Commonly called NDEs
What are NDEs?
Near Death Experiences, or NDEs as I shall henceforth refer to them, are experiences which occur fairly commonly to those people who have a close brush with death, whether through accident, fever or other illness, suicide attempt, heart attack, serious operation, etc., but have been resuscitated or otherwise brought back to life, or in some cases spontaneously recovered.
The first and most surprising thing about an NDE is that the experiencer finds him/herself viewing their physical body from a point outside it, either standing beside it or looking down from a point near the ceiling. Unless this separation of mind and body occurs, we cannot say that an NDE has taken place. In this state the person may hear, see or sense things that they could not have experienced if their mind was in its usual location inside the body. Many of these perceptions are later verified as being true. We call such true experiences veridical. One thing that many Near Death Experiencers (NDEers) notice straight away is that if they had been in pain or discomfort, that has vanished. If they had been in some sort of mental turmoil, they now feel at peace.
What happens next depends on how long it is before the dying patient is resuscitated. The person usually finds that this new consciousness is located inside a different sort of body, which has been called the soul, an etheric body, a spirit body, or a spiritual body. It resembles the physical body, and there is usually the sense that it is clothed in some way. It is lighter in weight, can be transparent, and sometimes seems to be made of light. This spiritual body can pass unhindered through doors, windows, walls and roof spaces.
Spiritualists assert that it is the soul or spirit body that is leaving the physical body in these near death experiences, and that this is what will happen for all of us at the moment of our physical death. The experience of leaving the physical body establishes for the experiencer that there is a soul that is separate from the body, as Spiritualists assert. On the physical plane we are a spirit body firmly planted in a physical body. The NDE experience goes some way towards establishing, but not yet proving the Spiritualists' fourth principle - the continuous existence of the human soul. Another element of the experience, not present in all NDEs, does establish this for the experiencer - the experience of meeting deceased relatives and loved-ones.
Some NDEers have travelled far from the location of their physical body in this state and witnessed events occurring to people they may know in a distant place. Usually the experiencer can control the direction of travel to go where he wants to go. Sometimes he finds himself somewhere else regardless of his/her own wishes. Again, many reports of the experiences had at these different locations have proved to be veridical.
At any point in the experience the NDEer may be resuscitated and the spirit body is returned quickly to be reunited with the physical body. Many NDEs, however, go much further and deeper than this. A very common next step is meeting another spirit being. This might be a deceased friend, relative or loved-one, or another person that the experiencer once knew. It might be a spirit being that the experiencer recognises as a spirit guide. It might be a much higher level spirit being such as an angel or being of light. These meetings can occur here on the earth plane or they can occur in the spirit world, to reach which the NDEer often, but not always, has to travel, either alone or accompanied, through a large tunnel towards a brilliant but beautiful light. This tunnel has been variously described as dark, luminescent, shaped like a spiral, or peopled with other spirit beings who accompany the experiencer to the spirit world, or heaven as the experiencer may think of it. Here the experiencer may meet deceased loved ones, spirit guides, or higher level spirit beings whom he/she might take to be God, Jesus, Mohammed, Krishna or The Buddha, depending on their religious faith.
Guides or higher level beings may discuss the person's life to date with them. There may or may not be a life review. Life reviews are extraordinary, timeless experiences. They seem to occur in a very short interval, yet they somehow manage to revive every event of the NDEer's life. They do not relive the experiences as they once experienced them, however. This is the fascinating point which shows that the universe, as Spiritualists claim, is essentially moral: the experiencer experiences his/her life events from the point of view of the people with whom he/she interacted. When (s)he had been evil and hurtful, (s)he will experience their pain. When (s)he had been kind and loving (s)he will experience their joy. This substantiates the fifth and sixth principles of Spiritualism - "Personal Responsibility" and "Compensation and retribution for all the good and evil deeds done on earth." The seventh principle, "Eternal progress open to every human soul", may be hinted at in what happens next. Despite his or her misdeeds, and I am sure we have all committed at least some, the experiencer knows that he or she is held in unconditional love by the spirit being and the spirit world. He or she may be told they must go back to their physical bodies, that it is not yet their time, and that they must make reparation for the damage done.
NDEers may spend very variable amounts of time in the spirit world before they return. Sometimes the experiencer is given a choice about whether they come back or not. That they have come back to be able to tell us their experiences is usually because of a living child, partner or other loved one who needs their continuing care or love, or because they know that their life's work is not yet done.
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The Significance of NDEs
NDEs are spontaneous personal experiences that generally cannot be produced to order. Yet they happen, and much more frequently than is generally realised. It has been estimated by USA researchers that over 12 million US citizens living today have had one of these experiences. What they give to the experiencer is overwhelming evidence that the essential part of them, their "I-ness" and conscious awareness, is not the physical body, but the "soul", encased in another subtler body that Spiritualists call the "spirit" or "spirit body". Spiritualism teaches that it is this subtler body that will carry the soul into the next dimension and beyond. It is wonderful to have so much evidence from Near Death Experiencers that this is so.
NDEs have also been found to be very transformative experiences. People who have been perhaps self-centred and materialistic in their outlook very frequently become much more spiritual and more thoughtful about others. That this is so must be due to the the content of these experiences. Not all, but very many, if not most, NDEs have a strong spiritual component. This spiritual component can be so profound and so "real" and vivid that it leaves a permanent impression on the experiencers, who often lose their fear of death, and set about living their lives in a more spiritual way in the light of the revelations they have received.
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Scientific Sceptics
There are many scientists and researchers now studying NDEs, particularly in the USA, and many who now believe that the spirit hypothesis is the best explanation for them. But not all scientists are convinced, or even pay much attention to the data.
From a scientific point of view, veridical NDEs are the really interesting ones. They are the best way we can be certain that the experiences are not hallucinations - the fabrications of a dying brain. Correct information was gained, so the experience was "real". They also make it very difficult to assert, as some scientists have, that "nothing leaves the body". If the experiencer experiences leaving the body, and correct information is gained from a distance well away the body's location, then on the face of things something does leave the body, and the onus is on the naysayer to show that and how the experience is happening in the brain. This would be a pretty tall order with a properly functioning brain; well-nigh impossible I imagine, when, in the case of NDEs the brain is not functioning.
One wonders why it is if, as some sceptical scientists believe, NDEs are hallucinations, that the experiencer only meets deceased loved ones, friends and relatives, and not living ones. One would imagine that a hallucinating brain would confuse living and deceased persons, and persons living would feature more prominently, as the NDEer would be be interacting with them currently in his/her life, giving them a more prominent place in his/her mind. As far as I know, in an NDE this does not happen. Only deceased persons are encountered. Meeting deceased persons is perfectly compatible with the spirit hypothesis and the understanding that the NDEr is making a journey to the Spirit World.
NDEs are a real challenge to scientific materialism, which asserts that a person, both body and mind, is nothing more than his physical body, and for that reason many scientific materialists disregard them. That is regrettable. A correct theory of consciousness must account for all the facts of experience. Nothing will impede the progress of science as much as rigid adherence to theories which are false.
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To be continued.
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