The Agony and the Ecstacy

[Steve]

---  "justcarol67" <justcarol67 at ...> wrote:
>
> Sandy wrote:
> > 
> > I only had three expectations for this book:
> > 1. Voldemort would be defeated
> > 2. Harry would live
> > 3. Harry and Ginny would reunite
> > 
> > All three of these expectations were met, yet I 
> > have a great deal of negative criticism for the 
> > book.... One example: Even in the wizarding world 
> > people don't come back from the dead, but then we 
> > get King' Cross. I felt like I was watching Dallas
> > again.
> > 
> > For many it is a matter of unfulfilled expectations.
> > That is not the case for me.
> > 
> > Sandy
> > 
> Carol responds:
> If it helps, Dumbledore didn't come back from the dead.
> ... Harry has, in essence, gone beyond the Veil but he 
> can't die as long as Voldemort has a remaining Horcrux.
> So it's a **near-death experience** in which DD is dead
> ... but Harry is still alive.
> ...
> 

bboyminn:

Well, there are a couple of factual points I might argue
with, but Harry experience is a near perfect model of a
Near Death Experience. When people have this experience
the typically move down a long tunnel of white light,
and as they near the end, they are met by a loved one 
who either guides them on, or explains that it is not
their time and they they should go back. 

Harry doesn't have 'white light', but he does have an
other worldly white fog. A loved one, Dumbledore, mets
his and explains what is happened, and that Harry
should go back, but has the choice to go 'ON'. 

So, JKR remains true to her model of the wizard world,
no living person every truly crosses back from the dead.
The loved ones that Harry meets as he goes into the
forest to met Dumbledore, are more like apparitions 
than bodies returned from the dead. They are more than
ghosts, but less the fully physically formed. 

Steve/bboyminn