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Near-Death Experiences: 30 Years of Research
Epoch Times ^ | September 13, 2011 | Stephanie Lam

Posted on 09/17/2011 3:16:55 PM PDT by 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.”


TOPICS: Current Events; Religion & Science
KEYWORDS: afterlife; darwinwasanidiot; ebenalexander; faithandphilosophy; god; lifeafterlife; nde; ndes; neardeathexperience; ourcreator; raymondmoody
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To: NYer
“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.

This was the experience I had during my NDE. The experience changed my life forever.

61 posted on 09/17/2011 8:08:14 PM PDT by Nachoman (I HOPE we CHANGE presidents.)
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To: All

Thank you to everyone for your comments, experiences and memories. And links!


62 posted on 09/17/2011 8:09:34 PM PDT by little jeremiah (We will have to go through hell to get out of hell.)
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To: NYer
This is a fascinating book written by a doctor. Stories are shared as well as his medical opinions.

Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences

63 posted on 09/17/2011 8:15:08 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: NYer

My other-in-law died recently from cancer, and during the last day or so she had a sudden moment where she could sort of talk again... she said she had “seen a bright light, and it was beautiful”. This woman had been a very strong atheist all her life and always believed that dead meant “just gone, no longer in existance”.


64 posted on 09/17/2011 8:23:05 PM PDT by Cementjungle
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To: OldPossum

While you’re consulting scripture, do pay a visit to Paul via Romans 8 and I Corinthians 15. He had quite a bit to say upon the matter as well.

They’ll be there, just make sure you are, yourself.


65 posted on 09/17/2011 8:49:56 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: Tammy8

My aunt had serious heart surgery, and remembers standing on a mountain. On a mountain right next to the mountain she was on, she saw her mother, brothers and sisters who had previously died. They told my aunt to come over and join them. My aunt told them that she did not have her purse with her and would have to return to get her purse first. The next thing my aunt knew she was waking up in Recovery after her surgery.

Another of my aunts, before she died in the nursing home, called out, “No, Mike, not yet. Ma? Ma?” Mike was the deceased son of my aunt, Apparently he was at the foot of her bed, and my aunt was telling him she could not go with him, and was calling instead for her mother. She died shortly afterward. Her daughter related this story to me.


66 posted on 09/17/2011 9:51:28 PM PDT by itssme
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To: True Republican Patriot
Clintoon remembers black ugly vermin crawlin all over him

I refer to those as "the wormy suck people". I think it's something that people who were especially carnal in their appetites experience..I hope he's changed his ways, or he will be experiencing them for all eternity someday.

I've seen them described by others during nde's.

67 posted on 09/17/2011 11:37:19 PM PDT by sockmonkey (Freepers, please turn yourself in at attackwatch.com)
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To: daniel1212
Nice list. You should add this one:

90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper http://www.90minutesinheaven.com/

68 posted on 09/18/2011 4:16:10 AM PDT by Rocky (REPEAL IT!)
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To: Louis Foxwell; RnMomof7

“Not likely... because God is in Hell.. He is omnipresent”

“That is the most bizarre comment I have ever read.”

Rev 14

9And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,

10The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, AND IN THE PRESENCE OF THE LAMB

11And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up FOR EVER AND EVER and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.

One may have all sorts of interpretations of the beast depending on one’s prophetic persuasion, however this obviously refers to everlasting punishment in God’s presence. While, in the present age, Christ is the light of the world, for those who are cast into “outer darkness” He is no longer the light, although He is present. That, surely, is a major part of the torment.


69 posted on 09/18/2011 4:30:58 AM PDT by Diapason
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To: AEMILIUS PAULUS
Aemilius Paulus,

Did you read any of Moody's books? One of the most compelling aspects of the near death experiences are those people who later tell of events that were impossible for them to know.

One of the examples ( of several) was the boy who during his NDE meets his cousin. When he returned to consciousness, he told his aunt not to worry that his cousin was safe and happy and in heaven. His cousin had been killed in an automobile accident shortly before his NDE and no one knew about it, even as the boy was telling his aunt that his cousin was in heaven. Moody interviewed not only the boy but those family members involved.

Also....Moody did his work long before NDE was known in the culture, as it is today, yet, even though it was impossible for the people who had the NDEs to have known each other, or to have known of this phenomena, there were major common themes in their experiences.

Personally....I believe it is worth while to investigate NDEs and not to casually dismiss them, especially when regaining consciousness the person affected tells of events with others that would be impossible for him to know.

70 posted on 09/18/2011 5:25:12 AM PDT by wintertime (I am a Constitutional Restorationist!!! Yes!)
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To: daniel1212

How can God be where he is not?


71 posted on 09/18/2011 6:29:34 AM PDT by Louis Foxwell (O assumes the trappings of the presidency, not its mantle. He is not presidential.)
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To: itssme

My mother told me for a week before she died that my father (who died years before) was coming to get her. She had me do her hair for her.


72 posted on 09/18/2011 6:30:58 AM PDT by Tammy8 (~Secure the border and deport all illegals- do it now! ~ Support our Troops!~)
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To: Diapason
“Not likely... because God is in Hell.. He is omnipresent”
“That is the most bizarre comment I have ever read.”

Do you not understand what OMNIPRESENT means? It means God is EVERYWHERE..yes including hell

As Sproul notes...

A breath of relief is usually heard when someone declares, “Hell is a symbol for separation from God.” To be separated from God for eternity is no great threat to the impenitent person. The ungodly want nothing more than to be separated from God. Their problem in hell will not be separation from God, it will be the presence of God that will torment them. In hell, God will be present in the fullness of His divine wrath. He will be there to exercise His just punishment of the damned. They will know Him as an all-consuming fire.

Ps 139:8
If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there

73 posted on 09/18/2011 8:52:00 AM PDT by RnMomof7
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To: Louis Foxwell

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2779966/posts?q=1&;page=73#73


74 posted on 09/18/2011 8:53:50 AM PDT by RnMomof7
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To: EGPWS

Btt


75 posted on 09/18/2011 10:05:08 AM PDT by An American in Turkiye
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To: wintertime
There are NDE reports of those who saw people in the "next world" as guides, relatives, friends etc. who were still alive at the time of the NDE.

It is an interesting subject but I have not heard of any studies on the characteristics of those reporting having NDE's, compared to those not having NDE's. Any adequate physical histories such as what chemicals were put into their bodies a few days before the NDE? What was the diagnosis of their physical condition? Those having NDE's outside a hospital vs. those having NDE's in a hospital setting? Remember those in a hospital often have undergon treatment with anesthesia. Any personality inventories run on those reporting NDE's vs. those not reportingthem(an MMPI for example)?

Those writing books about NDE's expect to make money as do their publishers. Does the desire to sell books or give a lecture-for a fee-influence which NDE's are selected and reported vs. the less interesting cases of those who report nothing?

Speaking of those who report nothing-I have personally known such a case-what is the explanation for such instances? Lastly, I believe in a "life after death" I merely do not believe these anecdotal stories "prove" life after death. I believe there is probably a more naturalistic explanation.

76 posted on 09/18/2011 10:07:28 AM PDT by AEMILIUS PAULUS (It is a shame that when these people give a riot)
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To: RnMomof7; Louis Foxwell

“Do you not understand what OMNIPRESENT means? It means God is EVERYWHERE..yes including hell”

I understand perfectly - just read what I stated and the Scripture quoted. My response was to Louis Foxwell who considered the idea bizarre, and I included you since he was responding to your comment re omnipresence with which I totally agree.


77 posted on 09/18/2011 11:18:56 AM PDT by Diapason
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To: Patriot Babe

Your post really struck my heart. Such vivid recollections gave me pause to stop, think, and pray. How wonderful Heaven is for those who await it. Thank you so much for your post. Prayers & FReegards.


78 posted on 09/18/2011 11:53:38 AM PDT by ConservativeStLouisGuy (11th FReeper Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Unnecessarily Excerpt)
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To: Diapason

And omnipresent does not include nowhere.


79 posted on 09/18/2011 12:06:54 PM PDT by Louis Foxwell (O assumes the trappings of the presidency, not its mantle. He is not presidential.)
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To: Louis Foxwell

Because God is spirit, and being God, He cannot be confined by time or space, but can be wherever He wants. This should not be difficult.


80 posted on 09/18/2011 12:16:13 PM PDT by daniel1212 (Our sinful deeds condemn us, but Christ's death and resurrection gains salvation. Repent +Believe)
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