The Essence of Religions: A Glimpse of Heaven in the Near-Death Experience

by Christophor Coppes

Overview

The Essence of Religions was written to discourage the misuse of religions. This book provides the tools we need to reconsider many of the dogmas of the five major world religions that have proven detrimental to both human coexistence and our planet’s survival. Furthermore, it seeks to replace these misguided belief sets with a more unifying and uplifting outlook that will benefit mankind as a whole. The author urges our alignment with “The Light” of unconditional love that can be found in the teachings of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism--and The Light of compassionate love in visions recounted to us by those who have undergone near-death experiences (NDEs). The author of The Essence of Religions, Christophor Coppes, examines the NDE phenomenon as if it were a religious experience, placing it in context by comparing it to the five major world religions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781590799680
Publisher:	SelectBooks, Inc.
Publication date:	03/01/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	176
File size:	558 KB

About the Author

Christophor Coppes is the president of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) in the Netherlands. He is employed as a senior economist at the Dutch Central Bank monitoring developments in international financial markets. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Groningen and has published many scientific articles on finance while still maintaining a strong interest in humanitarian issues.

Table of Contents

Preface xi

1 Partial View of the Elephant 1

2 Near-Death Experiences: Unconditional Love & Interconnectedness 5

Extraordinary Experiences 5

The Light 6

The Life Review 7

No Judgment 9

Distressful NDEs 10

Messages from Near-Death Experiencers 11

We Are Profoundly Interconnected: Focus on Our Long-Term "Our-Interest" 11

Everyone Is Important 12

Everyone Is Indispensible 13

Returning Home Is Our Birthright 15

Love Is the One Building Block 15

3 Hinduism: Tat Tvam Asi, That Is You 17

The Eternal Just Way 17

From Three Hundred Thirty Million Gods to One God 18

Upanishads: That Is You 19

Upanishads: Escape from Reincarnation 22

The Song of God 25

The Ramayana: The Tourist Version 27

Rama in Tree Bark 29

Buddha as an Incarnation of Krishna 33

The Essence of Hinduism 33

Foolish Fixations 34

4 Buddhism: Do It Yourself-Discard the "Self" 37

There Is No Almighty One 37

Buddha the Victor 39

The Four Noble Truths 43

Karma 46

The Tibetan Book of the Dead 48

After Disintegration There Is Integration 49

The Essence of Buddhism 55

Foolish Fixations 57

5 Judaism: I Am Who I Am 61

The Establishment of Monotheism 61

The Sacred Texts 62

In "The Begin" Situation 67

The Covenants with YHWH 70

Abraham, The Second Covenant, and a Numerous People 72

Moses: The Third Covenant 74

Job 79

Sodom and Gomorrah 81

The Essence of Judaism 85

Foolish Fixations 86

6 Christianity: Love God, Your Neighbor, & Yourself Equally 89

Three Gods in One 89

Jesus The Son Of God 90

Original Sin 94

The Teachings of Jesus 98

The Essence of Christianity 104

Foolish Fixations 105

7 Islam: Voluntary Submission Leads to Peace & Security with Allah 111

The Primeval Book 111

From Adam and Eve to Ibrahim (Abraham) 114

Musa (Moses) 114

Disbelievers 116

Love of Allah 119

The Last Day and Then Heaven or Hell 119

Predestination 124

The Essence of Islam 126

Foolish Fixations 128

And Finally, the Foolish Fixation That Suicide Attacks Will Please Allah 130

8 Summary: Putting the "Elephant" Together 133

God or The Light Is Indescribable 133

God or The Light Seems to Be in All of Us 134

Love Others and Have Compassion 135

Everyone Has His Own Task 136

Punishment 138

All You Have Done Is Remembered 139

Is There a Heaven; Is There a Hell? 139

Attachment to Matter 141

There Is Free Will 141

Reincarnation 142

Get Aligned with the Light 143

Appendix: Chart for The Essences of NDEs and the Comparison with the Five Religions to Show the Parallels 145

Notes 150

References and Bibliography 156

Index 159

About the Author 164

What People are Saying About This

Eben Alexander

As we move away from worn-out dogma from both the religious and scientific realms toward a contemporary synthesis of understanding about our existence, Christopher's refreshing and comprehensive analysis of major religions in light of the profound lessons from numerous Near Death Experience journeyers offers a rich new tapestry of understanding that I find most valuable. —Eben Alexander, Author of the #1 New York Times best seller Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife

Editorial Reviews

The phenomenon of near-death experiences (NDEs) is relatively new, having originated in large measure because of the advent of medical techniques, over the last few decades, for resuscitating those who have suffered a cardiac arrest. Sporadic cases of those who had apparently died and then come back to life go back for millennia, but the vast majority of such cases have occurred in the last half-century. The initial professional view of these elaborate journeys as hallucinations or dreams has given way to a widespread scientific recognition that the similarities of these extraordinary recollections across a wide range of medical conditions, personal and cultural backgrounds and prior belief systems (religious, scientific, etc.) suggest a common underlying reality as their basis. The consensus among those scientists who study them is that they are not simply tricks of the dying brain, or brain-based phenomena at all. In fact, they often share similarities with the stories of religious mystics and prophets over millennia. I suspect that much of our religious literature elaborating on the spiritual realm originated in near-death and similar mind states. Christophor Coppes, chairman of the Dutch branch of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS), has provided a scholarly assessment of the similarities and differences found in the world's five major religions when compared with the prominent lessons learned from near-death experiences. Although the real essences of each of the five main religions can be found in NDEs, not all essences of NDEs can be found in each of the religions separately. He rightfully concludes that the NDE seems more comprehensive than each of the religions individually. As we move away from worn-out dogma from both the religious and scientific realms toward a contemporary synthesis of understanding about our existence, Christophor's refreshing and comprehensive analysis of major religions in light of the profound lessons from numerous NDE journeyers offers a rich new tapestry of understanding that I find most valuable. — Eben Alexander III, MD, author of NY Times #1 Best seller Proof of Heaven

From the Publisher