Near-Death Experiences: 30 Years of Research

Epoch Times ^ | September 13, 2011 | Stephanie Lam

[NYer]

Bruce Greyson thinks that research has only scratched the surface of the near-death experience phenomenon, and that there is a great prospect for future studies. (Stephanie Lam/The Epoch Times)

DURHAM, N.C.—Grandma was just resuscitated. She wakes up and tells you a bizarre story of coming out of her body and going to heaven. Has she developed psychosis? Was her brain damaged from the lack of oxygen?

After over 30 years of research, scientists have concluded that this is not the case. Instead, they think that this phenomenon is something today’s science is yet to understand, and that it is an opportunity for the advancement of science.

The phenomenon was coined near-death experiences (NDEs) in the 1975 book “Life After Life” by Raymond Moody, M.D. and Ph.D. in philosophy and psychology. NDEs generally include cognitive, affective, paranormal, and transcendental experiences.

Examples of NDEs include experiencing a change in one’s perception and way of thinking, feeling peace or calmness, gaining extrasensory perception (ESP), going through a review of one’s life and seeing the effects of one’s actions on others, a feeling of leaving the body, seeing deceased people and other beings such as angels, and feeling as if one has entered another dimension.Greyson believes that NDEs are an indication that the mind is independent of the brain because impaired brain functions would be expected during the clinical situation that the NDErs underwent, but his research found no corresponding impairment of mental functions in NDErs.

“In most cases, people’s mental functioning is better in the NDE than [it] is during our normal waking life,” Greyson said during an interview with The Epoch Times.

“Their thinking is faster, is clearer, is more logical, they have more control over their chain of thought, their senses are more acute, their memories are more vivid.

“If you ask somebody about their near-death experience that happened 15 years ago, they tell it as if it happened yesterday. If you ask them [about] other experiences from their life at the same time, they are very fuzzy memories, if they have any at all.

“[…] When you think that these experiences, which are characterized by enhanced thought processes [that] takes place when the brain is not functioning well or sometimes not functioning at all since it is in cardiac arrest or deep anesthesia—times when brain science would tell us that you shouldn’t be able to think or perceive or form memories—it becomes quite clear that we can’t explain this thing on the basis of brain physiology.”

Eben Alexander had a vivid near-death experience when his brain was severely damaged. (Stephanie Lam/The Epoch Times)

Eben Alexander, M.D., a neurosurgeon who also spoke at the conference, had an NDE that’s a case in point. He contracted acute bacterial meningitis, which damages the neocortex, in 2008 and went into a coma, spending six days on a ventilator.

The glucose level of his cerebrospinal fluid was 1 mg/dl (milligram per one-tenth of a liter), while normal levels are between 60 and 80 mg/dl. When the level drops to 20 mg/dl, the meningitis infection is considered severe. For days after the coma, Alexander struggled to speak and recall memories before the coma. No one with this kind of severe brain damage is expected to fully recover.

However, during his NDE, Alexander had such vivid experiences involving multiple senses, such as vision, hearing, and smell, that he said he couldn’t describe how amazing it was.

“My brain right now—I think it recovered pretty well—could not do anything close to what my brain was doing,” Alexander said. “How does a dying brain end up getting far, far more powerful and able to handle these tremendous loads of information instantaneously and put it altogether?”

Another phenomenon related to NDEs is shared death experiences, in which a person close to a dying person experiences something with the same characteristics as NDEs.

Moody first heard about shared death experiences in 1972 from a medical professor of his. The professor’s mother had a cardiac attack, and when she was trying to resuscitate her mother, she felt herself leaving her body and saw her body resuscitating her mother. As her mother died, she saw her mother in spirit form, and the spirit met some beings, some of whom she could recognize as people whom her mother had known. Then, her mother and the other people were sucked into a tunnel.

After over 30 years of research, Moody estimates that shared death experiences are as common as NDEs. As he studied more of these cases over the years, he found that the features of shared death experiences are similar to those of NDEs.

One of the most common features of shared death experiences is that the shared death experiencer sees the spirit of the dying person, which appears as a transparent replica of the person, or an oval or sphere of light leaving from the head or chest of the dying person’s physical body, Moody told The Epoch Times in an interview.

Sometimes, the bystander would also experience the life review of the dying person. A woman in Georgia was documented as having talked with her husband’s spirit as she saw his life review when he was dying, and she also saw a being that identified herself as the miscarried daughter she and her husband had lost.

Moody thinks that shared death experiences act as strong evidence for the view that the mind exists independently of the brain, because the people experiencing them are in no way having impaired brain functions at the time.

“All of the features that I identify as the initial near-death experiences that I studied years ago are also present in people who have these experiences at the bedside, who incidentally are not ill or injured,” Moody said during his presentation at the conference.

“There’s nothing wrong with the oxygen flow to their brains, and yet they have identically the same experiences that I hear from people who did come close to death.”

[ilovesarah2012]

Seems the “evidence” points more to an after-life than not.

[freejohn]

Was supposed to have died in a car crash .. rainy night, slick and dark road, went off a small mountain road and hit a boulder.

Woke up in a Life Flight chopper and Scared the #ell out of the rescue team who ‘thought’ that I had died! (Fooled Them 8)

No lights, No visions .. Nothing

Never even knew that I had been ‘gone’ for over 20 minutes!

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

"Evidence" is NOT "Proof." Evidence is a statement, writing, material object or other thing presented to the senses. Proof is the impact or "force" of the evidence on the mind. The stories do not really rise to proof. My favorite is the Indian bureaucrat sending the person back due to paperwork error. Is that what you mean by an afterlife? What about the persons who experience Blackness-nothing! I have personally met one of the latter people-nothing! I don't take that as "Proof" that there is no life after death.

To me it is only those who are living who relate their experiences. Those who remain dead do not tell us. There is a VAST difference between the two groups.

[daniel1212]

These worked when i collected them, but we must prove all things but the established Word of God. (Acts 17:11)

Glimpse of Eternity with Ian McCormack: stung by box jellyfish: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3682855866783766146 -Download: http://www.divinerevelations.info/Documents/ian_mccormack/Glimps_of_Eternity_GoodQuality.mp4 (Download)

Dr Maurice Rawlings - NDE – Interviews: To Hell and Back; including an atheist)Download: http://media.tbn.org/download/tbn/gallery/To_Hell_And_Back.wmv

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6547221602055506348&q=mickey+robinson&total=57&start=0&num=50&so=0&type=search&plindex=1 ( Mickey Robinson — air crash to Christ)

Roman Gutierrez — “Twice” dead: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3754387560159309665

Channel 7 news — man raised from dead after 40 minutes: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-2334132798216105638&hl=en

NDE Research: Gary habermas Near Death Experiences and the Afterlife (Video File download) http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/context/lts_fac_pubs/article/1214/type/native/viewcontent

BBC documentary, The Day I Died 1- NDE Documentary Part 1 of 6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1vWoUoiaP4

23 Minutes in Hell by Bill Wiese: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1694635918884432260

Matthew Botsford - To Hell and Back http://www.cbn.com/700club/features/Amazing/Matthew_Botsford011206.aspx

Deerinda Lowe Gets A Second Chance http://www.cbn.com/700club/features/amazing/Deerinda-Lowe-120810.aspx

The Day Jeffrey Thompson Almost Died http://www.cbn.com/700club/features/amazing/Jeffrey-Thompson-072810.aspx

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=390590177647370865&hl=en Heaven & Hell Accounts - Final Destiny

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

I see no immediate harm in your belief nor do I intend to belittle it. I believe in an afterlife I just don’t think NDE’s are proof of it. I think it was St Paul that said we have to believe in things unseen. I can live with that advice.

[Errant]

I know several people who've had them. I believe they're real. In my Dad's case, he remembered being chased by demons until a vision appeared of a man that told him, "don't worry, I'm going to save you". Later, after he recovered, he accepted Christ for the first time in his 78 long years. Less than a year later, he passed away in his sleep with his arm behind his head and a peaceful look on his face.

I've studied the sciences all of my life. The one thing I've learned is that there's much more that we don't know about the world or the forces around us than we know.

Carl Sagan used to say, "if there isn't other life in the universe, it's a terrible waste of space."

I modified it a bit and say, "if there isn't life after death, it's a terrible waste of life."

[ilovesarah2012]

If never said it was proof. I just happen to believe in Heaven and Hell and there seems to be some emperical evidence that they are real. What is great is we will all know definitively some day.

[little jeremiah]

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I like Scripter's tagline, from C.S. Lewis, goes something like:

You are aren't a body that has a soul, you are a soul that has a body.

The soul is the source of our life and makes the body alive, is the source of consciousness and awareness, and the soul uses the brain sort of how a person uses a computer. Workarounds are possible.

[stars & stripes forever]

D.L. Moody, of the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago had an interesting death. One account said he actually died and came back to life two times before he breathed his last.

Here is one account: On November 16, he preached his last sermon on Excuses (Luke 14:16-24) and hundreds were won to Christ that night. He was very ill afterward, the illness thought to be fatty degeneration of the heart. Arriving home in Northfield November 19 for rest, he climbed the stairs to his bedroom--never to leave it again. He died about seven a.m. December 22, with a note of victory. He is reported to have said such things as the following at his death: "I see earth receding; heaven is approaching (or opening). God is calling me. This is my triumph. This is my coronation day. It is glorious. God is calling and I must go. Mama, you have been a good wife...no pain...no valley...it's bliss."

[RegulatorCountry]

shared death experiences

Maybe that's what happened, then. I haven't been able to make sense of it since October, 2007 when it occurred.

I was on the floor of the hallway by the master bedroom, he died in my arms, and I tried frantically to resuscitate him, pounded his chest, attempted mouth to mouth, and then I was up at the ceiling looking down, watching myself. It could have been anything from a second or two to several minutes, I don't really know. Then, I was back to myself, and stared at that spot on the ceiling for a long time.

It wasn't a person who died in my arms that night though. It was Woodie, my Lab.

[rawcatslyentist]

Our perception of time/life is so skewed.

We think we are moving forward in time.

In reality we are looking at the extreme recent past.

We've been looking backwards our ENTIRE LIFE.

What was this solar system 100 million billion trillion years ago?

What will it become again in the same time?

Squash that time line into the middle of infinity.

Our natural state is DUST. Our perceived existence/reality is not our "REAL" state.

We dream to rest our eternal consciousness/soul from the grind of being animated into this temporal realm of dust.

[Joe 6-pack]

"In conclusion, these reports are interesting but are not evidence of an after life. Sorry!"

I beg to differ. They may not be conclusive evidence, but they do collectively suggest there is something there, at least for some of us.

[GODAWGS47]

I have been on here for years but very seldom post anything. I just have to tell you about a friend of mine, Kay, who died years ago at the age of 16. She was in a cancer hospital in Texas and had made friends with a girl who was named Amy. Amy died but Kay was too sick to be told about it. Right before she died Kay said “Jesus, I didn’t know you were bringing Amy with you.” So I do believe that it is possible that a loved one can great us along with our maker on the other side.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

I wonder, are NDE's not a sort of "sign seeking?" I hasten to add I don't know? Perhaps someone educated in theology could express an opinion. We are told we have to have faith in things unseen(St. Paul).

Being naturalistic for a moment. I have never seen a study where people reporting such NDE "experiences' have been measured on an introvert-extrovert scale, an optimistic/pessimistic scale. Would there be a difference in that optimists report "heavenly" experiences while depressives report "hellish" experiences? I would predict depressives would report more demonic, fearful NDE's.

[Secret Agent Man]

One man’s evidence is another man’s proof.

People were alive that saw Christ’s miracles, and were healed, and spoke with Him, and not even Jesus Christ in the flesh could convince people about how to avoid Hell and be saved.

It’s not a surprise people want to discard first hand testimony from a person who’s dead and comes back to life. Rationalization is the second greatest human drive.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

True. You did not say “proof.” My bad!

[Secret Agent Man]

I would say no.

there have been plenty of accounts from unsaved people that have died and have been in Hell, that have come back and have become saved people.

Every one of them that I’ve heard, say they were not Christians before, they did not consider themselves good people, and were not looking to change their life, much less find Jesus Christ.

[Errant]

Bless you for sharing. :)

I'm completely convinced myself.

[LivingNet]

Thanks for sharing

[eyedigress]

When all of you die let me know. I am wanting to see my family again.