Free Republic

Editor’s Note: Click here for Part 1 of P. David Hornik’s new series: Near-Death Experiences—A New Take on Life, Part 1: Sam Parnia Explains Where the Field Is Leading. And click here to see his previous articles on the subject here: Do You Believe in Life After Death? Out-of-body experiences, tunnels, bright lights, deceased relatives, a being of light—and life reviews. These are the most commonly reported elements of near-death experiences. They have been reported now for decades from all over the world, across cultures and religions. Of all of them, the life review may be the most difficult...

The "near-death experience" reported by cardiac arrest survivors worldwide may be grounded in science, according to research at the University of Michigan Health System. Whether and how the dying brain is capable of generating conscious activity has been vigorously debated. But in this week's PNAS Early Edition, a U-M study shows shortly after clinical death, in which the heart stops beating and blood stops flowing to the brain, rats display brain activity patterns characteristic of conscious perception. "This study, performed in animals, is the first dealing with what happens to the neurophysiological state of the dying brain," says lead study...

A surge of electrical activity in the brain could be responsible for the vivid experiences described by near-death survivors, scientists report. A study carried out on dying rats found high levels of brainwaves at the point of the animals' demise. US researchers said that in humans this could give rise to a heightened state of consciousness

It seems almost everyone has a story of how they almost drowned, almost drove off a cliff, or narrowly dodged a bullet. What is your story of the closest you came to dying?

Proof of Heaven is the sort of book I almost never read, but I'm glad I made an exception. I don't really follow the whole Near Death Experience, is-there-or-isn't-there-an-afterlife debate. I've come to believe there is more to life than life, but I don’t think about it much. Life itself seems a pretty urgent business and I want to pay attention to it before it's gone. If there's nothing afterwards, I'll never know. If there is, I've got an excellent lawyer.But a friend gave me the book for Christmas. I started it, and found it weirdly compelling. As you’ve...

Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) said he saw three angels in the hospital when he awoke from a stroke-induced coma in an interview published Wednesday. Kirk — who had a stroke almost a year ago — is set to walk up the U.S. Capitol building’s steps Thursday without any assistance. Kirk told suburban-Chicago’s The Daily Herald the angels asked him, “You want to come with us?” “No,” Kirk responded. “I’ll hold off.” Doctors sent Kirk into a coma after he had a stroke Jan. 21, 2012 and they temporarily removed a 4-by-8 inch piece of his skull to help his brain...

Dr Eben Alexander, a Harvard-educated neurosurgeon, fell into a coma for seven days in 2008 after contracting meningitis. During his illness Dr Alexander says that the part of his brain which controls human thought and emotion "shut down" and that he then experienced "something so profound that it gave me a scientific reason to believe in consciousness after death." In an essay for American magazine Newsweek, which he wrote to promote his book Proof of Heaven, Dr Alexander says he was met by a beautiful blue-eyed woman in a "place of clouds, big fluffy pink-white ones" and "shimmering beings". He...

Hello, My wife's (FReeper hellinahandcart) dad has been undergoing chemo and radiation therapy for a fast growing cancer. He's nearing the end of his treatments, but there appears to be something else very wrong. She says that he is basically out of his mind. This apparently is not related to his cancer, according to the doctors. They are trying to get him to take a CAT scan but he is having none of it. He is also suffering from hallucinations now. On top of that, he may be coming down with pneumonia and his white blood cell count is down...

Atheist Professor’s Near-Death Experience in Hell Left Him Changed by Mark Ellis, FaithIssues, Godreports In some near-death experiences, people report they were drawn toward “the light.” But in this horrifying near-death experience for an atheist art professor, he was drawn into the darkness of hell, which dramatically altered the course of his life. “I was a double atheist,” says Howard Storm, who became a tenured art professor at Northern Kentucky University by age 27. “I was a know-it-all college professor, and universities are some of the most closed-minded places there are,” he notes. On the last day of a three-week...

Article can not be posted due to copyright issues but if you clink on this link you can read all about it.

At 18 hospitals in the U.S. and U.K., researchers have suspended pictures, face up, from the ceilings in emergency-care areas. The reason: to test whether patients brought back to life after cardiac arrest can recall seeing the images during an out-of-body experience. People who have these near-death experiences often describe leaving their bodies and watching themselves being resuscitated from above, but verifying such accounts is difficult. The images would be visible only to people who had done that. "We've added these images as objective markers," says Sam Parnia, a critical-care physician and lead investigator of the study, which hopes to...

How carbon dioxide in the blood could be responsible for near-death experiences By David Derbyshire Last updated at 1:45 AM on 08th April 2010 Some say their life flashed before their eyes, others talk of an out-of-body floating sensation or an intense feeling of peace. Now scientists believe they can explain what causes the near-death experiences reported by thousands of patients on the operating table. A study of heart attack victims has found a link between them and high levels of carbon dioxide in the blood. Towards the light: People who have out-of-body experiences on the operating table may have...

Is there life after death? Theologians can debate all they want, but radiation oncologist Dr. Jeffrey Long argues that if you look at the scientific evidence, the answer is unequivocally yes. Drawing on a decade's worth of research on near-death experiences — work that includes cataloguing the stories of some 1,600 people who have gone through them — he makes the case for that controversial conclusion in a new book, Evidence of the Afterlife. Medicine, Long says, cannot account for the consistencies in the accounts reported by people all over the world. He talked to TIME about the nature of...

My brother in law, Gary has suffered an aortic aneurism, a torn aorta, and two heart attacks. Gary did survive surgery and is in intensive care. The surgeon said that if he survives the next two days his chances of survival improve significantly. Gary is 49, married and has 5 children. Please pray the LORD places His healing hand on him.

The leader of Taliban militants in Pakistan's Swat district has been critically wounded and is close to death, the BBC has learned. The information about Maulana Fazlullah confirms statements from senior government and security officials. A former village cleric, he founded the branch of the Taliban movement which eventually took over the Swat valley. After a recent offensive, Pakistan's army says it has almost defeated rebels in that sector of the north-west. It has been battling Taliban militants there for about two months and the government says it has regained control of the region. 'No medicine' The information about Maulana...

Rocky collected money for the Mafia. A typical bagman, he was immersed in the material world of fast cars, quick cash and getting ahead by butting heads. One day, he was shot in the chest and left for dead on the street. He survived, though, and lived to tell of an experience that changed his life. "He described a blissful, typical near-death experience—seeing the light, communicating with a deity and seeing deceased relatives," says Bruce Greyson, a U.Va.-trained psychiatrist who interviewed Rocky after the shooting. "He came back with typical near-death aftereffects. He felt that cooperation and love were the...

MILTON, Mass. Renowned columnist Art Buchwald has refused dialysis, and it's only a matter of time, maybe a short time, before he dies. For a man awaiting The Reaper, he's in unusually fine fettle. I spent two days by his side to find Buchwald doesn't see himself as courageous, nor does he feel shored up by supernatural spiritual strength. To fade away naturally is the decision he made when faced with the alternative of being hooked up to a dialysis machine three times a week, for five hours at a stretch for the rest of his life. He said, "I...

LA CROSSE, Wis. -- A man says he threw a live electrical wire into his wife's bath hoping a near-death experience would save their marriage. William Dahlby said in court he was only trying to scare his wife the evening of May 9. ``At no time did I ever intend to kill or hurt my wife,'' said Dahlby, on trial for attempted first-degree intentional homicide and intimidation of a victim. ``I don't even know if that was possible.''

January 14 could have been a bad day for George Bush. As the president was preparing to announce America's return to the moon in a speech at the headquarters of Nasa, he was almost asked to deliver a very different message: that the Earth could suffer a devastating asteroid strike within 24 hours. Astronomers have revealed that during a "nine-hour crisis" the night before Mr Bush's speech they believed there was a one in four chance an asteroid would hit the planet in 36 hours. Had it not been for a break in the clouds that allowed an amateur astronomer...