The "Near-Death Experience"

by David Ritchie
Almost any bookstore sells works on the "near-death experience" (NDE). Actually a
collection of experiences reported by individuals who have approached death, or
undergone death and then returned to life, the NDE is widely interpreted as a
genuine, representative experience of the afterlife. Elements of the NDE include a
"life review" in which all the events of one's life on Earth are recapitulated;
visions of the future; and a meeting with a mysterious, luminous being (commonly
called the "being of light") that is said to express great love for the individual,
without passing judgment on his or her life and deeds, no matter how sinful they
may have been.
The NDE has been interpreted as evidence that judgment of individuals after death
does not occur, and that there is no reckoning for one's works, good and evil,
performed on Earth. According to this view, one may expect a joyous afterlife,
almost regardless of what one believes and does before death.
Comforting though it appears, the NDE phenomenon is founded on faulty assumptions,
selectively chosen evidence, and lies. On numerous points it contradicts the
teachings of Scripture, the Patristic writings, and Holy Tradition concerning death
and the afterlife, and appears to be one element of the emerging religion of
Antichrist.
As the NDE becomes an increasingly important element of popular faith and culture,
Orthodox Christians should be familiar with the true character of the NDE
phenomenon, both to avoid its dangers and to alert others to its sinister nature.
Part of the New Age movement, a fashionable collection of occult and quasioccult
beliefs and practices, the NDE phenomenon is becoming a highly influential belief
system. Writings about the NDE receive widespread attention in the mainstream media
and have done much to influence public opinion concerning death and the afterlife.
Books on the NDE become bestsellers. The media give the subject "even-handed"
treatment, if not open endorsement of its claims. The NDE phenomenon often is
associated with a more "enlightened" and "humane" attitude toward death and dying.
The NDE has even been promoted as a way to prepare the dying individual for the
transition from this life to the next.
The NDE phenomenon aims to remove the fear of dying and replace it with a calm
acceptance—or even eager anticipation—of death and an afterlife on the New Age
model. The best defense against this dangerous belief system is the truth contained
in Scripture and the words of the Holy Fathers, and in the writings of their
faithful interpreters in our own time.
Anatomy of the NDE
The NDE commonly includes reports of meetings with "heavenly" beings. A person who
previously paid little attention to religion may describe having met and conversed
with angels or even with Christ Himself. Such encounters may include a meeting with
the aforementioned "being of light," which allegedly expresses great love for the
person and communicates a non-judgmental attitude toward him. The NDE also may
involve a visit to "heaven" or some other non-Earthly realm, as well as meetings
with deceased relatives. In many instances, the individual reports having been told
that he or she was not yet scheduled to die and therefore would have to return to
the body.
The NDE is not merely the interest of a few occultists and medical researchers. A
large portion of the American population is thought to have had, or at least
reported, such an experience. A poll in 1982 indicated that perhaps eight million
Americans claimed to have undergone the NDE.
Apparently, no two NDEs are exactly alike. A wide range of perceptions is reported.
Some NDEs are simple and straightforward; others are complex, mysterious events and
difficult to interpret. The hypothetical NDE described in the following paragraphs
is a composite of many different NDE elements and is intended to represent the kind
of NDE in which one encounters the aforementioned "being of light."
A man is seriously injured in an automobile accident. As he lies near death, he
perceives his consciousness leaving his body somehow. Then he finds his soul (which
he may call his "spiritual body") hovering several feet above the ground, looking
down at his injured body and the paramedics who have come to take him to the
hospital. This "out-of-body" condition puzzles him. It also frustrates him, because
he is unable to call attention to himself. Even though he can see and hear
everything that is going on around him, he cannot make himself heard or seen. When
he tries to touch a paramedic on the shoulder, his non-corporeal "hand" passes
through the person's body unimpeded. This new body of his has remarkable
properties; besides being able to pass through solid objects without resistance, it
can travel great distances very rapidly, with little or no effort. As soon as he
thinks of a destination—his family's home, for example—he arrives there.
Soon, he finds himself moving upward, away from the Earth. He enters what he
describes later as a "tunnel." This is a long, dark corridor with an intense light
visible at the end. The light turns out to be a brilliantly luminous entity that
greets him in a friendly manner and expresses great love for him. In NDE reports,
this being is commonly called the "being of light." The man presumes the being is
God, or Christ, or an angel, although the entity does not identify itself. The man
feels tremendous joy in this being's presence.
The meeting with the "being of light" includes a "life review," in which the man
witnesses a high-speed replay of his entire life. He sees all his interactions—
happy and unhappy, generous and selfish—with other people, and experiences again
the emotions he felt during each event. He also perceives the feelings that other
people had in response to his words and deeds. The "being of light" expresses no
disapproval of any of the man's actions on Earth, no matter how malicious and
selfish they may have been. Instead, the luminous entity describes them merely as
learning experiences.
The man also sees what appear to be visions of the future. He witnesses incidents
to come in his own life, such as marriage and the birth of children, as well as
future events in world history, including wars, election results, and international
conferences.
At one point, the being of light asks the man what he has done with his life. The
man tries to justify his life but finds his defense inadequate. Far from being
angry or judgmental, the being of light responds with understanding and even
amusement to the man's records of sins. Then the man is told to return to his body
and to show more love toward others. Although reluctant to leave, he returns
rapidly to his body and awakens in the flesh soon afterward, in a hospital.
The NDE changes his life profoundly. He is not certain what the "being of light"
meant by showing more love toward others, but he tries to be more affectionate and
caring toward other people. This change of heart, however, does not make him
significantly more aware of his own flaws and sinfulness. On the contrary, his
sense of sin, as sin traditionally is defined, may depart completely after the NDE.
He simply tries to be a "good person," avoids doing deliberate harm to others, and
looks forward to the day when he dies and supposedly will meet the being of light
again.
He may become an evangelist of sorts for the NDE and spend large sums of his own
money publicizing his meeting with the "non-judgmental" being of light. In books
and lectures, he may identify that entity explicitly as "God" or "Christ," despite
the fact that the mysterious being never identified itself. His conviction that he
met "God" is reinforced when some of his visions of the future, received during the
NDE, come true.
Also, he may mount sharp attacks on Biblical and Patristic teaching, charging (for
example) that the Patristic writings are untrustworthy because the Holy Fathers had
no knowledge of modern psychology and "spirituality." When quoting Scripture, he is
likely to cite verses out of context, or even rewrite them, to support his personal
interpretation of his NDE.
Hallucinations, hoaxes and oxygen
What exactly occurs in the NDE is a matter of debate. The NDE has been dismissed as
hallucination. NDEs do exhibit a close similarity to various kinds of
hallucinations, including those induced by drugs. Because few NDEs involve drug use
in individuals, however, this explanation cannot account for the NDE phenomenon in
its entirety. According to another explanation, cerebral anoxia (in which the brain
is deprived of a steady flow of oxygenated blood) may generate NDEs. There is also
the possibility that certain NDE accounts are pure fiction, invented to impress
listeners. Because a widely publicized NDE report can make the teller a social
lion, the temptation to make up such a story is considerable. Moreover, even when
an NDE account is told in all sincerity, it may have been assembled somehow in the
subject's mind from memories of fictional descriptions of the afterlife, such as
Dante's famous Inferno. In many cases, however, demonic activity—specifically, a
deceptive "vision" intended to lead the witness into spiritual deception—is the
explanation that fits the evidence best.
A confusing picture
Many NDE reports are so bizarre that they leave the reader confused. One needs a
comprehensive, trustworthy set of guidelines to evaluate the NDE. Holy Orthodoxy
provides such guidelines.
For centuries, the Orthodox Church has preserved the correct teaching about death,
judgment, and the afterlife. That teaching is complex but may be summarized in a
few points:
1. All souls will stand before Christ at a final judgment.
2. Souls not saved by the Orthodox Christian Faith, repentance, Holy Baptism, a
life in the Church, and good works will be condemned, together with the devil and
his angels, to the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14) and to everlasting separation
from God.
3. Souls characterized by the Orthodox Christian Faith, repentance, Holy Baptism, a
life in the Church, and good works will be saved but also will be judged according
to their deeds.
The Orthodox teaching on death, judgment and the afterlife differs greatly from the
New Age model as expressed in currently popular interpretations of the NDE. The New
Age view of NDEs is based on the presumption that NDEs represent a genuine
foretaste of the afterlife, in which all souls, whether repentant or not, will be
united with a tremendously loving, accepting, and non-judgmental superbeing—the so-
called being of light—whose exact identity is left unspecified. No matter what one
may do and believe in this life, New Agers suggest, this mysterious superbeing will
forgive even hideous acts as merely part of the individual's learning process. No
mention is made of repentance or spiritual struggle.
The New Age interpretation of the NDE does coincide with Orthodox teaching on one
point. Orthodoxy and New Age doctrine agree that these comforting modern NDEs
represent genuine contacts with a spiritual being more powerful and intelligent
than humans. In other words, a mighty, luminous entity of some kind really is
waiting "over there" to meet souls that come his way, and is responsible for many
NDE accounts of pleasant meetings with him.
The identity of this being, however, is where Orthodoxy and the New Age movement
differ. New Agers presume that the "being of light" is God, or Christ, or perhaps a
holy angel. The Orthodox Christian, for reasons we will explore in a moment, must
reach just the opposite conclusion. Enlightened by both Scripture and the Patristic
writings, Orthodox Christians can attribute many commonly reported NDE elements
only to the deceits of the devil, who is perfectly capable of appearing as an angel
of light when it suits his purpose to do so (II Corinthians 11:14; Galatians 1:8).
Beliefs and consequences
Although at odds with Scriptural and Patristic teaching about death, judgment, and
the world to come, the NDE-based New Age image of the afterlife is compatible with
the popular philosophy of the late 20th century. Two basic premises of modern
culture are that:
1. One's beliefs and actions have (or should have) no lasting consequences, and
2. "Love" justifies virtually any deed or misdeed.
The New Age model of life after death is consistent with these premises. It frees
the believer from concern about the ultimate outcome of his or her actions, and
persuades the individual that a joyous eternity is guaranteed, provided only that
one "loves" others in some undefined manner.
There is a sharp contrast between the enjoyable NDEs of our "post-Christian" era
and those of earlier centuries, when the traditional belief structure of
Christianity had more influence on human thinking. For centuries, Orthodox authors
have recorded accounts of NDEs that differed profoundly from the "non-judgmental"
narratives of our time and the optimistic New Age interpretation of them.
A vision in Northumbria
[St.] Bede (673-735), in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, tells of
a man from Northumbria who became ill and died, then came back to life several
hours later. The man said he saw a great valley where human souls were blown about
by powerful winds and exposed alternately to fierce heat and bitter cold. The next
stop was a place of darkness, where souls rose up and fell like sparks in flames
arising from a huge pit. He next saw a vast meadow saturated with light and filled
with the fragrance of flowers. In the meadow were countless people dressed in white
robes. Soon, he approached a place where the light was still more beautiful, and
the fragrance was even more pleasant than in the meadow. He was not allowed,
however, to enter here.
The valley of fire and ice, he understood, was a place for those who died penitent
and confessed, but had postponed repentance until the hour of death. These souls
would be admitted to heaven on the day of judgment. Meanwhile, they could be helped
by almsgiving, prayer, and fasting on the part of the living. The pit of fire was
the opening of hell, from which no one who entered would ever be rescued. The
people in the meadow were those who had done good on Earth but had not attained the
perfection needed to enter heaven. Their admittance to heaven would be delayed
until the day of judgment. Heaven was located near the place of surpassingly
beautiful light and was the destination of all who were perfect in thought, word
and deed before they left the body.
Thecla's Vision
Another vivid Orthodox vision of the afterlife was granted to a novice named
Thecla. She reported seeing three great furnaces in a dream.
Demons pulled people out of the furnaces, then beat the people with hammers. This
place, Thecla understood, was assigned to Christians who did not act according to
their faith. Their sins included indecent language and failure to honor holy days.
She also saw a blazing river filled with souls. In her vision, Thecla visited the
Promised Land, where she saw a great, indescribably beautiful temple filled with
brilliant light. This temple, she learned, was intended for the last monks, who
would be few in number. Thecla's vision was considered genuine, because she
reportedly had only a vague idea of doctrine on the fate of sinners and the
righteous. The date of her experience is uncertain.
Thecla's vision illustrates Orthodox belief that sins committed in this life,
unless cleansed away by repentance, Holy Baptism, and confession, will go
unforgiven and will entail much suffering in the afterlife. The Orthodox faith also
teaches that those who are spared suffering in this life may have to endure it
hereafter, as in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). By
contrast, New Age thinking about NDEs and the afterlife tends to emphasize
delightful, "heavenly" visions but avoid any mention of post-mortem suffering.
The amazing Ueksuell case
Another famous brush with the afterlife is the Uekskuell incident, which reportedly
occurred in the late 19th century. The case involved a man identified as K.
Uekskuell, who was raised in a devout Orthodox Christian home but did not take his
faith seriously as an adult. When he became ill with pneumonia, he was
hospitalized.
According to his account, he died while in the hospital, and his soul left his body
for a brief time. He saw two angels at his side. They took him by the arms and
escorted him upward rapidly. Then he heard the cries and ugly laughter of evil
spirits approaching. He was horrified, and described the encounter as follows:
"Evil spirits! O, how much irony, how much of the most sincere kind of laughter
this would have aroused in me but a few days ago....Having surrounded us on all
sides, with shrieks and rowdy sounds the evil spirits demanded that I be given over
to them; they tried somehow to seize and tear me away from the angels, but
evidently did not dare to do this."
Uekskuell began calling on the saints for help, and especially for the aid of the
Theotokos. "A sad, ignorant Christian only in name, I now, it seems, almost for the
first time in my life remembered Her Who is called the Intercessor for Christians.
And evidently my appeal to Her was [so] intense... that hardly had I remembered and
pronounced Her name when about us there suddenly appeared a kind of white mist
which soon began
to enfold within itself the ugly throng of evil spirits. It concealed them from my
eyes before they could withdraw from us. Their bellowing and cackling was still
heard for a long while, but according to how it gradually weakened in intensity...
I was able to judge the terrible pursuit was gradually being left behind."
Uekskuell perceived a bright light above him. The angels carried him toward and
into the light. He said the light "blinded" him. Terrified, he heard a majestic
voice say, "Not ready!" Uekskuell then was carried back toward earth.
Before leaving him, one of the angels said to Uekskuell, "Have you heard the
decision of God?" The angel then pointed to the man's body and said, "Enter, and
prepare yourself." Both angels then disappeared, and Uekskuell re-entered his body
and returned to life, to the surprise of his physicians. (The Uekskuell case is
described at length in the article "Unbelievable for Many but Actually a True
Occurrence," Orthodox Life, July-August 1976.)
The toll-houses
The Orthodox faith also includes belief in something else missing from modern NDE
reports. According to Orthodox belief, the soul after leaving the body must pass
through the aerial "toll-houses," a series of 20 testing stations where the soul
confronts accusations from evil spirits bearing records of the individual's sins.
The evil spirits here are described in Orthodox literature as the "tax collectors,"
and are depicted as receiving payment from the holy angels that accompany the soul
on its journey through the toll-houses. This set of trials is known as the
"particular judgment" and is believed to occur in the air above the earth, in the
first few days after death. The outcome of the journey through the toll-houses
determines whether the individual's soul will be assigned to hell or to paradise,
to await the final judgment.
A famous vision of the toll-houses occurred to one Gregory, a disciple of Saint
Basil the New, who lived in the 10th century. Gregory's vision involved the passage
through the toll-houses of a woman known as the blessed Theodora. Here is part of
her story, as reported by Archimandrite Panteleimon of Holy Trinity Monastery in
his book Eternal Mysteries Beyond the Grave:
"When the hour of my death came, I saw faces such as I had never seen before, and
heard words such as I had never heard. What shall I say? Cruel and hard-to-endure
evils, of which I formerly had no idea, I encountered... then because of my evil
deeds. However, through the prayers and the assistance of our common spiritual
father Basil I was saved from these hardships. But how shall I tell you about that
physical pain, that stress and close feeling which the dying experience? Like a man
who, entirely naked, falls into a great fire, burns, melts, and turns into ashes;
so the dying are destroyed by their deathly illness in the bitter hour when the
soul parts from the body.
"When ... the time of my departure had come, I saw a great multitude of [evil
spirits] who had surrounded my couch. Their faces were dark like soot and pitch,
their eyes were like glowing coals, their entire appearance was as frightening ...
as the fiery hell itself. They began to grow indignant and to make noise like dogs;
others howled like wolves. As they looked at me, they were full of anger; they
threatened me, kept rushing at me and gnashing their teeth, and appeared ready to
devour me, Yet they seemed to wait for a judge who had not yet come but would do
so: they were making ready charts and unrolling scrolls on which were written all
my evil deeds. My miserable soul was taken by great fear and trembling...
"When I was at the end of my strength I saw two radiant angels of God, who were
like youths of inexpressible beauty. They were coming toward me. Their faces were
shining, their gaze was full of love; their hair was like snow, white with a golden
tinge; their garments glistened like lightning and were girded with gold. When they
came near me, they stopped on the right side of my couch and entered into a quiet
conversation between themselves. As I saw them I was filled with joy and looked at
them with pleasure."
Angels to the rescue
The demons retreated from the holy angels, who rebuked the evil spirits. "One of
the radiant youths ... said, 'O shameless, cursed, dark, and evil enemies of the
human race! Why do you always come first to the dying and frighten and confuse
every parting soul by your words? You have no reason to rejoice, for here you will
find nothing. God is merciful to this soul, and you have no part and no allotment
in her.' When the angel ceased speaking, the [evil spirits] ... began to cry out,
and mutter, and point to all my evil deeds, committed from my youth on. They
exclaimed: 'We have no part in her, you say! Whose sins then are these? Did she not
do such and such?' With such exclamations they kept their positions and were
waiting for death."
The arrival of death was terrifying for Theodora. "When death came, it was roaring
like a lion and was very frightening in appearance. It looked like a human being
but had no body; instead it consisted of human bones. Death brought various
instruments of torture, such as swords, arrows, javelins, sickles, saws, and others
unknown to me. When I saw these, my humble soul trembled with fear. The holy angels
said to death: 'Do not tarry; free this soul from its bodily ties, and do it fast
and quietly, for she has but a small burden of sins.' Death stepped up to me, took
a small axe and separated my legs, then my arms; then with its other instruments it
weakened all the rest of my limbs, separating them joint by joint. I lost the use
of my arms and legs, my whole body grew numb, and I was no longer able to move.
Finally death cut off my head, and I could no longer move it, for it felt as if it
belonged to someone else. Lastly, death dissolved in a cup some kind of mixture,
and putting the cup to my lips, made me drink. The notion was so bitter that my
soul was unable to endure it. It shuddered and went out of my body."
The holy angels took Theodora's soul in their arms. She could see her lifeless
body. The demons cried that Theodora must answer for her sins, but the holy angels
pointed out her good deeds, such as almsgiving and hospitality.
A bag of gold
During this confrontation between the demons and holy angels, Saint Basil himself
appeared unexpectedly, bringing help. "Holy angels!" he cried. "This soul did great
service to ease my old age, and therefore I have prayed to God for her, and God has
given her to me."
He produced what looked like a bag of gold and gave it to the angels. "Here is the
treasure of prayers before the Lord for this soul!" Saint Basil told the holy
angels. "As you pass through the torments of the air and the evil spirits begin to
torment her, pay her debts with this."
The angels began to conduct Theodora upward through the air. The first toll-house
that Theodora encountered dealt with sins of idle speech: thoughtless, evil,
needless words. "There," she said, "I saw recorded all my angry words, foul words,
worldly shameless songs, wild cries and laughter....Now I kept silent, as if I had
lost my voice. I was unable to reply because the evil spirits accused me rightly.
But while I was silent in my shame and trembled with fear, the holy angels offered
some of my good deeds and, since these were not enough, they added something from
the treasure given me by the holy man Basil; and thus they paid my debts at this
station."
The second toll-house dealt with sins of lying; the third, speaking evil of others
and spreading rumors; the fourth, gluttony and drunkenness; and so on. The angels
used the bag of gold to pay her way, so to speak, through the testing stations.
Theodora entered heaven after passing through the toll-houses. She did not describe
heaven in detail. Instead she said, "There are things that cannot be either
understood or explained." She bowed before the throne of God and then was shown the
dwellings of the saints, where all "was full of glory and spiritual joy," as well
as the horrors of hell, where Theodora said she saw torments so dreadful "that it
is excruciating even to tell about them."
Theodora asked the holy angels who accompanied her how the evil spirits could know
all the sins a person has ever committed, either openly or in secret. The angels
replied that every Christian, at baptism, receives from God a guardian angel who
records all the person's good deeds in preparation for the eventual judgment; but
the devil also assigns a demon to accompany that individual and record all of his
or her evil deeds. Thus the evil spirits (Theodora was told) become aware of all
the person's sins. "When the soul parts from its body and desires to go to its
Creator in heaven," the angels explained, "the evil spirits ... show to it its
sins. If the soul has done more good deeds than evil, they cannot keep it; but if
the sins outweigh the good deeds, they can keep the soul for some time, shut it up
in the prison where it cannot know God, and torment it as much as God's power
allows them, until that soul, by means of prayers of the Church and good deeds done
for its sake by those who are still on earth, should be granted forgiveness."
The direct way to heaven
Theodora also was told there was a means of direct ascent to heaven: "Those who
believe in the Holy Trinity and take as frequently as possible the Holy Communion
of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, our Savior's Body and Blood—such people can rise
to heaven directly, with no hindrances, and the holy angels defend them, and the
holy saints of God pray for their salvation, since they have lived righteously. No
one, however, takes care of wicked and depraved heretics, who do nothing useful
during their lives, and live in disbelief and heresy. The angels can say nothing in
their defense."
Some souls, the angels explained, would go straight to hell, without even passing
through the aerial toll-houses: "When a soul proves to be so sinful and impure
before God that it has no hope of salvation, the evil spirits immediately bring it
down into the abyss, where their own place of eternal torment is also. There the
lost souls are kept until the time of the Lord's Second Coming. Then they will
unite with their bodies and will incur torment in the fiery hell together with the
devils." The angels added that only those who were "enlightened by the faith and
holy baptism can rise and be tested in the stations of torment [that is, the toll-
houses]. The unbelievers do not come here. Their souls belong to hell even before
they part from their bodies. When they die, the devils take their souls with no
need to test them. Such souls are their proper prey, and they take them down to the
abyss."
'There is no other way'
Theodora asked if all Christians passed through the trials of the aerial toll-
houses. "There is no other way for the souls that rise toward heaven," the angels
replied. "Every one goes this way, but not everyone is tormented like you; only
sinners like you incur the torments, for they have not confessed their sins fully,
and moved by a false sense of shame, have kept their really shameful deeds secret
from their spiritual fathers. When a man wholeheartedly confesses his evil deeds
and repents and regrets them, his sins are invisibly wiped out by God's mercy. When
a repentant soul comes here, the tormentors of the air open their books but find
nothing written there; the soul, however, joyfully ascends to the throne of God.
The angels emphasized the importance of confession and of telling all to one
spiritual father rather than to several, as some people do if they feel too ashamed
to tell one spiritual father everything.
All this and more was revealed in Gregory's vision of Theodora's experiences. After
awakening, he went to visit Saint Basil, who—before Gregory could describe his
experience—gave him an accurate summary of what Gregory had seen. Thus Gregory was
convinced that he had not merely been dreaming but actually had received a vision
from God.
Here we are dealing with authentic reports of the afterlife, consistent with
Scripture, Church tradition and the Patristic writings. Could anything be less like
the cheery, "non-judgmental" NDE reports of today?
There has been considerable controversy in 20th-century America over the doctrine
of the toll-houses. Some elements of the Orthodox community have questioned the
doctrine, but it has been upheld by authors such as Father Seraphim Rose, whose
1980 book The Soul After Death supports belief in the aerial toll-houses with
citations from the writings of the Church fathers, including Saint John Chrysostom,
Saint Athanasius the Great, Saint Macarius the Great, Saint Gregory the Dialogist,
Saint Isaiah the Recluse, and Saint Hesychius, Presbyter of Jerusalem.
Father Seraphim Rose mentioned experiences of the toll-houses in the lives of
numerous saints, including Saint Eustratius the Great Martyr, Saint Symeon the Fool
for Christ of Emesa, and Saint John the Merciful, Patriarch of Alexandria. Father
Seraphim cautioned readers, however, that it is a mistake to interpret visions of
the heavenly toll-houses too literally, because the language used to describe them
is necessarily figurative, as in the case of the "bag of gold" from which the holy
angels paid Theodora's "debts." No matter what the interpretation, literal or
symbolic, no Orthodox believer will reject the particular judgement immediately
after death.
Father Seraphim explains the NDE
Father Seraphim also analyzed modern treatments of the NDE. He saw in them messages
reflective of non-Orthodox, occultist thinking about the afterlife. For example:
1. One need not fear death. Perceptions of modern NDEs indicate that death is not
something to fear. Father Seraphim argued that there is no reason to presume these
happy visions truly indicate what the soul will experience, on a permanent basis,
after the death of the body.
2. Judgment and hell are nonexistent. Anecdotal evidence from NDEs depicts the
"being of light" as a non-judgmental entity that views one's deeds, even evil
actions, with equanimity and humor. Father Seraphim responded that this presumption
of avoiding judgment was not supportable. He pointed out that certain NDE
investigators appeared to overlook completely the possibility that the evident
absence of judgment in the initial moments after death might be an erroneous
impression; or that judgment might indeed occur, but later.
3. NDEs are themselves preparations for the afterlife. Father Seraphim described as
"tragic" and "ill-founded" the naive view that faith, repentance, spiritual
struggle and participation in the Sacraments were less important than the so-called
understanding and love supposedly engendered by NDEs and other such experiences.
Father Seraphim traced these doctrines back to the teachings of 19th-century
spiritualists. The spiritualist movement arose in Europe in the 1850s and was based
partly on the notion that souls can progress to higher levels of existence.
Spiritualists also taught that "advanced" souls should welcome death joyously,
because death held the promise of greater "enlightenment."
Such teachings, Father Seraphim explained, were invented by demons and delivered
through mediums to the spiritualists. These doctrines were intended specifically to
counteract and supplant the traditional Christian view of the afterlife. Father
Seraphim described today's occultist view of life after death, exemplified in the
New Age model of NDEs and the afterlife, as merely a popularized version of
spiritualist doctrines from the previous century. Such beliefs are precisely what
the demons wish to encourage, through accounts of a "non-judgmental" superbeing
waiting for souls on "the other side.
Father Seraphim contrasted the effects of modern NDEs with the impact that genuine
visions of the afterlife have had on believers. A true vision of the afterlife
leaves the subject in awe and deeply aware of his own sinfulness. The modern NDE,
on the other hand, tends instead to diminish or even eliminate the sense of sin in
an individual.
Vainglory and visions
The overall pattern of NDEs matches what is known of diabolical efforts to lead
humans into error. For example, the NDE, especially in its New Age interpretation,
appeals to human pride. What could be more vainglorious than to say that one is
bound for an afterlife of bliss, regardless of the life one has led on Earth? Yet,
that is the message of New Age NDE interpreters. Moreover, the NDE may encourage
those who undergo it to set themselves up as would-be prophets and to flatter
themselves by thinking they are chosen to deliver some special communication from
God to a waiting world. Thus the NDE deludes and puffs up the believer still
further. No one but the devil can profit from such a situation.
Here, it is instructive to compare the modern NDE experience with that of Valens, a
monk whose encounter with evil spirits led him into deception. Valens became proud
and started taking seriously the dreams and visions he received from demons. The
evil spirits appeared to him in the form of holy angels. Eventually, Valens
encountered a being that he presumed to be Christ Himself. Valens was told that
Christ was pleased with the monk's achievements, and that thereafter Valens need do
nothing but contemplate this "Christ." The entity was actually a demon, but Valens
was so proud and deluded that he worshipped the false Christ and accepted the
demons' message as revealed truth. He said he had no need to receive Communion,
because he believed he had met Christ face to face. Valens's brethren saw that he
had gone mad. Over a period of months, they cured him of his delusion.
Valens's case is essentially identical to many modern NDEs. A vulnerable individual
receives a spectacular but deceitful vision that incites him to pride, lures him
away from the sacraments and leaves him with an unwarranted optimism about his
spiritual condition. Valens was corrected and saved by the prayers of his fellow
monks. What may befall believers in the NDE message of today, who have no spiritual
support system like the one that delivered Valens, is unpleasant to consider.
Visions of the future such as those received in NDEs are also within the
capabilities of evil spirits. Demons have an overall knowledge of the future from
Divine revelation, and are able to extrapolate current trends into the future. The
evil spirits also have their own designs for human history and are able to present
these in the form of visions which the demons can turn into realities a few years
later. In this context, it is worth noting that Scripture indicates some demons
specialize in predicting the future. Saint Paul, for example, cast out a spirit of
divination from a slave girl whose fortune-telling ability, supplied by the demon,
had brought great profit to her employers (Acts 16:16-8).
The surpassing happiness reported in meetings with the "being of light" has a
parallel in mediumistic experiences which have no connection with genuine visions
of the afterlife. In his book Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future, for
example, Father Seraphim cited the case of an Eskimo shaman who experienced ecstasy
when he perceived spirits of land, sea, and air coming to his aid. In language
almost identical to that of modern NDE reports, he described a bliss so intense
that he began singing the word "joy" at the top of his voice. This was clearly a
pagan experience; and its resemblance to the exalted feelings in NDEs is so close
as to require no further comment.
Another similarity between NDEs and demonic visions is the dreamlike condition in
which both sets of phenomena occur. Saint John of the Ladder points out that human
dreams are a favorite conduit for demonic deceits. He adds that evil spirits take
on the appearance of luminous beings, and warns that only the inexperienced will
trust such dreams. The Saint compares a person who puts faith in dreams to someone
who runs after and tries to catch his own shadow.
The best defense
Defenses against the NDE delusion include prayer, a knowledge of Scripture and the
Patristic writings on the afterlife, and a critical attitude toward alleged
visions. For example, when a demon appeared to Saint Pachomius the Great in the
form of Christ and said that Pachomius had pleased him greatly, the wise Saint was
skeptical. Why would Christ, Pachomius reasoned, appear to such a poor sinner as
he? This clearly could not be Christ, he decided. Pachomius made the sign of the
cross and told the demon to depart. Such humility is notably absent from modern NDE
accounts.
Also missing from today's NDE stories is the hard-headedness of Saint Niphon, whose
skeptical attitude once sent an evil spirit packing. The demon appeared to the
Saint in the form of a holy angel and said that Niphon would be granted the power
of working miracles, as a reward from God. Niphon was not fooled. He recognized
this vision as a deception and an appeal to his pride. "Wait a minute," he told the
demon, "and I will perform a miracle for you." He addressed a nearby boulder and
told it to move to another location. The rock stayed put. "So much for your gift,"
Saint Niphon said, and spat at the evil spirit. Then the Saint prayed to God, and
the demon vanished.
Remember the wisdom of these two saints in connection with the NDE phenomenon. They
are models for dealing with deceptive, non-Orthodox "visions" of the afterlife.
Only the enlightened, wary, and well-informed soul is in a position to see clearly
the demonic illusion involved in NDEs; and as each year passes, the need increases
for clear thinking about the NDE and what it represents—the emerging religion of
Antichrist. just as a demon in an NDE (or comparable vision) may masquerade as
Christ, Antichrist one day will pose as the Messiah. Thus, the NDE provides a
preview of the false faith with which Antichrist will ensnare the world.
Apparently, the modern NDE phenomenon is part of what Saint Paul described in II
Timothy 4: 3-4: "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine;
but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching
ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto
fables."
Will believers in New Age NDE doctrines renounce them when told the truth about
those phony visions? In most cases, probably not. But because a few may listen and
respond, we Orthodox Christians must provide a clear and unmistakable witness to
the falsehood and danger of the NDE phenomenon. Indeed, we may be judged in part on
how clearly we deliver that warning.
From Orthodox Life, Vol. 45, No. 4 (July-Aug., 1995), pp. 16-31.