Across the Great Divide
An exploration of Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences
Let’s switch gears this month away from ghosts and the like, and take a look at another huge area of paranormal research- the Near-Death (NDE) and Out-of-Body Experience (OBE). Hollywood likes to toy with the notion of Life after Death and the Out-of-Body Experience; sometimes in a beautiful way, such as in 1998’s What Dreams May Come, and the 1980 classic Resurrection. I’d like to note that Resurrection was the first movie to base its screenplay not on superstition and cultural references, but on the research and ideas of Raymond Moody, whose 1975 book Life After Life led to the foundation of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) in 1981. Stories of NDEs go back as far as recorded history, but today, according to a Gallup poll, as many as eight million Americans claim to have had an NDE. Some researchers believe that number to be underestimated due to many individuals being hesitant to talk about their experiences for fear of ridicule and rejection.
These events are usually reported after an individual has been pronounced clinically dead or otherwise very close to death, thus the term near-death experience. Many NDE reports, though, originate from events that are not life-threatening at all. With modern developments in cardiac resuscitation techniques, the number of reported NDEs has increased. Many in the scientific community regard such experiences as hallucinatory, while paranormal specialists and some mainstream scientists argue them to be evidence of an afterlife.
The typical NDE experience includes a sense or awareness of being dead; a sense of peace, well-being and painlessness; and an observation of one’s body from outside the self that even include detailed accounts of medical personnel performing revival efforts. A “tunnel experience” accompanied by a sense of moving up, or through, a passageway or staircase is the most common memory along with movement toward a powerful light. Encountering deceased loved ones and “Beings of Light” who take the person on a “life review” are also commonly reported.
There is a darker side to these experiences as well. A long-time reader of this column sent me a story of how her mother worked for 40 years in a nursing home. As you could quite imagine, she saw several patients leave this world over such a period of time. “One gentleman,” she said, “coded and when they brought him back he was terrified; there was no ‘light at the end of the tunnel’. Instead he described dark entities waiting for him.” She noted that this man was gone for more than five minutes and postulated that what he was doing prior to his “pause” in living may have had something to do with what he saw; or perhaps his religious choice was a factor in the incident.
Such incidents remind me of the Transcendental Psychology overtones in the movie Ghost, wherein characters such as Patrick Swayze’s were greeted by peaceful scenes and light from above, but the antagonists of the film met their end with dark, growling shadows from below who forcefully took the soul on to the next plane of existence.
Cultural or religious factors may have a roll in these experiences that could possibly determine the format of the NDE phenomenon, but several neuropsychological and other scientific theories are being put forward to explain them as well.
In a 2006 theory developed by Richard Kinseher, the knowledge of the Sensory Autonomic System is applied in the NDE phenomenon. His theory asserts that the experience of death is an extremely strange paradox to a living organism, the shock of which triggers the NDE. According to the theory, during the NDE the individual becomes consciously aware of the brain performing a scan of the whole episodic memory, including prenatal experiences, in order to find a stored experience which is comparable to the input information of death. All these scanned and retrieved bits of information are then evaluated by the mind, as it is searching for a coping mechanism for the potentially fatal situation. Kinseher believes this is the reason why a near-death experience is so unusual, because people who experience NDEs recall memories long considered lost. His theory essentially depends upon a theory of memory in which all memories are indefinitely retained.
The theory also states that NDEs that are accompanied by out-of-body experiences are an attempt by the brain to create a mental overview of the situation and the surrounding world. The brain then transforms the input from sense organs and stored experience (knowledge) into a dream-like idea about oneself and the surrounding area.
Whether or not these experiences are hallucinatory, they do have a profound impact on the observer. Many psychologists not necessarily pursuing the paranormal have recognized this in recent years. These scientists are not trying to debunk the experience outright, but are instead searching for biological causes of NDEs. Their research suggested that the extreme stress caused by a life threatening situation triggers brain states similar to REM sleep and that part of the near-death experience is a state similar to dreaming while awake. People who have experienced times when their brains behaved as if they were dreaming while awake are more likely to develop the near death experience. Stimulation of the Vagus nerve during the physical and/or psychological stress of a life threatening situation may also trigger brain conditions where the person is in a dream-like state while awake.
Sleep researchers, such as Timothy J. Green, Lynne Levitan and Stephen LaBerge, have noted that NDE experiences are similar to many of the experiences reported during lucid dreaming. If you remember my column from back in May, 2010, lucid dreaming occurs when the individual becomes consciously aware that they are in a dream. Often these states are so realistic that they become indistinguishable from reality, even including the ability to experience textures and smells.
What’s it all mean? Is it a glimpse of what’s to come, or a chance to change that which is? Many people who experience NDEs report an intense motivation for personal growth and change. They have been known to change the attitudes, personality, and beliefs of those who have the experience. Psychologists see a potential for a valuable therapeutic tool in this regard due to a variety of personality shifts including a reduced fear of death, a sense of invulnerability, a feeling of importance or destiny, and a belief that they have been granted a favor. Some psychologists argue that these same qualities manifest in reckless and deviant behavior. But if these qualities are described by people in terms of “aliveness” as opposed to “deadness”, wouldn’t that make for a healthier and more meaningful life? To embrace life’s possibilities instead of shutting away in a constant fear of death and low self image would seem to be the more enlightened path.
Reminiscent of the classic Dickens’ novel, A Christmas Carol, when a person experienced a “life review”, inevitably there were profound changes from the realization of what is truly important to that individual’s life experience. Generally, high priority values of kindness, compassion, and unconditional love for others became more prominent. Low priority values such as money, competition, and power were rejected afterward. It would seem that the story of Scrooge is an NDE account. Charles Flynn quoted a subject of his study as saying, “The superficial aspects of my life, what I had accomplished, owned, and known, were consumed and rendered unimportant. However, those acts in which I selflessly expressed love or concern for my fellow men were glorified and prudently inscribed in the record, with total disregard for however humble or fleeting those moments had been.”
Another type of transformation is that people report a much greater concern for others and a communal well being resulting in a greater willingness to accept others and to be less judgmental of others.
In my poetry I expressed this concept once with the quote “Life and death are linked in an eternal circle. Because of this, I do not fear death. If I live life to its fullest and walk through it in beauty and pride, then death will be the same to me.”
I think a world in which we thirst for and pursue knowledge and embrace life’s promise, rather than cowering in fear of the inevitable would be a far better place to exist. But, that’s just my opinion, I could be wrong.
If you have had, or know of someone who has had a near-death, or out-of-body experience, I invite you to share your story in the comments below or you may email them to me at [email protected] with “NDE” in the subject line.