She asked to return for the sake of her children

I was asleep on my bed after taken eight tablets as prescribed by the doctor not realizing that it was eight per day not eight at once. I experienced a sort of light sleep culminating with a sensation of breaking into a million particles.

I could sense that my body was still on the bed and I was sort of above it but only just, it was a sensation of separation from the physical body but still being fully aware of my essence. During this stage, my aura as I will call it was intermingling with a friend who was asleep next to me on my bed.

I was communicating with the aura of my friend who was beside me. It was like our aura's were a culmination of all our many lives and experiences since being on Earth and the beginning of time from the caveman days to now. I could tell which gene pool he stemmed from and also my own. As my friend was only sleeping, I took this as a sort of force field that we all have, something that we all are connecting with amongst each other even if we don't realize it.

I was then flown around the world at a great speed. It was pulling me around by my solar plexus region. I had no body at this stage but I'm still a soul and I also know this. When my journey around the Earth had reached above Indonesia - as I was flying around the equator (it was sort of like looking at a Google earth map) - I was sucked into a tunnel although it didn't have sides so to speak just a feeling that I was being drawn up to the next level. I was greeted by a light being although I don't remember flying into a light as such.

I knew this soul and was guided around the place. I was shown rooms and doorways mostly which contained other souls learning things and preparing for their return to Earth or wherever there next journey was to be.

I also saw souls who I would called Angels or higher beings they were helping Earthlings with many problems even medical discoveries.

I was taken to many different levels by this friend and learned that anything is possible in this place. I can't remember most of the levels as each one seemed more complex than the last but I do remember the lower levels so to speak. I'm sure I was taken to higher places but I am not to remember these places as my life here would be affected. I think there may be about seven or possibly more but I have a basic memory of about three or four.

I was taken before God who was just as I imagined; a bright light being so brilliant it was like I've never seen. Yet we had meet before, with a human form but nobody so to speak approximately eight feet tall and made from pure love and light. We communicated telepathically and every question I had was answered although I don't remember exactly what I asked. I was shown a movie of my life from start until then, it was so fast and yet so precise. I was asked if I would change anything which I answered 'Yes of course.' He also asked me questions too! Like, was I happy with my life? To which I replied that I was.

I was left with a feeling inside as to how much good I'd given and how much bad I'd given. I was told this would be the feeling I'd be left with whilst there. My feeling was not bad. It was not extremely great either. It was a slightly nervous feeling but one that I could be satisfied with.

I'm imagining that if you were mean and awful throughout your life that that is the feeling you would be left with whilst transitioning to the next place. Even though this place was so wonderful, and sort of felt like home, and most people could never imagine nor want to leave, I asked if I could go back to Earth.

God asked me why and I told him that my kids were asleep in the next room and I would never forgive myself if they had to wake in the morning and find their mum dead. The previous year their father had committed suicide and if they had to grow up with a mum who had a drug overdose and a dad who committed suicide then they would think that no-one loved them enough to be around which was so far from the truth. My every particle was aching with this thought. I was allowed to come back. There was no begging or pleading it was like it was what I wanted so much and unselfish that I had it given to me. I'm so thankful for that.

I was told that if I was to come back I would have to forget what I had learned on the other side as it would interfere with my life. I was sent back so quickly through the soles of my feet and awoke a few hours later.

NDERF.org #3649

 

"I was where I belonged, where I came from."

I was sitting next to my daughter when the rock larger than the tour bus fell on the back of the bus where we were seated. My daughter and I were asleep at the time. I knew immediately that I had a pneumo-thorax and would die unless someone recognized it. I also remember my teeth hitting together hard to the point some broke, which is what actually probably caused the concussion. I was completely unaware of the hit on the head, which caused the teeth to break. I was totally focused on myself and had no knowledge of my daughter. I was told I needed to stand up and get off the bus, but I said I couldn't. Then the person said I had to muster all my strength and get up. The person has verified these words.

I started to stand and then I remember nothing of my physical surroundings until I ‘woke up’ on the X-ray table in the hospital in Cusco, 7 hours later. Yet I was told I was talking during the first part of the 7 hours. I was not aware that I had lost consciousness until probably a week later and had no idea of the length of time between the accident and arriving in the hospital. At first, I had no memory of what happened during those 7 hours, but when the memory returned it was extremely difficult.

I was physically unable to hardly move and sleep because of the injuries and couldn't initially understand why I had to come back to this physical body. What I remembered was that I had completely merged again with God. It was a void, darkness, but unconditional love. I was no longer a separate being. I was where I belonged, where I came from. It was perfect. When it was time to return I had to again differentiate from God and become a separate soul again. Yet I was still a part of God. Then I was back on Earth in this physical body.

NDERF.org, #6429

God was pure energy

I had not been well for about 1 week. I had extreme abdominal pain and went to the doctor for a noon appointment. I almost cancelled the doctor's appointment as the pain had subsided around 10 a.m. When I got to the doctor's office, I was examined quickly and he ordered an emergency ultrasound. During the ultrasound, they stopped and I was booked into emergency surgery for 12:30 p.m. that day. I was put to sleep in the operating room.

Then all of the sudden, I started floating out of my body. I felt free, peaceful, no pain. I looked down and they were doing compressions on me. I continued to float up and a tunnel appeared. There was a beautiful tunnel with a bright light at the end of it. The light was brighter than the sun but did not hurt my eyes. It was pure white light. I knew that I had died and would be leaving behind a 5-6 month old infant and my husband, but I did not care. I wanted to go into the light. I wanted to go home.

When I came through the light, I knew everyone there and they were so happy to see me: welcoming me home. They were all dead relatives I had never met before, but I knew everyone. They also appeared in human-form, to be recognized, but somehow I sensed that was not their true form now. I had a connection with everyone and almost a collective consciousness.

I do not know how to describe it. There are so many emotions right now recalling it, but before I saw everyone when I came through the light, it felt like a blanket of love was wrapped around me. No feeling here on earth, in the present, can express the love or the feelings. Everything was ‘pure’, the brightest blues, greens, reds, yellows, whites, purples. It was like a filter being removed to see the purity of everything.

I turned and went to the right, where I saw what I believe was God. It was pure energy, but you knew who that was and the great wisdom that was within. God spoke to me stating that the message to bring back was 'love. We all have to live in love.’

The next thing I saw was a meadow in the mountains with indescribable beauty. The sky was the bluest blue; the grass was the greenest green. All colors here are extremely pale compared to there. I saw my grandmother, running with children, towards me. She took me by the hand and we were at the beginning of a bridge over a small creek. We talked for what seemed like hours about my life since she had died. I had just turned 9 years old when she died. We also talked about when she came to let me know that she died, to say goodbye until we would meet again and not to be sad. She was so vibrant and healthy, despite dying of a brain tumor. I told her how much I missed her and she said that she watches over my son and me. She then said something unexpected to me, 'You have to go back, it is not your time, yet.' She also said that a ‘blink of an eye could be 80 years’ in our time but that time was man-made. ‘There is no time here.’ I understood what she meant. I said that I wanted to stay and she said ‘it is not your time’. All of the sudden, I was falling back through the tunnel; the light was getting further away.

All of the sudden, I felt all this pain, excruciating pain from being back in my body. As I was falling back into my body, they were still doing compressions on me. The next thing I knew I woke up in the recovery room; the nurses called to the doctor that I was awake. There was a lot of fussing around me. I was confused and extremely angry that I was back in my body. It took me about 4 years to bring up this event to my husband and then he belittled me stating that I was crazy. I never spoke about it again for about 10 years. By that time I was divorced and getting my life back together. I was still angry about being here but have come to terms with it and the anger is gone. I know I will be going back there when it is my time. 

NDERF.org # 7373

 

Near-death experience was "just a scary event"

Before the events happened, I was sitting on my brother's couch and talking to my daughter. She told me, 'Mommy I love you. I’m going to go back outside. I’m going to go play.' I said, 'OK.'

I remember everything started going in slow motion and playing out as if it were me who was watching my life through a television. Then all of a sudden, that television show stopped and there was a sort of void like a 'commercial break.' Then it started again, like it was a rerun of the same show but it was all in reverse. All the words were backwards. I couldn’t understand what anyone was saying and why I was looking at myself sitting on the couch. Then all of a sudden, I felt as if I was being thrown back on top of my body, head first. I kept thinking why am I getting another chance at life? Why didn’t I stay dead?

Then I realized that I could hear my brother screaming at my sister-in-law. I remember being hit in the chest and receiving CPR. Then, I started breathing heavy and convulsing.

This nightmare still haunts me but it obviously wasn’t my time to leave this earth. My son , daughter and husband still need me. I vividly remember my soul leave my body, my consciousness afterwards, and then my soul returning to my body during CPR. This has definitely caused my PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome) to be worse. I did not meet a divine being. It was just a scary event. 

NDERF.org #9242

Baby with heart defect recalls NDE

I was a baby. I had been born with a heart defect and I had become weaker and was very sick. I was afraid because I could not breathe. My mother held me up on her shoulder all through the night so that I could breathe. She took me to the doctor the next day and they sent me right to the hospital. In the emergency room, they began sticking needles into me and I cried. When I cried, it got worse, and then they put me on life support. My mom says that I turned white, and every time someone touched me, it left a purple mark on my skin. She said the hospital chaplain came into the room. They transferred me to critical care, and the heart specialist came. My heart rate was up to 300 beats per minute and stayed that way for 5 hours. I remember the lights were glaring overhead, and I could not fight any more.

I left my body and went up a tunnel toward a beautiful golden light. I was in the presence of a spiritual being, Jesus. He told me that it was not time for me to stay there and that I would go back, that my mom needed me. He told me other things that I cannot remember. I remember being in the hospital room and realizing that I was not in my body. I remember seeing a baby. I no longer felt sick or scared. It was very peaceful, and I knew I would be okay.

When I returned to my body, I felt stronger, and I got well. 

NDERF.org #5284

Sees a "sea of souls" and God calling each one

I was in a film class in college. We were studying a documentary about a hospital. When they showed a close up of a small wound bleeding, being extremely squeamish at the time, I fainted.

When I fainted, I did not have an out of body experience in the sense of hovering above the scene. I think that first I went to a place that most people might describe as 'heaven' where I felt I was in the presence of a divine power. I did not see a specific religious personage such as Christ or Buddha, etc. even though I have a Christian background. Then I went to the beginning, by that I mean to a place before the universe existed. It's difficult to describe as nothing physical existed. There was an overwhelming sense of serenity where all the souls that exist are in a sea of souls and where the boundaries between individual souls was not defined, much like waves in an ocean. I was individual yet part of a larger whole. I was there for more than an eternity, sort of a timeless time, since time did not exist yet.

Then 'God' who seemed to be apart from or at a higher level than the seas of souls, created the physical universe. One by one, the souls were pulled into the physical universe but there seemed to be a voluntary nature to the participation. This was an extremely interesting experience since I witnessed everything from the beginning, formation of stars, etc. But as the physical universe evolved and as my soul was pulled into the universe I seemed to focus on just the Earth, but saw and experienced it on a micro level, having simultaneous, complete knowledge of every bit of earth especially of any living thing, including the smallest microbes in the soil or ocean.

It's difficult now to remember the feeling of being simultaneously aware of every living thing. Along with the total history of the earth, I saw and experienced my little part in it, thus seeing my own life and death. After I died in the experience, my soul floated in space above the earth. Even though I was back to being a soul, it seemed to have the form of my naked body. As earlier in the experience, my soul had the godlike quality of omniscience and I think therefore omnipresence. However, as I floated in space I slowly became aware that I was gripping something in my hand.

At first, I tried to ignore it but eventually I found I couldn't open my hand to see what I was holding. At that point, I was 'informed' by 'God' that I was still tied to the physical world and had to go back. My soul fell back through a dark tunnel except for a thin shower of individual photons that smarted like sand in a wind. It was almost like a birth canal for a soul. I fought hard to keep from going back to the physical world but was unable to prevent it.

I slowly became conscious, one of the girls in the class was running her hand through my hair and they were all crouched around me. Before I opened my eyes, I could feel I was holding something. I opened my eyes and saw the wooden beams in the old classroom and the first thing I said was something like 'How can this still be here after all that time?' I opened my hand to find a set of keys. I asked whose they were and a friend of mine from India said they were his and he took them. The class instructor took me into his office and asked if I had taken drugs. I was amused but I was not a drug user at all. He wanted to send me to the school clinic but I went home and slept for a long time.

Later I talked to my Indian friend, and without first describing what happened when I fainted, I asked why he put his keys in my hand and he said that in his area of India the custom is that when someone faints or goes unconscious they put something brass in the hand to keep the soul in the body. Also, as mentioned earlier, when I talked to the vet in the class he told me that he definitely thought I was dead. The girl who was rubbing her fingers through my hair told me I was only out for about a minute. That's what amazed me - how could I seem to experience multiple eternities in real time during that short of a period?

NDERF.org, #4598

Greyson's conclusions in his book After

Greyson ends his After account where he began, with reflections on the mind and the brain. He writes that: “near-death experiences seem to me to involve both the physical brain and the non-physical mind. We can choose to focus on the physical brain and explore chemical and electrical changes associated with near-death experiences. Or we can focus on the nonphysical mind and explore feelings of peace and love, out-of-body perceptions, and encounters with deceased loved ones. Both aspects—the physical and the nonphysical—are there, and we can see either one by changing our focus.” He concludes, however, that “neither of those perspectives by itself provides a complete description of the experience.”

“It seems plausible to me,” Greyson asserts, “that near-death experiences may be triggered by electrical or chemical changes in the brain that permit the mind to experience separating from the body at the moment of death. There is no inherent conflict between a physical and a non-physical understanding of near-death experiences. The physical and the nonphysical are different levels of explanation or description.”

Greyson clearly recognizes: “Although our physical brain and nonphysical mind seem to work as one unit in everyday life, people who have had near-death experiences consistently say that their experience of being awake and aware while their brains are impaired convinces them that their minds can act independently of their brains at times and are not just the product of their physical brains."

He admits: “I don’t know whether some kind of continued consciousness after death is the best explanation for near-death experiences in which experiencers see deceased loved ones no one knew had died. But I don’t have any alternative explanation for the evidence.”

Many “report that the most meaningful change after a near-death experience is an increase in their sense of spirituality. What they mean by the term ‘spirituality’ is the aspect of their personal lives that includes something beyond the usual senses, and a personal search for inspiration, meaning, and purpose, a quest to connect with something greater than themselves. Greyson affirms, “this includes a conviction that loving and care for other is of primary importance.”

Finally, Greyson communicates directly to each reader: “I would hope that your reflections on my words will not end when you put this book down but may continue to live on in your thoughts and feelings about life, death, and beyond.”

---

Bruce Greyson, After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond, 194-211.

Teen-ager saved by Christ in his NDE

Some survivors remain troubled and are trouble as well for their families. “Kenny was a teenager whose heart stopped when he was electrocuted by a freak spark jumping from a high-voltage power line. He had a near-death experience with both heavenly and hellish visions and felt he had been saved by Christ and sent back with a mission. His parents had brought him to see me because he felt estranged from his school friends, who didn’t understand why he had changed.” Greyson included Kenny in a support group he’d organized for near-death survivors to share their recovery problems, and Kenny brought his parents. Greyson notes, “Long after Kenny himself stopped coming to the group, his parents continued to attend.”

Greyson says: “In the three decades since Kenny’s participation in that group, he continued to wrestle with the aftereffects of his near-death experience. Kenny now sums up that struggle in these words: I’ve been through a lot of ups and downs since then—some good, some bad. Over the years, I’ve really discovered the empathic side of me. I know my true gifts lie in the emotional side of humanity, and I have a strong ability to comfort and educate when people are at their worst. I do believe the electrocution has shaped my life. I know my life has purpose and I was spared to do something bigger than me, whether it’s helping as a practitioner or just being available to others.

Bruce Greyson, After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond, 210-211.

She didn't want to survive her NDE

Greyson affirms: “Most of the aftereffects that experiencers report after near-death experiences are positive effects. But how could such a profound experience that differs so radically from everyday life not lead to problems as well? In fact, not all the aftereffects of near-death experiences are positive. Some experiencers have difficulty reconciling their near-death experiences with their religious beliefs. Some find it hard to resume their old roles and lifestyles, which no longer have the same meaning, or to communicate to others the impact of the near-death experience. Some experiencers report anger at still being alive—or at being alive again.

Cecilia, a sixty-one-year-old teacher, had a near-death experience during surgery for a ruptured and gangrenous appendix. She recalls: I experienced a wonderful feeling of peace and freedom. I saw my students going out and assisting others, and I knew the work I loved would go on without me. I felt ready to go, reached my arms out to two spirits who were in the room watching, waiting—and then they began to back away, leaving me behind! I pleaded, ‘Here I am. Take me with you,’ as they gradually faded away. My recovery proved slow and tedious. My body was healing, but I regretted that I had not died. I went through weeks of depression. I did not know how to climb out of this hole. I looked everywhere I could in a desperate attempt to find answers. I bought myself a notebook to keep a journal of how I was to get through this. My first entry was written to God in anger, I asked, ‘Why am I alive?’

Bruce Greyson, After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond, 194.

Financier after NDE helps others change

At forty-five Gordon Allen, a ruthless and successful financier, had a near-death experience due to congestive heart failure. Afterwards, Greyson says, Allen “severed all links with his business and left the world of money far behind. He became a licensed counselor and used his new understanding to help others change their lives.” Allen explains that during his near-death experience:

Immediately the thought was communicated to me that all the skills and all the talents that I had been given, which I had been very, very, very blessed with, were for a purpose greater than the purpose that I used them for, the purpose of making money, and that itself wasn’t it, and there was another purpose for it, and that they should now be applied in some ways that would be shown to me. Absolutely, that’s the moment my life changed. And when I came back, my heart was filled, and you would describe this as being on fire. Your heart feels like it’s on fire, and it’s on fire with love, okay? The sensation of love that I experienced as I was going through the out-of-body experience has retained itself. I’m there; it’s in me. It hasn’t gone away, hasn’t changed.

Bruce Greyson, After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond, 187-189. 

NDE transforms life of Mafia enforcer

Mickey, who collected money for the Mafia, communicated with a divine being and a beloved deceased brother during his near-death experience due to a heart attack. After his extraordinary experience, Greyson says, Mickey: “felt that cooperation and love were the most important things, and that competition and material goods were irrelevant. That change in attitude didn’t sit well with Mickey’s Mafia friends, but they let him leave the family circle. It was his girlfriend who complained when he changed careers and started helping delinquent children and victims of spousal abuse. One day after he was out of the hospital and they were eating lunch, she burst out crying and told him, ‘You’re not the same person anymore!’ When he asked her what she meant, she replied ‘You’re not concerned with things of substance anymore,’ meaning money and jewelry and fast cars. The relationship soon collapsed.”

In Mickey’s words: Before the experience, my attitude was that people have to help themselves. You know, if they don’t help themselves, to hell with them. I had a pretty cynical attitude toward people. I couldn’t imagine myself as any sort of helping professional before the near-death experience. But afterwards, I’d find myself counseling people. I’d find myself listening to people. They said, ‘You really listed to me. You really understand how I feel inside.’

Before, I thought, ‘I have to make my way the best I can Survive.’ Whenever I started to feel sorry for somebody, I’d say to myself, ‘Goddamn it, I’m not my brother’s keeper!’ I was hard-bitten. But after the near-death experience, my whole outlook changed. I can feel when people are in pain. Before, sometimes I had to cause people pain. I couldn’t do that anymore after my heart attack.

Bruce Greyson, After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond, 187-189. 

Materialists embraced spiritual values after NDE

In research with psychiatrist Surbhi Khanna, Bruce Greyson found that experiencers “described a greater sense of well-being from their new spiritual attitudes and strivings, which helped them cope with challenges. They also reported more daily spiritual experiences, such as feelings of awe, gratitude mercy, compassionate love, and inner peace than people who had come close to death but didn’t have near-death experiences. Our studies and the research of others also found that people who have had near-death experiences report a heightened sense of purpose, increased empathy, awareness of the interconnectedness of all people, and a belief that all religions share certain core values. Near-death experiences often lead to a paradoxical decrease in devotion to any one religious tradition, despite a greater awareness of guidance by and connection to a higher power.”

Greyson says he found “spiritual growth most striking in those who were materialistic before their near-death experiences. For example, “Naomi, a pediatrician who had always considered herself an atheist, described becoming more compassionate and less competitive after her near-death experience at age thirty-four when she bled out due to hemorrhaging stomach ulcer.”

I remember, she writes, the spring after this event occurred with startling clarity. Everything in the environment took on an almost magical quality, as if I was seeing everything for the first time. Trees and flowers blossoming took on new dimensions that I had not ever appreciated before; I almost felt as if I was on a chemically induced high. I will certainly never take being alive again for granted. I also felt that when faced with death again I would be fearless, as this was clearly not a negative experience. I have used this insight to help the families of many of the handicapped and terminally ill children I take care of, with good results. I also developed a strong spiritual sense and now strongly believe in a higher power, where I had previously been essentially an atheist.

No other experience to date has had such a profound impact on my life. I am must less striving in the workplace. I also feel that material goods, although nice, do not define the spirit or essence of the individual. My life is more balanced than ever before. I am much more open to meditation and other ‘alternative’ medical techniques. I am now attempting to use lifestyle modifications and not medication to control my medical problems. I feel I have developed more compassion for my patients and have become a better doctor for this I am still integrating many aspects of this experience, and find it is good to contemplate it from time to time to refocus myself and see the larger picture. I suspect it will always be a source of growth for me.

Bruce Greyson, After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond, 176-181.

NDE survivors are more spiritual and satisfied

Bruce Greyson writes in After: “Experiencers tend to see themselves as integral parts of a benevolent and purposeful universe, in which personal gain, particularly at someone else’s expense, is no longer relevant. They also report feeling greater understanding, acceptance, and tolerance for others.” Greyson concludes: “The most positive changes in attitude following near-death experiences were a more favorable attitude toward death, toward spirituality, and toward life, and a sense of meaning or purpose. Slightly lower increases, but still significantly improved, were attitudes toward other people and toward oneself. Attitudes toward religion and toward social issues were only slightly improved, and attitudes toward worldly things were more negative than before the near-death experience. All of these changes were virtually identical after the twenty-year lapse. None were significantly changed since the first time the experiencers were asked."

Greyson also compared those who’d had near-death experiences with others who’d nearly died but didn’t have near-death experiences—because nearly dying is such a huge event that it can bring about life changes. He explains: “I used well-accepted, standardized questionnaires that measured various aspects of spirituality, like satisfaction with life, connection to something greater, and a sense of purpose. What I found was that those who had near-death experiences were significantly more satisfied with life, more open to positive new directions in life, had more positive changes in relationships with other people, felt more personal strength, had greater appreciation for life, and felt they had undergone greater spiritual growth as a result of their near-death experiences. In addition, many people reported that since their near-death experiences they’d felt driven to engage in a quest for further spiritual growth.”

---

Bruce Greyson, After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond, 169-173.

Encounters with deceased and divine beings

Bruce Greyson affirms in After: “More than two-thirds of the experiencers I’ve studied say that in their near-death experience they encountered at least one other person. Two-thirds of those say they met a deceased person—an experience that offers at least the potential for some verifiable information. But almost 90 percent of them say they encountered some kind of divine or godlike beings.” He was surprised to find, however, that among those experiencing a divine being only “one-third identified the being as an entity consistent with their religious beliefs, while double that number—two-thirds –said they could not identify the god-like being.” 

This evidence seems to weigh against the suggestion that near-death experiences simply reflect a person’s cultural and/or religious background.

Greyson argues: “The important point seems to be not how experiencers identify or label the divine beings, but how they feel in the presence of the divine. Regardless of the label or the surprise, they consistently describe feeling peaceful, calm, tranquil, ‘at home,’ grateful, and, most of all, loved.”

Bruce Greyson,  After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond.

Greyson confirms veracity of NDE memories

To test the veracity of old near-death memories, Bruce Greyson writes that in 2002: “I began tracking down people I had interviewed about their near-death experiences in the early 1980s, asking them to describe their near-death experiences for me again.” Greyson found “there were no differences between what the experiencers told me in the 1980s and what they told me decades later. 

This suggests that experiencers’ memories of near-death experiences are reliable. And by extension it also suggests that studying experiences that happened years ago is as valid as studying recent near-death experiences.”

“Several researchers have found consistent changes in experiencers’ perception of self, relationships to others, and attitude toward life. Experiencers return from near-death experiences with a new or strengthened belief in life after death, a feeling of being loved and valued by some higher power, increased self-esteem, and a new sense of purpose or mission. This new sense of purpose or mission in life is often related to an experience of having been sent back, or having made a choice to return to life, to complete some work.'

Bruce Greyson, After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond.

Physicians confirm Alexander's severe coma

Bruce Greyson writes: "Skeptics have also suggested that Eben Alexander was never 'in danger of dying' during his coma. With two other physicians, Surbhi Khanna and Lauren Moore, Greyson reviewed the complete medical record of Alexander’s hospital treatment. All three of us concluded independently that he had been extremely close to death, with a brain as disabled as it could have been, and that while that was happening, he witnessed things that a comatose person should not have been able to perceive. The date showed that his coma had not been related to the drugs he was given. The medical record noted that he was rapidly falling into a coma by the time he reached the hospital, before he received any medication. And six days later, he came out of the coma before the medications were stopped.

“According to our current understanding of how the brain works, it should not have been possible for Alexander to have had any experience at all during his deep coma—let along the most vivid and memorable experience of his life. And yet, he did. Furthermore, he is not the only person to have had a vivid and profoundly memorable experience during such a medical crisis.”

Bruce Greyson, After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond, 113-114. 

Chemical "causes" of NDEs? Greyson's analysis.

Bruce Greyson writes: “I was recently part of a multinational research team that analyzed language usage and language structure in 625 accounts of near-death experiences and compared them to almost fifteen thousand accounts of unusual experiences of people taking any of 166 different drugs. We found that the drug states most similar to near-death experiences were those associated with ketamine. However, we were careful to note that other common effects of ketamine don’t appear in near-death experiences, which suggests that near-death experiences are not simply an effect of the drug. In a similar vein, Karl Jansen, the neuroscientist who has most fiercely promoted the ketamine model for near-death experiences, concluded after twelve years of research that he viewed ketamine as ‘just another door’ to near-death experiences, and not as actually producing them.”

Other scientists argue that “near-death experiences might be connected to serotonin, adrenaline, vasopressin, and glutamate, all of which are chemicals that transmit signals between nerve cells. But in spite of the theoretical reasons for thinking that brain chemicals might be involved in near-death experiences, there has been no research looking into this possibility.” Greyson says, “I don’t expect any such research to be done in the near future. Bursts of these chemicals in the brain tend to be very short-lived and localized, so to find them, we’d have to look at exactly the right time at exactly the right place in the brain—and as I discovered, we don’t even know where in the brain to look.”

Bruce Greyson, After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond, 109-110. 

In my NDE, "I felt free from my brain."

How might we explain near-death experiences in circumstances when the brain is incapable of processing the experience and forming the memories that a person has had? Bruce Greyson begins his answer by suggesting the “association between brain activity and mental function” does not necessarily mean the electrical activity in the brain has caused the thought or feeling. Maybe the thought has caused the electrical activity in the brain.” Saying, as many do, that “the mind is what the brain does is no more of an explanation than saying “making music is what a musical instrument does. Neither statement is an explanation. A relationship between the mind and the brain is a proven fact. “But the interpretation that the brain creates the mind is not a scientific fact.”

When eight years old, Steve Luiting nearly drowned. As an adult, he described to Greyson his near-death experience: I seemed to change points of view, as if I was changing location in a room. One second, I was the terrified person; and then I was the other calm one ‘watching’ the terrified one. I was both and yet not. The ‘real’ I was the calm one, but I had always identified myself as the other until now. My mind expanded to that of an adult capacity, and then beyond. I suppose, without the limitation of a child brain, it allowed my true nature to express itself again. It’s made me think that our understanding of the brain is actually backwards. The brain filters out everything and doesn’t help our thinking but hinders it, slows it down, focuses it. Maybe, because it is so good at filtering and focusing, we don’t remember our prior existence—or future events, either.

At the age of seventeen Michele Grown-Ramirez, while doing a jack-knife dive facing away from the pool, smashed her head on the diving board and fell unconscious into the water. Later, as an adult, she also shared her near-death underwater experience with Greyson: I ‘saw stars’ everywhere and gradually felt time go faster and slower at the same time, until it felt timeless. I felt a strange pull away from my body and realized I was dying. The pull was very strong, and I felt surrounded by presences, people who knew me and each other, but especially my two grandmothers. In that timeless span, I felt free and at peace. It was such a wonderful feeling, I felt like I could fly; towards a great Light that was God, and a future where I was loved and things made such profound sense. It was a realm of love, peace, calm, and acceptance, which had no space and yet was all space. I felt free from my brain! And the ‘thinking’ I had was very free, simple, and clear. It was remarkable to be going through a brain over-firing, or randomly firing, or down, or whatever, and yet to still be able to have free-clear thoughts, and suddenly feel this pull as if I was no longer being constrained to this world and its limits.

Greyson proposes that: “These two near-death experiences, and many more like them, suggest your mind—the part of you that experiences consciousness—is not the same as your brain—the mass of pink-grey matter inside your skull.”

---

 Bruce Greyson, After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond, 116-122.

"The plural of anecdote is data."

Greyson writes: "Quoting personal experiences is not objective evidence from a scientific perspective, and many scientists are dismissive of what are characterized as anecdotal accounts." Yet, he reminds us: “Most research starts with scientists collecting, verifying, and comparing anecdotes until patterns in these stories become apparent, and then from those patterns emerge hypotheses, which can then be tested and refined. Collections of anecdotes, if they are investigated rigorously, are of immense value in medical research. They were critical, for example, in the discovery of AIDS and Lyme disease, and in discovering unexpected drug effects. As political scientist Raymond Wolfinger said a half century ago, ‘The plural of anecdote is data.’”

Greyson adds: “Some of my medical colleagues dismiss near-death experiences as pure fantasy and for that reason regard any research on near-death experiences as unscientific. But what makes an investigation scientific is not the topic being studied. What makes an investigation scientific is whether it’s based on rigorous observations, on evidence, and on sound reasoning.” For instance, Greyson argues researcher Jan Holden: “reviewed ninety-three reports of out-of-body perceptions during near-death experiences and found that 92 percent were verified by outside sources as completely accurate, while 6 percent contained some error, and only 1 percent was completely wrong.” 

In Holden's study anecdotal accounts were confirmed and thus became objective evidence.

Bruce Greyson, After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond (2021), 45-46 .