter the spirit realm, we are given glimpses of things we expected to see in order to bring us comfort. We may briefly see a teacher we worshipped in our lifetime: Jesus, Buddha, or another guru, according to your expectations. But gently we are brought out of many of our illusions and are shown that we have not landed in an ultimate paradise with gold paved streets. (Betty Bethards) 

 In the spirit realms, you are able to go back in time and live in the minds of Jesus and his disciples. You can heard their conversations, experience them eating, passing wine, smells, tastes - as pure consciousness. Any time in history, you can go there. (Dr. George Rodonaia)

 One man who had a near-death experience realized that the "God" of his religious background wasn't anything like the reality. He learned that it doesn't matter if people call him God, Allah, Great Spirit or whatever, he is one and the same." (Dr. Liz Dale)

 Hindu near-death experiences often consist of someone reading the a person's record of their life. In some Christian near-death experiences, it is the "Book of Life" that is read. (Pasricha and Stevenson)

 The central message that Buddhist near-death experiencers bring back from their journey is that the most important qualities in life are love and knowledge, compassion and wisdom. (Lingza Chokyi)

Religious influences on NDEs 

 Religious backgrounds do not affect who is most likely to have an NDE. (P.M.H. Atwater)

 An NDEr's religious beliefs do not prevent the expansion of psychic abilities resulting from their experience. (P.M.H. Atwater)

 NDErs are not more or less religious than in the cross-section of the population. They come from many religious backgrounds and from the ranks of agnostics and even atheists. (IANDS faq) 

Religious after-effects from NDEs

 Near-death accounts suggest that unconditional love is the highest form of "religion" there is. (Kevin Williams)

 One of the truths about NDEs is that each person integrates their NDE into their own pre-existing belief system. (Jody Long)

 The "Beings of Light" found in NDEs usually conform to the predominant religion the person was exposed to, but not always. Jesus has appeared in near-death scenarios of Jewish people, for instance; a Muslim man once told me he was met by Buddha. (P.M.H. Atwater)

 NDErs tend to become more spiritual - though not necessarily more involved in organized religion. (Dr. Ken Ring)

 No matter what the nature of the NDE, it alters some lives. Atheists embrace the existence of a deity, while dogmatic members of a particular religion report feeling welcome in any church or temple or mosque. (P.M.H. Atwater)

 After having an NDE, people tend to exhibit a significant shift in their beliefs on a wide range of subjects including a general tendency toward an increased openness to the idea of reincarnation. (Dr. Ken Ring)

 After having an NDE, religious observance may increase or lessen, but a deepened belief in God, or a "Higher Power," is almost certain. People say, "Before, I believed; now I know." (IANDS faq)

 Religious orientation is not a factor affecting either the likelihood or the depth of the NDE. An atheist is as likely to have one as a devoutly religious person. Regardless of their prior attitudes - whether skeptical or deeply religious - and regardless of the many variations in religious beliefs and degrees of skepticism from tolerant disbelief to outspoken atheism - most of these people were convinced that they had been in the presence of some supreme and loving power and had a glimpse of a life yet to come. Almost all who had an NDE find their lives transformed and are changed in their attitudes and values, and in their inclination to love and to help others. (Dr. Ken Ring)

***Muslimah*** · 07-15-2003, 10:51 PM

la hawla wala qowata ila billah

I doubt if anybody can really make any sense on the contradicting points u posted here whisper. Regardless the fact of making about 4 edits on the post.

Are u preaching Christianity, no religion, or what. Religion of fear and love. who is the God is he one or two for each section :?: :?: :?:

[u:3383ee4446][b:3383ee4446]Re read the rules[/b:3383ee4446][/u:3383ee4446]

Whisper · 07-15-2003, 11:49 PM

It's about Religion being man made, that religion is helpful but religion alone will not lead you to God, love is the most important thing, that religion isn't the key but that love for God and all creation is the key.

No problem

***Muslimah*** · 07-16-2003, 10:09 AM

Let me give u an advice Whisper. Try to post shorter topics. People tend to just go away from long posts or best to read the first paragraph and scroll down. So just for people not to skip your outstanding work here or in other forums. propbably that is why u don't get replies.

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