I don't know what category this belongs in, so I'll place it here.

Something puzzles me about NPMR reports from people having NDEs, OBEs, deep trance recall (i.e., deep hypnosis & between lives recollections), channeling, and purported spirit guidance of all flavors. Being someone who constructs mental models by nature, it troubles me when I find that a great deal of the above reports mismatch. For a while, I'd thought that I'd found some reliable data after reading Monroe and several other OBE writers, as well as Michael Newton's two between-lives books, the past-life therapy of Dr. Weiss, and much more.

I've gotta say that it doesn't always fit together very well. Yes, we live, we die, we return. What happens between lives? What is NPMR like? I mean, people returning from NDEs really run the range of odd reports. Some see Jesus, some a relative, some just a loving light; some are told it's not time yet, some are asked if they want to go back--others not; some are communicated with to great extent, some aren't. And just about every flavor in the human imagination comes from descriptions of NPMR. Some of them grossly conflict with other reports, even highly praised persons can offer the most ridiculous claims about NPMR.

This merely touches the tip of the strangeness of information about NPMR from PMR visitors. And it's not that this is a point of anxiety for me personally; rather it's a puzzle that I'm finding difficult to unravel.

Yes, and obviously, there's a serious factor of subjectivity involved. But why? What are the factors that create the multivarious perceptions? Surely it's more than the kind of subjectivity where two people describe an assailant's clothing differently.

Can you offer some objective principles on this subject?

Roland,

1) Just because someone has experienced some awareness in NPMR doesn't mean they know much about it from a general perspective. Imagine that I teleported you to the basement of the San Francisco Court House and when I brought you back I asked you to tell me about the state of California -- and expected you to know about it because, after all, you had just been there. Then I talk to somebody who experienced only the basement of the Monterey courthouse and am heartened by the similar descriptions of California -- surely that must be what California is like if two saw it that way -- but then I am also dismayed and confused by the unaccountable differences.

2) The OOBE is to a large extent a personal experience -- a frame where one literally creates one's own reality to a great extent.

3) After death experiences, for most entities, are largely arranged and choreographed -- much like a four year olds experience in Disneyland. Talk to all the four year olds coming out of Disneyland to see what Disneyland is really like and what do you think you would get? There should be lots of similarities but be careful in believing that you are getting an objective report. The underlying point of the transition experiences that are reported is to aid in the transition and organize the return trip of a toddler consciousness. Whatever it takes to accomplish that for each individual is created. Similar individuals with similar needs produce similar stories.

4) OS as described in MBT is a very tiny part of NPMR. Most of the beings traveling and reporting back from NPMR never leave OS or the OOBE frame with any sort of coherency — most never experience more than a fraction of OS. Why? They are belief limited. If their consciousness quality and beliefs are similar, they produce more similar reports. Because, for the most part, they rattle about in a small space (like the basements of courthouses), read the same books, and have similar cultural beliefs one notices marked similarities in their reports. Change cultures and the nature of the reports change.

It is not that these experiences are false — their reports are accurate as they can make them — just like the four year olds coming out of Disneyland and the guys who saw nothing but the basement of the court house. They are telling you what they saw and did from their perspective.

Tom