It’s a bit of a challenge, discerning such things as near-death experiences that come from non-Catholic realms.

Take, for example, Mormons.

They profess Christ, but also hold and purvey a multitude of, shall we say, unique and unorthodox beliefs.

We’ll not spend time spelling those out at this moment. One intriguing aspect of this faith is the acceptance of afterlife visions, and when it comes to those, a noteworthy recent Mormon “seer” is Jane Moe of California, who saw Heaven in the way many others, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, also have, but with a number of turns and twists.

Interesting is her claim that in 2006, during major orthopedic surgery (following an accident while walking in Hollywood Hills), Jane “popped” out of her body and, among other intrigues — such as encountering deceased family members — was allegedly shown an entrance to the place of God.

“This is the door to Heaven, and I’m just going to open it a little bit, because you’re not ready to see the whole thing,” she claims she was told by her husband’s father, who, though she had never met him (he died before she’d met her husband), greeted her.

“Again there was like silver and gold in the door and the colors were like hugging me and wanting me and knowing me,” she attests. “And this music — this unbelievable music that was coming out of this door: I wish I could describe it.

“I looked inside and I could see billions of people walking around but it wasn’t crowded, and I noticed there was a lot of people who were gathered together in like a city or a town and as I was wondering what it was, this image popped into my head that these were families that could be together forever  because they lived a Godly life on earth.”

You mean, she wondered: “I can be with my mom and dad and grandparents when I pass?”

“Families can be together forever,” she says her father-in-law told her.

“All of a sudden I’m feeling this love and this wave of emotions coming from within the door,” she further alleges. She could “actually see waves of joy, peace, and knowledge.” “There was so much love I was receiving, that it was like every cell was leaping for joy,” Moe recalls.

Her husband was ready to dismiss her experience, when she later told him, but the details she furnished about his dad were things she couldn’t possibly have known. Or so goes the testimony. And she seems a credible witness — if, again, from the Mormon perspective.

“The colors are more vibrant than any on earth,” she wrote in a book. “Red is not simply red. It is brilliant and shimmery, appearing to have gold flecks in it. The same is true of the blues, greens, and every other color I saw as my eyes darted back and forth, taking in this magnificent scene. The gold is not like we see gold but if you can imagine the most beautiful gold in the world with silver mixed into it yet it’s moving and running and speaking and receiving, and that’s just two of the colors I saw. The hues are so vivid that they seem to be alive.”

She saw flowers such as roses — every petal glorifying and praising the Lord.

“I also heard music,” she says. “Each note is profound, strong yet whispering. Its soothing ebbs and flows swirled around me and through me.”

She says she saw Jesus as if sitting on a chair taking children upon His lap. They were children of all ages, “and as I watched this happening,” she writes, “I was made to understand that there were babies that had been aborted or lost in miscarriage.

“They don’t die. They go to Heaven too.”

Many of her visions occurred in remarkable dreams after the brush with death. Controversial for some might be her visions of animals. “God loves us so much, the things we love during this life will be with us when we reach Heaven,” Jane writes in Visions of Heaven: What My Near-Death Experience Taught Me About Eternity. “That includes our pets. Animals and all other living things have spirits, and when they die, they go to Heaven too. Just as we’ll celebrate upon reuniting with family members, we’ll also rejoice when seeing our pets in Heaven. Because [my husband] and I now know that all living things have spirits — and that God loves them all — we’re much more in tune with nature. We now stop to move worms off the running and biking path by our home, and Richard stopped fishing so he wouldn’t hurt the fish. These are personal decisions we have made; I’m not suggesting you need to do the same. However, respecting nature has helped us come closer to the Holy Ghost, hear His direction in our lives, and feel greater love for all forms of life.”

For our discernment.

Take what you feel is good, advises Scripture about private revelations. Leave what may not be.

One lesson: avoid strong negative emotions, such as anger, pride, jealousy, and defensiveness. This all religions can agree upon.

We are inhibited in the journey to Heaven, notes Jane, by forgetting to take enough time to listen to what the Lord might be saying, because we’re “always watching something on YouTube, and always checking our friends’ Facebook posts.”

That noise, she warns, drowns out what the Spirit is trying to tell us.

The same is true of other distractions, such as video games with the young.

Back to deceased relatives, who the California woman “saw” as always praying for and watching us.

“When they see that a grandchild on earth has a new tooth, they pull out party favors,” she says. “When a nephew earns his bachelor’s degree, they set off fireworks. Celebrations with extended family are easy to hold because each family lives in a mansion. Family members’ mansions are close by. Each mansion is jaw-dropping in beauty. In comparison, Bill Gates’ estate in Washington, which cost $63 million to build, looks like a shack. One reason for the beauty of the mansions — and Heaven in general — is that all colors are much more intense than they are on earth. Autumn leaves are a vivid ruby red. Grass is a deep emerald green. Every color emanates a light that’s hard to describe but that I know is somehow connected to the light that originates with God and Jesus Christ.”

[resources: books on the afterlife]

[Jane’s book is Visions of Heaven: What My Near-Death Experience Taught Me About Eternity]