Baptism, Dying and Rising with Christ, and the Aftereffects of NDEs

     One of the things among many that has caught my attention as a theologian about Near Death Experiences is the aftereffects upon the people who have actually experienced them. Rather than try to ineloquently summarize them myself, I'll allow those doctors who actually study the phenomenon say what these are in their own words:

  "Regardless of their cause, NDEs can permanently and dramatically alter the individual experiencer’s attitudes, beliefs, and values. The literature on the aftereffects of NDEs has focused on the beneficial personal transformations that often follow. A recent review of research into the characteristic changes following NDEs found the most commonly reported to be loss of fear of death; strengthened belief in life after death; feeling specially favored by God; a new sense of purpose or mission; heightened self-esteem; increased compassion and love for others; lessened concern for material gain, recognition, or status; greater desire to serve others; increased ability to express feelings; greater appreciation of, and zest for, life; increased focus on the present; deeper religious faith or heightened spirituality; search for knowledge; and greater appreciation for nature. These aftereffects have been corroborated by interviews with near-death experiencers’ significant others and by long-term longitudinal studies."
(Greyson, Bruce. "Getting Comfortable With Near Death Experiences: An Overview of Near-Death Experiences." Mo Med. 2013 Nov-Dec;110(6):475–481. PMCID: PMC6179792)

From "Aftereffects of Near-death States" by by P.M.H. Atwater, L.H.D. :

• Near-death experiencers come to love and accept others without the usual attachments and conditions society expects. They perceive themselves as equally and fully loving of each and all, openly generous, excited about the potential and wonder of each person they see. Their desire is to be a conduit of universal love. Confused family members tend to regard this sudden switch in behavior as oddly threatening, as if their loved one had become aloof, unresponsive, even uncaring and unloving. Some mistake this "unconditional" way of expressing joy and affection (heart-centered rather than person-centered) as flirtatious disloyalty. Divorce can result.
• One of the reasons life seems so different afterward is because the experiencer now has a basis of comparison unknown before. Familiar codes of conduct can lose relevance or disappear altogether as new interests take priority. Such a shift in reference points can lead to a childlike naivete. With the fading of previous norms and standards, basic caution and discernment can also fade. It is not unusual to hear of near-death experiencers being cheated, lied to, or involved in unpleasant mishaps and accidents. Once they are able to begin integrating what happened to them, discernment usually returns.
• Most experiencers develop a sense of timelessness. They tend to "flow" with the natural shift of light and dark, and display a more heightened awareness of the present moment and the importance of being "in the now." Making future preparations can seem irrelevant to them. This behavior is often labeled "spaciness" by others, who do their best to ignore the change in perception, although seldom do they ignore the shift in speech. That's because many experiencers refer to their episode as if it were a type of "divider" separating their "former" life from the present one.
• There's no denying that experiencers become quite intuitive afterward. Psychic displays can be commonplace, such as: out-of-body episodes, manifestation of "beings" met in near-death state, "remembering" the future, finishing another's sentence, "hearing" plants and animals "speak." This behavior is not only worrisome to relatives and friends, it can become frightening to them. A person's religious beliefs do not alter or prevent this amplification of faculties and stimuli. Yet, experiencers willing to learn how to control and refine these abilities, consider them beneficial.
• Life paradoxes begin to take on a sense of purpose and meaning, as forgiveness tends to replace former needs to criticize and condemn. Hard driving achievers and materialists can transform into easy-going philosophers; but, by the same token, those more relaxed or uncommitted before can become energetic "movers and shakers," determined to make a difference in the world. Personality reversals seem to depend more on what's "needed" to round out the individual's inner growth than on any uniform outcome. Although initially bewildered, families can be so impressed by what they witness that they, too, change-making the experience a "shared event."
• The average near-death experiencer comes to regard him or herself as "an immortal soul currently resident within a material form so lessons can be learned while sojourning in the earthplane." They now know they are not their body; many go on to embrace the theory of reincarnation. Eventually, the present life, the present body, becomes important and special again.
• What was once foreign becomes familiar, what was once familiar becomes foreign. Although the world is the same, the experiencer isn't. Hence, they tend to experiment with novel ways to communicate, even using abstract and grandiose terms to express themselves. With patience and effort on everyone's part, communication can improve and life can resume some degree of routine. But, the experiencer seems ever to respond to a "tune" no one else can hear (this can continue lifelong).

(Copied from  https://iands.org/ndes/about-ndes/common-aftereffects.html)

Atheists become pastors, selfish people become selfless, ordinary people develop paranormal abilities; and as a person exceptionally familiar with the New Testament narratives and letters, I cannot help but see the parallels with the experiences of the early Christians which were written about therein. I also cannot help but recognize the emphasis placed on "dying to self," "dying with Christ," and as Paul wrote point-blank in his letter to the Colossians as to why they were to be mindful of the things within the heavenly realms instead of minding the things on earth, "because you died and your life is hidden with Christ inside God."

     Jesus taught that His followers needed to die to themselves, and the embrace of this death is the underpinning of all Christian practice. As Paul also wrote in his letter to the Romans, "Don't you know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were then buried together with Him through the baptism into His death so that just like Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father so also we should walk in a freshness of life." I read the list of aftereffects of an NDE, and it seems like that is exactly what these folks are experiencing after literally returning from being clinically dead, sometimes for relatively long stretches of time.

     The thought occurs to me that being baptized and joined to Jesus Christ in His death and return from death is meant to trigger something like the aftereffects of an NDE based on Jesus' death and return rather than the baptized person's individual death and return. Jesus' "death experience" becomes that baptized person's "death experience" with the expectation that the aftereffects would follow. Why this appears to no longer be the case in most instances is up for debate, but I don't think the correlation between the aftereffects of NDEs and the manner of life expected of baptized persons can be.

     I'm not sure where this line of thought is going, but I have trouble believing that these things are mere unrelated coincidence.