Hi Jim
When people die, the initial stages are designed to help them adjust easily to prevent confusion and disorientation. If you went from a physical earth existence to a realm that was purely non-physical, it would be confusing and disorienting. It is one thing when you are taken on a visit to a new realm of existence and shown things to help you (and others) when you come back to your physical body, and another to find yourself in a permanently changed condition.
I'd say that makes sense, and also generally is true in the life we experience now too. We learn gradually with the occasional flash of insight. I am not sure I'd use the word 'designed', I'd see it as more of a natural progression but that's only a personal opinion and I don't think it changes the point you're making.
Do you think this contradicts what people learn during NDE's?
Yes I'd say it doesn't fit with the reports from some NDEs where people talk about 'being at one with the universe' etc but I'd only say it 'appears' to contradict, as when and if the bigger picture is revealed, it may seem perfectly compatible.
Do NDE's cover "rate of progress" or "presure to progress"? (As a side note, I've read accounts of people not wanting to reincarnate but after all their friends progressed to higher levels in the afterlife and they are left behind they eventually decide to do it.)
I have probably chosen my words badly. I don't get the impression that people are pressurised to progress but that it is more like a natural flow which one can resist, at least for a time, as you indicate.
I don't think, at least from the NDEs I have read about, that the issue of progression is mentioned to any great extent. I am referring mainly to people who report experiences very different from earth life (most ADCs I have read do not report such experiences).
I don't think you can really compare the effects of an NDE on a person and the effects of really dying. It is like comparing apples to oranges. NDErs are changed by their death experience, but spirits are also changed by their life experience. People retain their personality after death but the knowledge of the afterlife and all that entails does often change people who are open to change. But it varies from person to person. Someone who has a lot of strongly held beliefs might be resistant to change after death. Some (not all) materialists refuse to believe they are dead and instead believe they are having a dream. But not everyone is inflexible, some people (not all) who are brought up with religious views that do not match what they experience in the afterlife don't have any problem accepting the new reality.
There isn't much I'd disagree with here really. Except of course we are hearing descriptions of an environment from visitors and permanent residents. Whilst there may be differences, I'd expect key elements to be the same. For example if the visitors reported that everyone communicated telepathically but the residents communicating said that wasn't the case, I'd say that's a material difference. Of course there may be many explanations for this difference but personally I don't think differences can be waved away by saying they're not real comparisons without a bit more justification for it.
Why can't we compare the effects of dying on a person with those of an NDE?
The biggest difference I am aware of between NDEs and a full transition to the afterlife is that in a full transition, the life review is more of a methodical process of study and occurs after one had had time to adjust to the afterlife, rather than being blasted with it at the beginning of the experience.
That's an interesting observation. It's certainly a difference. There may of course be some purpose in it.