What is a Near Death Experience?
What is a Near Death Experience?
Inexplicable but wonderfully life-changing for some.
A Woman at Prayer, from Julian of Norwich's 'Revelations' - Penguin Classics*
Source: Book Cover Illustration
“an
illness which prostrated me for three days and nights. On the fourth
night I received the last rites of Holy Church as it was thought I would
not survive till day. After this I lingered two more days and nights,
and on the third night I was quite convinced that I was passing away—as
indeed were those about me”. But she did not die. “Suddenly all my pain was taken away, and I was as fit and well as I have ever been…” In the following five hours, in a kind of trance, this devoutly religious woman, who had been so near to death, experienced a series of visions of the Passion of Christ. “At
the same moment the Trinity filled me full of heartfelt joy, and I knew
that eternity was like this for those who attain heaven”. *
As we shall see, the description makes it possible to consider this one of the earliest accounts of a Near Death Experience (NDE) on record. Although a number of characteristics are missing, researchers say this is common. Few people experience a full-house of all the potential phenomena.
One person who, according to his book Dying to Wake Up **, really has experienced the majority of effects of NDE’s is Dr Rajiv Parti. A highly sceptical anaesthetist, more interested in having a huge California house, several powerful cars and a burgeoning portfolio of stocks and shares, already addicted to powerful prescription pain-killing drugs, he one day heard a patient recovering from heart surgery, during which his heart had been stopped, his body and brain artificially cooled to the point where there was no trace of cardiac rhythm or brainwaves—who was in other words ‘dead’ on the table, before being artificially revived—describing his operation in detail, even recounting one of the jokes shared by Dr Parti and the surgeon.
“I was out of my body, floating around by the ceiling”, he said. “I was watching you guys.”
Water forms an unbreachable border in some NDE's
Source: Larry's Photo Collection
- Ineffability: impossible to describe fully in words
- Hearing someone pronounce you dying or dead
- Pleasant feelings of joy and serenity
- Odd noises—pleasant or unpleasant—e.g. buzzing or a loud ringing
- Being pulled rapidly through a dark space or tunnel
- Out of body experiences, seeing your body from outside it
- Meeting helpful ‘spiritual beings’, sometimes acting as messengers (e.g. ‘It is not your turn to die’)
- Being accompanied by an unimaginable ‘Being of brilliant light', often referred to as an angel, Jesus or God
- Life review—rapid, highly charged, emotional, vivid and real, typically an educational effort on the part of the Being of Light; for instance, you may experience your actions—good and bad—as if you were the person they were done to
- The border or limit, a ‘point-of-no-return’, described perhaps as a grey mist, water, a door, a fence or just a line
- Coming back into your earthly body, willingly or not, most with lingering moods and emotions, many transformed into ‘better people’, in other words more spiritually mature
- Telling others reluctantly, with reticence, for fear of disbelief and ridicule
- Beneficial effects on people’s lives—profound and (despite the reticence) noticeable to others, you become more reflective, more gentle, with revised goals, accompanied by renewed determination to live according to new, higher values
- New views of death, you are no longer fearful and have a much greater appreciation for the remaining period of life and what it is for, a learning process.
Mist - another type of border in some NDE's
Source: Larry's Photo Collection
For many, these accounts—of Mother Julian, Dr Parti and many others—throw up more challenging ideas and questions than easy answers; but they are questions well worth pursuing. Are we on earth to avoid pain and suffering, and to get what we can out of life in a more or less selfish manner? Or, are we here to learn about ourselves and each other, about how better to get along, to respect nature, and to find a way of experiencing and communicating with some kind of sacred realm or spiritual dimension, whether through a religion or by engaging regularly in more secular spiritual practices like meditation? It seems we each have a choice; until, at least, the choice is made by virtue of having a Near Death Experience or through some other powerful type of spiritual connection. Better to make the choice, I would say, rather than simply drift
