What Can we Learn from a New Death Experience? An Interview with Peter Panagore

A Brief Nature of the Near Death Experience

The near death experience is a subject of much controversy between experiencers, materialist-based science, and religion. Are they a phenomenon created by a dying brain under the effects of hypoxia? Or do they point to a genuine common experience of continued existence after death? Science tries to explain the former, but almost all first hand experiencers are convinced of the latter.

More information on the nature of these experiences can be found on our brief post on the out of body experience.

I myself have never had such an experience so I cannot fairly conclude either, but certainly the after effects of such a state are very profound indeed. The most common of these is the fact that the experiencer no longer have any fear of death, since they "know" that death is not what is commonly believed. I put "know" in quotation because from an outsider's perspective this knowledge is still only very much a belief until experienced oneself. Another side effect is the complete alteration or even total subversion of a pre-defined belief system. For instance, religious indoctrination will change from a passed on knowledge from teachers and peers to an experiential reality, but often in a most unorthodox nature which may be contrary to the general beliefs of the faith. Regardless of what you the reader believes, it is clear that this is a phenomena of extreme validity and importance in our culture as it may help unlock further knowledge of our nature.

Peter's Account

Reverend Peter Panagore is one such experiencer of this state of expanded awareness. Here is a discussion I had with him in regards to the understandings and viewpoints he has developed as a result of his amazing experience. As a practitioner of the christian faith, it is clear that Peter has been able to use his newly discovered knowledge to apply it to the foundation of the religion. To really dig deep into the metaphorical nature of the teachings of the Bible and prophets. Unlike many orthodox followers of religion, Peter has been able to understand the value in the original teachings as opposed to taking each quote in literal form, and has instead been very active in exploring and evaluating life from many perspectives.

Here is our discussion: