Spirituality, NDEs and Baha'i faith
If we want to believe in spirituality we have to take one dogma, prophecy or book without much question. We do this by heart, by rationality or by both. For example, some people believe in the Bible without question (blindly). Others believe it because they argue it contains prophecies and other passages that could never be written by humans alone (reasoning). Others yet, say that faith and intuitive feelings caused by the reading of its passages, proves the Bible is a message from God and thus unquestionable (intuitive feeling).
Ultimately God can only be found by faith. Reason, despite its strong efforts, cannot reach It. I guess, to me, reasonably, the existence of a Creator is more likely than its non existence. The best theory is the Kalam cosmological argument; We live in a reality in which everything needs a cause, and since the Big Bang has probably happened, this reality needed a First Cause (the Big-Bang is a paradoxical event), which is something independent that cannot have a cause. A "thing" that doesn't have a cause exists beyond time, and because it is timeless it was not created... The Fist Cause is almost certainly metaphysical... We can dwell in this more and for that I recommend the following reading, if you're interested:
I think that, for reasons not yet fully understood, we are programmed to have a faith in an afterlife.
As for me, I believe in the spiritual validity of near death experiences (NDEs) for several reasons;
- The independence of culture or education on the content of the core experience.
- The sincerity and deep emotional response of people involved.
- The mental sanity of people involved.
- The peer reviewed studies which tend to claim an independence of the experiences and brain activity.
- The feeling that these experiences are true because they join perfectly with my feelings, education and past experiences.
- The integration of the NDEs moral code and my own.
From this belief a world of possibilities is born! And this is thrilling! I feel like an explorer of the unknown. I feel like I've found something very important which is far from being fully understood! What is the nature of God? Why do we need to live in this realm to be properly educated? Is it possible to comprehend other planes of existence beyond this one?
This sent me on a journey to deeply explore spirituality on an attempt to know myself; know my life mission and purpose; get ready for what comes next, etc.
This led me to talk to several religious movements and read about several spiritual dogmas. But only one got me excited - The Baha'i faith. The Baha'i faith goes through a very humble path by saying that each one of us must search for the truth individually - they don't evangelize and "don't blindly believe in their faith". Religiously speaking this is very commendable. Moreover, they make an effort not to clash (much) with science, they praise science sometimes and wish it to join religion in the search for the Truth. They have a marked respect for other faiths because they believe them to be true messages from God. Like in NDEs the most important thing to Baha'i's is the development ethics and moral values. The Golden Rule is what unites all religions, and the most important message from God to us. They also support the abolition of borders and the unification of humanity. Furthermore they are not vague and disintegrated as New Age movements which draw much from eastern religions indiscriminately.
Though I'm not Baha'i I support their activities, because their intentions and actions are of good nature and of tolerance to others. Also, there are amazing coincidences between NDEs and the Baha'i faith, which, I think for some odd and surprising reason, are only noted by few people. Maybe this is because both disciplines borne in very different cultures.
Similarities between NDEs and Baha'i faith;
Others similarities include: Other planes of existence; importance of love and moral values; oneness of humankind; importance of love (again) in everything in life... and arguably, the exclusive characteristic of the certain awe and potential (hard to explain in words) we will experience after we leave our physical bodies.
Maybe there are some differences too, which in any case, are not very obvious; One of these maybe an unimportance to have a religious faith in NDEs, and the importance to have a religious faith in Baha’i belief. In no NDE experience is told that one must believe in Baha'u'llah. Also there's the unimportance to have religious rules.
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