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It's so difficult to accept that we are mortal. Near Death Experiences (NDEs) hit the headlines in 1975 with the publication of Raymond Moody's book Life after Life, in which they were described but not convincingly explained. They are near death in two different ways, and this can cause confusion.
In the first place, they are near death because they happen to people who are close to perishing. Following a heart attack, for example, the affected person is utterly lifeless for periods lasting roughly from two to ten minutes: without pulse or heartbeat, no longer breathing, without reflexes or any demonstrable brain activity. After that, through medical resuscitation, often involving the use of a defibrillator, they come back. Life resumes, but often with an important difference: it seems better, more meaningful. People surviving coma, stroke, brain injury, and near-drowning may also report NDEs.*
In the second place, NDEs are near death because they are like death; said to closely resemble the experience of dying, which is why, for many, they strongly suggest the reality of an afterlife.
Despite the absence of brain activity, about one in five people, resuscitated from a cardiac arrest in several big research studies, reported having entered a special state of consciousness characterized by knowing they were dead while also having pleasant feelings. About one-third of these remembered being in a tunnel leading towards a bright light, observing a celestial landscape, or meeting people who had died. About a quarter had Out of Body experiences (OBEs) and a smaller number had a Life Review and/or a Flash Forward.
Feeling blissful, light in weight, and free of both pain and fear, also meeting welcoming family members who have died or other angelic beings, contribute to the special positive nature of the experience, which may have a lasting effect. A personal transformation may also be prompted by a Life Review, in which the person has a chance to experience directly and reflect on both positive and negative effects of their words and actions on others. A Flash Forward may give someone an accurate preview of the rest of their life.
One day I wrote down all the things I saw back then: over the years I've been able to tick them all off. For instance, I saw my wife on her deathbed, wrapped in a white shawl, like the one she was given... some days before she died.**
During OBEs, people can see, as if from above, their own lifeless body, and are able to accurately recall events that occur (such as a nurse removing dentures and placing them safely somewhere). Some describe the unwanted and unpleasant return back into their bodies after they have come to understand that it wasn't their time yet to die.
Given experiences like these, it is not surprising that people's attitudes to both life and death change as a result. But it is worth noting that all the patients who survived cardiac arrest began showing more interest in nature, the environment, and social justice, displaying more love and emotions generally, becoming more supportive and involved in family life. The difference for ND experiencers involved them becoming much less afraid of death and having a considerably stronger belief in an afterlife.
This blessing experience was decisive in convincing me that consciousness lives on beyond the grave, and I know now for sure that body and mind are separated. Death was not death, but another form of life.***
No one has yet found a satisfactory biological explanation for NDEs, which clearly suggest that some special forms of consciousness do not require brain activity. They have probably been occurring to individuals since the birth of humankind, and are likely therefore to have had a big influence on shaping the teachings about death of different religions. Life Reviews may be similar to what supposedly happens in purgatory, for example; and, at their best, religions are about helping people confront life's great challenges and mysteries; making them relevant, making them personal, celebrating the life-affirming while making the harder ones easier to negotiate and grow through.
If NDEs make people wiser, more loving, and compassionate and can help us overcome our fear of death. How wonderful. Who wouldn't want one? But there isn't anywhere to apply. Even if very rich, you couldn't buy one; so, it may be better to explore the spiritual realm in other, more accessible, tried and trusted ways shared by many religions: through regular meditation, worship, and prayer, for example, through reading scripture, poetry and literature, by visiting holy sites, and by adopting spiritual values like honesty, humility, courage, hope and compassion, engaging in regular acts of kindness and service to others. A life lived like this will surely make the final transition that much easier. Death may not mean final extinction, after all.
*This article draws on the chapter 'Nonlocal Consciousness' by Dr. Pim van Lommel, in Death, The Gateway to Life: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of Near-Death Experiences, edited by Shirley Firth and Joanna Wilson (Winchester: Institute for Theological Partnerships Publishing, 2019.
** From Death, The Gateway to Life, p 31.
*** From Death, The Gateway to Life, p 24.
Copyright Larry Culliford
