A spiritual unknown to most of us

 

Don’t Be Weary, Traveler

 

Refrain

Don’t be weary, traveler; Come along home to Jesus.

Don’t be weary, traveler; Come along home to Jesus.

                   

My head is wet with midnight dew. Come along home to Jesus.

Angels bear me witness too. Come along home to Jesus.

 

Refrain

 

 

Where to go I did not know; Come along home to Jesus.

 

Ever since He freed my soul; Come along home to Jesus.

 

Refrain

 

H. T. Burleigh (1866-1949). See http://afrovoices.com/burleigh.html for a biography.

 

Sung by Charlotte Collett

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KjtXxlFlV4

Serenity and joy before a quick death

Karlis Osis and Erlendur Haraldsson, authors of At the Hour of Death, report: Apparitions can quickly alter the mind of a patient and bring about acceptance of death.

 

A 68-year-old Polish housewife was afflicted with cancer. Her mind was clear. She was settling some financial matters and asked for her purse. She had not thought of dying. Then she saw her husband who had died twenty years before. She was happy, with a sort of religious feeling and, according to her doctor, she lost all fear of death. Instead of fearing death, she felt it to be the logical, correct thing. She died with 5 or 10 minutes.

A nurse in a large hospital in New Delhi reported the following case which impressed her.

A female patient in her forties—who was suffering from cancer and during the last preceding days, had been depressed and drowsy, though always clear—suddenly looked very happy. A joyful expression remained on her face until she died five minutes later.

In the case of an old man with tuberculosis, it was reported:

His serenity was so sudden. One day he said to me, ‘Mrs. Jones, will you bring me a tall glass of water with lots of ice? I did. He drank it and said, ‘Mrs. Jones, this water will see me through the Jordan.’ I think that by referring to the water of the Jordan, he was telling me that he was going to died. He died in 90 minutes. They, the doctors, were very surprised at his sudden death, for there were no visible signs of imminent demise.

Another nurse reported on another patient:

Suddenly one day there was a complete change. He was conscious; his appetite improved. He could do things for himself. He was improved both physically and mentally. The pulse was stronger, the temperature remained the same, and the appetite greatly increased. The gain was not a real improvement, however, for he died within 24 hours.

A physician in a city hospital in India reported on this patient’s experience.

A male patient in his seventies had been suffering from advanced cancer. He had been in great pain, sleepless and restless. One day after he had managed to get a little sleep, he woke up smiling, seemed suddenly free from all physical pain and agony, detached, calm, and peaceful. For the last six hours the patient had only received a very moderate dose of phenobarbital, a relatively weak sedative. He bade all good-bye, one by one, which he had not done before, and told us that he was going to die. He was fully alert for some 10 minutes. Then he fell into a coma and died peacefully a few minutes later.

In another Indian case there were no medical reasons for dying, but premonitions of death accompanied the patient’s elevation in mood.

Post-operative female: Suddenly she said she was going to leave this world, although we did not at all expect her to die. She also told this to visitors and attendants, and thanked them with gratitude. She was relaxed and well-oriented. She recognized people. We thought she would come out nicely. At the last round, I found her feeling happy, relaxed. She spoke about dying very soon. The next morning, she died.

At the Hour of Death (Hastings House, 1997) written by Karlis Osis and Erlendur Haraldsson reports on a four-year study involving fifty thousand terminally ill patients observed just before death by one thousand doctors and nurses in the United States and India.

Fear and acceptance in response to apparitions

Karlis Osis and Erlendur Haraldsson, authors of At the Hour of Death, report: “The apparitions ‘seen’ by the dying are predominantly experienced as guides assisting them in their transition to another mode of existence. A typical example would be the following case of an 11-year-old girl with a congenital heart malady. 

She was having another bad episode with her heart, and said that she saw her mother in a pretty white dress and that her mother had one just like it for her [the patient]. She was very happy and smiling, told me to let her get up and go over there—her mother was ready to take her on a trip.

“The vision lasted for half an hour. It left the girl serene and peaceful until her death, four hours later. The unusual part of this case is that the girl never knew her mother, who had died when giving birth to her. She certainly did not have a chance to grow emotionally close to her mother, as most of us do. Yet, when that last hour came, her mother ‘was there.’”

“What were the patients’ reaction to the ostensible visitors from the ‘great beyond’? Did they want to go with them? We found that three out of four (72 percent) wished to accompany the apparition, while only one-fourth (28 percent) would not go if they could possibly help it.

Although the majority in both countries were ready to go, we found great individual and national differences with regard to the distribution of refusals. While only one American patient did not wish to go when called, one out of every three (34 percent) Indians who experienced the take-away hallucination refused to consent.

Although some mood changes are mild, they nevertheless bring the patients out of their gloom. A thirty-six-year-old man suffering from internal bleeding suddenly looked up, put his hands up, and smiled.

He saw his deceased mother and sister, was surprised but pleased to see them. I was surprised to learn that his sister and mother were dead. He was so natural with them that I thought they were alive at home. ‘Hello, it’s good to see you . . . ‘ he would say. Afterwards he was perfectly clear with full memory of his relatives’ visit. He became more relaxed and content after the hallucination.

An Indian woman in her eighties, however, who was dying from cancer of the throat, resisted her hallucination.

She saw people coming to take her away. She wanted to fight them—to stay, to live. She cried out: ‘People are coming and they want to take me. I don’t want to go. Please hold my hand.’ She did not let her daughter-in-law leave her by holding her hand tightly, not allowing her to get us.

“In Indian cases, the patient’s negative emotions usually were directly related to the nature of the apparition. The following is an account of a high-school-educated New Delhi salesman who seemed to be recovering from an operation. His consciousness was clear when he said to the physician:

‘My [dead] grandfather is just near my bed. He has come to take me with him. I don’t want to go! Please don’t leave me alone!’ Although the patient’s physical condition was serious, his consciousness was quite clear; he was able to respond to questions in a concise, coherent manner. However, the apparition left him scared, with unpleasant emotions. He died within an hour.

“A woman in her sixtieth year who was suffering from a very painful cancer that had spread throughout her entire body” reacted very differently when “she ‘saw’ her dead husband taking charge and preparing her for the transition.”

Her husband was giving her instructions—no one was to interrupt—it was so vivid to her. She was like in a semi-sleep, as if talking to herself, having a conversation, e.g., ‘wait for me.’ She told me to be quiet. Before she was depressed about conditions getting worse. After the hallucination, she was elated, seemed to have risen above pain, no more moaning.’

At the Hour of Death (Hastings House, 1997) written by Karlis Osis and Erlendur Haraldsson reports on a four-year study involving fifty thousand terminally ill patients observed just before death by one thousand doctors and nurses in the United States and India.

"At the Hour of Death" apparitions

Karlis Osis and Erlendur Haraldsson write in At the Hour of Death: “Many examples were reported in which the hallucinations were not only consistent and appropriate to the situation of dying but also exhibited characteristics which seemed to fit into the framework of the postmortem survival hypothesis. Here is a typical one:

She didn’t say a word, but I saw her looking at something or someone who wasn’t there, and smiling. She had been so miserable just before that. She told me [afterwards] she had just seen her [dead] sister who had come for her. She realized she would die but did not seem to mind. It [seeing the dead sister] seemed to relieve her. A pleasant experience.

“We call experiences where the patient ‘sees’ a kind of other-worldly messenger ‘afterlife-related hallucinations.’ Perhaps hallucination is not the right word since there is the possibility that it was a real perception of a deceased person whose apparition was, in one sense or another, present. For example, one respondent was convinced that the following vision of a two-and-a half-year-old-boy was something more than a hallucination because the child was apparently too young to have had any conception about death.

He was lying there very quiet. Then he just sat himself up, and he put his arms out and said, ‘Mama,’ and fell back [dead].

The child’s mother had, in fact, died when he was two years old. Furthermore, he did not engage in any similar behavior before the time of the incident above—that is, moments before death."

“In the pilot study, we found the following basic characteristics of apparition experiences in the dying.

1. The majority (two-thirds) of apparitions portray dead rather than living persons. The opposite has been found to be true of hallucinations by persons in normal health.

2. The main ostensible purpose of the apparition is to take the patient away to another mode of existence. This purpose is expressed exclusively by apparitions of the dead and by religious figures.

3. Upon seeing an apparition with an ostensible take-away mission, the patient’s predominant reaction will be that of serenity and peace, religious emotion, and ‘otherworldy’ feeling—like those reported by mystics during their alleged encounters with ‘transcendental reality.’"

“The bulk of these deathbed hallucinations were of short duration. About half of them lasted only five minutes or less, as is true of the following case."

A female cardiac patient in her fifties knew that she was dying and was in a discouraged, depressed mood. Suddenly, she raised her arms and her eyes opened wide; her face lit up as if she was seeing someone she hadn’t seen for a long time. She said, ‘Oh, Katie, Katie.’ The patient had been suddenly roused from a comatose state, she seemed happy, and she died immediately after the hallucination. There were several Katies in this woman’s family: a half-sister, an aunt, and a friend. All were dead.

"Although most patients did not die immediately after having witnessed the apparition, 27 percent of them died within an hour, and 20 percent died between one and six hours later. In the majority (62 percent) of the cases, the hallucinations heralded death within a day."

 

At the Hour of Death (Hastings House, 1997) written by Karlis Osis and Erlendur Haraldsson reports on a four-year study involving fifty thousand terminally ill patients observed just before death by one thousand doctors and nurses in the United States and India.

Apparitions that help patients let go of this life

In the following cases from At the Hour of Death written by Karlis Osis and Erlendur Haraldsson the dying patient has an apparition who seems to have a will that is contrary to the patient.

This cancer patient was the nurse’s sister. She saw her dead husband for three nights in a row. He called her. He wanted her to come. She told him that she wasn’t ready to go, not until Agnes [the nurse's sister] was taken care of. It seemed that when she knew that, then she was ready: "Now I am ready to go. I can go."

And she did. She died within twenty-four hours. Agnes was impressed. "Some hallucinations are induced by drugs, but some, like my sister’s, it was different with her. She could see or forecast things that I never could."

A Catholic woman, sixty-one, had cancer that was in its terminal stages. She saw the apparition of her mother and a vision of God, who, in the vision, seemed to have set a time for her death—the first Friday of the month, an auspicious day in the old Catholic tradition.

The patient, however, had mixed up her calendar. Thinking that the next day would be the first Friday, she told the priest, "I want you to come tomorrow by ten of eight," when she expected to die. What actually happened was that she died—contrary to her expectations—at seven-fifty a week later, which was actually the first Friday of the month, as indicated in her vision.

Such experiences might happen to patients who are convinced that they will recover and who are not at all ready to "go." A cardiac patient, a fifty-six-year-old male whose consciousness was clear, saw the apparition of a woman who had come to take him away.

He stared at a bouquet of flowers—he did not seem to be repulsed by it [the apparition], just slightly frightened. He pointed to it and said, "There she is again. She is reaching for me." He described her hand and also the flowers, which were in the room. He did not particularly want to go, but he did not make a fuss. He became calmer. This experience made him serene. He died a day later. The "otherworldly" encounter brought him serenity, peace, and acceptance of his fate.

Sometimes, however, there is a very sharp clash. A college-educated Indian man in his twenties was recovering from mastoiditis. He was doing very well. Both the patient and his doctor expected a definite recovery. He was going to be discharged that day. Suddenly at 5:00 a.m. he shouted, “Someone is standing here dressed in white clothes. I will not go with you!” He was dead in ten minutes.

This last case is that of a Hindu woman in her thirties suffering from second-degree burns. At first, she interpreted the apparition’s take-away purpose as a cruel abduction. She pleaded with the nurse: “Please, save me. There are four men dressed in white coming toward me. They want me to accompany them.” She felt as if the four men were dragging her away.

The woman was in terror. After about ten minutes, however, she said to the nurse: “I then saw a big tree. On each leaf was written: Ram [name of the Indian deity].” She was now ready to die.

At the Hour of Death (Hastings House, 1997) written by Karlis Osis and Erlendur Haraldsson reports on a four-year study involving fifty thousand terminally ill patients observed just before death by one thousand doctors and nurses in the United States and India.

Dying at peace and without fear

At the Hour of Death reports on a four-year study involving fifty thousand terminally ill patients observed just before death by one thousand doctors and nurses in the United States. Its authors, Karlis Osis and Erlendur Haraldsson, begin their report with these paragraphs.

“Our destiny at death is probably the most important area of human experience into which we can inquire. According to the prevailing scientific world view, the destiny is a harsh one. Textbooks tell us in no uncertain terms that after the heart stops circulating blood, the brain is no longer nourished and begins to decay rapidly—within a quarter of an hour or so. At that point, the texts say, the patient’s personality is simply no more. It is irreparably destroyed. The individual ceases to exist.

“For centuries, medical schools have inculcated this grim, uncompromising concept into doctors and nurses—those who will be the ones to help us when we die. But has this view of human nature really been so well established as to allow of no doubt?

“Surprisingly, the experiences of the dying themselves often contradict the accepted medical view. What insights do we get from the dying? What do they experience? What do they ‘see’ at the end?

“Although most patients apparently drift into oblivion without awareness of it, there are some, clearly conscious to the end, who say they ‘see’ into the beyond and who are able to report their experiences before expiring. They see apparitions of deceased relatives and friends. They see religious and mythological figures. They see nonearthly environments characterized by light, beauty, and intense color. These experiences are transformative. They bring with them serenity, peace, elation, and religious emotions. The patients die a ‘good death’ in strange contrast to the usual gloom and misery commonly expected before expiration. Other deathbed patients, although they report no visions, nevertheless undergo the same transformation, which sometimes includes the cessation of pain.”

Osis and Haraldsson explain their research method. “First, we collected massive amounts of data through three extensive surveys of physicians and nurses who attended the dying. Second, our research was transcultural, drawing upon American and Indian medical people. Third, our data were collected carefully and systematically through modern sampling techniques, including questionnaires, and probing interviews. Fourth, our data were subjected to elaborate statistical, pattern, and content analysis through computer evaluation.

“Although we applied scientific rigor to this research, we did not neglect the experiential aspect of our inquiry. Death and dying is not just an intellectual problem. Rather, it is something which should be understood with the whole depth of our being. Therefore, we sought to examine it objectively and subjectively. Wherever possible, we obtained the direct words of the dying. This enables us to be in touch with what actually happened in the hospital rooms.

“What we found is both surprising and hopeful. This book will offer new evidence, based on observations by more than a thousand doctors and nurses, bearing on the question of postmortem survival. To anticipate our conclusions, we will state here that this evidence strongly suggests life after death—more strongly than any alternative hypothesis can explain the data. Neither medical, nor psychological, nor cultural conditioning can explain away deathbed visions. Moreover, they are relatively independent of age, sex, education, religion, and socioeconomic status. Taken in conjunction with other evidence obtained by competent research into this question—to be examine shortly—we feel that the total body of information makes possible a fact-based, rational, and therefore realistic belief in life after death.”

The following case report illustrates “one of more than a thousand cases of this sort” that Osis and Haraldsson collected:

A seventy-year old patient had seen here deceased husband several times and then she predicted her own death. She said that her husband had appeared in the window and motioned her to come out of the. House. The reason for his visits was to have her join him. Her daughter and other relatives were present when she predicted her death, laid out her burial clothes, laid down in bed for a nap, and died about one hour later. She seemed calm, resigned to death and, in fact, wanted to die. Before she saw her husband she didn’t speak about imminent death. Her doctor was so surprised by her sudden death, for which there were no sufficient medical reasons, that he checked if she had poisoned herself. He found neither signs of poisoning nor any such drugs in the house.

At the Hour of Death (Hastings House, 1997) written by Karlis Osis and Erlendur Haraldsson reports on a four-year study involving fifty thousand terminally ill patients observed just before death by one thousand doctors and nurses in the United States and India.

A spiritual known as "By and By"

We are often tossed and driv’n on the restless sea of time,
somber skies and howling tempest oft succeed a bright sunshine;
in that land of perfect day, when the mists have rolled away,
we will understand it better by and by.

Refrain:
By and by, when the morning comes, when the saints of God are gathered home,
we’ll tell the story, how we’ve overcome, for we’ll understand it better by and by.

We are often destitute of the things that life demands,
want of food and want of shelter, thirsty hills and barren lands;
we are trusting in the Lord, and according to the Word,
we will understand it better by and by. [Refrain]

Temptations, hidden snares, often take us unawares,
and our hearts are made to bleed for any thoughtless word or deed;
and we wonder why the test when we try to do our best,
but we’ll understand it better by and by. [Refrain]

African-American composer, Charles A. Tindley (1851-1933). This spiritual was written in 1905.

 

An African-American congregation singing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0IJ9aLBkcE