An Introductory Analysis of the NDE (Near-Death
Experience).
During the last two decades, another phenomenon has entered the general
discussion concerning the survival of death, this being the NDE. In addition to
mediumistic communications and other related phenomena, the NDE has been seen by
many as providing evidence of survival.
In fact, the occurrence of NDEs is not a new subject as parallels already
existed as long ago as Plato's Republic. Other accounts, e.g. Salvius in
the sixth century, include details of journeys into the next world; the Dialogues
by the sixth century Gregory the Great records a number of NDEs, and Bede, in
the eighth century also narrated the NDE of Drythelm in his Ecclesiastical
History of the English People. These are however coloured by the religious
concepts that prevailed at the time when they were written. Clinical thinking
about NDEs began in the nineteenth century with Prof. Albert Heim, a Swiss
geologist, who had an NDE while mountain-climbing in 1871, and published his
findings in Notes on Deaths from Falls. The subject was also considered
by a number of leading figures in the early SPR (Society for Psychical
Research). In more recent years, it was given further attention by Dr Elisabeth
Kubler-Ross, an American psychiatrist who became aware that something
other-worldly seemed to occur immediately before a patient died; she wrote a
number of books about this from the early 1970s.
However, interest in the subject, by the general public and both the
scientific and religious world, only really began with the publication of Life
after Life, in 1975. The author was Raymond Moody, an American psychiatrist,
who was prompted to investigate the subject after hearing of a NDE by Dr George
Ritchie during the war (to whom he dedicated his book), and subsequent accounts
from students when he was teaching. He collected together details of such
experiences and these formed the basis of his book; when Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
read the proof, she realized that his findings coincided with her own.
Moody's book became a best-seller and in view of what was being stated, other
members of the medical profession carried out their own investigations, one
being the psychologist, Prof. Kenneth Ring of the University of Connecticut. He
was anxious to bring about a scientific understanding of the subject and by
setting up an international organisation with other interested professionals in
1977 (this later became IANDS: International Association for Near-Death
Studies), he was able to collect reports of the experience. His book Life at
Death published in 1980, gave the results of his enquiry; in this he stated:
'I do endorse the proposition that consciousness (with or without a second body)
may function independently of the physical body'. Indicating the scope of
support for this type of thinking in the scientific community, Dr Melvin Morse,
a Washington paediatrician, who carried out research relating to NDEs in
children, stated something similar: in The Light Beyond, written by Moody
and Paul Perry in 1988, he said that he could not see why the NDE could not be
accepted as 'travel to another realm'.
Another medical specialist who embarked upon an enquiry into the subject was
the cardiologist Dr Michael Sabom at the Emory University School. Unlike Ring,
he was sceptical, and with an associate, Sarah Kreutziger, he interviewed
patients in his own hospital, but obtained the same results as Moody. Of the
other medical specialists who have made a significant contribution, Dr Fred
Schoonmaker, a cardiologist from Denver, produced a survey of over two thousand
patients who had suffered cardiac failure, many of whom reported other- worldly
experiences. He suggests that up to sixty per cent of those who experience a
cardiac arrest will report an NDE. In addition to different medical specialists
recognizing that NDEs occur more often than realized, this was confirmed by an
extensive Gallup Poll in America, the findings of which were detailed in George
Gallup Jr.'s own book, Adventures in Immortality, in 1982.
NDEs consist of a number of features. Although there are some variations
reported by the different researchers, the basic template laid down by Moody, is
that the NDEr: (1)feels at peace; (2)hears a noise; (3)is separated from the
body and can sometimes observe his/her own body and watch events taking place
(e.g. resuscitation); (4)enters darkness, like a void or tunnel;(5)meets other
people - often relatives and associates who have already died; (6)sees a light
that becomes brighter; (7)experiences a life review; (8)reaches a form of border
or barrier, e.g. a river, mist, fence, door, and is made aware there is a need
to return to physical life.
It would appear that not all these stages
arise in all NDEs and they are only general categories; as frequently noted,
those having the experience often have considerable difficulty describing it. It
is also interesting to note how the NDE is highly subjective, confirming the
Spiritualist idea that the individual's own consciousness determines much of
what follows death: this is demonstrated by modern-day NDEs in the West
including references to the life review taking place on something resembling a
television screen: in one case, a person even referred to her life record being
taken down by a computer.
As noted, there were already occasions of
obvious parallels with the findings of Kubler-Ross and Moody, decades before
their work began. Heim, already mentioned, referred to the occurrence of
well-being, timelessness, and seeing a light. There are also the earlier
recollections of Louis Tucker, a priest, who wrote Clerical Errors, in which he
described his own NDE, i.e., he became unconscious by poisoning in 1909 and the
attending doctor declared that he was dead. He described how he then felt that
he was passing through a tunnel accompanied by noise, and found himself in a
place being greeted by friends and his own dead father; he realized that he was
communicating with his father by thought. His father then referred to him
returning, and after entering darkness again, he found himself being attended to
by the doctor. In this he added the comment so often found in NDEs, 'I did not
want to go back...thoroughly disgusted that I could not stay'.
It is not unexpected that non-survivalists
propose a number of explanations, often rather imaginative, to account for the
NDE that do not involve the survival of death. The common objection is that no
matter how near death the people were, they were resuscitated and therefore did
not 'die'. However, due to the research undertaken, it can be shown that a
number of those who have described an NDE were not merely near death, but did
actually die. The matter becomes even more fascinating when people are able to
accurately report events occurring (when they also say that they were separated
from the physical body), and yet this was during the very time they were showing
no clinical signs of life. This has occurred on numerous occasions.
In The Light Beyond, Moody refers to a
number of such instances, e.g. an elderly woman who had been blind from the age
of eighteen accurately described the events during her resuscitation, but also
the instruments, as well as their colour and even the doctor's clothing. In the
case of the instruments, most of these had not even existed when the woman had
last been able to see. There have also been several cases where people who have
had an NDE, and they have not only accurately described the resuscitation, but
what was happening elsewhere, away from the area.
In the case of demonstrating the NDE is not a brain disturbance caused by oxygen
deprivation (this being the most common explanation), Schoonmaker had by 1979,
carried out investigations showing that NDEs occurred when there was no
deprivation of oxygen. In fact, in a cardiac arrest, the patient is actually
supplied with oxygen, and any anaesthetic being used is stopped, meaning this
cannot be the cause of the NDE in such cases. Sabom has also monitored the brain
waves of his patients by an electroencephalograph (EEG) and was able to show
that some who had reported NDEs had been clinically dead, i.e., registering no
electrical activity in their brain. A lack of EEG activity is accepted as
constituting death in many places in the Western world, including America.
Another common explanation is that the NDE
occurs because of depersonalization, i.e. it is simply a self-defence mechanism
as the person is confronted with non-existence. But this conflicts with the
feeling of the enhanced self-identity that invariably occurs in an NDE.
Furthermore, if the event is only a physical brain-reaction, one would also
consider such an episode to be a dream-like state where finer details are
missing, but the NDE is marked by the absolute clarity. There is also the factor
of the actual events that manifest themselves: for example, the instances when
someone has had an NDE and seen a person in the experience but was unaware that
the person had died. This 'explanation' is therefore simply untenable.
Another suggestion is that the NDE is the
result of drugs used in medication, but this is seen to be unacceptable when the
matter is considered in any depth. Sabom found the NDE was quite different from
that induced by drugs or hallucination. Furthermore, when Prof. Ian Stevenson of
the University of Virginia, and his colleagues, wrote in The Lancet (10/11/90),
it was pointed out that if the physical brain was really necessary for all
thought, one would therefore expect the disturbance to result in impaired
cognition. However, the very opposite situation occurs in NDEs. It is also noted
that in the cases where brain disturbance was evident, NDEs seemed to be less
common, and there is also the factor that in delirium, the person tends to see
events occurring at a distance, and the effects vary widely unlike those during
an NDE.
Dr Susan Blackmore of the University of
Bristol is well- known for offering explanations to account for different
paranormal occurrences. In the SPR's Psi Researcher, she suggests the tunnel
experience and the bright light is due to certain brain cells firing 'rapidly
and randomly' through a lack of oxygen, but as noted by Prof. David Fontana in
the same publication, the tunnel effect also exists in Out of Body Experiences,
where death or approaching death does not arise - and there certainly is no
incident of oxygen deprivation. Blackmore, as others, has also suggested that an
NDE is prompted through a release of a chemical discharged by the brain in times
of acute stress. However, the obvious question is how a physical organism such
as the brain could produce a detailed life review, and indeed all the other
experiences that occur in a matter of seconds. What takes place during an NDE
could hardly be the result of the workings of a physical mechanism, and
furthermore, one that is in its very final stages of operation.
In the case of the suggestion that mind-altering medication causes the NDE,
Melvin Morse has produced a study where a group of one hundred and twenty-one
children were seriously ill, but had less than a five per cent chance of dying,
and yet none had an NDE. Of another thirty-seven children who had received many
forms of mind-changing drugs, again, there were no NDEs. However, in another
group of twelve children who had suffered a cardiac arrest, eight of these
recalled having an NDE. A considerable amount has been written by medical
professionals that demonstrates that medication cannot be the cause of the NDE.
With regard to the matter of NDEs by children, one noteworthy feature is that
unlike adults, they sometimes refer to being accompanied by other people, or
beings, in the tunnel.
Another explanation is that the NDE is,
quite simply, wishful thinking, but this is shown to be invalid when one
considers the life review that so many report was a painful, or at least an
uncomfortable, experience. Moreover, if the experience arose from
wish-fulfilment one should surely expect to see a far greater degree of
individualism with personal and idiosyncratic hopes being realized; moreover,
the NDE hardly coincides with what has been traditionally taught, and believed
by most people about the afterlife. Moreover, this does not explain the
remarkable consistency that arises in the accounts supplied by people who vary
so widely in their beliefs. It is also apparent that the experience is
different, and sometimes entirely different, from what the person expected to
happen at death: while interpretation of the events will of course differ, a
religious belief (or the lack or it) makes no difference to the actual sequence
of events that take place. As Carol Zaleski notes in her excellent survey of the
subject, Otherworld Journeys, 'Suicide victims seeking annihilation,
fundamentalists who expect to see God on the operating table, atheists,
agnostics and carpe diem advocates find equal representation in the ranks of the
near- death experiencers'.
It would seem that non-survivalists are forced to throw as many possible
'explanations' at the NDE, but those who believe that survival does in fact
occur can simply cite cases where the supposed explanation cannot and did not
apply; therefore, as Zaleski rightly notes, 'no single psychological or
physiological syndrome can account for near- death experience'.
In dealing with the subject of the NDE, it
is necessary to be aware of the considerable stress that has been laid on 'the
being of light' that is reported as greeting the person who has died. This
aspect is commented upon by Margot Grey, who became interested in the subject
after her own NDE in India in 1976; in her book Return From Death, she notes
that 'At times the "presence" is replaced by the "spirits"
of deceased loved ones'. Indeed, it would seem that the appearance of the 'being
of light' only occurs when relatives/friends are not present to greet the person
reaching the 'other side'.
As Moody notes in Life After Life, when the being is encountered, the religious
background of the person concerned usually determines the identification, thus
Christians see it as Christ, Jews as an angelic being, and those with no
religious beliefs simply see it for what it is - a being of light. Relevant to
this aspect, Zaleski observes, 'The near-death testimony Moody presents has no
harp-playing seraphs, no haloed martyrs holding their heads, no Christ
emblazoned with a kingly Chi-Rho. Moody therefore reasons that most people have
essentially the same vision, even though they may overlay it with different
culturally inherited forms'. In fact one suggestion made in the IANDS News
Bulletin (Spring 1990), that discussed the features arising from the NDE, is
that the communication that takes place with the being, if it occurs, is 'the
subject conversing with the superluminous Self...The whole thing looks like a
conversation between the part and the whole'. In other words, the person is
confronting their own being - as it should be, and is destined to become. This
of course agrees with the Spiritualist understanding of the next life serving as
the means of personal evolution and progress.
It is interesting to note that in view of what occurs in the NDE, Grey details
how the respondents subsequently adopted a more general understanding of God and
religion - a Roman Catholic said it was 'beyond any denomination', an Anglican
began to feel 'all religion is basically the same', another Anglican became a
member of the SAGB, and some had become 'non-denominational or turned to
theosophical or psychical associations'.
As I have hopefully demonstrated, the NDE
not only offers further evidence for survival, but is also entirely in harmony
with Spiritualist beliefs, while in considerable conflict with the mainstream
religious traditions. Another example of NDEs agreeing with Spiritualist ideas
that the afterlife is a place of hope and progress, is the situation of
suicides. Unlike the traditional religious view that argues suicides are
'damned', studies have confirmed that those who seek to end their own life have
experienced the various stages of the NDE, e.g. seeing a light, encountering a
life review, and communicating with loved ones who had died earlier. It is also
surely worth noting in this respect that Moody has observed that an NDE removes
further desire to commit suicide.
One of the more fascinating aspects of the
NDE is not only the personal transformation that occurs afterwards, but the
occurrence of gaining extra-sensory perception; Margot Grey devotes two chapters
to this, referring to people acquiring such abilities as healing, telepathy,
precognition and automatic writing, after their NDE. This again harmonizes with
the Spiritualist view that in the next life, greater awareness will prevail, and
it would appear those who have touched the borders of that life have returned
with some features of its mode. The life review and other elements of the NDE
confirm Maurice Barbanell's view stated in This Is Spiritualism, about personal
responsibility and that we all make our own heaven or hell in the next life.
Indeed, the NDE recalls the words of Omar Khayyam:- 'I sent my soul through the
invisible; Some letter of that after-life to spell; And after many days my soul
returned and said; "Behold, myself am heaven and hell"'.
In view of his substantial and significant
contribution, I conclude with Moody's opinion in The Light Beyond: 'NDEs
intrigue us because they are the most tangible proof of spiritual existence that
can be found. They are truly the light at the end of the tunnel'.
Bibliography.
Maurice Barbanell, This is Spiritualism (London: Spiritualist Press, 1959).
Susan Blackmore, 'Glimpse of an afterlife - or just the dying brain?', Psi
Researcher, Summer 1992.
Susan Blackmore, 'Blackmore's reply to Fontana', Psi Researcher, Autumn 1992.
David Fontana, 'NDEs - Not just the dying brain', Psi Researcher, Autumn 1992.
Margot Grey, Return From Death (London: Arkana, 1985).
Albert Heim, 'Remarks on fatal falls', Swiss Alpine Club Yearbook, 27 (1892),
pp.327-337. Trans. by Russell Noyes and Roy Kletti, Omega, 3 (1972).
Raymond A. Moody Jr., Life After Life (New York: Bantam Books, 1975). Raymond A.
Moody, Jr., and Paul Perry, The Light Beyond (New York: Bantam Books, 1988).
M. Morse, and P. Perry, Closer to the Light (London: Souvenir Press, 1991).
Kenneth Ring, Life at Death (New York: Coward, McCann and Geoghegan, 1980).
Michael Sabom, Recollections of Death (New York: Harper and Row, 1982).
Louis Tucker, Clerical Errors (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1943).
Carol Zaleski, Otherworld Journeys (New York: OUP, 1987).
