{"id":90778,"date":"2021-04-07T14:29:27","date_gmt":"2021-04-07T20:29:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=90778"},"modified":"2021-05-23T23:55:43","modified_gmt":"2021-05-24T05:55:43","slug":"a-film-about-pre-mortal-life-and-near-death-experiences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2021\/04\/a-film-about-pre-mortal-life-and-near-death-experiences.html","title":{"rendered":"A film about pre-mortal life and near-death experiences"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Remembering<\/a>
The current film poster for \u201cRemembering Heaven\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

First, though:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

My inaugural installment of what is intended to be a regular column for Meridian Magazine<\/em> has now appeared:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what do the witnesses\u2019 testimonies prove?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And, speaking of the witnesses to the Book of Mormon:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Interpreter Foundation\u2019s first theatrical film, Witnesses<\/em><\/a>, will open to the public \u2014 in Utah movie houses, anyway, and perhaps somewhat beyond (I\u2019ll have more information about that shortly, I believe) \u2014 on Friday, 4 June 2021.\u00a0 That\u2019s less than two months away.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Actually, it will open at 7 PM on Thursday, 3 June 2021.\u00a0 (That\u2019s evidently the way things are done for cinematic \u201copening weekends.\u201d)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I hope that you\u2019re planning to see Witnesses<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you are, please mark your calendars for Thursday, 3 June, and\/or Friday, 4 June, and\/or Saturday, 5 June.\u00a0 Bring family.\u00a0 Bring friends.\u00a0 Heck, bring your ward\u2019s Young Men and Young Women.\u00a0 We\u2019re hoping for a solid opening weekend that will lend added market credibility to the film and, thus, earn it more screens \u2014 including screens in theaters outside of Utah and beyond the Wasatch Front.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The formal premiere for Witnesses<\/em> is slated for Wednesday, 2 June 2021.\u00a0 The theater in which we were intending to hold the premiere is undergoing major renovations, but we\u2019ve secured another very good venue for the event and are moving forward with plans.\u00a0 The premiere will focus on donors to the film and on media representatives, but there may still be seating available for the general public.\u00a0 I\u2019ll know more as we draw closer to the date.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I thought that some of you might also be interested to know that the documentary\u00a0 film Remembering Heaven<\/em>, which focuses on the idea of premortal life but also treats near-death experiences,\u00a0has been accepted into the Utah Film Festival<\/a>\u00a0(which will be held in Orem, at the Orem City Library, this week)\u00a0and that it is not only up for the Festival\u2019s \u201cBest Documentary\u201d award but is, in fact, one of the \u201cTop 3\u201d finalists<\/em> for that award.\u00a0 The premiere will be this coming Friday, 9 April 2021, at 4:00 PM.\u00a0 (Seats are by ticket only.). I\u2019m told that there will be a free reception afterward, at 5:30 PM, but I don\u2019t know whether that is open to the general public or only to special invited guests.\u00a0 (I\u2019m in the film, as are some other people whom you might know, such as Terryl Givens and Martin Tanner, who hosts a regular program on KSL-Radio and who also generously coordinates and sometimes hosts the weekly Interpreter Radio Show.\u00a0\u00a0The Utah Film Festival awards event will be on Saturday, 10 April 2021, from 7-9pm, also at the Orem City Library<\/a>\u00a0(https:\/\/www.theutahfilmawards.com\/<\/a>).<\/div>\n
\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Remembering Heaven<\/em> has also been accepted into the International Christian Film Festival (https:\/\/www.internationalcff.org\/<\/a>) which will be held in Orlando, Florida, on 22-24 May 2021.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The folks behind Remembering Heaven<\/em> are using the hashtag #rememberingheaven<\/b>\u00a0to help others find out more about the film on social media and FaceBook.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

With Remembering Heaven<\/em> in mind, I offer a few passages from toward the end of\u00a0Bruce Greyson,\u00a0After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>(New York:\u00a0<\/span>St. Martin\u2019s Essentials, 2021).\u00a0 You will recall that Dr. Greyson is Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.\u00a0 Prior to joining the faculty at Virginia, he taught at the medical schools of the University of Michigan and the University of Connecticut, and he is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The first comes from \u201cEdith,\u201d who recounts what happened to her when, at age thirty-eight , her stomach ulcers ruptured.\u00a0 She was in horrible pain.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The next thing I became aware of was that I was in a new environment.\u00a0 I was suddenly not<\/em> in the bed in the hospital with all the medical paraphernalia restricting my anatomy.\u00a0 But I could see the entire room, complete with a delicate cobweb up in a corner on the ceiling and some cracked plaster over the window.\u00a0 I felt not a twinge of apprehension or fear attached to this unusual situation.\u00a0 I was thoroughly enjoying this whole experience.\u00a0 As I looked around and scrutinized my body from on high, I became aware of an incredible light.\u00a0 This was not<\/em> your everyday beam of sunlight, or a hundred-watt lightbulb shining forth, or a roaring fire, or a host of candles.\u00a0 It was not a celestial explosion in the midnight sky.\u00a0 It was radiant, \u2018in sparkling raiment bright.\u2019\u00a0 It was warm.\u00a0 It possessed unearthly peace and radiant splendor.\u00a0 Nothing on earth has its color.\u00a0 There are not words to describe the depth of its visionary beauty.\u00a0 This is a place of total love and a place where ultimate security exists, forever. . . .<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I looked down at the body in the in the bed, with all its artificial appendages; all the more I wanted to stay where I was.\u00a0 As I watched, I began to see my life before me, instantly, on a huge television screen and in living three-dimensional color.\u00a0 It was all there \u2014 not a detail was missing \u2014 even things I had not thought of for years.\u00a0 <\/strong>(198-199)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The idea that our minds \u2014 our thoughts, feelings, hopes, fears \u2014 are produced solely by our physical brains is not a scientific fact.\u00a0 It is a philosophical theory proposed to explain scientific facts.\u00a0 <\/strong>(209)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those paradoxes suggest that we need a different model of how minds and brains interact.\u00a0 They suggest that the physical brain may act like a cell phone, receiving thoughts and feelings from the nonphysical mind and converting them into electrical and chemical signals that the body can understand and use. . . .<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

We may eventually come up with another explanation, but until then, minds and brains as separate things, with brains acting to filter our thoughts and feelings, seems to be the most plausible working model.\u00a0<\/strong> (220)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

NDEs raise questions about the continuation of consciousness after death.\u00a0 If it is true that minds can function in extreme circumstances without physical brains, then it may be possible that minds can continue to exist after the death of the brain.\u00a0 An answer to what happens after death may be beyond today\u2019s scientific methods \u2014 or it may just be beyond our scientific imagination.\u00a0 But the scientific answer \u2014 if it ever comes \u2014 will likely be through indirect evidence, like the trail of bubbles subatomic particles leave in a bubble chamber.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know whether some kind of continued consciousness after death is the best explanation for NDEs in which experiencers see deceased loved ones no one knew had died.\u00a0 But I don\u2019t have any alternative explanation for the evidence.\u00a0 We may eventually come up with another explanation, but until then, some form of continued consciousness after death seems to be the most plausible working model.\u00a0<\/strong> (221)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 *** \u00a0 First, though: \u00a0 My inaugural installment of what is intended to be a regular column for Meridian Magazine has now appeared: \u00a0 \u201cBut what do the witnesses\u2019 testimonies prove?\u201d \u00a0 *** \u00a0 And, speaking of the witnesses to the Book of Mormon: \u00a0 The Interpreter Foundation\u2019s first theatrical film, Witnesses, will 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