Yahoo Lifestyle Near Death Experience
"Mystery is another name for our ignorance; if we were omniscient, all would be perfectly plain." - Tryon Edwards
The near death experience is very much in the mainstream. There have been related movies, bestselling books, and TV specials. With modern techniques of resuscitation, near death experiences (NDE) occur with increasing frequency. In fact, 13 million Americans or 5% of the population have reported having an NDE.* The term was coined by Dr. Raymond Moody, who along with spiritual author Elizabeth Kubler Ross, plugged the concept into the collective consciousness back in the 70's. NDE's are reported by those who've been revived from cardiac arrest or other similarly fatal conditions. They are generally characterized by "a feeling of serenity, floating out of one's body, a journey through a dark passageway to a warm light, and encounters with a supernatural presence or a meeting with dead relatives." **
There are those who dismiss the phenomenon with a scientific explanation. Dr. Rick Strassman, while conducting DMT research in the 1990s at the University of New Mexico, suggested that Dimethyltryptamine from the pineal gland released prior to death or near death created the visions and hallucinations typical of an NDE.*** Maybe they're real, maybe they're not. As Deepak Chopra said, "In the India of my childhood, the hereafter wasn't a place, but a state of awareness."*
Here are some mysterious facts about NDEs that will give you the chills:
1. Brain Dead NDEs
NDEs occasionally occur in people who register flat brain scans. This means it would have been impossible for their brain to imagine anything yet these people have vivid mental experiences of an afterlife.**
In December of 1981, Owen Thomas was badly injured and by the time he arrived at the New York Infirmary, he had no pulse, no blood pressure, no breath, nothing. With punctures to the heart, liver, intestines, and one lung, Thomas was described by an ER doctor as very dead and "cold to the touch." After vigorous CPR, he was miraculously revived. The ER doctor said it was "the most wondrous thing we've ever experienced." Thomas recalled a rich, vivid NDE.**
Atheist NDEs
One might think NDEs occur in the failing imaginations of more religious folk. But a nationwide Gallup pole found no connection "between religious devotion and the likelihood of paranormal vision during severe medical trauma."**
The NDE Posse
IANDS stands for the International Association for Near Death Studies. A member of this group, Dr. Pim Van Lommel, discusses implications of NDE's for the future of science and medicine and poses this question: "How is consciousness related to the integrity of brain function?" In many well-documented cases, people have died with their bodies turning cold yet they are revived and can vividly report specific details about their resuscitation. Will modern medicine one day proove that while the body ceases to function, a certain part of the brain continues? ''
"Is there a start or an end to consciousness?" - Dr. Van Lommel ''
Sources:
* "Life After Death" by Deepak Chopra
** "Time" magazine (speical edition: Exploring The Unexplained) currently on newstands
*** Wikipedia
**** iands.org
