{"id":4621,"date":"2011-01-01T01:10:32","date_gmt":"2011-01-01T06:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paganpages.org\/content\/?p=4685"},"modified":"2010-12-22T17:57:33","modified_gmt":"2010-12-22T22:57:33","slug":"across-the-great-divide-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/2011\/01\/01\/across-the-great-divide-13\/","title":{"rendered":"Across the Great Divide"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"divide1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

An exploration of Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s 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).\u00a0 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\u2019s What Dreams May Come,<\/em> and the 1980 classic Resurrection<\/em>.\u00a0 I’d like to note that Resurrection<\/em> was the first movie to base its screenplay not on superstition and cultural references, but on the research and ideas of Raymond Moody<\/a>, whose 1975 book Life After Life<\/a> <\/em>led to the foundation of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS)<\/a> in 1981.\u00a0 Stories of NDEs go back as far as recorded history, but today, according to a Gallup poll, as many as eight\u00a0million Americans claim to have had an NDE.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

These events are usually reported after an individual has been pronounced clinically dead or otherwise very close to death, thus the term near-death<\/em> experience. \u00a0Many NDE reports, though, originate from events that are not life-threatening at all.\u00a0 With modern developments in cardiac resuscitation techniques, the number of reported NDEs has increased. <\/sup> 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.<\/p>\n

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. <\/sup>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.\u00a0 Encountering deceased loved ones and “Beings of Light” who take the person on a \u201clife review\u201d are also commonly reported.<\/p>\n

There is a darker side to these experiences as well.\u00a0 A long-time reader of this column sent me a story of how her mother worked for 40 years in a nursing home.\u00a0 As you could quite imagine, she saw several patients leave this world over such a period of time.\u00a0 \u201cOne gentleman,\u201d she said, \u201ccoded and when they brought him back he was terrified; there was no \u2018light at the end of the tunnel\u2019.\u00a0 Instead he described dark entities waiting for him.\u201d\u00a0 She noted that this man was gone for more than five minutes and postulated that what he was doing prior to his \u201cpause\u201d in living may have had something to do with what he saw; or perhaps his religious choice was a factor in the incident.<\/p>\n

Such incidents remind me of the Transcendental Psychology overtones in the movie Ghost<\/em>, wherein characters such as Patrick Swayze\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

In a 2006 theory developed by Richard Kinseher, the knowledge of the Sensory Autonomic System is applied in the NDE phenomenon.\u00a0 His theory asserts that the experience of death is an extremely strange paradox to a living organism, the shock of which triggers the NDE.\u00a0 \u00a0According 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. \u00a0All 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. \u00a0Kinseher believes this is the reason why a near-death experience is so unusual, because people who experience NDEs recall memories long considered lost.\u00a0 His theory essentially depends upon a theory of memory in which all memories are indefinitely retained.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 The brain then transforms the input from sense organs and stored experience (knowledge) into a dream-like idea about oneself and the surrounding area.<\/p>\n

Whether or not these experiences are hallucinatory, they do have a profound impact on the observer. \u00a0Many psychologists not necessarily pursuing the paranormal have recognized this in recent years. \u00a0These scientists are not trying to debunk the experience outright, but are instead searching for biological causes of NDEs.\u00a0 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. \u00a0People who have experienced times when their brains behaved as if they were dreaming while awake are more likely to develop the near death experience. \u00a0Stimulation 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.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 If you remember my column from back in May, 2010<\/a>, lucid dreaming occurs when the individual becomes consciously aware that they are in a dream. \u00a0Often these states are so realistic that they become indistinguishable from reality, even including the ability to experience textures and smells.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s it all mean?\u00a0 Is it a glimpse of what\u2019s to come, or a chance to change that which is?\u00a0 Many people who experience NDEs report an intense motivation for personal growth and change.\u00a0 They have been known to change the attitudes, personality, and beliefs of those who have the experience.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Some psychologists argue that these same qualities manifest in reckless and deviant behavior.\u00a0 But if these qualities are described by people in terms of “aliveness” as opposed to “deadness”, wouldn\u2019t that make for a healthier and more meaningful life?\u00a0 To embrace life\u2019s possibilities instead of shutting away in a constant fear of death and low self image would seem to be the more enlightened path.<\/p>\n

Reminiscent of the classic Dickens\u2019 novel, A Christmas Carol<\/em>, when a person experienced a \u201clife review\u201d, inevitably there were profound changes from the realization of what is truly important to that individual\u2019s life experience.\u00a0 Generally, high priority values of kindness, compassion, and unconditional love for others became more prominent.\u00a0 Low priority values such as money, competition, and power were rejected afterward.\u00a0 It would seem that the story of Scrooge is an NDE account.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.”<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

In my poetry I expressed this concept once with the quote \u201cLife and death are linked in an eternal circle.\u00a0 Because of this, I do not fear death.\u00a0 If I live life to its fullest and walk through it in beauty and pride, then death will be the same to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

I think a world in which we thirst for and pursue knowledge and embrace life\u2019s promise, rather than cowering in fear of the inevitable would be a far better place to exist.\u00a0 But, that\u2019s just my opinion, I could be wrong.<\/p>\n

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 wolf@deepforestproductions.com<\/a> with \u201cNDE\u201d in the subject line.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An exploration of Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences Let\u2019s 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).\u00a0 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\u2019s What Dreams May Come, and the 1980 classic Resurrection.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Stories of NDEs go back as far as recorded history, but today, according to a Gallup poll, as many as eight\u00a0million Americans claim to have had an NDE.\u00a0 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. \u00a0Many NDE reports, though, originate from events that are not life-threatening at all.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Encountering deceased loved ones and “Beings of Light” who take the person on a \u201clife review\u201d are also commonly reported. There is a darker side to these experiences as well.\u00a0 A long-time reader of this column sent me a story of how her mother worked for 40 years in a nursing home.\u00a0 As you could quite imagine, she saw several patients leave this world over such a period of time.\u00a0 \u201cOne gentleman,\u201d she said, \u201ccoded and when they brought him back he was terrified; there was no \u2018light at the end of the tunnel\u2019.\u00a0 Instead he described dark entities waiting for him.\u201d\u00a0 She noted that this man was gone for more than five minutes and postulated that what he was doing prior to his \u201cpause\u201d 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\u2019s 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.\u00a0 His theory asserts that the experience of death is an extremely strange paradox to a living organism, the shock of which triggers the NDE.\u00a0 \u00a0According 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. \u00a0All 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. \u00a0Kinseher believes this is the reason why a near-death experience is so unusual, because people who experience NDEs recall memories long considered lost.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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. \u00a0Many psychologists not necessarily pursuing the paranormal have recognized this in recent years. \u00a0These scientists are not trying to debunk the experience outright, but are instead searching for biological causes of NDEs.\u00a0 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. \u00a0People who have experienced times when their brains behaved as if they were dreaming while awake are more likely to develop the near death experience. \u00a0Stimulation 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.\u00a0 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. \u00a0Often these states are so realistic that they become indistinguishable from reality, even including the ability to experience textures and smells. What\u2019s it all mean?\u00a0 Is it a glimpse of what\u2019s to come, or a chance to change that which is?\u00a0 Many people who experience NDEs report an intense motivation for personal growth and change.\u00a0 They have been known to change the attitudes, personality, and beliefs of those who have the experience.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Some psychologists argue that these same qualities manifest in reckless and deviant behavior.\u00a0 But if these qualities are described by people in terms of “aliveness” as opposed to “deadness”, wouldn\u2019t that make for a healthier and more meaningful life?\u00a0 To embrace life\u2019s 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\u2019 novel, A Christmas Carol, when a person experienced a \u201clife review\u201d, inevitably there were profound changes from the realization of what is truly important to that individual\u2019s life experience.\u00a0 Generally, high priority values of kindness, compassion, and unconditional love for others became more prominent.\u00a0 Low priority values such as money, competition, and power were rejected afterward.\u00a0 It would seem that the story of Scrooge is an NDE account.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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 \u201cLife and death are linked in an eternal circle.\u00a0 Because of this, I do not fear death.\u00a0 If I live life to its fullest and walk through it in beauty and pride, then death will be the same to me.\u201d I think a world in which we thirst for and pursue knowledge and embrace life\u2019s promise, rather than cowering in fear of the inevitable would be a far better place to exist.\u00a0 But, that\u2019s 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 wolf@deepforestproductions.com with \u201cNDE\u201d in the subject line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4621"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4563,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4621\/revisions\/4563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}