I argue that the meaning of NDEs in the Church of the Nazarene is neither rooted in the future nor in the past, but is something of the here and now. Their stories are recorded and disseminated in the church and thus become part of the church's cultural capital. This tale is one of the many tales circulating in the Church of the.
The irony here is that I am involved in the self-representation process as a former member. The first chapter of this study examines the importance of NDE narratives in the Church of the Nazarene as a means of defining collective and individual identity in the Church. I argue that the performance of NDEs, like any performance in the Church of the Nazarene, depends largely on the skills of the individual performer.
However, the position of the individual also plays an important role in the Nazarene Church. Participating in the sacred dances is one of the important aspects of the Nazarite Church. The following texts show how the imaginations of the collective and individual identities have an impact on the performance of oral narratives in the Nazarite church.
In the Nazarite Church, the meaning of the narrative of near-death experiences is not rooted in the future or the past. The attention of the listeners is not only the obituary. Sundkler (1961) states that there are differing opinions on the number of gates in Zionist visions of 'heaven'.
It is those who were members of the Nazarite Church when they had the near-death experience that refer to this man as.
A Sense of Being Dead
In his later study, The Light Beyond (1988), Moody had investigated several cases of NDU, and this led him to change his mind about some of the arguments he made in Life After Life:. In Life After Life I said that I had never met anyone who had experienced all these traits while going through a NDU. But since I wrote that book, I've been interviewing. more than a thousand NDErs and has found several who had 'complete' episodes exhibiting all nine NDE features.
Moody does not explain why he reduced the number of feature films to nine in his later book. In this chapter I will explore the nine elements that Moody identified in The Light Beyond. Although there are some minor differences, this element is also present in the stories I have collected.
A voice told Gumede not to leave his body before it was buried, and this made him realize that he was dead. When he sent this tongue, he sent it and then licked my whole body starting from my back. When it started from my back it sent this lightning back to my head.
Peace and Painlessness
The day was bitterly cold, but while I was in the dark I felt only warmth and the most extreme comfort I have ever experienced. In the narratives I have collected, there is a sense of the experiencer feeling peaceful, although the feeling is not as significant as in the above case, probably because the experiencer soon faces hardships. It became Father, the Lord of Ekuphakameni, the same one that (my uncle) was sent to in MaChunwini.
Out-of-Body Experience (OBE)
The Tunnel Experience
When he was on top of the grave, son of God, I was floating in the sky watching this film that happened on earth..). Since the sample of this study is small, it is possible that other people who are not part of this study have had a similar experience.
People of Light
And when I wondered what was going on, I always got a thought back from one of them, that everything was fine, that I was. Relatives say above, except there is no mention of light emanating from those beings and the communication is not telepathic.
The Being of Light
And when I wondered what was going on, I always got a thought back from one of them, that everything was fine, that I was. die but will be fine. Everything was very black, except that, far away from me, I could see this light. brilliant light, but not too great at first. I tried to get to that light at the end because I felt. that it was Christ, and I tried to reach that point.
Because immediately as a Christian I had connected the light with Christ, who said: "I am the light of the world". There it almost seemed like clouds, a pink mist really, began to gather around me and then I floated right through the screen as if it wasn't there and into this pure crystal clear light, a luminous light. white light. The equivalent of the light being in the tales I have collected is the 'man in the white robe' or Shembe as some narrators refer to that man.
Although the authority and impact that the being of light has on Moody's informants is equal to that of Shembe in me. informants, in the case of my informants the communication was not telepathic and mostly there is no mention of light emanating from the man in the white robe, except for Gumede's narration:. Kunene saw a man he had never seen before, but was also surprised at how kind he was:. Arriving, this man holding an umbrella, he came as if imitating a bride entering the groom's house, walking softly as if counting his steps, as if he were a . foot. .To come slowly, this man was so attractive that you cannot know!..).
The Life Review
In a case where there is something like a review of life, the woman in question was shown the effects of her evil deeds on earth. She says she showed him the ticket from there -1 don't know what it looks like - to the church where she worshipped. Not in a place, one is there, she moves outside, the gate is closed she can't get in, she moves around.
Some of them even died, you see the ones who are now corpses, they are the ones who died because they lost their homes because of the muthi you made and the people. The only example of an experience involving a life evaluation is in the. He had woken up at about 2am on Saturday after passing away the day before on Friday.
He told him to sing a song of the Nazarites and he replied that father, the work I have done prevented me from going to church. He then opened the book and said your name is not here, and then showed him something like a television where he saw a replay of his life and the sins he had committed. He then said that they (sins) are not too bad and that he would let him return to earth. He told him to tell the people to convert because they are all dying and the boys who smoke that they should not be deceived, the way they should follow is that of the Nazarenes.).
Reluctance to Return
34;Story of Zulu from Umlazi, P Division." This is the title of a one-page text (like an obituary) written at the funeral of a Mr. In one story, Khwela's, it was his great grandfather (who was long dead) who showed a feeling that he did not want to come back. Khwela says that when he told the old man that he had been told by a girl in a white dress to return to earth, the old man sympathizes with him. , which shows that he did not consider it an enviable thing to go to earth.
Njoko, although he too was not negative about his return like the above narrator, felt that he was allowed to return because of the mission he had to fulfill, which was to be a preacher and make sacrifices on behalf of his deceased sisters. Gumede's story is similar to that of Moody's two experiences mentioned above. interviewed who didn't want to come back, although not completely. He became so impatient when his family was still preparing his dead body for burial because he wanted to move on:
She planned for me to go outside, but I didn't want to. I now wanted to go to that place, there in the temple where this Shembe was. Now great-grandmother said to me: 'Go back, now that you are here, I am going to face a trial. Grandmother came and called me and said, 'Hey you, wake up and get out!
Rising Rapidly Through the Heavens
The work that Edward does is similar to that of sangomas in South Africa.3 The main purpose of the sangomas is to mediate between the people and their ancestors and tell them what the ancestors want. For those who believe in the afterlife, the work of people like John Edward and the sangomas serve as proof of the existence of life after death and the continued connection between the living and the dead. This study did not address the issue of whether or not there is life after death.
He also avoided the question of whether near-death experiences are real or just the results of the workings of the minds of near-death experiences. Only four of my informants were members of the Church of the Nazarene when they had the experience. First, it has been difficult to get as many informants as I would have liked because of the problem of power relations I mentioned in the introduction and the possibility of being suspected of espionage.
Secondly, there has not been enough space and time for an extensive investigation into the phenomenon of near-death within the Nazarite Church. In examining these experiences and the role they play in the Nazarite Church, I believe this study has been able to reveal at least some of the "otherwise hidden forms of consciousness" in this important religious world. 34; Orality and Christianity: The Hymns of Isaiah Shembe and the Church of the Nazarites. "Current Writing.
