Photo by infomatique
By Mary Jaksch
What happens when we die? Does consciousness remain? What is the purpose of life?
New research into near-death experiences leads to some startling conclusions.
“You have got to tell all the old people so that they won’ be afraid to die!” five-year old Chris told his doctor after he had been resuscitated after drowning.
His father lost control of his car he was driving at night and plunged into the freezing waters of a river near Seattle. As they sunk into icy waters, his mother managed to pull his older brother to safety, but it took another fifteen minutes to rescue Chris. When he was brought to shore, his breathing had stopped and there was no heart beat.
Miraculously doctors managed to resuscitate Chris. When he woke up, he told them:
“I went into a huge noodle when I died, well it must have been a tunnel because I don’t think noodles have rainbows in them.”
What Chris experienced was a Near Death Experience, or NDE. This is a pattern of events people can experience when come close to death. These are some of the features:
- feeling comfortable and free of pain
- a sensation of leaving the body, sometimes being able to see the physical body while floating above it
- the mind functioning more clearly and more rapidly than usual
- a sensation of being drawn into a tunnel or darkness
- a brilliant light, sometimes at the end of the tunnel
- a sense of overwhelming peace, or absolute, unconditional love
This is how Grace Bubulka-Hatmaker, a nurse, experienced her NDE:
As I neared the warm, glowing radiance ahead of me, I felt pure ecstasy. I was in the beginning of the light. I was part of the light…It was as if I had come home. I had come home to the beginning of not just me but the beginning of all eternity.
According to traditional science, when the hearts stops beating and breathing comes to a standstill, the brain shuts down and consciousness ceases. That school of thought believes that without the brain, consciousness is impossible.
A new study tests a different theory: that consciousness is not confined to the brain, and the mind can continue to exist even when the brain ceases to function.
This study is known as AWARE and is led by Dr. Sam Parnia, the leading scientist currently studying Near Death Experiences. It will examine 1,500 survivors of cardiac arrest and involves the collaboration of 4 major medical centres through Europe, Canada, and the U.S.
During a cardiac arrest all three signs of clinical death can be present: absence of spontaneous breathing and heartbeat, as well as loss of neural activity in the brainstem and the cerebral cortex. Then follows a period of time in which medical efforts may be able to restart the heart and reverse the dying process.
Here’s a mystery:
Some people wake up after resuscitation and describe near death experiences. Even though – according to medical knowledge – no thought processes can be going on during a loss of brain activity.
Laurelynn Martin was at the height of a promising tennis career when she had a routine surgical procedure that went catastrophically wrong. Here’s her account:
The nurse helped me slide onto the operating table and gave me a motherly look. “Don’t worry. We’ll make this a most pleasant experience for you.”
With those reassuring words, I drifted off to sleep. I awakened and found myself floating above my body, looking down, watching the attempts of the medical team trying to revive the lifeless form below. The surgical team was frantic. The color red was everywhere, splattered on their gowns, splattered on the floor, and a bright pool of a flowing red substance, in the now wide open abdominal cavity.
I floated up through blackness where there was no fear, no pain, but instead a sense of well-being. I was enveloped by total bliss in an atmosphere of unconditional love and acceptance. In the distance, a horizon of glorious white, golden light beckoned me forward.
As the brilliance increased and the rays stretched to meet me, I felt that time, as we know it, was nonexistent. Time and existence were a blending and a melding of the past, present and future into this one moment. Every part of my being was satisfied with an unconditional love beyond description.
The experiences of Laurelynne and of others show that people having a Near Death Experience are lucid and are able to reason and remember. This has led Dr. Parnia to say:
Recent medical studies in cardiac arrest patients have indicated…that the mind and consciousness may be what remains of us after death.
What can Near Death Experiences teach us about the purpose of life?
Many people who have experienced NDEs say that they were shown the purpose of life. These life lesson are remarkably similar. Take Laurelynn Martin’s experience, for example:
The message was – love. Above and beyond anything else, one must first learn to love oneself non-judgmentally and unconditionally. Then one will actually love all people and all things the same way.
I realized how important people were in life, how important it was to accept them and love them. All events in your life are significant. To bring an understanding of all things, even the experiences which you consider insignificant, will bring you to places of great awareness and compassion.
If love is the main purpose, how could our life reflect that?
What are your thoughts on near death experiences and what they might mean for how we live our life? Please share them in the comments.
Related articles and websites:
Is There Life After Death?
Past Life Regression: Evidence of Life After Death
Interview with Dr. Parnia
Horizon Research Foundation
Article by Dr. Parnia
The Amazing Power of the Spirit
If you would like to explore your natural spirituality, participate in virtual retreats with Mary Jaksch. You can read more about these retreats here.
Images:
Light at the end of the tunnel by Jenny Downing
Door opening by hamed saber
Grass by tristram brelstaff
{ 2 trackbacks }
{ 53 comments… read them below or add one }
Interesting, but I wonder how this research accounts for the fact that near death experiences are often not so near death or the fact that it is incredibly easy to get people to have vivid hallucinations.
I think the message of love is great. All of my spiritual teachers have the same message, so it can’t be that far from the truth.
Nathalie Lussier from Billionaire Womans last blog post..How To Make Your WorkWeek Work For You Not Against You
You wrote ‘the mind and consciousness may be what remains of us after death’.
The way I see it, what remains of us after death (of our body) is our soul.
Bengts last blog post..Different shades of raw food
Interesting info about Near Death Experiences. I’m definitely inclined to believe that consciousness remains even after death. If we take the view that we are spiritual beings having a human experience, then we can say that we will not really “die” at the end of this lifetime.
Evelyn Lims last blog post..My Vision Board Tops Amazon’s Bestseller List?
If one believes in reincarnation, as in Buddhism, the soul doesn’t die. It moves on to another physical form as designated based on the life one leads in the current life – cause and effect, karma if you will.
happysurfers last blog post..15sen reduction in fuel prices
Thanks for a great post!
I know someone who had a NDE and I was actually involved in it. I had left her at the hospital – made the 1 hr drive back home…and a few hours later I sat up with a vision of her with her dog & cat who had recently passed over. I saw her and the animals so happy… so happy!
Then I realized the phone is going to ring and in a few minutes it did. The hospital saying she had a code blue and they resuscitated her.
Three days later when she was finally out of ICU and able to talk she started to tell me her story – She was indeed with her dog & cat and they were all so happy. She also spoke of the tunnel and the light and the feeling of being utterly happy – filled with Love!
I don’t believe in death – we just transition out of the body into another dimension. That coincides with the idea of “consciousness is not confined to the brain”
Actually I would go a step further and say – Real consciousness is not at all about the brain – but instead about the knowing that all there really is – is absolute Unconditional Love. Anything other than that – is by the brain, from the brain, of the brain.
I’m not saying that in a bad way – as I do believe each of us has come here into this physical realm to experience the diversity, contrast and polarity that physicality has to offer us!
When you can approach life from this level – you are able to realize all these things that we consider a big deal… they are not a big deal! We came here knowing who we are – we came to play in this theater called earth and we get to write our on scripts on a daily basis. It is indeed the ultimate playground of Love!
Ellie Walsh – Living the Law of Attractions last blog post..Let’s Talk about the Sky….
a few years ago, a fairly acknowledged hungarian writer, péter nádas published a book called (my) own death, in which he recounts his clinical death experience. the story is compelling, the language is very plastic, even abstract at times as it sort of tries to evade phrasing considered “spiritual tone” in western literature.
i recommend this book to you, people, because it might not be very often that you can read a true NDE (or DE) story by a professional writer without any kind of religious glaze:
http://www.amazon.com/My-Own-Death-Peter-Nadas/dp/3865210104
there is also an experimental movie version of the book, i wish you had a chance to watch it some time:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1178480/
You don’t have to have a NDE to experience that reality. Explore the area of astral travel/astral projection and with experience you will realise all this for yourself.
Jarrod – Warrior Developments last blog post..Two Pronged Learning: Learn to Learn
Hi Erika!
You’ve made two good points.
In the article by Dr. Parnia that I mention earlier, he describes the result of an extensive NDE study. He says: “There was no evidence to support the role of drugs, oxygen or carbon dioxide in causing the experiences”
You’re right about NDE also happening in situations where someone is ill but not near death.
Hi Nathalie!
Yes, all spiritual traditions talk about love. It’s amazing to see this wisdom echoed by people with NDE!
we die
each time we kill a smile
and are reborn
with each hand we shake…
we can die alive
or live while dead…
I’m pretty surprised by the credulity and wishful thinking going on. Even if we brush aside the similar experiences of those who are not dying, there is still reason to reserve judgment. I hope we can agree that these are not experiences of death but of thought processes often (but not always) associated with the experience of dying. Near death experiences tell us what it’s like to be dying, not what it’s like to be dead.
I would love to believe that my consciousness survives my body. I don’t find any satisfying evidence that it does. Until I find that evidence, I will try to focus on what I do know, to focus on the present moment, and to avoid letting my hopes and desires interfere with my direct experience.
Jonathan Blakes last blog post..The Day I Wished I Was Dead
Wishin’ and hopin’
There’s no “life after death”. There’s no “spirit”, no “soul”.
If you are so enamored with the importance of yourself that you need to believe this, fine. The rest of us know that our consciousness goes away at death and we accept that.
“Near Death” experiences can be elicited with drugs. We even have some idea why the “tunnel” experience is so common. ALL THIS IS NORMAL AND UNDERSTANDABLE.
As I see it, Consciousness Is. It never goes away. Love the post and all the exchanges it’s generating! We are a continuum. “Death” sometimes holds such fear; but it’s really quite expansive and beautiful. One feels completely and thoroughly at peace, weightless, complete. In “dying” is the secret to truly living.
Adrilias last blog post..Being Productive When Things Get Quiet
In meditation, I have been fortunate enough to experience a profound awareness that has common ground with typical descriptions of near-death.
My experiences in meditation always happen with a sudden and powerful inner thud sensation. I can’t describe it, except to say that it feels (in hindsight) like the slamming of a free-falling elevator when it hits bottom. And then there is this infinite silence, quiet knowing, incredible power, and unity. It is an experience of existence in totality; completely one. It is impossible to describe in words, but at the time that I am in that state, there is no dichotomy; no me and the world; there is just existence in all its power — and it is me; I am existence; there is no separation. The only sense of self that I recall feeling during these times is an awareness of the brain stem and some cervical vertebrae as I enter and exit from that state.
I can also say, that these experiences are so powerful that they change me for a quite a long time after. They seem to open me to gifts of understanding and acceptance. Dispassionate wisdom, or a knowing sense of cause and effect, is a way I can word that.
So, I find similarities between deep meditative states and near-death experience. They are at different levels perhaps. It could be that the actual death experience would dissolve the awareness of separation, which any concept of love requires (as experienced in near-death), into the experience of absolute unity, knowing, and power.
This is what comes to my mind as I read this thought-provoking article. Thank you for that.
Cheers,
John
John Rocheleau – Zen-Momentss last blog post..Desire and Seduction: 7 Ways to Turn Your Life Around
Nice and juicy article Mary! My own thoughts on this one:
I find it difficult to take people’s subjective accounts of experiences supposedly happening to them while their brains were ‘dead’ as evidence that consciousness survives the death of the body.
I’ve often had dreams while slipping in and out of sleep during late-morning sleep-ins which encompassed huge stories stretching for what felt like hours, and then noticed upon waking that I was only asleep for 2 or 3 minutes! Time in different states of mind is apparently subjective in its pace…
So how about the hypothesis that those experiences occurred only in the few seconds before the brain shut down, yet felt subjectively like they lasted a long time, and remained, skewed, in the memory? I’m not saying that this is the correct hypothesis – only that there can always be another hypothesis to explain a subjective experience..
Therefore, I think what’s more important here than any idea of post-mortem consciousness is the reported and shared experience of joy and love – it’s reassuring to know that beneath all of our usual conscious structures, peace love and unity are powerfully present!
This is very interesting as it confirms what I have long believed to be the case. I sincerely believe that our soul or conscience will move into another dimension in which everything is love and peace and hopefully we’ll be rejoined with all those we have loved.
Hi Bengt!
You say: “The way I see it, what remains of us after deatH is our soul.”
I’m hesitant about using the word ’soul’. It’s so loaded with religious concepts. And it’s overused by the ‘peace, love, and lentils’ movements.
Hi Evelyn Lim!
I like “spiritual beings having a human experience”! It makes me immediately wonder what the core of having a ‘human experience’ is. What’s your thought on that?
The core of the human experience as you said is to love, to heal. It’s the central message. I’ve seen many of my past lives; invariably the memories tend to be near the time of the deaths. In several, I’ve died alone, in misery and hurt. In a couple, I made the intention of incarnating again to experience the love I’ve missed out in having in that lifetime.
Please note that what I’ve shared here is based on my personal experiences gained during meditation, lucid dreams, OBE, etc. I am not here to convince anyone what beliefs they should be having.
Evelyn Lims last blog post..My Vision Board Tops Amazon’s Bestseller List?
Hi Happysurfer!
“If one believes in reincarnation, as in Buddhism”
I’m a Buddhist, but I’m much more interested in experiencing, then in believing. I find that beliefs close my mind to other realities.
Excellent post.
I love you guys!
Curt
Hi Human Being!
Yes, it’s important to live before we die
Hi Jonathan Blake!
I share your reservations. However, this is the first decent piece of research that I’ve seen in this field if enquiry.
The research project involves putting signs high up on shelves that can only be seen from above.
If people who have whose heart arrests and brain function stops can later describe the signs, then there is some cause to rethink the nature of consciousness.
There is anecdotal evidence that quite a few people with NDEs have described medical treatments accurately while clinically seemingly dead. But anecdotal evidence isn’t hard evidence.
Hi Ellie Walsh!
Thank you for your amazing stories!
I love your idea that life is “the ultimate playground of Love!”
This is not only an excellent post but also incredibly comforting as my father died a year ago this week.
My grandmother drowned once too, but luckily she was “resurrected” by doctors before it was too late. She told me it was an absolutely horrible experience.
I think it’s more important to focus on your life when you’re alive. As Confusius said, when asked about death: “If you can’t understand life, how can you hope to understand death?”
Since death completely separates us from the body and the physical world, I imagine this separation also removes the distractions that come along with it, which would allow the spirit absolute freedom.
If I were somehow given the opportunity to experience a NDE and come back to the physical world, I would take it; however, we can almost simulate its after-effects by constantly seeking self-knowledge and self-awareness, which will remove most of our physical world distractions.
This topic is fascinating to me. If anyone is interested in reading perhaps the greatest, most intellectual and ground-breaking works on the separation of mind and body, I highly recommend “Meditations on First Philosophy” by Rene Descartes, who is best known for saying, “I think — therefore I am.”
Descartes’ ideas on “dualism” 400 years ago made him the father of modern philosophy…
“I saw that while I could pretend that I had no body and that there was no world and no place for me to be in, I could not for all that pretend that I did not exist… From this I knew I was a substance whose whole essence or nature is only to think, and which does not require any place, or depend on any material thing, in order to exist.” ~ Rene Descartes
Hi Kent!
My software mistook your comment for spam. And I had to rescue it from the bin.
That’s a fantastic quote by Rene Descartes! Thanks for sharing it with us.
You say: ‘we can almost simulate its after-effects by constantly seeking self-knowledge and self-awareness, which will remove most of our physical world distractions.”
I get into an inner wobble when I read that. On one hand I say, “Yes, yes – self-awareness is great!”. And then there is another voice within that says “But wouldn’t I then miss life?”
I love the “distractions of the body”: The smell of freshly-ground coffee; the way dew clings to blossoms; the feel of skin against skin; the sound of waves sliding back into the sea…
Hi Mete!
I think your reasoning is valid – the thoughts could have happened in the last moments of consciousness before the brain flat-lining.
That’s why I’ve always taken article that suggest that NDE are “proof” of clinical death with a grain of salt.
But this research is different. The touchstone is that some cardiac arrest patients describe some of the medical interventions that happened AFTER their brain supposedly stopped working.
This is what Dr. Parnia is researching.
But I agree, the most important aspect is the fact that the ‘lesson’ that people with NDE’s report is so remarkably similar, and firmly centered around love.
As a Buddhist, of course I do not believe that death is a barrier between existence and annihilation. I don’t claim to understand how something can remain after physical death. But I had memories as a child of previous lives, sadly now lost. I thought it was perfectly normal, and that everyone remembered who they had been! I have always found those memories comforting. And I feel that if those who are dying can take comfort from any belief that death is not the end, it is a cause for hope. My hope, and firm belief, is that science will one day prove what I already know to be true! Perhaps a study of NDEs will be the first step.
porillions last blog post..Cannot Visualise (Part One)
I doubt that memories of past lives are real, but let’s pretend that they are.
So what? The instincts to breathe, to suckle, to fear falling are nothing but “memories” passed down by genetics. Why couldn’t other memories (real or false) be passed down as well?
Your consciousness is not separate from your physical brain. Dualism is prattle; nonsense for fearful people to hang on.
What on earth do you think makes you so special that you need to exist forever? You are not: there are billions of others just like you. That unique “you” (which really isn’t unique at all) will disappear when your body can no longer support it.
I really do not understand how you can delude yourselves into thinking otherwise. Yes, I understand WHY – I just don’t understand the how.
Anthony Lawrences last blog post..What I want in my next GPS by Anthony Lawrence
Anthony,
What on earth makes YOU think everyone is the same and nobody is special? Maybe you think you’re nothing special, but perhaps some of us have better opinions of ourselves and of all living beings as a whole. I believe that every animal, every plant, every leaf on every tree is unique and special.
I cannot in my wildest imagination understand how a person like you can think that nothing in this universe is special.
You must be full of self-loathing.
There is plenty of evidence of life after death. Maybe you just don’t want to see the truth because you’d prefer to be a nihilist.
“Self loathing”
Hardly
I’ve been around long enough to know that we ARE all the same. You, me, Bill Gates, the bum on the corner.
There’s nothing “special” about any of us. You need to learn to enjoy what you have now: there’s nothing after it.
Anthony Lawrences last blog post..What I want in my next GPS by Anthony Lawrence
@Anthony,
It does not matter how long you have been around, want to compare numbers?
The question of us being special is not connected to whether we believe there is something after or not. All of us are unique. You see it differently but that does not make your opinion the only valid one.
Bengts last blog post..Different shades of raw food
@Bengt:
I’d say you don’t understand why you need these beliefs. I think it is because you think you are unique, special – you can’t imagine that you are just another replica stamped out in a long line of DNA.
It’s OK: if it makes you happy to believe this nonsense, I’m all for it. Just don’t waste your life with it. Enjoy the moment, because the moments will end.
I shouldn’t even disturb you. I often tell myself that it’s OK, let them be, leave them to their delusion if it isn’t hurting anyone.
But I just can’t help thinking that self delusion is wrong, that it does hurt you. I just hate to see all you people dreaming nonsense.
Anthony Lawrences last blog post..What I want in my next GPS by Anthony Lawrence
@Anthony,
We agree on one thing: Enjoy the moment.
Apart from that, let us agree to disagree. You still see your opinion as the only valid one, I do not.
http://www.near-death.com/experiences/experts04.html
http://www.near-death.com/experiences/research08.html
http://skepdic.com/nde.html
Anthony Lawrences last blog post..What I want in my next GPS by Anthony Lawrence
NDE proof
http://www.newsmonster.co.uk/paranormal-unexplained/near-death-experiences-are-real-and-we-have-the-proof-say-scientists.html
Read or for ever hold your peace
http://www.victorzammit.com/book/4thedition/chapter06.html
People have NDEs while brain dead
http://www.near-death.com/experiences/evidence01.html
The brain isn’t functioning. It’s not there. It’s destroyed. It’s abnormal. But, yet, it can produce these very clear experiences … an unconscious state is when the brain ceases to function. For example, if you faint, you fall to the floor, you don’t know what’s happening and the brain isn’t working. The memory systems are particularly sensitive to unconsciousness. So, you won’t remember anything. But, yet, after one of these experiences [a NDE], you come out with clear, lucid memories … This is a real puzzle for science. I have not yet seen any good scientific explanation which can explain that fact.”
Dr peter fenwick
Hi Delboy!
I think this is the link for the article you quote by Dr. Fenwick: http://www.iands.org/research/important_studies/dr._peter_fenwick_m.d._science_and_spirituality.html
my name is danny, and i had my very own life after death experience. several years ago during surgery i was brought back to life. i had the experience of floating over my body while the surgeons were working on me. i saw the light at the end of the tunnel, and i saw the figure at the end of the tunnel. instead of the figure waving me into the light, it was motioning me to go back. when i woke up on the operating table i remember being very angry at the doctors for bringing me back. i even asked them why did you bring me back. the feelings i remember were of utter peace and joy. i truly believe in life after death. besides this experience, i have cheated death on two other occasions, and on both of these occasions i was not expected to live, but i am still here, and truly believe i was given not only one, but three different chances at life.
really interesting. thumbs up for this!
Hi Danny!
thank you for sharing your amazing experience with us. I wonder if your life feels different after this near death experience?
Hi porillion!
How amazing that you can remember that you had memories of a previous life. Have you read my article http://goodlifezen.com/2008/07/01/past-life-regression-evidence-for-life-after-death/ ?
Western civilization and science are finally catching on to the facts and experiences of death and near death. Other cultures over the last 4000 years have described these experiences in great detail.
We are spirit….nothing dies except out belief system…..and if we are smart, we “die to the self” long before our physical transition.
Gut!