NDEs require a new view of consciousness

Cardiologist Pim van Lommel writes: “it is indeed a scientific challenge to discuss new hypotheses that could explain the reported interconnectedness with the consciousness or self of other persons and of deceased relatives; to explain the possibility to experience instantaneously and simultaneously (nonlocality) a review and a preview of someone’s life in a dimension without our conventional body-linked concept of time and space, where all past, present, and future events exist and are available; and to discuss the possibility to have clear and enhanced consciousness with memories, with self-identity, with cognition, with emotion, with the possibility of perception out and above the lifeless body, and even with the experience of the conscious return of the self into the body.” [AS, 25]

To conceptualize this experience of an “enhanced consciousness” van Lommel proposes that: “our endless consciousness with all the aspects or essence of self finds its origin in, and is stored in a nonlocal space as wave fields of information, and the brain only serves as a relay station for parts of these wave fields of consciousness to be received into or as our waking consciousness or ego in the shape of measurable and changing electromagnetic fields.” [AS, 25]

He suggests: “The function of the brain should be compared with a transceiver, a transmitter/receiver, or interface, and the function of neuronal networks should be regarded as receivers and conveyors, not as retainers of consciousness and memories.” In this concept, “consciousness is not rooted in the measurable domain of physics, our manifest world. This also means that the wave aspect of our indestructible consciousness in the nonlocal space is inherently not measurable by physical means. However, the physical aspect of consciousness, our waking consciousness or ego, which presumably originates from the wave aspect of our consciousness through collapse of the wave function, can be measured by means of neuroimaging techniques like EEGs, fMRIs, and PET scans.” [AS, 25-26]

“There is a kind of biological basis of our waking consciousness or ego, because, during life, our physical body functions as an interface or place of resonance. But there is no biological basis for our whole, endless, or enhanced consciousness because it is rooted in a nonlocal space. Our nonlocal consciousness with the experience of self resides not in our brain and is not limited to our brain. So our brain seems to have a facilitating, and not a producing, function to experience consciousness.” [AS, 26]

“In trying to understand this concept of interaction between the invisible nonlocal space and our visible material body, it seems appropriate to compare it with modern worldwide communication. There is a continuous exchange of objective information by means of electromagnetic fields for radio, TV, mobile telephone, or laptop computer. We are not consciously aware of the vast number of electromagnetic fields that constantly, day and night, exist around us and even permeate us, as well as permeate structures like walls and buildings.” Yet we know: “The voice we hear over our telephone is not inside the telephone. The concert we hear over our radio is transmitted to our radio. The images and music we hear and see on TV are transmitted to our TV set. The Internet, with more than a billion websites, can be received at about the same moment in the United States, in Europe, and in Australia, and is obviously not located in, nor produced by, our laptop.” [AS, 26]

AS – Pim van Lommel, “Near-Death Experiences: The Experience of the Self as Real and Not as an Illusion,” Annals N.Y. Acad. Sci. ISSN 0077-8923, 1234 (2011) 19–28, http://pimvanlommel.nl/files/NDE-NYAS-Experience-Self-article.pdf.

NDE Research verifies long-term consequences

What was cardiologist Pim van Lommel’s “prospective study” of near-death experiences?

“Our study aimed to include all consecutive patients who had survived a cardiac arrest in 1 of the 10 participating Dutch hospitals. In other words, this prospective study would only be carried out among patients with a proven life-threatening crisis. This kind of design also creates a control group of patients who have survived a cardiac arrest but who have no recollection of the period of unconsciousness. In a prospective study, such patients are asked, within a few days of their resuscitation, whether they have any recollection of the period of their cardiac arrest, that is, of the period of their unconsciousness.” {AS, 20}

“Within four years, between 1988 and 1992, 344 successive patients who had undergone a total of 509 successful resuscitations were included in the study. In other words, all the patients in our study had been clinically dead.” {AS, 20}

“Clinical death is defined as the period of unconsciousness caused by total lack of oxygen in the brain (anoxia) because of the arrest of circulation, breathing, or both, as caused by cardiac arrest in patients with an acute myocardial infarction. If in this situation no resuscitation is initiated, the brain cells will be irreversibly damaged within 5–10 min, and the patient will always die.” {AS, 20}

How did van Lommel’s study verify the long-term effects of these near-death experiences?

“A longitudinal study into life changes was based on interviews after two and eight years with all patients who had reported an NDE and who were still alive, as well as with a control group of post resuscitation patients who were matched for age and gender, but who had not reported an NDE. The question was whether the customary changes in attitude to life after an NDE were the result of surviving a cardiac arrest or whether these changes were caused by the experience of an NDE. This question had never been subject to scientific and systematic research with a prospective design before. The Dutch study was published in The Lancet in December 2001.” {AS, 20}

Were the effects for NDE survivors still present after several years?

“It struck us that after eight years the people without an NDE were also undergoing unmistakable processes of transformation. Nevertheless, clear differences remained between people with and without an NDE, although by now these differences had become a little less marked. We were also surprised to find that the processes of transformation that had begun in people with an NDE after two years had clearly intensified after eight years. The same was true for the people without an NDE. Nevertheless, the people who had experienced an NDE during their cardiac arrest continued to be clearly different.” {AS, 21}

Interviews with NDE survivors after eight years revealed “the NDE had become an experience that provided a fresh insight into everything that matters in life: compassion, unconditional love, and acceptance of oneself (including acceptance of one’s negative qualities), others, and nature.” {BL, 151}

Van Lommel also noted: “Patients with an NDE did not show any fear of death, they strongly believed in an afterlife, and their insight in what is important in life had changed . . .. They now understood the cosmic law that everything one does to others will ultimately be returned to oneself: hatred and violence as well as love and compassion. Remarkably, there was often evidence of increased intuitive feelings.” {EA, 180}

“The original version of the NDERF study questionnaire asked, ‘Has your life changed specifically as a result of your experience?’ Of those responding, 73.1 percent answered ‘Yes.’” In the NDERF study, “45.0 percent of those surveyed answered ‘Yes’ to the question ‘Did you have any psychic, paranormal, or other special gifts following the experience you did not have prior to the experience?’” {EA, 177 and 189}

For example, “Marcia was under a one-and-a-half-ton structure when it collapsed. Marcia had an out-of-body experience, and then her late father and sister appeared to her. Her sister had died of brain cancer several years earlier and her father had died about four months earlier. Her father kept telling her to breathe. Marcia survived. After her NDE Marcia had premonitions about future events. This is one of the more striking: I woke up one morning and told my husband that a friend and business associate of my husband’s had died. I had talked to this man on the phone at some point over a fifteen-year period, but I [had] never met him. I just matter-of-factly told my husband that he died. A short time later my husband got a phone call, and a friend told him that this man had died.” {EA, 190-191}

Oncologist Jeffrey Long also reports: “a significant number of NDErs express a belief that they were healed during their NDE,” and he describes a striking example of a NDE survivor who “had been born with cerebral palsy. As a result, he had a contracted and deformed hand, which throughout his life he had not been able to open completely. After his NDE he was able to open and use his hand for the first time in his life. This medically inexplicable healing was corroborated by his family and health-care team.” {EA, 108}

AS - “Near-Death Experiences: The Experience of the Self as Real and Not as an Illusion,” Annals N.Y. Acad. Sci. ISSN 0077-8923, 1234 (2011) 19–28, http://pimvanlommel.nl/files/NDE-NYAS-Experience-Self-article.pdf

BL – Pim van Lommel, Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience (2011)

EA – Jeffrey Long and Paul Perry, Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences (2010)

NDE causes, consequences, and cultures

Evidence of the Afterlife {EA} by Jeffrey Long and Paul Perry presenting documentation from the Near-Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF).

What medical crises may lead to a near-death experience?

Cardiologist Pim van Lommel explains: “Many circumstances are described during which NDEs are reported, such as cardiac arrest (clinical death), shock after loss of blood (childbirth), traumatic brain injury or stroke, near-drowning (children), or asphyxia, but also in serious diseases not immediately life threatening—during isolation, depression, or meditation, or without any obvious reason.” [AS, 19]

“Cyndi was having a second heart valve replacement surgery within six months when she had the experience she described below. She asked her doctor if it was possible to dream during surgery. When he said no, she replied, ‘Then we have to talk.’ Here is a paraphrase of what she experienced.” During my surgery I felt myself lift from my body and go above the operating table. The doctor told me later that they had kept my heart open and stopped for a long time, and they had a great amount of difficulty getting my heart started again. That must have been when I left my body because I could see the doctors nervously trying to get my heart going. It was strange to be so detached from my physical body. I was curious about what they were doing but not concerned. Then, as I drifted farther away, I saw my father at the head of the table. He looked up at me, which gave me a surprise because he had been dead now for almost a year.” {EA, 98}

“Other NDE researchers have reported NDEs that take place while under general anesthesia. Bruce Greyson, MD, at the University of Virginia states, ‘In our collection of NDEs, 127 out of 578 NDE cases (22 percent) occurred under general anesthesia, and they included such features as OBEs that involved experiencers’ watching medical personnel working on their bodies, an unusually bright or vivid light, meeting deceased persons, and thoughts, memories, and sensations that were clearer than usual.’” {EA, 102}

What are the long-term consequences of a near-death experience?

Based on his longitudinal study, van Lommel concludes: “The NDE is usually transformational, causing enhanced intuitive sensibility, profound changes of life insight, and the loss of fear of death.” [AS, 19]

I was withdrawn and victimized before. I attracted bad people and didn’t see it. I still seem to attract some bad ones, but [now] I see it. I am very independent, strong, focused, but can be too loving and too giving. I have fewer and need fewer relationships, but those I have are more meaningful. {EA, 181}

I was never patient before; now I have lots and lots of patience. I have a lot of discernment too, which I didn’t have before. I have empathy and understand that none of us are ever going to be perfect in this life. {EA, 182}

I had always been terrified of death, of oblivion. I no longer fear death. {EA, 192}

Van Lommel notes that research does not support common interpretations of NDEs. “A psychological cause, such as the infrequently noted fear of death, did not affect the occurrence of an NDE either, although it did affect the depth of the experience. Whether patients had heard or read anything about NDEs in the past made no difference either. Any kind of religious belief, or indeed its absence in nonreligious people or atheists, was irrelevant, and the same was true for the standard of education reached.” [AS, 21]

Is this only a Western cultural experience?

Van Lommel’s patients were Dutch, but the NDE experience is global. “The content of an NDE and the effects on patients seem similar worldwide, across all cultures and all times. However, the subjective nature and absence of a single frame of reference for this near-ineffable experience leads to individual, cultural, and religious factors determining the vocabulary used to describe and interpret this experience.” [AS, 19]

“NDEs in more than twenty languages have been shared with NDERF. Before I knew it, readers from more than 110 countries were devouring more than 300,000 page views per month on the NDERF website.” {EA, 42}

AS - “Near-Death Experiences: The Experience of the Self as Real and Not as an Illusion,” Annals N.Y. Acad. Sci. ISSN 0077-8923, 1234 (2011) 19–28, http://pimvanlommel.nl/files/NDE-NYAS-Experience-Self-article.pdf

EA – Jeffrey Long and Paul Perry, Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences (2010)

Encountering a barrier and returning from an NDE

Evidence of the Afterlife by Jeffrey Long and Paul Perry presenting documentation from the Near-Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF).

Encountering a boundary or barrier

There was this door in front of me with this music coming out and people celebrating with utter joy that I knew and recognize[d] as home. Once [I] crossed, I couldn’t come back. {EA, 16}

I reached the point where I felt I had to make the choice whether to go back to life or onward into death. My best friend was there (who had died of cancer two years before), and she told me that this was as far as I could go or I would not be able to turn back. “You have come to the edge. This is as far as you can go,” she said. “Now go back and live your life fully and fearlessly.” {EA, 16}

I approached the boundary. No explanation was necessary for me to understand, at the age of ten, that once I cross the boundary, I could never come back—period. I was more than thrilled to cross. I intended to cross, but my ancestors over another boundary caught my attention. They were talking in telepathy, which caught my attention. I was born profoundly deaf and had all hearing family members, all of which knew sign language! I could read or communicate with about twenty ancestors of mine and others through telepathic methods. It overwhelmed me. I could not believe how many people I could telepathize with simultaneously. {EA, 125}

The NDERF survey asked, ‘Did you reach a boundary or limiting physical structure?’ To this question 31.0 percent of NDErs answered ‘Yes.’” {EA, 16}

A return to the body, either voluntary or involuntary

I was really hurt that I couldn’t stay because there wasn’t anything I wanted more than to stay. Pure love is the best way to describe the being and place that I would be leaving. Under protest, I was sent back. {EA, 17}

I found out that my purpose now would be to live “heaven on earth” using this new understanding, and also to share this knowledge with other people. However, I had the choice of whether to come back into life or go toward death. I was made to understand that it was not my time, but I always had the choice, and if I chose death, I would not be experiencing a lot of the gifts that the rest of my life still held in store. One of the things I wanted to know was that if I chose life, would I have to come back to this sick body, because my body was very, very sick and the organs had stopped functioning. I was then made to understand that if I chose life, my body would heal very quickly. I would see a difference in not months or weeks, but days! {EA, 17}

“The NDERF survey asked, ‘Were you involved in or aware of a decision regarding your return to the body?’ To this question, 58.5 percent answered ‘Yes.’” {EA, 17}

What medical crises may lead to a near-death experience?

Cardiologist Pim van Lommel explains: “Many circumstances are described during which NDEs are reported, such as cardiac arrest (clinical death), shock after loss of blood (childbirth), traumatic brain injury or stroke, near-drowning (children), or asphyxia, but also in serious diseases not immediately life threatening—during isolation, depression, or meditation, or without any obvious reason.” [AS, 19]

“Cyndi was having a second heart valve replacement surgery within six months when she had the experience she described below. She asked her doctor if it was possible to dream during surgery. When he said no, she replied, ‘Then we have to talk.’ Here is a paraphrase of what she experienced.” During my surgery I felt myself lift from my body and go above the operating table. The doctor told me later that they had kept my heart open and stopped for a long time, and they had a great amount of difficulty getting my heart started again. That must have been when I left my body because I could see the doctors nervously trying to get my heart going. It was strange to be so detached from my physical body. I was curious about what they were doing but not concerned. Then, as I drifted farther away, I saw my father at the head of the table. He looked up at me, which gave me a surprise because he had been dead now for almost a year.” {EA, 98}

“Other NDE researchers have reported NDEs that take place while under general anesthesia. Bruce Greyson, MD, at the University of Virginia states, ‘In our collection of NDEs, 127 out of 578 NDE cases (22 percent) occurred under general anesthesia, and they included such features as OBEs that involved experiencers’ watching medical personnel working on their bodies, an unusually bright or vivid light, meeting deceased persons, and thoughts, memories, and sensations that were clearer than usual.’” {EA, 102}

EA – Jeffrey Long and Paul Perry, Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences (2010)

AS - “Near-Death Experiences: The Experience of the Self as Real and Not as an Illusion,” Annals N.Y. Acad. Sci. ISSN 0077-8923, 1234 (2011) 19–28, http://pimvanlommel.nl/files/NDE-NYAS-Experience-Self-article.pdf

NDE life reviews are nonjudgmental

Harold R. Nelson, former Chaplain Emeritus of the University Medical Center in Tucson, Arizona, explains that an NDE life review “involves a panoramic visual, detailed presentation of one’s entire life. Good deeds, as well as selfish deeds, are flashed back. The review is non-judgmental. The emphasis is on taking advantage of opportunities to love others and acquire knowledge.” Nelson affirms: "In my ministry and studies, I have come to believe that the near-death experience prepares us not only to die but to life live to the fullest until we say good-bye." {HR}

Cardiologist Pim van Lommel reports that: “Patients survey their whole life in one glance; time and space do not seem to exist during such an experience (nonlocality). Instantaneously, they are where they concentrate upon, and they can talk for hours about the content of the life review even though the resuscitation only took minutes. This panoramic review of one’s life seems to contain all the conscious and unconscious aspects or the essence of one’s self in constant and instantaneous connection with the consciousness of others.” [AS, 23]

Not only did I perceive everything from my own viewpoint, but I also knew the thoughts of everyone involved in the event, as if I had their thoughts within me. This meant that I perceived not only what I had done or thought, but even in what way it had influenced others, as if I saw things with all-seeing eyes. And so, even your thoughts are apparently not wiped out. Time and distance seemed not to exist. I was in all places at the same time. [AS, 23]

Radiation oncologist Jeffrey Long reports on data collected by the Near-Death Experience Research Foundation. I saw every important event that had ever happened in my life, from my first birthday to my first kiss to fights with my parents. I saw how selfish I was and how I would give anything to go back and change. {EA, 13}

I went into a dark place with nothing around me, but I wasn’t scared. It was really peaceful there. I then began to see my whole life unfolding before me like a film projected on a screen, from babyhood to adult life. It was so real! I was looking at myself, but better than a 3-D movie as I was also capable of sensing the feelings of the persons I had interacted with through the years. I could feel the good and bad emotions I made them go through. I was also capable of seeing that the better I made them feel, and the better the emotions they had because of me, [the more] credit (karma) and that the bad [emotions] would take some of it back . . . just like a bank account, but here it was like a karma account to my knowledge. {EA, 111}

My entire consciousness seemed to be in my head. Then I started seeing pictures. I think they were in color. It was as if someone had started a movie of myself and of my entire life, but going backwards from the present moment. The pictures were about my family, my mother, other members, others, and it seemed that the most meaningful, loving, caring relationships were being focused upon. I could sense the real meaning of these relationships. I had a sense of love and gratitude towards the persons appearing in my flashback. This panoramic review of my life was very distinct; every little detail of the incidents, relationships, was there—the relationships in some sort of distilled essence of meaning. The review was measured in the beginning, but then the pictures came in faster and faster, and [it] seemed like the movie reel was running out . . .. It went faster and faster, and then I heard myself, along with the entire universe in my head, screaming in a crescendo, ‘Allah ho akbar!’ (God is great). {EA, 48-49}

“The NDERF survey asked, ‘Did you experience a review of past events in your life?’ To that question, 22.2 percent of NDErs answered ‘Yes.’” {EA, 14}

HR - Harold R. Nelson, The Near Death Experience: Observations and Reflections from a Retired Chaplain, 002234090005400205.pdf

AS - “Near-Death Experiences: The Experience of the Self as Real and Not as an Illusion,” Annals N.Y. Acad. Sci. ISSN 0077-8923, 1234 (2011) 19–28, http://pimvanlommel.nl/files/NDE-NYAS-Experience-Self-article.pdf

EA – Jeffrey Long and Paul Perry, Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences (2010)

NDE encounters: a bright light and other beings

Evidence of the Afterlife by Jeffrey Long and Paul Perry presenting information from the Near-Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF).

Encountering a mystical or brilliant light

A beautiful light drew me to itself; the light still touches me with awe, and tears come immediately. {EA, 10}

At first the light was blue. Then it transitioned to white. It was an opalescent white; it almost glowed, but did not shine. It was bright, but not intensely bright, like glowing bright—pure bright. Pure but not in the usual sense of the word. Pure as in something you’ve never seen before or could ever describe or put into words. {EA, 10}

“NDErs may dramatically describe their strong attraction to the light and their emphatic desire to approach or merge with the light. The NDERF survey asked, ‘Did you see a light?’ NDErs responded with 64.6 percent answering ‘Yes.’” {EA, 10}

Encountering other beings, either mystical beings or deceased relatives or friends

Van Lommel writes: “If deceased acquaintances or relatives are encountered in an otherworldly dimension, they are usually recognized by their appearance, and communication is possible through what is experienced as thought transfer. Thus, it is also possible to come into contact with the consciousness or ‘self’ of deceased persons (interconnectedness), even if it was not possible to know that these relatives had died.” [AS, 23]

During my cardiac arrest . . . I saw, apart from my deceased grandmother, a man who had looked at me lovingly, but whom I did not know. More than 10 years later, at my mother’s deathbed, she confessed to me that I had been born out of an extramarital relationship, my father being a Jewish man who had been deported and killed during the Second World War, and my mother showed me his picture. The unknown man that I had seen more than 10 years before during my NDE turned out to be my biological father. [AS, 24]

Then I looked to my left and saw my grandmother who had passed away when I was nine months old. I also saw all of my deceased relatives with her, thousands of them. They were in translucent spirit form. {EA, 126}

I was surrounded by other beings, or people, who I felt as though I recognized. These beings were like family, old friends, who’d been with me for an eternity. I can best describe them as my spiritual or soul family. Meeting these beings was like reunited with the most important people in one’s life, after a long separation. There was an explosion of love and joy on seeing each other again between us all. {EA, 11}

“Why should seeing deceased friends or relatives be evidence of life after death? Because if NDEs were only a product of brain function, then one would expect that beings encountered during the NDE would be those most recently familiar to the NDEr.” A study by Emily Williams Kelly at the department of psychiatric medicine of the University of Virginia “found that 95 percent of the deceased individuals encountered [in NDEs] were relatives, while only 5 percent were friends or acquaintances. Only 4 percent of the NDErs in the study met beings who were alive at the time of the NDE. Other studies have shown that in dreams or hallucinations, the beings encountered are much more likely to be people who are still living.” {EA, 122-23}

“The NDERF survey asked, ‘Did you meet or see any other beings?’ In response, 57.3 percent answered ‘Yes.’” {EA, 11}

Jeffrey Long, MD and Paul Perry, Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences (2010)

Sensations, emotions, altered space and time

Radiation oncologist Jeffrey Long conducted research on near-death experiences under the auspices of the Near-Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF). The following quotes are from his 2010 book, Evidence of the Afterlife.

Heightened Senses

It just seemed so much more real than anything I had ever experienced in my entire life. {EA, 8}

All sound was incredibly clear. The voice of the Supreme Being seemed to emanate from nowhere but at the same time from everywhere. Words did not come from the mouths of beings, but from the aura around them. {EA, 62}

"The NDERF survey asked, ‘How did your highest level of consciousness and alertness during the experience compare to your normal, everyday consciousness and alertness?’ Of the NDErs surveyed, 74.4 percent indicated they had ‘More consciousness and alertness than normal.’” {EA, 8}

Intense and generally positive emotions or feelings

Words will not come close to capturing the feelings, but I’ll try: total, unconditional, all-encompassing love, compassion, peace, warmth, safety, belonging, understanding, overwhelming sense of being home, and joy. {EA, 8}

All I felt was love, joy, happiness, and every wonderful emotion you could feel all at once. {EA, 8}

Total peace, total calm. I was not in the least bit afraid or anxious. {EA, 9}

"The NDERF survey asked, ‘Did you have a feeling of peace or pleasantness?” To this question, 76.2 percent selected ‘Incredible peace or pleasantness.’ The NDERF survey asked another question about a specific emotion during the NDE: ‘Did you have a feeling of joy?’ NDErs responded to this question with 52.5 percent selecting ‘Incredible joy.’” {EA, 9}

A sense of alteration of time or space

It seemed as though I experienced so much in such a small length of earthly time. Where my soul had traveled to knows nothing of time as we know time passing on earth. {EA, 13}

Both time and space on earth stopped completely. Simultaneously, “the time and the space” on the other side was completely alive, evident, and real. {EA, 13}

Yes, while I was in the light, I had . . . [no] sense of time, as I know it here on Earth. All times (past, present, and future) were experienced at every moment in time while I was in the light. {EA, 13}

“The NDERF survey asked, ‘Did you have any sense of altered space or time?’ To this question the majority, 60.5 percent, answered ‘Yes.’” {EA, 13}

Jeffrey Long and Paul Perry, Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences (2010).