Once dismissed as mere hallucinations, NDE [near-death experiences]s are being taken more seriously than in the past. Studies published in The Lancet, a respected British medical journal, and the Journal of the American Medical Association have reframed NDEs as phenomena worthy of scientific research.
Last year, three medical doctors published books on new NDE research, including what it suggests about consciousness beyond the brain and even the possibility of afterlife.
Several mainstream films, including Clint Eastwood’s recent Hereafter, toyed with the possibility of an afterlife, and as NDEs garner increased attention, more people with NDEs are opening up and shedding light what happens as earthly life slips away.
I’m curious to know what TON readers think about “near death” experiences. I think they are much of what is reported in the article: a physiological response, mostly “recorded” in the brain, and remembered by the patient. I do NOT believe they are necessarily religious as many who experience them are NOT religious either before OR after the experience. I also have to discount all the books written by those who have experienced them; I think they are moneymakers. I note that neither Lazarus nor the son of the widow nor the daughter of Jairus spoke of their “near death experiences!”
Not sure what to think. Had a heart attack 6 years ago – everything
just went black. Was told by the cardiologist that my heart did stop,
but that they applied the electrical paddles 4 or 5 times.
A bit like turning off the lights. No sensation of anything other than
repeatedly “coming awake” momentarily before the lights went out
again. In practical terms, it was a near-death experience. As far
as the psychological sense of the situation, nothing that I can
remember.
In the early 1950’s, my mother, fairly newly married and undergoing serious surgery described while under anaesthetic floating above the operating table watching someone being operated on, and realised it was her. She described being insensed at the comments and behaviour of the staff which she later recounted back to them. She then describes floating off on a journey which ended up travelling on the back of a swan and arriving at a beautiful land full of rich grass and flowers and seeing people she knew, pleased to see her. But then she reached out her hand for her husband, and finding he was not there, turned back. I am very glad she did. Apparently her heart had stopped briefly and the staff were embarrassed when she told them what they were doing while she was watching them and what they had said.
She believes she knows and trusts where she is going one day, to the place where there are no more tears and there is no more pain. Thanks be to God.
That is all I know on this subject.
#3, I had this same experience – floating above the operating table and looking down at myself and listening while the operation was going on – many years ago. The whole powers of the brain are still quite beyond us, and speculating on NDE may be interesting but remains pointless. There is clearly a “world” here that the neurologists have not touched, probably because the thing contained can never know the container.
Larry
Incidentally, it is interesting to note that no one seems to have had an experience of descending into hell in some sense. Larry
Larry I agree that I have never heard or read of a negative NDE.