Near-Death Experiences.
Near-death experiences have gotten a lot of attention lately. The 2014 movie Heaven Is for Real, about a young boy who told his parents he had visited heaven while he was having emergency surgery, grossed a respectable $91 million in the United States.
The book it was based on, published in 2010, has sold some 10 million copies and spent 206 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list. Two recent books by doctors—Proof of Heaven, by Eben Alexander, who writes about a near-death experience he had while in a week-long coma brought on by meningitis, and To Heaven and Back, by Mary C. Neal, who had her NDE while submerged in a river after a kayaking accident—have spent 94 and 36 weeks, respectively, on the list. (The subject of The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven, published in 2010, recently admitted that he made it all up.)
Many patients reported that they had Near death experiences NDE. Doctors were able to bring some heart attack patients back from the dead.
Some reported Seven flavors of death.
50% of the of those who had the NDE could recall something they saw.
dream-like or hallucinatory scenarios that doctors categorized into seven major themes Those seven themes were:
– Fear , Seeing animals or plants , Bright light, Violence and persecution ,Deja-vu ,Seeing family , Recalling events post-cardiac arrest
These mental experiences ranged from terrifying to blissful. There were those who reported feeling afraid or suffering persecution, for example some patients said , “I had to get through a ceremony, and the ceremony was to get burned,” one patient recalled. “There were four men with me, and whichever lied would die .I saw men in coffins being buried upright.” Another remembered being “dragged through deep water”, and still another was “told I was going to die and the quickest way was to say the last short word I could remember”. Others, however, experienced the opposite sensation, with “a feeling of peace or pleasantness”. Some saw living things: “All plants, no flowers” or “lions and tigers”; while others basked in the glow of “a brilliant light” or were reunited with family. Some, meanwhile, reported a strong sense of deja-vu: “I felt like I knew what people were going to do before they did it”. Heightened senses, a distorted perception of the passage of time and a feeling of disconnection from the body were also common sensations that survivors reported.
Doctors also points out from many studies that it’s very likely that more people have near-death experiences than the study numbers reflect. For many people, memories are almost certainly wiped away by the massive brain swelling that occurs following cardiac arrest, or by strong sedatives administered at the hospital.Even if people do not explicitly recall their experience of death, however, it could affect them on a subconscious level.
Doctors hypothesizes that this might help explain the wildly different reactions cardiac arrest patients often have following their recovery: some become unafraid of death and adopt a more altruistic approach to life, whereas others develop PTSD.
To some people, this is simply further evidence that the mind must be able to exist independently of the body—or else where does it go when the brain is dead? To materialists, it is evidence of the opposite: the mind doesn’t “go” anywhere, any more than the image from a slide projector goes somewhere when you switch the projector off. Rather, it shows that the mind and consciousness are emergent properties of the brain, knitted together somehow by all the physical and chemical processes in our nervous system.
(NDE) are alike, contrary to a popular belief. In the stereotypical NDE, the person clinically dies, enters a tunnel of light, is greeted by relatives or beings of light, is told that he or she is not ready to pass on, and is sent back to awaken back in this life.
That particular NDE scenario has been reported many times, but it by no means happens for every experience.
However, there are components of the NDE that are part of the experience for a majority, or at least a good percentage, of people who have reported them.
A FEELING OF OVERWHELMING LOVE
In 69% of the cases, people felt that they were in the presence of an overwhelming love. In some instances, the source of the feeling seem to be non-specific, as if it is just part of the atmosphere of the “place.” Other times, this feeling comes from the beings met there. Sometimes they are religious figures (see “God” below) or nondescript beings of light, and sometimes they are relatives who have passed on previously.
MENTAL TELEPATHY
The ability to communicate with the people or entities through a kind of MENTAL TELEPATHY was reported by 65% of the experiences.
In other words, the communication was non-verbal and seemed to take place on a level of consciousness rather than physically.
LIFE REVIEW
The review of one’s life was common in 62% of the cases. While some witnessed the review from beginning to end, others saw it in reverse order, from present day back to the beginning.
And while for some it appeared to be a “highlights reel,” others felt like they were witness to every event and detail of their lives.
GOD
Meeting a figure that appeared to be God or some divine being was reported by 56% of experiences. Interestingly, 75% of people who consider themselves atheists reported these divine figures.
TREMENDOUS ECSTASY
This might go hand-in-hand with the first characteristic, “a feeling of overwhelming love,” but while that feeling comes from an external source, the experiences also feel their own internal ecstasy – the tremendous joy of being in this place, free of their bodies and earthly troubles, and in the presence of loving beings. This was experienced by 56%.
Steve Ramsey
Canada, Alberta- Calgary.