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card_zeroyesterday at 9:38 PM2 repliesview on HN

Here's Plato's thing, the "myth of Er":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_Er

What are the unaccountably unlikely commonalities that I should be noticing? Between this and the article, I see only: some kind of colored light, some kind of officiating beings, and a river (A.J.Ayer says he presumably had the Styx in mind, though amusingly in the actual ancient Greek account it's a different river and there's no need to cross it).


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BoardsOfCanadayesterday at 9:50 PM

So it has the same stages as modern NDEs: - Out of body experience - Journey through realms - Bright/universal light - Life review - Encounters with spiritual beings - Reincarnation / life selection - A message of peace, well-being, and survival of consciousness

I've never heard of life reviews for example outside of NDEs, most of these things are not in the collective unconscious.

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twicyesterday at 11:07 PM

Not long ago, a local mad church put a packet of pamphlets through my door, one of which was this magnificent tale:

https://avesselofhonour.com/2023/06/28/48-hours-in-hell/

Some of those features show up there too. Of course, this comes from a Christian background, and draws on that. But it does have a river, and there's no river in hell in the bible.

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