Near Death Experience: Life after Life

I was inspired to research near death experience due to my brother-in-law being an Anaesthetic Technician at Auckland hospital. It was whilst we were talking about surgery that he told me they had near death experiences. As an anaesthetist he monitors heart rate and other vital signs whilst surgery is happening. They had cases where the patient died and then later came back. The nurses reported to the doctors what the patient said was heard whilst technically dead. The anaesthetist would know if the heart rate was going or not. Some say they hallucinate but my brother-in-law said the surgical team stopped talking at the point of death. Otherwise it may come back to them later. They were a hardened lot, those surgeons.

My mother also told me she came out of her body during prayer. She became a Christian later in my life. Although had an early life as a Christian. We were not raised in religion. Anyway, she wanted god to show her the truth and she said suddenly she found herself out of her body looking over the planet. She said she saw a being in white watching over the planet. She says this was crystal clear and that vision for her is a great source of comfort. She believed in god after that moment. She said she couldn’t until it was proven to her.

Back in 2001 I decided to do some research into Near Death Experience. I had read some of Dr. Raymond Moody’s books on near death experiences, that is people who have died and come back to life. I put an advert in the paper asking for people who had near death and outer body experiences. Interestingly one of my interviewers from my Research business actually responded. Turned out she had being going out of her body for years since childhood, she thought everyone did until she realised it was not common or widely believed. I did around 8 cases myself and interviewed them for around 2 hours.

The experiencers that I met who had near death experiences had been either very sick, had car accidents, or simply had an altered reality experience. Many of them were in their 40’s and 50’s and apparently hadn’t spoken to anyone about it until I advertised. I realised after I interviewed these people that they actually needed to talk to someone. Some were carrying burdens and they really needed someone to hear without judgement.

I learned that people can come out of their bodies and float above them, get a sense of disconnection like an observer with no connection to their life, others heard voices giving them a choice to stay or leave, others saw colours, one man saw the accident scene from above and woke up 3 months later with massive head injuries. He said he had extrasensory perception and could see people who had passed over. He said he had an affinity with animals and was psychic. Others said they lost their fear of death (a common one) and felt serene and some felt they didn’t want to come back. One lady had rejected the experience and had deeply suffered, but talking definitely helped her, she worked in the Philosophy Department at a university.

I met one lady who had met this boy in Lourdes in France, he had taken to her and corresponded with her for some years I think. He was very sick when he was in France. Many people believe that miracles occur at Lourdes and seek healing there. Anyway, when she experienced herself die, she said she went down what she described was like a barrel, she said there was light there and a being at the other end, she said she experienced a love she had never known but it was bathing her and she felt incredibly happy. She was moving through this space very fast and then saw the face of the boy. Apparently he spoke to her and said he loved her and mentioned her name. She disregarded the comment being a tough Irish lady, but he guided her and reassured her. She said the next moment she was awake. Apparently she had a heart condition where her heart could stop quite easily. I actually met her outside of the research by chance. The reason we spoke is that I felt a serenity around her.

From my perspective I don’t have any doubt we continue on after this life. This does change your whole world view, suddenly you see yourself as part of something much larger. Many I spoke to and read about realised they are here on earth to love each other. That is certainly my message and I believe it is our purpose. Just imagine if everyone did it. There is your transformation.

However, you decide what you believe. We will all find out one day if it is light at the end of the tunnel or an oncoming train (haha).

I will introduce you to Dr. Raymond Moody and his work which started a serious inquiry around the world into near death research. It is very interesting. This is from Wikipedia. This is the paradigm shift, ready…

Near Death

A near-death experience (NDE) refers to a broad range of personal experiences associated with impending death, encompassing multiple possible sensations including detachment from the body; feelings of levitation; extreme fear; total serenity, security, or warmth; the experience of absolute dissolution; and the presence of a light.

These phenomena are usually reported after an individual has been pronounced clinically dead or otherwise very close to death, hence the term near-death experience. Many NDE reports, however, originate from events that are not life-threatening. With recent developments in cardiac resuscitation techniques, the number of reported NDEs has increased.[1] Many in the scientific community regard such experiences as hallucinatory,[2][3][4] while paranormal specialists and some mainstream scientists claim them to be evidence of an afterlife.[5][6][7]

Popular interest in near-death experiences was initially sparked by Raymond Moody’s 1975 book Life After Life[8] and the founding of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) in 1981.[9] According to a Gallup poll, approximately eight million Americans claim to have had a near-death experience.[10] Some commentators, such as Simpson[11] claim that the number of near-death experiencers may be underestimated, mainly because some such individuals are presumably afraid or otherwise reluctant to talk about their experiences.

NDEs are among the phenomena studied in the fields of parapsychology, psychology,[12] psychiatry,[13] and hospital medicine

The earliest accounts of NDE can be traced to the Myth of Er, recorded by Plato’s The Republic (10.614-10.621). In this story, Plato describes a mythical soldier telling of his near-death experiences about an afterlife and reincarnation.

Researchers have identified the common elements that define near-death experiences.[16] Bruce Greyson argues that the general features of the experience include impressions of being outside one’s physical body, visions of deceased relatives and religious figures, and transcendence of ego and spatiotemporal boundaries.

The traits of a classical NDE are as follows:

* Receiving messages in telepathic form.
* A sense/awareness of being dead.[16][18]
* A sense of peace, well-being and painlessness. Positive emotions. A feeling of being removed from the world.[16][18][19]
* An out-of-body experience. A perception of one’s body from an outside position. Sometimes observing doctors and nurses performing medical resuscitation efforts.[16][18][19][20]
* A “tunnel experience”. A sense of moving up, or through, a passageway or staircase.[16][18][20]
* A rapid movement toward and/or sudden immersion in a powerful light. Communication with the light.[18][19]
* An intense feeling of unconditional love.[19]
* Encountering “Beings of Light”, “Beings dressed in white”, or other spiritual beings. Also, the possibility of being reunited with deceased loved ones.[16][19][20]
* Being given a life review.[16][18][19]
* Being presented with knowledge about one’s life and the nature of the universe.[19]
* A decision by oneself or others to return to one’s body, often accompanied by a reluctance to return.[16][19][20]
* Approaching a border.[18]
* There also seems to be a link between the cultural and spiritual beliefs where one lives. These seem to dictate what is experienced in the NDE or how it is interpreted afterwards (Holden, Janice Miner. Handbook of Near-Death Experiences. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publishing Data, 2009.).

Kenneth Ring (1980) subdivided the NDE on a five-stage continuum. He stated that 60% experienced stage 1 (feelings of peace and contentment), but only 10% experienced stage 5 (“entering the light”)
Raymond Moody

Raymond Moody (born June 30, 1944) is a psychologist and medical doctor. He is most famous as an author of books about life after death and near-death experiences (NDE), a term that he coined in 1975. His best-selling title is Life After Life.

Moody’s most famous book was made into a movie of the same name, Life After Life, for which he won a bronze medal in the Human Relations Category at the New York Film Festival. He was also awarded the World Humanitarian Award.

His much later book The Last Laugh, containing, as he states, material edited out of Life After Life, confused some of his admirers as to his own personal view of NDE phenomena, which he had done so much to publicize. In this book, he says he does not consider them to be conclusive proof of life after death, and is disturbed by the use of his works by religious fundamentalists and New Age gurus to further their causes.

Nonetheless, Moody’s own beliefs on NDEs can be summed up with the following quote from his interview with Jeffrey Mislove:

“I don’t mind saying that after talking with over a thousand people who have had these experiences, and having experienced many times some of the really baffling and unusual features of these experiences, it has given me great confidence that there is a life after death. As a matter of fact, I must confess to you in all honesty, I have absolutely no doubt, on the basis of what my patients have told me, that they did get a glimpse of the beyond.”[3]

The Dr. John Dee Memorial Theater of the Mind is a research institute in Alabama that was founded by Moody as a place where people can experience an altered state of consciousness with the intention of invoking apparitions of the dead. One of the methods used to obtain this altered state is crystallomancy, or “mirror gazing”.

Moody has also researched past life regression and believes that he personally has had nine past lives.

Some experiencers, including Goldie Horn. Very interesting.

* Return from Tomorrow by George G. Ritchie, MD with Elizabeth Sherrill (1978). George G. Ritchie, MD held positions as president of the Richmond Academy of General Practice; chairman of the Department of Psychiatry of Towers Hospital; and founder and president of the Universal Youth Corps, Inc. He lived in Virginia. At the age of twenty, George Ritchie died in an army hospital. Nine minutes later he returned to life. Ritchie’s story was the first contact Dr. Raymond Moody, PhD (who was studying at the University of Virginia, as an undergraduate in Philosophy, at the time) had with NDEs. It inspired Moody to investigate over 150 cases of near-death experiences, in his book Life After Life, and two other books that followed.

* Embraced by the Light by Betty Eadie (1992). One of the most detailed near-death experiences on record.

* Saved by the Light by Dannion Brinkley. Brinkley’s experience documents one of the most complete near death experiences, in terms of core experience and additional phenomena from the NDE scale. Brinkley was clinically dead for 28 minutes and taken to a hospital morgue.

* Placebo by Howard Pittman (1980). A detailed record of Mr. Pittman’s near-death experience.

* The Darkness of God by John Wren-Lewis (1985), Bulletin of the Australian Institute for Psychical Research No 5. An account of the far-reaching effects of his NDE after going through the death process several times in one night.

* Bahá’í Reinee Pasarow has presented her experiences and an extended talk which was filmed Part 1, Part2, with a partial transcript, and analyzed from a religious point of view in a commentary and analyzed as part of the paper The Exploration of Life After Death. Pasarow was interviewed by Dr. Kenneth Ring.

* Anita Moorjani, an ethnic Indian woman from Hong Kong, experienced a truly remarkable NDE which has been documented on the Near Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF) website as one of the most exceptional accounts on their archives. She had end-stage cancer and on February 2, 2006, doctors told her family that she only had a few hours to live. Following her NDE, Anita experienced a remarkable total recovery of her health.[75]

* Goldie Hawn, while giving a speech at the Buell Theater in Denver, Colorado, reflected upon her near-death experience. When she was younger, and starting out as an actress, she and a group of friends were in a severe car crash together. While she was unconscious, she remembers looking over herself while the paramedics were trying to revive her. She also mentioned seeing a bright light and being told it was not her time soon before she awoke.

* Kiki Carter, a.k.a. Kimberli Wilson, an environmental activist and singer/songwriter, reported a near-death experience in 1983. The day after the experience, her mother, Priscilla Greenwood, encouraged her to write it down. Priscilla Greenwood published the story in September 1983 in a local metaphysical journal. For 24 hours after the experience, Kimberli had an aftervision which was a catalyst for her interest in quantum physics and holograms.[76]

* 90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper, is Piper’s account of his own near-death experience. EMTs on the scene determined Piper had been killed instantly after a tractor-trailer had swerved into his lane, crushing his car. Piper survived, however, and later claimed that he saw loved ones and friends as well as magnificent light; he reportedly felt a sense of pure peace. Piper had a very difficult and painful recovery.

So there is some information, perhaps do your own research. If it is true, how do you live your life from now on… maybe you become a clown like me…. hahaha (have fun).