My Observations on a book: After-death experience of an 11 year old boy

There's a book out now about a young boy's after death experience.

 Before I even venture to read it, I already have some reservations about it.

According to USA TODAY:  Colton Burpo, an 11 year old is famous for being the boy who had a near-death experience when he was 4 years old during emergency surgery for a burst appendix. Doctors offered little hope he would survive. Not only did he live, he says he went to heaven during the operation, met Jesus, John the Baptist, his great-grandfather and a sister he didn't even know he had (she was miscarried before he was born), then came back to tell his folks about the trip. A book about Colton's journey is called Heaven Is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back. 

HERE'S WHAT I DON'T QUESTION: 

* I absolutely DO believe that this boy died and came back. 

 *I absolutely DO believe that he had an out of body experience and met is great-grandfather and sister, and even Jesus. 

 * I absolutely DO believe the boy's experience about Heaven being "filled with bright colors and lots of rainbows."

HERE'S WHERE THE DOUBTS COME IN:

USA TODAY SAYS, it was written by Colton's father, the Rev. Todd Burpo, who has a small evangelical congregation in Imperial, Neb. It was co-written by Lynn Vincent, who collaborated with Sarah Palin on the her book, Going Rogue.

   

Having someone write the book that is SO immersed in religion and so biased with conservative religious views makes whatever else is in the book a lot less believable. I've seen this before with a Mormon who had an after-death experience and I stopped reading that book half-way through because it became a Marketing piece and promotion for joining the Mormon Church. 

- People who write books with a religious agenda are doing so for their own benefit. This boy's father is a reverend of a church. It seems that they're exploiting their son's after-death experience to promote their own religious beliefs. 

- Many people have after-death experiences. When we die our energies leave our body and we have the ability to see those who passed before us. Family members are always there when we die. Yes, people may also see Jesus, God or another religious figure because they likely call to them as they're passing. Most of the time, they see their relatives who tell them it's not their time. 

- Just a caution to people who start to read books about after-death experiences: If you find that any of them start pushing or promoting one religion, stop reading it. There's an agenda. If you want to read a great book where the woman who died came to a better understanding of the afterlife, pick up Betty Eadie's "Embraced by the Light."

My First Video Blog!

Here's my first attempt at a video blog. It's certainly a learning process... so bear with me. Anyway, I thought it would be a good idea to say hello and put a face and voice to the blog!

Do Not Be Ruled By Fear or Use Fear On Others

One of the comments on the blog a couple of weeks ago was about religions using fear to "rule" people or give them guidelines to live. It really hit home with me, because I grew up in the Catholic church, and during the 60s, it was "you'll go to hell, you'll go to hell" if you did this and that. I thought back then as a child, "well, how do you get to Heaven?" Fortunately the fire and brimstone in the Catholic Church died down and was replaced with more positive messages.

 - Despite that, I left the Catholic Church years ago because they keep funding political campaigns against gay marriage, and I happily married my partner in 2009. Marriage is a civil right, not a religious right (but that's another story). Atheists, agnostics, Wiccans, elderly and infertile couples marry all the time and shouldn't be ruled by someone else's bible.

- This BLOG, however is about not living in FEAR or instilling fear in others to get what you want. That's in fear of "going to hell" or being afraid of doing things that will make you happy, despite the hurt it would cause others. Believe in yourself.

Credit: www.reginalibrary.ca

 - The bottom line is that you simply need to treat others as you would want to be treated. PERIOD. Everyone should be treated with respect and kindness.

 - Religions and even governments use fear (remember the Bush Administration?) to scare people into doing things that will benefit the organizations who are inciting it.That is WRONG. Think about it. If you don't do what these people "of authority" tell you - you fear a repercussion. Don't be afraid.  People will manipulate you to get what they want and serve their own agenda.

    You should never do something hateful against anyone because it WILL come back to you. Karma is a powerful thing.  The commenter said " people who are ruled by fear do what they do because they think they will go to hell if they don't. The fear is so real to them, that what happens is, its all for yourself and to save yourself and it doesnt matter what you do to others in order to save yourself. Just make sure YOU dont go to hell." So true.

  She went on to say that she's been dealing with anger over being misled by fear-mongers. She realized that leading with or following leaders who use fear is wrong and detrimental to your health and everyone else's health.

  I've learned through the messages I've received from those who passed that those people who use fear to manipulate others deal with a lot of regret. In fact, many of them linger as Earth-bound ghosts hoping that those they hurt and manipulated will forgive them.   All of the knowledge of their mistakes becomes clear after their die. Don't wait. Treat others as you want to be treated. Do not use fear to get what you want... even if you don't regret it now, you WILL in the afterlife.

Many People Have Spirit Encounters

This week's blog again comes from my recent talk/book event at a women's club. When I began my talk, I asked how many people have lost a loved one, and believe they've received some kind of sign from them? 

A lot of hands went up -and I was pleased to see that. 

 - When I asked if anyone had a dog, cat or horse that passed, a number of people raised their hands. Some of them reported that their pet had also come back and given signs that they were still checking in from time to time.

- One person that talked to me afterward shared a story about her late husband giving her a spiritual "hug" after his passing. This is not uncommon. In fact, the night my dad passed away in 2008, I asked him to give me a sign and I felt a cool hug around me. At that time my Dad conveyed that he was okay and that I needed to be strong for my mother and other family members.