The Science Of Near-Death Experiences

"I was raised and also in the study of medicine years and years ago, I accepted everything - that there is one kind of Science and it was Materialistic Science - I just accepted the fact...that consciousness was a product of a functioning brain...

...In 1986, after reading the book by George Ritchie, The Return From Tomorrow, about a near-death experience he [had] experienced as a medical student in 1943, I [became] curious - I had only heard of it once before in '69.

I started to ask my patients who survived cardiac arrest if they could remember something of the period of unconsciousness. To my big surprise, within two years, out of 50 patients asked, 12 of them told me about their NDEs.

And it [kick-started] my scientific curiosity: How [can it be] explained that people can have an enhanced consciousness when they are unconscious - when the heart doesn't work and there is no breathing and their brain stops functioning?"

Dr. Pim van Lommel

1. the "No" case A -these NDE experiences are all auto-suggestive, histrionic nonsense that has been carried on through the ages. They are a ridiculous mish-mash of religion, superstition & wishful thinking that are, ultimately, sadly misleading, because when you are dead, you are, most certainly dead!
   
   

   
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2. the "No" case B - as Dr. Parnia points out, our present definition of Death may need to be changed from a medical "absolute" to a more fluid "process". If that is so, clinical death may come to be considered as only the beginning of the Death process - one that can be reversed.
   
   However, while acknowledging the universality of the NDE "white light" visions from around the world, they certainly don't prove the existence of an afterlife. These visions may only be the result of a hypoxic brain that is being flushed with endorphins that the dying body releases, possibly to kick start the process of fighting Death. In some people - or more appropriately, types of people - these endorphins create visions.
   
   
3. the "Maybe" case - Who knows?
   
   
4. the "Yes" case A - The NDE testimonials that center around my faith (insert: Christianity / Judasim / Islam etc.) are a message from God. All other NDE testimonials are at best harmless and quite possibly, demonic!
   
   

   
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5. the "Yes" case B - I believe that each faith is as valid as another - they are not an absolute - they are systems created by Men to provide guidance in how to live a Godly life.
   
   The NDE videos are a precious glimpse into the happiness that will come in the Afterlife to all of those who have lived morally. At first it is through the warmth acceptance and Love of the white light phase but later, it is the eternal joy that the deceased person will feel when they join their loved ones in Heaven.
   
   
6. the "Yes" case C - that the NDE videos do indicate that there is, at the very least, limited life after death.

While I don't necessarily disagree with New Age books such as Chakras For Beginners, I do have a considerably different understanding of what chakras are and what they represent. In fact, my position is so unorthodox, that I've had to create a Squidoo lens, Understanding Chakras to explain my position.

However, in order to stop you from having to visiting there and possibly drown in my very individual interpretation of Indian Metaphysics, I shall provide a precis, here:

I take the premise that the Christian halo - actually, the same iconography has been used in many different religions, around the world, for thousands of years - is visible to clairvoyant eyes and that a halo must have a certain "Spiritual Materiality" [my terminology].

Then, given that only Jesus and certain of the saints - and their equivalents in other religions - are pointedly depicted with such halos, I work on the second premise that the halo depicts the highest "Spiritual Materiality".

When understood through the prism of Hindu Spirituality, the halo can then be understood to be the physical representation of the seventh chakra - the highest chakra.

N.B.: Hindu Spirituality claims:

1 that there are 7 chakras within the body with each possessing or displaying - there is some disagreement about which one it is - a concentration of very specific psychic energies.

2 each chakra has a corresponding "Spiritual Materiality" with the sixth being less than the seventh and the fifth being less than the sixth etc.

3 together, those seven "Spiritual Materialities" intermingle and can be seen by those with clairvoyant sight as the human aura.

Hopefully you will understand that, if that is so, only the most "advanced" clairvoyants can see the full aura, whereas most will only see the lower "Spiritual Materiality" areas of the aura, depending on what "Spiritual Materialities" they can attune to.

There are four chakras, then, that I would describe as "beyond-normal":

predominantly seventh chakra would be those rare human beings close to God e.g. Jesus, Buddah, the holiest saints - the type of people that established religions claim to have performed miracles

predominantly sixth chakra would be saints, people of the highest virtue, probably with astonishing psychic capacities

predominantly fifth chakra would be those capable of the deepest Intuition, capable of seeing how normal Men are caught in Space & Time.

In Buddhism, the Compassionate Buddah and in Catholicism, The Virgin Mary, are two such beings. They are human-like enough to be approachable, so devotees pray to them, hoping that these Holy beings will intercede with Buddah or God on their behalf.

predominantly fourth chakra would be those capable of Love in its pure, impartial form. At my Understanding Chakras lens I go to great lengths to point out how many of us ordinary folk have probably known people like this at some time - they are the folks with that hard-to-define "something extra".

In American movies, they are the guys (and the guy-ettes) with the right stuff. We know that they're like us but we also know that they're not like us!

There are three chakras, then, that I would describe as "normal":

Though concerned with very different areas of the psyche, the first three chakras are all of equal "Spiritual Materiality". Most of us live our lives in a matrix comprising of bits and pieces of all three but one chakra almost always predominates, manifesting as - what the educated man in the street would call - "basic personality types".

predominantly third chakra defines those who live through intellect - though almost all of us are born with this capacity, comparatively few people are true intellectuals.

N.B.: Many so-called intellectuals are actually forceful emotional people, who have the capacity to appear more logical (or controlled) than others.

predominantly second chakra defines those who live through emotion (or the subversion / sublimation of emotion). Increasingly, since the Industrial Revolution, this would describe the vast majority of people.

Further, my guess is that probably 2/3 of all conversation is a complaint of some kind - we have become a negative emotional people!

predominantly first chakra defines those who who live through the body. Before the Industrial Revolution this might even have been the majority of people.

Certainly, when one sees documentaries about "Lost Tribes", the individuals (which I would classify as first chakra) portray little complex emotion but much of it is, interestingly, positive. Further, they seem to portray very little complex intellectual capacity other than for survival and hunting (as might be expected).

In the West, first chakra people might best be described as the strong, silent type - craftsmen, sportsmen, hunters etc.

N.B.: There are probably far fewer than might be expected as you would, however, have to look at each case individually> Many people who appear to be first chakra people are actually second chakra people who find peace in first chakra activities e.g.:
1 hunters might hunt to get away from wife / family / responsibilities or relive their adolescence etc. &
2 fitness freaks aren't all "athletes", many are just narcissists or obtuse self-mutilators etc.

To discuss the NDE videos, I shall now have to use the chakras as a conceptual reference.

However, before I do, I have to clarify one final point:

Hindu Spirituality, like most Spiritual traditions (especially before the Industrial Revolution), sees the world upside down to modern Western Man. Thus, somebody isn't ill, they just aren't opening themselves enough to God (in Hindu Spirituality's case, Cosmic Consciousness).

I'm going to have to keep going with the Western model - because that's all I can do - while acknowledging that Hindu Spirituality would probably not be particularly happy with what they would consider to be a frustrating Western inversion of their religious concepts.

1. they were all emotional people - even the atheist, who was negatively so


2. they all had an out-of-the-body experience, in which their Consciousness - a dispassionate, almost clinical but calm version of their everyday "Personality" - looked down at their injured physical body
   
   
3. in the next phase, a number of them claimed that they could choose to live by re-entering their bodies or die and some even reported fear. However, all chose to live and subsequently encountered the "white light" phase
   
   
4. coming out of the "white light" phase, most experienced a feeling of Serenity - quite unlike anything that they had experienced before - followed by the meeting of family, friends, Jesus, loving "Beings" etc. in 7 of the 8 cases - the very interesting exception being video 6,who was an atheist

1 The first state of NDE consciousness is a "Body oriented" consciousness i.e. part of the first chakra. This is the phase when the NDEs are having an out of the body experience and looking down at their bodies and / or their physicians.

N.B.: This state of consciousness seems aware of its surroundings but appears disinterested in them e.g. you never hear NDEs mentioning the weather or the perfume of a nurse etc. - their reporting is without emotion and only seems to be interested in the body's health and survival.

Now, the "Spiritual Materiality" associated with this first chakra consciousness is The Etheric Body , which clairvoyants report to be a roughly human-shaped part of the aura. In other realms of Human Existence, it's my guess that:

A it's the Etheric body that is referred to in Ancient Egyptian mysticism as the ka. I suspect that the Egyptians developed certain physically dangerous techniques by which the Etheric body was manipulated (through specific meditation techniques for training, then physical trauma and / or the use of narcotics) to separate (or almost separate from the body), creating a prolonged and controlled near-death, mystical experience.

B It's recognized that both the Ancient Egyptian and the Ancient Jews used Baptism as a ritual. However, I suspect that the Ancient Egyptians also used extended immersion in water as part of their Etheric body experiments and that this is the true symbolism of Baptism in the Christian Church.

Think about it! Virtually all NDEs claim a certainty of the afterlife that is astonishingly "born again" but even more so. In fact, I'm sure that many of them would say that their newly-found certainty in God's existence is not based in Faith, at all, it is based in Experience!

C There may also be some connection with the utterly deplorable, dangerous and potentially suicidal practice of Erotic asphyxiation.

I would guess that the NDEs deliberation of whether to re-enter their body or not is carried out by this first chakra consciousness, particularly as there seems to be no emotion involved in the decision making process.

2 The second state of NDE consciousness is a consciousness capable of thought-but-not-abstract thinking. It isthe "Spiritual Materiality" associated with the second chakra, visible to clairvoyants" as The Astral Body

The wikipedia entry for "Astral Body" is unfortunately rendered almost meaningless because - besides its proper, second chakra meaning - the phrase, "the Astral Body", has also been appropriated for a number of related but very different concepts, including:

the Etheric body
the third chakra's "Spiritual Materialism" form, the Mental body
the fourth chakra's "Spiritual Materialism" form, the "Causal body" (see directly below)
the Human Aura - which depending on the clairvoyant may see one or all of these forms of "Spiritual Materialism", as well as
Astral traveling, which is, for some, a type of dreaming, for others, a weird fantasy game & for still others, a genuine clairvoyance associated with the development of the Causal body!

N.B.: I shall use the term strictly to describe the "Spiritual Materiality" associated with the second chakra i.e. emotions.

In terms of the NDEs there is a very distinct phase passing from the the out-of-the-body experience, which is emotionally neutral, to a phase that's characterized by a range of minor emotions:

Some feel a little fear [I accept that there is certainly a robust argument to be made that this could be first chakra / body orientated experience - but the depth of reporting is quite different to that of the out-of-the-body-experience.]
others feel trepidation &
occasionally there is an excitement about what is happening

This may appear to be just splitting hairs but I believe that its absolutely necessary for understanding the phenomenon of NDEs.

3 The third state of NDE consciousness is one of "Bliss", a profound sense of acceptance and a dropping away of restrictive conditioning i.e. fourth chakra. In Hindu Spirituality this is called The Causal Body and in the NDEs, this experience is what they bring back to the everyday world that excites so many people.

To not mince words - it's a slice of Heaven.

NDE-ers generally report meeting deceased family and friends and a profound earth-existence shattering experience. Interestingly, they don't report family from before their time, so those gathered to "greet" them are not a clan going back centuries.

Christianity would have it that all the dead have met St. Peter at the gates of Heaven and that millions are happily living away in an alternative reality there for Eternity.

The Hindus and the Tibetan Buddhists (see: The Tibetan Book Of the Dead) say that this is a temporary state, a metaphysical abstraction, before the soul begins a further melting into the Void (God).

Whatever it is, most NDE-ers come back to everyday life and sell it like it's the best thing since Swiss cheese!

This view is borne out by noted NDE author Dr. Pim van Bommel when discussing another NDE-researcher [Penny Sartori]'s results when attempting to replicate Dr. Parnia's AWARE study experiment:

"...And it's also interesting to know that one patient of Penny Sartori who is English and is also performing research on NDE - she had one patient who had an out-of-body experience and who could tell exactly a lot of details about the resuscitation.

But she [the patient] did not see the hidden sign - [Dr. Sartori] had put signs in the room.

So they [NDE patients] have no intention to look around..."

Dr. Pim van Bommel

You can imagine that with the man in NDE video 5, who is not a bad man by any means but is already creating his lonely Hell on Earth, which will surely continue in Death.

As a result of his NDE, he believes that upon Death, everyone will say:

"Is this what all the fuss was about?"

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1. Fallen Angels - Evil beings, the dark equivalent to sixth and seventh chakra development - their activity would be against Mankind rather than individual men e.g. a Fallen Angel might possess a man like Hitler to unleash what became The Second World War. Their origin is, of course, not human
   
   
2. Hating Spirits [my terminology] - Very powerful deceased and malevolent human spirits, a dark equivalent of the fifth chakra, determined to bring unhappiness and pain to Humans.
   
   When I think of the Obesity epidemic (which would have been considered a massed Demonic possession 100 years ago), I picture it orchestrated by such beings - as well as by a suicidal matrix comprised of governments, farmers, multinational food & junk food companies, Big Pharma & hypocritical churches
   
   See my Squidoo lens: Fast Food Is Killing You Slowly January, 2011
   
   
3. Despicable Spirits [my terminology] - Deceased and malevolent humans, a dark equivalent of the fourth chakra.
   
   Some of Alison Dubois' more evil Spirit opponents on the TV show The Medium would be in this category - their evil appears to be directed towards individuals rather than Humanity as a whole.
   
   Mind you, the majority of "victims" in The Medium appear to be slim, attractive, young women, "rescued" by frumpish Alison - make of that what you will!
   
   

   
   
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The Buddah, Speaking On Faith

Believe nothing on the faith of traditions, even though they have been held in honor for many generations and in diverse places.

Do not believe a thing because many people speak of it.

Do not believe on the faith of the sages of the past.

Do not believe what you yourself have imagined, persuading yourself that a God inspires you.

Believe nothing on the sole authority of your masters and priests.

After examination, believe what you yourself have tested and found to be reasonable, and conform your conduct thereto.

Buddha

And on a practical note: Reincarnation & Parenting

As a father, I have seen my two boys grow into young men and the radical - and delightful - differences in their personalities were evident to me by the time each was one year old.

Knowing that their genetic mix was the same and their environmental influences were almost identical has convinced me that their differences were there from the time they were born.

Whether their differences have been caused by their random aggregations of genes or whether they're caused by Reincarnation (or Rebirth) doesn't really matter to me but in the long run, accepting Reincarnation - at least, in theory - has made parenting incredibly easy! I highly recommend it - if only as a coping mechanism!