Let me see if I can get what I am trying to say to all of you and it actually make sense when I have done so.

A thought came across my mind today about religion and its place in our own personal zone. Is that what makes God almighty.
When we feel extreme comfort , we release endorins right?
Well when some one reads or hears the message about christ and they become believers, I have heard some of them say , : When I felt the Lord come into my life, the FEELING that came over me was near extasy
."Isn't that endorines?
I guess what I am trying to ask is , could God be more of a feeling then a knowing?
Is it a physical or endorine caused feeling?


Sorry if that doesnt make sense.

Cricket posts: Is it a physical or endorine caused feeling?
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I think the word you are looking for here Cricket is “endorphin”.

“Endorphins are endogenous opioid polypeptide compounds.
They are produced by the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus in vertebrates during strenuous exercise [1], excitement, and orgasm [woohooo] [2]; and they resemble the opiates in their abilities to produce analgesia and a sense of well-being.”

A significant ‘key word' here is opioid, relating to opiates, the most notorious being heroin or opium.

Yep, endorphins can produce a sensation of euphoria in a person.
Praise the Lord and Pass the Pipe; I’m saved and feel Great Tonight! ~rore

Yes, thank you Rore, I am just a bonehead .
So , if the feeling is caused by endorphines, then is the whole experience false?
I suppose that can only be answered by believers. They say God is a real enity . I use to be so very sure of my beliefs. Not to sure of any thing any more.

Cricket posts: I use to be so very sure of my beliefs. ========================

Me too Cricket!
But I am sure I have a lot to learn and I am hopeful I will not fall into the trap of ‘believing’ a concept simply because I am told the concept is true.

I have enough tools at my disposal to weed out fact from fantasy (lunacy) and I have only myself to blame for believing in ‘fairy tales’, unsubstantiated claims etc.

For me, now, learning is fun! ~rore

religion is the opium of the masses- Karl Marx

Maybe endorphins are a gift from God.

I've never told this story before, so bear with me if I get long-winded.

A little over a year ago, I went into respiratory distress. I've been close to death a few times, but that was closest I've ever been. Due to declining health, I'd been thinking about death more and more, wondering what it would be like. My greatest fear was that, after I stopped breathing, I would still be aware: unresponsive on the outside, but aware and alive inside, trapped inside a body that no longer responded to my commands, suffocating. The thought of suffocating for ten minutes or however long it took for brain death to occur had really started to frighten me.

Then, I had my 'incident'. My heart went into an arrhythmia, and I started having trouble breathing. At first, I could still breathe, but felt like I wasn't getting any oxygen, then I started having trouble getting my lungs to move. At first, it was everything I had ever been afraid of. It wasn't painful, not pain like getting punched or stabbed: but it was THE single most uncomfortable thing I've ever experienced. I felt like I was drowning. I reached a point where I thought "Well, all pain is finite, just like this body. Eventually I'll get to the end and it'll be over." By this time, my body had become unresponsive, and although my lungs still kicked in my chest occasionally, they really weren't doing so much good ... and then they stopped.

I don't know how much later it was, but I suddenly realized several things. (1) I was no longer breathing, but (2) I no longer felt the DESIRE to breath. I wasn't breathing, but it was completely okay.

And then I felt the most wonderful, beautiful, light feeling you can imagine, every bit as wonderful and more than the discomfort I had just come through. I thought then and still think today: "If this is what heaven is going to feel like, we have vastly underestimated just how perfect it is." I was completely at peace and ready to go. I wish there were words that could describe that feeling, but all I can say is that I felt free, I felt like a golden beam of sunlight.

Shortly thereafter, my lungs started kicking for no good reason, and then I was wheezing and hacking and coughing. The crash was dreadfully uncomfortable and not a little disappointing. And so here I am still.

I've had a close call or two or three since then (okay, five incidents), but never as close as that. However, I'm in no hurry. I know I'll get back eventually.

I know that euphoria comes with anoxia, that this feeling is associated with brain damage and death, that this is the motivation for choking games and some kinds of self-induced asphyxia ... so I understand the medical mechanism behind it ... but that doesn't change how I feel about it. It was a gift, something to make the final moments of passing more bearable and less frightening.