How would an intelligent creature from another planet, perhaps from another universe, communicate with mankind on earth? Although official programs searching for other intelligent life have been closed down as futile effort, we can be rather certain that there are persons who continue to search for extra-terrestrial life that may be meaningful to earth. There are varieties of relevant assumptions seeking for proofs. In the meantime mankind continues with what is available for mystery about yonder reality, focused mainly on God. There is general feeling that if there is life after death, there has to be an Intelligence that has the necessary competencies to offer and manage that life. Without God there would be no life after death. Someone with that authority, if spiritual life exists, must be God. The greatest authority for specific human information relates to sacred writings. Some of those writings are obviously the thoughts of speculative authors and do not convince of a divine culture, generally identified as spiritual – of a different sort than nature. Some appear to be genuine representation, but that is made to become a part of a whole literature, some unworthy – so to share in the distractions of skepticism. Confidence in the Christian mind is to defend inspiration for the Judeo-Christian Scriptures, without faultfinding other literature. The evaluation (criticism) of any literature is an important and legitimate exercise in the search for truth, but it is not necessary to the declaration of the Christian gospel. It belongs to its own context of study.
Mankind is not bereft of strong hints (evidence for many) that there is God and a supernatural kingdom. Recently a book has been published entitled, To Heaven and Back, written by Mary Neal, M.D. who suffered a drowning experience in a vacation kayak experience. She was rescued after a number of minutes, perhaps half an hour, from under water. The description of her experience (epiphany) is striking indeed. In her review in a major television interview (Matt Lauer on NBC on 07/19/2012), of what happened, she convincingly remarked on the intensity of love and peace she experienced in the minutes. She could not express it well in human language, and did not want to be rescued. She saw Jesus, she said, but could not describe him as she might a friend in face, hair and clothing. The only negative was imparted information that her son, a small lad at the time, would die prematurely. He was killed in an accident about ten years after her incident. Her great comfort, she affirms, is that she will see him again in a much better context than even her loving family currently enjoyed. She identified herself as a skeptic before the event. Her faith currently is quite intense. Persons listen, seem impressed, but nothing may change for them.
Out of body experiences have been reported many times, with varying degrees of persuasion to believe. They often include the reverie this woman felt on gaining a view of the kingdom and or persons they encountered. There was commonly a feeling of reality and unreality at the same time. (I have experienced that reality/unreality in dreams, perhaps twice a year, since my wife died over 15 years ago. In my dream, she is near, but I do not see her in face or body. We even have wisps of exchanges, and
I awaken. I am willing to accept that these may be the active subliminal workings of my mind, but I do not consciously think of the matter in my waking hours, and feel that if I did, the dreams would occur more often than they do.) This kind of thing taken together with the healing of persons through prayer, the stigmata of history, the repetition of persons sensing rescue in impossible situations, and the list of special experiences may be extended – become hints that drive masses of human beings to make search for God. Even in nature, there are strong unexplainable signs that call for faith. (Psalm 19:1) The mystery appears from one direction, then another. Sigmund Freud believed that dreams held a key to our inner being. During the early years of my life his view was gospel. Some analysts decided they may be waste products of troubled sleep. Some argue currently that there are subconscious ways of solving daily problems, so to account for minds working while the consciousness shuts down for cleansing of weary tissue. My counsel to persons is to simply pray that God will guide so as to comfort the spirit, and the mind to find solutions. The natural works well for me, but includes God presence. Even as I write during very early hours of morning, I sense and exult in that presence. We do not permit doubt to be unbelief. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020