NDE Multimedia Resource Thread

From Cavern Films, the lady that made the short film, Consciousness Continues.
The 1st Near Death Experience Interview filmed for Consciousness Continues, Sondra Boyd Raw footage

Thanks for posting. It often takes me a while to catch up on what is posted - I have a long reading/viewing list which has quite a backlog already

I watched/listened to this video, I found it very interesting, though as it progressed my interest waned a little. It did motivate me to look at some of the other videos from that same Cavern Films channel, which was very worthwhile, at least for me.

Another one that I didn't yet watch.

Dr Jeffrey Long chatting with Alex Tsakiris of Skeptiko.

I did watch this one, and I found it very interesting. Not just the NDE, but the incidents and occurrences described throughout this talk. I suppose we all have to decide for ourselves just where our own 'boggle factor' cuts in with this sort of stuff.

Vietnam Veteran's Near-Death Experience Account and More

Vietnam Veteran, Rev. Bill McDonald, discusses his near-death experience. 

ABOUT BILL MCDONALD
Rev. Bill McDonald was a Huey helicopter crew-chief/door-gunner in Vietnam. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star Medal, 14 Air Medals, the Purple Heart Medal, other medals, and ribbons. He had many spiritual transformative experiences (STEs) while in combat, as well as before and after the Vietnam war including NDE-like experiences which Reverend Bill McDonald writes about in his books. He has been associated with around a dozen films, TV shows and videos including a PBS TV special called “The Art of Healing” and on the History Channel with the documentary “In the Shadow of the Blade”. He has authored several books that deal with his 3 NDE-like events and several STEs.

Source: 2019 IANDS Conference https://revbillmcdonald.com

A look at NDEs by the Closer to Truth team.

Kuhn doesn’t seem very well educated on this topic. I recall years ago him saying that he was being bugged by his daughter to talk about NDEs. Maybe she ought to be hosting the show? 

A look at NDEs by the Closer to Truth team.

Kuhn doesn’t seem very well educated on this topic. I recall years ago him saying that he was being bugged by his daughter to talk about NDEs. Maybe she ought to be hosting the show? 

I know this is old ground that we've all been over before. But it seems to me that the anoxia and related types of explanations are teetering on the edge of a precipice, reaching for something, but not quite daring to touch it.

If I might make an analogy, which may not appeal to everyone, when we were studying calculus at school, there was this idea of taking something which is changing, and examining a very tiny slice, and considering a ratio as the size of the slice gets smaller and smaller. In simplistic terms, when the size of the slice is reduced to zero, the corresponding ratio becomes zero divided by zero which is meaningless - and yet calculus does resolve this impossibility.

In a similar manner, people like to say there are 'special' things happening in the brain as it is shutting down, as the brain activity tends towards zero. But like timid mathematicians, they are unable to take the next step and consider what happens when brain activity is zero. The biological view is that nothing at all happens - yet a moment before, when there was just a tiny activity there was this vividly rich and profoundly meaningful experience. It seems absurd to suggest that our experience gets richer and richer as brain activity is reduced, and then - puff - nothing.

But it seems to me that the anoxia and related types of explanations are teetering on the edge of a precipice, reaching for something, but not quite daring to touch it.

Having watched quite a lot of these interviews, my feeling is that Lawrence Kuhn is unlikely to ever overcome his fear (from whatever source) to take NDEs really seriously. 

Perhaps I should learn from him, instead of continuing to bash my head against a brick wall. He is a great example, because I feel nothing but admiration for the guy, despite sensing his inability to grasp the (mental) nettle.

Perhaps I should learn from him, instead of continuing to bash my head against a brick wall. He is a great example, because I feel nothing but admiration for the guy, despite sensing his inability to grasp the (mental) nettle.

My emotional reactions to those that I don’t admire, or actively dislike, are likely to be fear based too. I wonder if I ought to be troubled by them, try to decrease their presence, or if I should more readily accept them? 

Fear appears to be a ‘problem’. Our thoughts seem to be a bigger problem, and one we can do something about.

My emotional reactions to those that I don’t admire, or actively dislike, are likely to be fear based too. I wonder if I ought to be troubled by them, try to decrease their presence, or if I should more readily accept them? 

Fear appears to be a ‘problem’. Our thoughts seem to be a bigger problem, and one we can do something about.

I think meditation is an approach. It can include accepting without judgement, just letting things be. And also, it can mean calming all thoughts, learning to stop thinking. Together I've found these aspects beneficial for many aspects of life.

But life does get in the way sometimes. I remember when I first started a serious job, after a long period without work, I felt very calm. I would look around the room when we had team meetings, I saw stress of various types, different flavours, on the faces of each person. As a newcomer, I was very calm, somehow not caught up in all of that. But after working in that job for many years, I got caught up in all of that stress too. Making space, setting time aside for meditation is easy to say, but not always so easy to do, unless one is very careful to allocate some time for it, giving oneself permission to 'do nothing'. (Though it is not just doing nothing.)

I think meditation is an approach. It can include accepting without judgement, just letting things be. And also, it can mean calming all thoughts, learning to stop thinking. Together I've found these aspects beneficial for many aspects of life.

Am I right in thinking that you’ve answered my (open) question...

I wonder if I ought to be troubled by them, try to decrease their presence, or if I should more readily accept them? 

...and have concluded that this may be the best approach? (Acceptance) There is surely great benefits to being able to accept certain things (perhaps all things), but the thought of always doing so leaves me unsettled. 

Making space, setting time aside for meditation is easy to say, but not always so easy to do, unless one is very careful to allocate some time for it

I think you may have read my book (Choices) ? In it I describe how I meditated almost around an hour every day for over three years starting a few months after my medical event. I had no previous interest in meditating and really hadn’t given the subject any thought previous to my stroke. I really don’t know how, but I just started to do it, it was literally a no-brainier. It was like I was under the control of someone/something that knew it would benefit me, and no part of me wanted an argument. 

That auto-phase came to an end over a period of a couple of months. Thereafter, I stopped and didn’t give it much thought or wish I could have kept it going. What you have written in the bit I quoted, is true for me now. I have considered starting meditating again in the past two years, but am finding it very difficult to find drive to do so, whereas it came so effortlessly previously. 

I would love to know what/who the difference in motivating me lies, between the me ten years ago and the current me.

Am I right in thinking that you’ve answered my (open) question...


...and have concluded that this may be the best approach? (Acceptance) There is surely great benefits to being able to accept certain things (perhaps all things), but the thought of always doing so leaves me unsettled. 

Yes, you understood my intention, my train of thought. My only additional comment is that acceptance during meditation does not necessarily mean doing nothing afterwards. It is more a way of handling things before or after taking some action. While we're in this world I don't personally think we should all sit on a mountaintop in meditation the whole time. (Though it may be the way for some, a few).

I think you may have read my book (Choices) ? In it I describe how I meditated almost around an hour every day for over three years starting a few months after my medical event. I had no previous interest in meditating and really hadn’t given the subject any thought previous to my stroke. I really don’t know how, but I just started to do it, it was literally a no-brainier. It was like I was under the control of someone/something that knew it would benefit me, and no part of me wanted an argument. 

That auto-phase came to an end over a period of a couple of months. Thereafter, I stopped and didn’t give it much thought or wish I could have kept it going. What you have written in the bit I quoted, is true for me now. I have considered starting meditating again in the past two years, but am finding it very difficult to find drive to do so, whereas it came so effortlessly previously. 

I would love to know what/who the difference in motivating me lies, between the me ten years ago and the current me.

Yes, I have indeed read your book. Though unfortunately these days my memory doesn't hold onto things the way it used to, and I'd forgotten the part you describe here, about your own meditation. No disrespect to you, I simply forget a lot of things.

What you say here, "I have considered starting meditating again in the past two years, but am finding it very difficult to find drive to do so, whereas it came so effortlessly previously." is interesting. It may be that you don't need to do so now. I was for some reason this morning reflecting (and feeling somewhat embarrassed) on a letter I received - it must have been nearly forty years ago, not sure why it came to me today. The letter was from some major college in London where they had declined to accept me onto a course, and I had sent a pleading letter asking them to reconsider. The reply was very polite and considered, rather than just a one-liner. But the question it raised in me is, "Why was I so motivated?"

It was a strange thing, I was absolutely fired-up, filled with a drive to do something, so determined that I sent off a rather silly letter which got me nowhere. But the stranger part was a very short time later, a very different college course just fell into my lap, I had no difficulty getting accepted, it was so easy.

That isn't the only time in my life when I seem to have sensed something coming in my future, tried desperately hard to make it happen, with no result. Followed by some opportunity or events just unfolding so naturally and easily that it seemed orchestrated.

Sorry I got way off topic and this didn't really relate to your question. Except to say sometimes maybe we don't need to try to force things to happen, not even meditation.