Insight on the News

Analysis of “Afterlife” Experiences

● Psychologist Ronald Siegel of the University of California in Los Angeles has thoroughly analyzed the subject of “afterlife” experiences. “An expert on hallucinations,” “Psychology Today” magazine reports, “Siegel shows that the descriptions given by dying persons are virtually identical to descriptions given by persons experiencing hallucinations, drug-induced or otherwise. . . . [The hypothesis] that dying patients are in fact experiencing glimpses of the afterlife, has no compelling evidence to support it.” At the close of a lengthy article on the subject, Siegel states: “Through the research discussed here we have begun to understand the nature of these life-after-death experiences as hallucinations, based on stored images in the brain.”​—January 1981, pp. 65-75.

These findings are in harmony with the Bible’s description of death. It is clear that there is no consciousness after death and that the soul dies. (Ps. 146:4; Eccl. 9:5, 10; Ezek. 18:4, 20) Hallucinations no doubt account for the vast majority of such experiences. Some, however, may be caused by supernatural forces seeking to perpetuate the lie that humans really do not die. These supernatural “demons” could convey information to persons that they could not receive by ordinary means.​—Acts 16:16; 2 Cor. 4:4; 11:14.

Rely on Women’s Magazines?

● Can women rely on women’s magazines to help them to avoid divorce? It is doubtful, according to Dr. Edward Shorter, who teaches history and women’s studies at the University of Toronto. He recently explained why it is that many women who depend on women’s magazines for information are not likely to get what they need to help them to make a success of marriage. When he was asked to write an article for such a magazine on the subject of avoiding divorce, Dr. Shorter met with the editor to discuss what he would cover in the article. In a column in the Toronto “Star,” he says that the editor was “horrified” at his recommendation. Why?

He explains: “I told her that to avoid divorce readers should shun extra-marital sex as though it were the Black Death. That a few old-fashioned ‘sex roles’ for men and women were perfectly all right and that a little ‘traditional’ behavior in fact gave people a sense of stability.” That magazine never published the article.

Though it might surprise some, what the doctor recommends for steering one away from divorce is exactly what the Bible teaches for a happy marriage. “Let marriage be honorable among all, and the marriage bed be without defilement, for God will judge fornicators and adulterers.” (Heb. 13:4) Women’s magazines and the wise men of the world likely will not offer such vital information for marital success, as it goes contrary to their view of “freedom” and “independence.”​—Compare Ephesians 5:22-33.

“Unique Predicament”

● “Scientific American” magazine published an article concerning a recent United Nations study of nuclear weapons. Commissioned by the U.N. secretary-general, it was carried out by an international group of experts, who arrived at a “unanimous final report.” The article said that the U.N. group found that mankind is in “a historically unique predicament.” Declared the U.N. group: “Never before have States been in a position to destroy the very basis of the continued existence of other States or regions; never before has the destructive capacity of weapons been so immediate, complete and universal; never before has mankind been faced, as today, with the real danger of self-extinction.”​—January 1981, pp. 82, 84.

These findings add weight to the Bible’s indications that mankind’s “last days” could not have taken place until our generation. (2 Tim. 3:1) Since man now has the capacity of self-extinction, or, as the Bible states at Revelation 11:18 (“The New English Bible”), the capacity to “destroy the earth,” we must be living in the “last days.” Hence, for Almighty God “the time has come to destroy those who are destroying the earth.”​—“The Jerusalem Bible.”