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Fifteen years ago, when I was working in a plush hair salon in Eugene, Oregon, I had a customer who would fly in from San Francisco. She had become famous and was to appear on some big talk shows because of an unusual “out of body” experience. She told me to share her story whenever possible. This woman had lived a self-centered, fairly wicked life. She had many questions about life and feared what the next life would bring. She had been a diabetic for 8 years on insulin. As she was taking a taxi to the airport one morning, she realized she had forgotten to eat breakfast and had not taken her insulin. In fact, she forgot to take insulin with her as she had felt so rushed. She began to go into diabetic shock and quickly asked the taxi driver to go back; that she needed her insulin. At this point she became aware that she was standing outside the taxi and looking in at he limp body. She also noticed a man in white appearing next to her. She was not afraid and seemed to be ready with her questions. The first question she asked was “Is there really such a being as the Devil”? The being in white said, “I’ll let you see.” Suddenly the being disappeared and everything became very dark. So black and dark you could cut it with a knife. She became aware of the presence of the most awful being coming towards her which frightened her enough to say, “Ok, I don’t need to know anymore”.
The darkness left and the light and heavenly being returned. Well, you’d think she’d leave well enough alone, but she then asked her next question. “Is there really such a place as hell”? The heavenly being said again, “Ill let you see.” She then said she experienced true hell, but it was not as she had anticipated it to be. Her whole life began flashing before her and she re-lived every awful thing she had done to people. She had to feel the anguish and pain others went through because of her actions on earth. Also, she saw the ripple effect it had on others. It was the most horrible experience. She woke up in the hospital and the doctor knew she had gone through something traumatic and asked her if she had an “out of body” experience. She told him about it and then said just before she came to, the heavenly being told her that her time on earth was not up yet and she needed to go back. She was to know that this experience was not just a figment of her imagination, because she would no longer have diabetes or need to be on insulin when she returned. The doctor checked her out and she did not have diabetes and has not been on insulin since. This experience happened 3 years prior to my meeting her.
I’m with Valoel and HiJolly, for what it’s worth. By the way, bn, thanks for sharing that story. Such stories are of great worth to me.
I, too, had a vision of Satan once, and I took it as a figurative lesson for me on an important subject.
I would tend to agree with hawkgrrrl on this one. I personally don’t believe in a literal satan. In one sense, the existence of a literal satan is irrelevant. More important is that evil *does* exist both internally and externally to our selves.
Admittedly even the definition of evil is somewhat subjective for many things (opposing religious sects being a prime example), but most rational folk can agree on a lot of behaviours being inherently bad, some deriving more from weakness and others more from malevolence.
I see little value in personifying evil in satan as it leads to cop-outs others already touched on, or creates fear of some mystical being that gets focused on when there is ample evil to be battled in the “real world”.
However, if it helps some people behave better or motivates them to do good of various kinds to spite “the devil” then I suppose it also has some utility.
Despite having this stance, and having transitioned to being a stealth agnostic mormon, I have to say I have discerned palpable evil that I can’t explain. When I was in the MTC umpteen years ago, the elders in my room got into a discussion about evil spirits, etc. just before bed time while the lights were out. We decided we should stop after a while. Shortly after, I felt this oppressive force that seemed external to me but didn’t say anything. My comp in the upper bunk burst out and said “it feels WEIRD in here!!” all four of us jumped out of our bunks and got out of that room. We all felt it, and it was very strong. We went next door with other elders in our group and prayed with them, which dispelled the feeling.
Was there some external force in action? Or did we all feel simultaneous guilt for doing something we knew was wrong?
Something like mass hysteria?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_hysteriahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_hysteria” class=”bbcode_url”> I don’t know.
Skepti-Cal
I can only speak for myself, but my reality includes the existence of a world of spirits including throngs of evil ones. It is very natural to me that affinity develops between us and spirits in those other worlds. I can accept your story as having a root in a transcendent reality of lost spirits (including your own at that moment?). Hello, I’m new but this discussion caught my eye. I believe there is a Satan. I have had personal experiences with him. and.. no I am not crazy or on drugs. 
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