Near Death Endowment
While most research scientists, and medical doctors; including a vast majority of Nobel Laureates are people of faith, a few vocal and visible scientists like to argue that science somehow fails to measure the existence of God or life after death. However, I think these science communicators are overlooking a fascinating branch of legitimate science into near-death experiences (NDEs) that has been going on for over 40 years.
Dr. Bruce Greyson is an international expert into near-death experience research at the University of Virginia, Division of Perceptual Studies. Dr. Greyson has personally collected over 1000 NDE accounts from all over the world. Dr. Greyson and other researchers have collected a mountain of profound scientific evidence in support of human consciousness beyond death.
A great example of an NDE is Steve Gardipee:
While NDE's are all a little bit different, there is a common thread that runs through them all. Most experiencers of positive NDE's consider them to be a divine gift or endowment of 1. divine perspective, 2. divine identity, and 3. divine purpose. Also, many NDE's support the reality of eternal family relationships involving deceased family members as spirit guides.
Like Paul's conversion, nearly all these NDE's are transformative. The experiencer never comes away from the experience the same. Like Joseph Smith following his First Vision, experiencers report having their hearts filled with love for days afterward and oftentimes for the rest of their remaining lives.
So, if these NDE's are so profound, and wonderful, then why does God only gift this endowment to a select few? Often, the experiences report being athiests, agnostics, a casual believer or even rebellious. Does God bestow a similar endowment on His believing children?
The key to this is that the blessing of divine perspective, identity, and purpose can be given by alternate means than by almost killing you. In the Book of Mormon, Lehi and Nephi's vision of the Tree of Life served as such an endowment. Likewise, King Bejamin's speech transmitted this same divine knowledge to those gathered at the temple. The Pearl of Great Price-Moses records his vision of God that empowered his ability to later resist Satan's temptations.
In our day, Temples of the Church of Jesus Christ serve to transmit this same divine message of perspective, identify, and purpose. Temples also reveal and secure the eternal reality of family relationships.
Think about it. When God chooses to reveal Himself to mankind, the message of divine perspective, identity, and purpose is the message God chooses to communicate again and again. And this is precisely the same message the LDS temple transmits to God's people and why the latter-day temple is true and why the Bible in Isaiah 2, Mica 2, Ezechiel 37, Malachi 3, Revelations 7, etc. foretold the restoration of the temple would preceded Jesus Christ's second coming. This latter-day temple would ultimately be Christ's divine mechanism and institution (house built without hands) to bring about world peace and a paradise on Earth.
It is sad that evil is never far away from good. It is apparent that the Theosophical Society of America is very interested in influencing the narrative surrounding these NDE's. These TSA members seem to favor interpretation of these NDE's that promote false doctrines of 1. unconditional blessing (God loves all but blessings are conditioned on accepting Christ and repentance) 2. reincarnation 3. medium/spiritism 4. astrology 5. energy healing 6. meditation instead of prayer and 7. minimizes importance of the physical body.
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