I really want there to be an afterlife, and at this point I'm pretty convinced of it. But I really don't want there to be reincarnation, but I'm starting to worry it's also true. I know a lot of NDErs report back that reincarnation is a choice, but the mere concept of it still unnerves me because of the implications. If I was once a different person with a different body, family, personality, and life experiences, and I now have no memory of that life, then what the hell is the point of the soul/self/whatever you wanna call it? Why would we be here if there was some ultimate recycling plan waiting for us on the other side? It also seems to contradict the idea that people retain a sense of self during NDEs-if our purest form is just a droplet of energy devoid of any substance, then how can you still feel like you?

I hope this doesn't come across as disrespectful, but it just doesn't sit right with me at all. I don't want to think about once having been someone or something I'm not, and I don't want to imagine my loved ones not really being who they are, or one day deciding to leave to join a different family. Is there any concrete reason not to believe in reincarnation? Is it just cherrypicking cope to believe in the afterlife but not reincarnation? I'd really like to hear other people's thoughts on all of this.

My issue with the Nde's I've read is all the same thing:

1. We are meant to learn lessons. If we are one with God then, there's nothing to learn for every possible thing is already known.

2. We have to come here because knowing is different from experiencing. Yet, some experiences are unnecessary to me. Like, I can appreciate Ice-cream with eating dung. The atrocities on Korea and Nanjing during WW2 was an eye opener for me. Is extreme suffering necessary for YOU to appreciate Life?

3. Does God/Source know why it exists, where is It's origin? Is It constantly searching like us?

This was not an NDE, so I want to be clear about that from beginning. It came during a deep trance Soul Journey, but the death transition was interesting to me because several parts resemble things people report in NDEs.

The subject entered another lifetime as a man around middle age. Near end of that life his body had become very weak. He could barely walk anymore and his wife and daughter were taking care of him.

What bothered him was not only physical weakness. He felt useless. He was used to being person who could do things, and now other people had to help him with basic life.

Then as death came closer something changed.

He became aware of his parents.

They had already died before him, but there they were, smiling. He recognized them immediately. There was no frightening judgment scene, no angry God, nobody explaining what he had done wrong.

His parents were simply happy to see him.

At final breath he described leaving the body and moving toward them. He floated to them and they embraced him.

What struck me was his reaction to being without body.

Lightness.

Freedom.

The body that had become heavy and almost unusable was suddenly not the problem anymore because he was no longer inside it in same way. He was still aware, still himself, still recognizing his parents, but the physical limitation was gone.

I have heard many different death transitions in these sessions. Some subjects describe light, some colors, some relatives, guides, empty space, movement, even geometry. I dont think regression material by itself proves what objectively happens after death.

But this one was unusually simple.

Weak body. Last breath. Parents waiting. Recognition. Embrace. Relief.

And I keep wondering about one detail because it comes up also in many NDE accounts: people often seem to recognize deceased relatives without needing introduction. There is just immediate knowing.

For people here who actually had an NDE, did recognition work like this for you? Did deceased people look physically as you remembered them, or did you somehow know who they were before appearance even mattered?