Sir Francis Beaufort NDE life reviews

Greyson writes: "As I looked for research that had already been done on life reviews, I discovered that this was also not a new phenomenon. In 1791, when British rear admiral Sir Francis Beaufort was only a seventeen-year-old midshipman, he fell off a boat into Portsmouth Harbor on the southern coast of England. Unfortunately, he had not yet learned to swim. After exhausting himself struggling to breathe, he lost consciousness and immediately experienced a feeling of calmness and noticed changes in his thinking. He later described it this way: “From the moment that all exertion ceased—which I imagine was the immediate consequence of complete suffocation—a calm feeling of the most perfect tranquility superseded the previous tumultuous sensations—it might be called apathy, certainly not resignation. Though the senses were thus deadened, not so the mind; its activity seemed to be invigorated, in a ratio which defies all description, for thought rose above thought with a rapidity of succession that is not only indescribable, but probably inconceivable by anyone who has not himself been in a similar situation. 

“The course of those thoughts I can even now in great measure retrace—the event which had just taken place—the awkwardness that had produced it—were the first series of reflections that occurred. They took then a wider range—our last cruise—a former voyage, and shipwreck—my school—the progress I had made there, and the time I had misspent—and even all my boyish pursuits and adventures. Thus traveling backward, every past incident of my life seemed to glance across my recollection in retrograde succession; not, however, in mere outline, as here stated, but the picture filled up with every minute and collateral feature. In short, the whole period of my existence seemed to be placed before me in a kind of panoramic review, and each act of it seemed to be accompanied by a consciousness of right or wrong, or by some reflection on its cause or its consequences; indeed, many trifling events which had been long forgotten then crowded into my imagination, and with the character of recent familiarity.” Beaufort described his thoughts not only speeding up but encompassing every single incident in his life and judging every action as right or wrong. Many of the experiencers who shared their stories with me described this kind of life review."

Greyson, Bruce. After (pp. 37-38). St. Martin's Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.