Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

What Happened When The Worlds Most Famous Atheist Had A Near Death Experience.
National Post | March 3 2001 | William Cash

Posted on 02/04/2004 5:20:15 PM PST by catonsville

Did atheist philosopher see God when he 'died'? William Cash National Post March 3, 2001

"I haven't told this to anybody before," said Dr. Jeremy George, senior consultant in the Department of Thoracic Medicine at London University's Middlesex Hospital. On the table in front of him were the official hospital notes of "Sir Alfred Ayer, date of birth 29/10/10, of 51 York Street, London, W1." We were discussing the incident of June, 1988, when the eminent 77-year-old British philosopher, arguably the most influential 20th century rationalist after Bertrand Russell, famously "died" in London University Hospital. His heart stopped for four minutes when he apparently choked on a slice of smoked salmon smuggled in by a former mistress. Three months later, while recuperating at his house in the south of France, the atheist author of Language, Truth and Logic, whose more than 50-year career was devoted to ridiculing all metaphysical statements, especially all Christian doctrine, as nonsense, wrote a lengthy article for Britain's The Sunday Telegraph, titled What I Saw When I Was Dead, about his bizarre visit to the other side and how, as a humanist philosopher, it had affected his view of death.

Ayer's article, with his vivid memory of being pulled toward a red light, "exceedingly bright, and also very painful," his encounters with the "ministers" of the universe, and his frustration as he tried to "cross the river" -- which he presumed was the Styx -- bears a very curious resemblance to similar reports of near-death experiences recalled by 63 survivors of cardiac arrest at Southampton General Hospital, and published last week in the science journal Resuscitation.

Dr. Peter Fenwick. of the Institute of Psychiatry in London, a leading consultant who was involved in the findings, said the collected data is the first medical evidence that proves the mind can continue to exist after the body is clinically dead, and that a form of afterlife is now scientifically explainable. "Those who return all report that they have been changed," he said. "Those who were religious found their faith renewed. Those who had no faith often acquired at least a belief in some form of afterlife".

However, in his article Ayer concluded his experience had done nothing to weaken his belief that there is no God. In a second article, titled Postscript to a Postmortem, Ayer added a further denial that the experience had led him to alter his secularist view that "there is no life after death". Ayer, after all, had good reason to rebut any suggestion he had changed his atheist convictions. From the late 1940s, he had been employed by the BBC to take on such opponents as Hugh Montefiore, Bishop of Birmingham, and Jesuit priest Martin D'Arcy, a friend of Evelyn Waugh, and to broadcast his vigorously humanist views. But did intellectual pride induce Freddie -- as he was known to many -- to compromise his version of the truth of what really happened during the four minutes of his clinical death?

Last year, after I wrote a play for the Edinburgh Festival about Ayer's near death experience, I received a letter from Dr. Jeremy George, who had been senior registrar in charge of Ayer while he was in hospital. He told me he had some new information he thought I might find "very interesting."

Dr. George was the duty doctor when Ayer was first admitted on May 31, 1988, after falling seriously ill with pneumonia after a lunch at the Savoy. By a strange coincidence, Dr. George had been a student at New College, Oxford in the 1970s when Ayer was at the college as Wykeham Professor of Logic. Although he was not taught by Ayer, Dr. George had met him. When the young doctor saw this "crumpled heap in a corner of the private wing," he immediately recognized him as Britain's most celebrated living philosopher. "He was very pleased that somebody knew who he was" said Dr. George, "He looked very blue. His oxygen level was virtually incompatible with life." Dr. George gave Ayer emergency oxygen and put him immediately in the intensive care unit, where his condition improved. "He would not have survived the day. I was amazed how lucid he became. I think he made a joke in Latin."

During Ayer's week in intensive care, the nurses turned a blind eye to his private supply of smoked salmon in the unit fridge provided by an old lover who left him for Graham Greene in the early 1950s but remained a close friend. Indeed, the hospital staff had to put a ban on the number of his female visitors, among them his latest girlfriend, a married Canadian woman with whom he was planning an adulterous weekend in Paris the moment he was discharged.

In the early evening of June 6, Ayer later wrote, he "carelessly tossed" a slice of salmon down this throat. Choking as it went the wrong way down, he was clinically dead for four minutes. The hospital notes state: "cardiac arrest with bradycardia, and asystole, but was resuscitated". Having been alerted by the nurse, who administered emergency procedures, Dr. George looked down Freddie's throat. "I found a lot of secretions and sputum but the smoked salmon was a red herring. There wasn't any that I could see. But I suppose it made a better story". In order to ascertain whether Ayer had suffered any brain damage, Professor Spiro, the senior consultant, and Dr. George then had to subject Ayer to a general knowledge quiz to test his brain.

"I think we asked him who the prime minister was, and what day was it," said Dr. George. "The answers quickly shut us up. They were all correct. He blew us out of the water. There was absolutely no brain damage. He was very lucid. I think he wanted to be asked more questions, such as the name the players of the winning football team of the First Division. We had no idea if he was making them up or not, we just assumed he got them right."

That same day, having finished his rounds, Dr. George returned to Ayer's bedside. "I came back to talk to him. Very discreetly, I asked him, as a philosopher, what was it like to have had a near-death experience? He suddenly looked rather sheepish. Then he said, 'I saw a Divine Being. I'm afraid I'm going to have to revise all my various books and opinions.' "He clearly said 'Divine Being,'" said Dr. George. "He was confiding in me, and I think he was slightly embarrassed because it was unsettling for him as an atheist. He spoke in a very confidential manner. I think he felt he had come face to face with God, or his maker, or what one might say was God.

"Later, when I read his article, I was surprised to see he had left out all mention of it. I was simply amused. I wasn't very familiar with his philosophy at the time of the incident, so the significance wasn't immediately obvious. I didn't realize he was a logical positivist." "I am amazed," said his widow Dee Wells, after I related the extraordinary confession Dr. George had passed on to me.

Their son, Nick Ayer, who had been with his father in hospital throughout his illness, and had slept in Ayer's private room, was also silent for a second when I told him the story, and then added: "It doesn't sound like a joke. It sounds extraordinary. He certainly never mentioned anything like that to me. I don't know what to make of it. When he first came round after he was 'dead' he said nothing of any of this. Nothing at all."

Nick said that he had long felt there was something possibly suspect about his father's version of his near death experience. "All this stuff about crossing the River Styx -- it just sounds too good to be true. There was three months between his time in hospital and when he decided to write the article in France. He never mentioned any of that business once. And I was with him all the time. I always thought it sounded more like a dream." According to Freddie's article, his first recorded words after he came round in hospital were to exclaim to the audience gathered around his bed:

"You are all mad." But again, Nick Ayer has no recollection of ever hearing any mention of this until the piece appeared three months later. So can Ayer's memory or his own words really be trusted? Freddie always claimed he devoted his life to the pursuit of Truth. But as Dee Wells was quick to point out when I visited her at York Street, where she has continued to live since Freddie's death, the truth could rapidly become meaningless for Freddie when it happened to suit him -- with women, for example.

Certainly it does seem very odd that Ayer, in either of his two detailed articles, did not so much as mention his conversation with Dr. George about having to rewrite all his books and works; if only -- in his usual fashion -- to dispose of it with his usual logical clarity. According to Freddie, and his newspaper piece, the first conversation he remembered having was with his ex-lover Beatrice Tourot, who was sitting on his bed. They spoke in French, with Ayer saying: "Did you know that I was dead ? It was most extraordinary, my thoughts became persons."

Freddie was discharged from hospital on July 3, 1988. He died a year later, having remarried Dee Wells (who had been his second wife and then became his fourth). Despite declaring himself a "born-again atheist," his friends and family noticed that Freddie -- like the 63 patients interviewed for last week's report -- certainly seemed to change.

"Freddie became so much nicer after he died," said Dee. "He was not nearly so boastful. He took an interest in other people." Ayer also told the writer Edward St. Aubyn in France that he had had "a kind of resurrection" and for the first time in his life, he had begun to notice scenery. In France, on a mountain near his villa, he said, "I suddenly stopped and looked out at the sea and thought, my God, how beautiful this is ... for 26 years I had never really looked at it before."

What is also undeniably true -- and has never been reported on -- is that at the end of his life, Freddie spent more and more time with his former BBC debating opponent, the Jesuit priest and philosopher Frederick Copleston, who was at Freddie's funeral at Golders Green crematorium.

"They got closer and closer and, in the end, he was Freddie's closest friend," said Dee. "It was quite extraordinary. As he got older, Freddie realized more and more that philosophy was just chasing its own tail."


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS:
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-99 next last
There was another thread today about an athiest who had such a terrifying NDE that he later became a minister. I thought Freepers would be interested in the unusual experience of A. J. Ayers, the most famous atheist of the last half of the 20th century who also had such an experience and how it affected him. Ayers was a remarkable man ( the story hints at his unusual love life) in many ways. Philospher, developer of language theory, writer, poet and more. Even those who disagreed with him found him charming, kind and very likable. The debate still rages, did Ayers really change after his experience? I think so.
1 posted on 02/04/2004 5:20:17 PM PST by catonsville
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: catonsville
Near-death is the key phrase. Nobody has returned from the dead since the resurrection of Christ. Unless you count ghosts who, technically, are still dead.
2 posted on 02/04/2004 5:29:11 PM PST by luvbach1 (In the know on the border)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: catonsville
Thanks for posting. I guess he never became a Christian after his near-death experience?
3 posted on 02/04/2004 5:29:12 PM PST by plain talk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Comment #4 Removed by Moderator

To: luvbach1
Yes, there is such a thing as a near-death experience. Due to an accident in a hospital, I can vouch for the fact that the last human sense to fail, is hearing. I went into shock during a cat scan. My vision failed. My sense of touch failed. I heard the nurse say to the doctor, "BP 70 over 0." Those are not good numbers, LOL.

It is an interesting and remarkably detatched experience. I knew what was going on, and what the doctor was doing to snap me out of it. I thought it would work. Meanwhile, I was along for the ride. LOL.

Congressman Billybob

Click here, then click the blue CFR button, to join the anti-CFR effort (or visit the "Hugh & Series, Critical & Pulled by JimRob" thread). Don't delay. Do it now.

5 posted on 02/04/2004 5:44:58 PM PST by Congressman Billybob (www.ArmorforCongress.com Visit. Join. Help. Please.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: catonsville
Descriptions of NDEs have been so widely published for so long that no 'testimony' of this sort can be regarded, on the basis of choosing the simplest explanation, as anything except a false memory induced by urban myth.

That said, accounts of NDEs from before they became so widely discussed do sound a lot like this.

6 posted on 02/04/2004 5:46:07 PM PST by Grut
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: catonsville
Thank you for this thread, very interesting.

My favorite line, though, is, "Freddie became so much nicer after he died," said Dee."

7 posted on 02/04/2004 5:49:53 PM PST by xJones
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: catonsville
"Freddie became so much nicer after he died,"

PLEASE DON'T PRAY FOR ME!

8 posted on 02/04/2004 5:53:04 PM PST by jaz.357 (Pacifism is the greatest tool in the hands of a faschist. - Mike Muir)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Congressman Billybob
While I have never had a NDE, I have had experiences in my life that have me absolutely convinced that there is someone watching out for me.
9 posted on 02/04/2004 5:53:12 PM PST by Spruce (Football changed when the Vikes moved indoors.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: luvbach1
Nobody has returned from the dead since the resurrection of Christ.

Um, Lazarus?

10 posted on 02/04/2004 6:00:41 PM PST by Aeronaut (In my humble opinion, the new expression for backing down from a fight should be called 'frenching')
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: luvbach1
Dunno...agree for the most part but I have seen folks with no pulse, not breathing and with proper emergency care from first responders bring them back to pulse and breathing mode. NDE ? Dead ? Just almost dead ?

They were as close as I can figure ........Stay safe !

11 posted on 02/04/2004 6:01:12 PM PST by Squantos (Salmon...the other pink meat !)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Squantos
I believe that's "Mostly Dead".
12 posted on 02/04/2004 6:03:09 PM PST by Spruce (Football changed when the Vikes moved indoors.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Aeronaut
Lazarus was raised before the crucifixion, wasn't he?
13 posted on 02/04/2004 6:13:14 PM PST by WinOne4TheGipper (This tagline was made in a Colombian sweatshop.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: will1776
Lazarus was raised before the crucifixion, wasn't he?

Oops, I stand corrected. Sorry.

14 posted on 02/04/2004 6:14:57 PM PST by Aeronaut (In my humble opinion, the new expression for backing down from a fight should be called 'frenching')
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Aeronaut
If I remember my Bible correctly Lazarus was resurrected from the dead by Christ before Christ died and came back.
15 posted on 02/04/2004 6:15:15 PM PST by freemama
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Aeronaut
Nobody has returned from the dead since the resurrection of Christ.

Um, Lazarus?

Um, Lazarus was raised from the dead by Christ. I am assuming that Christ was alive at the time, hence "since" is correct.

16 posted on 02/04/2004 6:20:10 PM PST by mc5cents
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: catonsville
I read a book by an agnostic Doctor who worked with terminally ill children.

She was converted to Christianity due to many of these children testifying that they had spiritual encounters with Christ before their deaths.

The book was wonderful and honest. Titled " A Window to Heaven".

17 posted on 02/04/2004 6:25:30 PM PST by Jorge
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Spruce
LOL.....Almost Almost !
18 posted on 02/04/2004 6:26:03 PM PST by Squantos (Salmon...the other pink meat !)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: catonsville
Is this NDE day? I just got through reading another thread on FR on the same subject. Paging Art Bell.
19 posted on 02/04/2004 6:31:57 PM PST by strongbow
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Aeronaut
I'm not joining the crowd to correct your time-line...
but I'll take a second to point folks to the parable of the rich man and
"the other Lazarus" in the sixteenth chapter of Luke.

That's a good one for folks thinkin' 'bout NDEs and mortality/death.
20 posted on 02/04/2004 6:38:17 PM PST by VOA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-99 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson