As medical techniques are being improved,
many people are being brought back from near death. A number
of them talk about floating near the ceiling and seeing
everything that happens around their body.
Millions of people from all over the world
have undergone a Near-Death Experience. In 1983 a major
American survey by George Gallup Junior reported that about
five per cent of the adult population had experienced one
(Gallup 1982).
Studies in many different countries have
shown that people are having the same experiences all over
the world: Margot Grey's study of NDEs in England (Grey
1985); Paola Giovetti's study in Italy (Giovetti 1982);
Dorothy Counts' study in Melanesia (Counts 1983); Satwant
Pasricha and Ian Stevenson's (1986) study in India.
These experiences have been happening throughout
human history, but it is only in the last thirty years that
people in Western culture have felt safe to talk about them.
What happens- a typical experience
A man is dying and hears the doctor say that he is dead.
He finds himself outside his own physical body, sometimes
floating near the ceiling. He sees his own body from a distance.
He watches the doctors and nurses trying to save his life
and tries to tell them that he is all right. He
notices that he still has a 'body', which is different from
the physical body he has left behind. He tries to talk to
people but they cannot hear or see him. He thinks of his
loved ones and finds himself in a different place with them.
Soon other things begin to happen. He sees the spirits of
relatives and friends who have already died. A loving spirit
made of light appears before him. This spirit shows him
a review of his whole life and asks him how much love he
has shown to others. Sometimes he is taken on a journey
and learns about the future.
At some point he finds himself approaching
some sort of barrier like a fence or a bridge or a river.
This represents the limit between earthly life and the next
life.
He is told that he has to go back, or is given a choice.
In most cases he does not want to go back because he feels
so much joy, love, and peace. But sometimes he chooses to
go back because his family will miss him too much.
He suddenly finds himself back in his physical body and
feels a lot of pain. He also feels very sad to have left
the beautiful other world.
Later he tries to tell others what he saw,
but he can find no human words to describe his experiences.
He also finds that others laugh at him so he stops telling
other people.
However he cannot forget what happened and it becomes the
center of his life. He remembers every detail, unlike a
dream. He is no longer afraid of death. However he finds
that he has changed a lot.
Video: Dr George Ritchie's Near Death Experience. * In 1943 George was in the army about to go to
medical school in Richmond.
* he was very sick and was pronounced dead from pneumonia.
* While he was dead he tried to find his uniform so he could
get to Richmond.
* he found himself up in the sky and seeing the river.
* he tried to ask people where he was but people cannot
hear him.
* he decided he left something back in the hospital.
* he tried to find his things.
* he found his own body which re recognised from his ring.
* suddenly there was a light. He met an amazing being.
* he sees every thing he has every done from the day he
was born.
* he is asked "What have you done with your life."
* he returns to his body and wrote a book about all the
realms he visited.
Cherie Sutherland, an Australian researcher, interviewed
50 NDE survivors and found that the effects on their lives
were very similar. They were also quite different from the
effects of drugs or chemicals. She identified many effects
which are the same as those found by other researchers e.g.
Ring (1980 and 1984) Atwater (1988). These included:
• all believed in life after death
• 80% now believed in re-incarnation
• no-body feared death any more
• many no longer went to church but followed personal
spiritual practice
• many were more psychic
• a more positive view of self and of others
• many preferred to be alone
• an increased sense of purpose
• a lack of interest in material success coupled with
a marked increase in interest in spiritual development
• fifty per cent experienced major difficulties in
close relationships as a result of their changed priorities
• most drank less alcohol
• almost all gave up smoking
• most gave up prescription drugs
• most watched less television
• most read fewer newspapers
• an increased interest in alternative healing
• an increased interest in learning and personal development
• seventy five per cent experienced a major career
change in which they moved towards areas of helping others.
Here is an example of someone who completely
changed as a result of his near death experience.
Video: RESURECTED
MILLIONAIRE doesn't care about money!
* researcher explains that after a NDE people change
* Gordon Allen was a very successful businessman who loved
money.
* he became sick with pneumonia; he felt himself leave his
body.
* he felt ovewhelming love
* he met three high spiritual beings who communicated with
him like a much loved brother
* he was told that the talents he had been given were for
a higher purpose to help others
* when he came back he felt that his heart was on fire with
love
* he phoned eveyone he knew and apologised
and asked for forgiveness for not being as loving to them
as he should have been.
* he is now a counsellor helping disadvantaged
people.
* researcher says that these changes are
very common.
* Gordon says his life now is far richer than before.
Survivors become more psychic
An independent American study by Dr Melvin
Morse found that NDE survivors have three times the number
of psychic experiences as the general population. They were
frequently unable to wear watches and often had problems
using electricity - their laptops would short circuit and
their credit cards would be erased (Morse 1992). He also
found that adults who had near-death experiences gave more
money to charity than others, were more likely to do volunteer
work in the community, worked more in jobs where they could
help people, did not abuse drugs and ate more fresh fruit
and vegetables than other people (Morse 1992).
Video: Near
death experience Dramatisation of a man who has a heart attack
and finds himself outside his body. He finds that other
people cannot hear him. He sees a loved one but she tells
him it is not time for him to die. He finds himself back
in his body. He now knows that there is an afterlife.
Why Near Death Experiences (NDEs) are evidence of the afterlife
and not simply the product of a chemicals released by a
dying brain.
1. People see and hear things that
would be impossible while they are unconscious.
Many of the patients who have been revived have been able
to describe in great technical detail exactly what went
on in the operating room during the time they were supposedly
unconscious or dead. Dr Michael Sabom, an American cardiologist,
interviewed 100 hospital patients who had narrowly escaped
death. Of these 61 per cent reported experiencing classical
NDE. He investigated whether these patients were using their
imagination, or knowledge that they had subconsciously picked
up through earlier hospital experiences.
He asked those who had not had a NDE to
imagine watching a medical team reviving a heart attack
victim and to describe in as much detail as possible the
steps being taken. To his surprise 80% could not describe
the steps the medical team would take. On the other hand
not one person in the group which claimed to have witnessed
what happened while out of their bodies made a mistake in
describing the procedure. (Sabom 1980: 120-121).
In this video famous cardiac surgeon Dr Rudytalks about a NDE case where the
patient was dead but was able to describe everything that
happened in the operating room including post it notes with
messages on the computer monitor of the surgeon.
Cardic patient All Sullivan claims he could see everything
that happened while he was unconscious being operated on.
He saw Dr Takada "flapping his arms" during the
operation. This was later confirmed as something Dr Takada
does to keep his hands sterile during an operation.
2. Coming back with unexplained information
There are many accounts of people having Near Death Experiences
returning with factual information which they had no prior
knowledge of. These include being able to identify ancestors
from pictures, learning about siblings who had died before
their own birth, learning about family secrets etc.
3.
Having knowledge of future events Some people were able to
document information they had learned about future events.
Dannion Brinkley reported to Raymond Moody before it happened
that there would be a breakdown of the Soviet Union in 1990
and subsequent food riots. Moody later said Brinkley's forecast
struck him as "silly and absurd" at the time but
later proved accurate.
4. People come back with advanced knowledge consistent
with quantum physics
Mellen-Thomas Benedict came back with knowledge of an infinite
number of Big Bangs, the reality of zero-point space, and
an understanding of black holes. Almost all survivors say
that they entered a dimension where there was no time and
many were able to go back and forward through time. Olaf
Swenson had a NDE at the age of 14 for which he experienced
a timeless spaceless dimension which physicists call the
"Omega Point". Because of the information gained
from his NDE, he later went on to develop over 100 patents
in sub-atomic chemistry. (Dr. Melvin Morse). Mellen-Thomas
Benedict brought back from his NDE a great deal of scientific
information concerning biophotonics, cellular communication,
quantum biology, and DNA research. As a result of this Mellen-Thomas
Benedict currently holds six U.S. patents. (Dr. Ken Ring).
5. Some people are cured of fatal illnesses
during a NDE
Anita Moorjani
was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and doctors told her
family she was just hours away from death. It was at this
point that she "crossed over" and then returned
again into this world with a clearer understanding of her
life and purpose on earth. This understanding subsequently
led to a total recovery of her health.
6. The blind can see during a NDE Kenneth RIng and Sharon Cooper's book "Mindsight:
Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences in the Blind"
recounts interviews with thirty people who were blind, some
of them from birth, who were able to see during their near
death experience.
Video: Blind
woman sees during NDE (below)
* Vicki Noratuk had been blind from birth. She could not
even see black.
* When she was about 20 she was in a car accident.
She found she could see for the first time; she recognised
her wedding ring and her hair.
* the medical staff were worried that they could not get
her back; she did not care.
* she felt herself go through the ceiling and could hear
beautiful music.
* she saw people made out of light- but she had never seen
light before.
* she was sent back to her body and felt enormous pain.
7 . Some people have a group near-death experience
In 1996, Arvin Gibson interviewed a fire-fighter
named Jake who had a near-death experience while working
with other fire-fighters in a forest. Several co-workers
were also having a near-death experience at the same time.
They actually met each other and saw each other above their
lifeless bodies. All survived and they agreed with each
other afterwards that the experience actually happened.
Jake's near-death experience is told in Arvin Gibson's book,
"The Fingerprints of God." Read
more...
8. Some people have
near-death experiences when there is nothing physically
wrong with them
Researchers have found that the following non life
threatening events can trigger a near-death experience:dreams, psychedelic drugs, extreme stress, extreme
gravity, brain stimulation, extreme meditation, deathbed
visions, relaxation, psychic vision, coma, astral projection,
trance, mirror gazing, eye movement, falling and many others.Read
more...
9. The after-effects of a NDE are
unique and long lasting. Other people who are as
close to death would also have chemical released by a dying
brain but they do not experience a NDE or the same long
term effects.Read more about the effects
of NDEs IANDS
site near-death.com
site
10. Some people have a near-death
the experience when they are completely brain dead.
The leading skeptics used to say that the
near death experience was the result of the activity of
the dying brain or the recovering brain; that no one can
have a NDE while ‘dead.
But Dr Michael Sabom, heart specialist,
reports on a well documented case of a person who had a
very long NDE while clinically dead for an hour.
Pam Reynolds underwent a rare brain operation
to remove a life threatening weakness in a blood vessel
in her brain. The only way that the doctors
could operate was to connect her to a machine to process
her blood, lower her body temperature to 60 degrees, and
stop her heartbeat and brain activity completely.
During the hour that Pam's brain and heart
had been stopped she was able to see and hear everything
that was going on.
According to Dr Sabom “This case is
considered to be one of the strongest cases of verifiably
evidence in NDE research because of Pam’s ability
to describe in detail the unique surgical instruments used
while she was dead, what the nurses said to the doctors
while operating other and procedures used.”
Near-Death
Experiences and the Afterlife
Compiled by Kevin Williams, this page is an outstanding
achievement with examples of near-death experiences (NDE's)
from many cultures and excellent links.
The
International Association for Near-Death Studies
Many accounts of near death experiences in many countries.
This site has a great questions-and-answers section and
links to most of the best sites on this subject.
For more
details and for assistance in coping with the after-effects
of a near-death state contact the International Association
for Near Death Studies. http://www.iands.org/aftereffects.html
The
Website of PMH Atwater
One of the original researchers in the field of near-death
studies. P.M.H. Atwater began her work in 1978. Many books
have been published since then about her findings.
DR Pim Van Lommel talks about consciousness
during a NDE
Other good NDE videos online
NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE OF A NEUROSURGEON Dr. Eben Alexander has been an academic
neurosurgeon for more than 25 years, including 15 years
at Harvard Medical School in Boston. In November of 2008,
he had a near-death experience that changed his life and
caused him to rethink everything he thought he knew about
the human brain and consciousness.
In a recent interview with
Alex Tsakiris Dr Eben Alexander explains how he has been
unable to come up with any physiological explanation for
what happened to him and has concluded that the mind is
independent of the brain. Listen
to the interview and read transcript (Interview 154).
DR MELVIN MORSE NEAR
DEATH EXPERIENCES IN A SPIRITUALLY IMPOVERISHED SOCIETY
" I don't "believe in" near
death experiences. It is my opinion that the scientific
research validates that near death experiences are real.
The science of 2011 indicates that we all have a "god
spot" or (as per Mario Beauregard MD) a "god brain"
that connects us with the divine, the all knowledge timeless
space-less domain."
SIX NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCES
In this 14 minute documentary,
six people describe their near-death experiences. Dr. Jeffrey
Long, author of Evidence
of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences,
provides context and describes some of the key features
associated with near-death experiences.
