New Agers and the Human Flaw

     It's almost a given that NDEs are typically relegated to the category of "New Age" along with past life memories and other experiences which fall outside the realm of accepted Christian experience or teaching. What's most interesting about NDEs, ironically, is that the person who appears most often within them is Jesus Christ Himself. Not always, and not with everyone. But as one YouTuber that focuses on such interviews commented, "He's the hardest working person on my show!" Because of how often He becomes a part of them.
     One consistent thing which is reported from NDE accounts is that those experiencing them are either told or come to their own conclusions during that experience that no one religious belief has it all correct, but neither do they have it all wrong. There are parts of the reality which they experience and learn during their NDE which spread among the various religions. This "coexistence" teaching does tend to lean towards a more New Age view of things.
     But one thing I have observed about the more New Age believers or practitioners is that they do not generally subscribe to the idea that all human beings have a fundamental flaw. Whether one calls it "sin" or, as I do, a "malfunction" or an "error," this tends to get glossed over in favor of the pursuit of enlightenment or union with God.
     This flaw in human beings is clearly observable in human behavior as, while it can be compassionate and loving, it can also be incredibly selfish and self serving depending on what the human being in particular believes is the "right" course of action for them. As a result, while there are some that dedicate their lives to helping others, the collective actions of human beings over the millennia has brought both our own species, and our habitat itself, to the brink of self-destruction.
     In my opinion, rejecting this understanding of human beings is a mistake in their thinking, and one which leads to many different kinds of abuses and problems. By only promoting the goodness and evolving perfection of human beings, as this spectrum of teaching tends to, they fail to take into account the human propensity for selfish, biology based thinking, and potentially fail to check themselves for causing harm even where they don't mean to. What is interesting in relation to this is that, in at least one NDE and I believe others, the person reporting their experience said that Earth was under a kind of quarantine from the rest of the universe.
     Like with everything, it is my thought that there needs to be a balance between these two understandings: the pursuit of enlightenment or union with God and the fundamental flaw in human behavior which afflicts every human being. Focus too much on the latter produces judgmentalism, hyper-morality, and causes harm; yet focus too much on the former without an understanding of the latter produces abuses of its own as can be seen with the end result of many New Age gurus who essentially became cult leaders abusing their followers. Focusing only on our flaws without the pursuit of deliverance from them into theosis causes harm. Focusing only on the pursuit of theosis without an acknowledgment of our flawed behavior and understanding also causes harm.
     Jesus Christ understood that human beings were flawed, and that they had an inherent problem. Paul understood this as well, and wrote about it in detail. But rather than just focusing on and judging this flaw, and condemning the people for it, both Jesus and Paul taught the way around it through union with His death, burial, and resurrection with the goal being a full realization of theosis or union with God. Jesus Christ didn't condemn those who were fully aware of their flawed behavior and seeking to turn around, but He did chastise those who refused to admit their error in the attempt to get them to turn around.
     New Agers are absolutely right when they talk about the Way being love. That much is written across the New Testament as well, and that this is what Jesus taught can't really be denied except by those for whom such a teaching is antithetical to their own beliefs. But the error in the human brain needs to be kept in mind, or else it ends up completely ruining any good they might have to give just like it does for everyone else. This is why Jesus Christ gave us a way to bypass it through His Spirit.