NDEs are medically inexplicable: Long excerpt #4

Radiation oncologist Jeremy Long writes in his article, "Evidence for Survival of Consciousness in Near-Death Experiences: Decades of Science and New Insights" - Near-death experiences, by their very definition, occur at a time of unconsciousness and even clinical death with an absent heartbeat. Speaking both medically and logically, having a highly lucid experience while unconscious or clinically dead should be impossible. However, thousands of NDEs describe lucid conscious perceptions even while comatose.

Near-death experiences often occur in association with a cardiac arrest, which means the heart stops beating. This condition is popularly known by the phrase “heart attack”. To understand how remarkable it is to have an NDE at a time of clinical death, it is essential to know what happens when the heart stops beating. After the heart stops, blood immediately ceases flowing to the brain. About ten to twenty seconds later, the electroencephalogram (EEG), a measurement of brain electrical activity, is flat.  At this time there is no significant measurable electrical activity in the cortex, which is the outer part of the brain. Multiple studies show that patients are usually amnesic or confused about events that took place before or after the cardiac arrest.

Consequently, almost immediately after cardiac arrest, it should be impossible to have a lucid, organized, and conscious experience. But when a near-death experience occurs, a lucid experience happens even while physical brain function is shut down. The NDERF website has hundreds of examples of NDEs that happened during a cardiac arrest. The typical high lucidity in NDEs following cardiac arrest defies any possible medical explanation. Here are two examples of NDEs that occurred at the time of a cardiac arrest:

Joan had a spinal anesthetic for surgery on her ankle. There were complications, and she coded, which means her heart stopped. Joan describes her near-death experience:

I went from being in my body to being in a place of absolute love. I can only describe it like being in a swimming pool, but even my body was filled with this loving. I was one with this place, but also apart from it. I was still me, but I was far more than me. I was one with everything - and it was ALL good. I did hear beautiful music, but it wasn't like our music. The music itself was part of me, but I don't think I was singing. It was more like it was just part of me, and I was part of it, but it was much more than just me. I felt weightless and free - absolutely free. I was enfolded in this loving and was part of it too. There was not one single part of me or part of anything else that was not love. Individuals did not exist in the same way as we do here. I was still me, but I was also part of the loving. 

 

I KNEW things without hearing a single spoken word. I WAS love. I KNEW that all religions had it wrong. There is no way rules and judgment could flow from this place. Earthly religions made it complicated when it was very easy. There is only love, and all of us are part of it. There is NO way that we cannot be loved. We ARE love. Time did not exist. I have always loved my family on earth, but I did not miss them. I did not think of them. I was more joyful than I ever have been. I felt utterly connected to everything and everyone. We ARE inter-connected as one. There is no such thing as 'death'. This experience has changed me.

Another example of a near-death experience occurring at the time of a cardiac arrest is from Yazmine. Her heart stopped for six minutes. She received cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), which brought her back to life. After recovering, she shared her remarkable NDE:

Then suddenly I was above my body, which was lying on a stretcher bed and wearing a white hospital gown. I looked at my body and knew it wasn't the real me. It was the thing I had been caught inside. Now I was free! I felt such happiness! The joy was all- pervading. We like to get knotted up about the real-world pain, suffering, and loss, but they are all illusory experiences.

Everything became clear to me. The nurses were calling my name. One nurse was crying, and another was saying, ''Oh my God, we've lost her!" I was above them thinking how silly it was that they were making all that fuss. I wondered why they couldn't see me. I just knew that all was perfectly fabulous! Then I saw an open window about 6 inches wide. I thought, ''Wow, I wonder if I can fit through there?" Then instantly I was in another state.

Near-death experiencers (NDErs) are unconscious, comatose, or clinically dead. However, the lucidity they experience is usually a state of supernormal consciousness. The most recent NDERF survey asked 834 NDErs, “How did your highest level of consciousness and alertness during the experience compare to your normal everyday consciousness and alertness?”

654 NDErs (78%) confirmed they experienced: “More consciousness and alertness than normal.” 142 (17%) experienced: “Normal consciousness and alertness.” And 38 (5%) experienced: “Less consciousness and alertness than normal.” 

Jeffrey Long, MD, "Evidence for Survival of Consciousness in Near-Death Experiences: Decades of Science and New Insights." In the next several posts I will share excerpts from Long's 2021 article. Footnotes have been deleted. The complete text is available as a pdf at https://www.nderf.org.

 

Evidence of an afterlife: Long excerpt #3

Radiation oncologist Jeffrey Long writes in "Evidence for Survival of Consciousness in Near-Death Experiences: Decades of Science and New Insights" - "I began investigating near-death experiences in 1998 with the establishment of the Near-Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF). NDERF started with a website devoted to NDE, www.nderf.org. From its inception the NDERF website had a detailed questionnaire that included a request for the complete NDE narrative. The current version of the NDERF questionnaire asks over 100 questions. In the greater than 20 years that NDERF has been active, we received over 3500 NDEs. This combination of the availability of thousands of NDEs and the results from detailed surveys allowed the most extensive investigation of NDEs ever reported.

"The current version of the NDERF survey was closed for accrual after receiving 834 sequentially shared NDEs. The immediately prior version of the NDERF survey included 1122 sequentially shared NDEs. These NDERF studies are the most extensive scientific investigations of NDEs ever reported.

"The two most recent versions of the NDERF surveys included the NDE Scale questions. The NDE Scale asks sixteen questions about the content of the near-death experience. This Scale is the most validated research method to help distinguish NDEs from experiences that are not NDEs. A Scale score of 7 or higher is required to classify experiences as NDEs. Throughout this article, the NDErs whose survey results I am presenting all had NDE Scale scores of 7 or above. This further validates these experiences as actual NDEs. All experiences included in the NDERF studies also had clearly documented life-threatening events at the time of their NDEs. For inclusion in the NDERF studies presented in this article, unless otherwise stated, all NDEs were single NDE accounts, shared in English, and were shared by the individual who personally had the NDE.

"In all NDERF studies, experiences were classified as near-death experiences only if there was a lucid experience at the time of a close brush with death. Experiences in the NDERF studies are unbiased NDE accounts. No NDEs were excluded from the NDERF studies solely because of any particular content. The full text of the NDE narratives is posted to the NDERF website, excluding comments that would identify the NDErs, are significantly disparaging toward identifiable individuals, or contain inappropriate comments such as advocating illicit substance use. The NDEs posted on the NDERF website are edited to correct obvious spelling and grammar errors. NDEs quoted in this article from the NDERF website may be paraphrased for clarity. As remarkable as the NDE quotes are in this article, please remember that they accurately represent the real experiences of NDErs from all walks of life and around the world.

"The NDERF surveys are internet-based. The internet has been utilized for scholarly surveys for decades. Many published studies directly compared the reliability of internet surveys with “pencil-and-paper” surveys concluding that they are comparable in reliability. This important concept is discussed further on the NDERF website.

"The reliability of the NDERF survey is enhanced by using the tried-and-true scientific method of redundancy. This involves asking several questions addressing the same concept in different areas of the survey with slightly different wording. I am impressed at the consistency in responses to the redundant NDERF survey questions. The time required to complete the greater than 100 questions on the NDERF survey is a strong disincentive for anyone to complete the survey fraudulently.

"Another important method of validating the near-death experiences posted on NDERF comes from the large volume of visitors to the NDERF website. There are currently well over 50,000 unique visitors to the website each month. This allows an enormous number of people to read the posted NDEs and let us know of any concerns regarding possible plagiarized or falsified NDEs. Over the decades of NDERF’s existence it has been gratifying that far less than 1% of NDEs submitted to the NDERF website survey are plagiarized or otherwise falsified. My background as a physician also helps verify the validity of the described medical circumstances of the life-threatening events leading to the NDEs. Finally, it is notable that the NDEs published on NDERF are consistent in content with NDEs in published articles, books, and other reliable internet collections of NDEs. Further details regarding the methodology of the NDERF studies are available on the NDERF website."

Jeffrey Long, MD, "Evidence for Survival of Consciousness in Near-Death Experiences: Decades of Science and New Insights." In the next several posts I will share excerpts from Long's 2021 article. Footnotes have been deleted. The complete text is available as a pdf at https://www.nderf.org. 

 

Evidence of an afterlife: Long excerpt #2

Radiation oncologist Jeffrey Long writes in Evidence for Survival of Consciousness in Near-Death Experiences: Decades of Science and New Insights - "For this article, the term near-death experience will refer to lucid, organized experiences occurring at the time of a life-threatening event so severe that there is unconsciousness or clinically apparent death with an absent heartbeat. This is a relatively rigorous concept of NDE, but appropriate to distinguish NDEs from non-NDEs. This concept of NDE is entirely consistent with the definition of near-death experience from Webster’s dictionary:

An occurrence in which a person comes very close to dying and has memories of a spiritual experience (such as meeting dead friends and family members or seeing a white light) during the time when death was near.

 

"By the very dictionary definition of unconscious, it should not be possible to have a lucid and organized memory while unconscious. And yet, thousands of near-death experiencers (NDErs) report NDEs with characteristic elements, which is what occurs during the NDEs. While no two NDEs are the same, my prior research found 12 elements that may occur during NDEs. When these elements are present in NDEs, they usually happen in consistent and logical order. These NDE elements are consistently observed in NDEs worldwide, in all age groups, and regardless of their belief systems. The consistent and ordered presence of the elements in NDEs helps us to be confident of the reality of NDEs.

"The 12 elements of near-death experiences are:

    1. An out-of-body experience (OBE).
    2. Heightened senses.
    3. Intense and generally positive emotions or feelings.
    4. Passing into or through a tunnel.
    5. Encountering a mystical or brilliant light.
    6. Encountering deceased relatives/friends or mystical beings.
    7. A sense of alteration in time or space.
    8. A life review.
    9. Encountering otherworldly (heavenly) realms.
    10. Encountering or learning special knowledge.
    11. Encountering a boundary or barrier.
    12. A voluntary or involuntary return to the body.

"Near-death experiences are not rare. Surveys in the United States, Germany, and Australia estimated that about 4 to 15% of the population previously had NDEs. Thus thousands of NDEs have been available for research in the past, and thousands of NDEs should be available for future investigations. Studying large numbers of NDEs gives us greater confidence in the results of the studies than would be possible from investigating small numbers of NDEs or only anecdotal reports."

Jeffrey Long, MD, "Evidence for Survival of Consciousness in Near-Death Experiences: Decades of Science and New Insights." In the next several posts I will share excerpts from Long's 2021 article. Footnotes have been deleted. The complete text is available as a pdf at https://www.nderf.org.

 

Jeffrey Long's recent argument for an afterlife

Long is the founder of the Near Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF.org). His recent article entitled "Evidence for Survival of Consciousness in Near-Death Experiences: Decades of Science and New Insights" won a $50,00 prize in the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies 2021 afterlife evidence contest. These are the opening paragraphs of his argument. Future posts will contain additional excerpts.

"Virtually everyone has wondered if there is an afterlife. This is understandable, given the appropriate concerns about the mortality of ourselves, our loved ones, and all of humanity. The question of an afterlife has been discussed and debated for millennia. As a physician practicing the medical specialty of radiation oncology, which is the use of radiation therapy to treat cancer, I have been intrigued by issues of our mortality. The question of what happens after bodily death is regularly present in my daily medical practice as I work with patients that have a life-threatening diagnosis of cancer. Prior investigations of near-death experience (NDE) combined with the research that I am presenting in this article have convinced me, based on evidence, that our consciousness survives bodily death.

"Evidence for the reality of an afterlife is available from multiple lines of scholarly study. Perhaps the most substantial evidence for the reality of an afterlife comes from near-death experiences (NDEs). It makes sense both scientifically and logically to investigate the experiences of those who died or had a seriously close brush with death regarding their possible insights into the survival of consciousness after death. NDE, and its consistent message of an afterlife, is the focus of this article.

"Scholarly research regarding near-death experiences has been published for over 45 years. NDE first became widely known in 1975 with the publication of Dr. Raymond Moody’s book Life After Life. As early as 2005 it was estimated that 'At least 55 researchers or research teams in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia published at least 65 research studies involving nearly 3500 NDErs, addressing the experience, its aftereffects, or both.'

"Up to the current time, near-death experiences have been the subject of hundreds of publications in peer-reviewed scholarly journals. Many of these studies were published in the world’s leading medical and scientific journals. This article will reference select previously published NDE research to help present the current state-of-the-art understanding of NDE as evidence of an afterlife. 

"In addition, I will present new and previously unpublished research to advance knowledge about NDE and its important implications for the survival of consciousness after bodily death. Much of the unpublished research presented in this article updates or expands my previously published investigations. This new and previously unpublished research helps assure that this article offers the most current and state-of-the-art insights into the NDE evidence of an afterlife."

Jeffrey Long, MD, "Evidence for Survival of Consciousness in Near-Death Experiences: Decades of Science and New Insights." In the next several posts I will share excerpts from Long's 2021 article. Footnotes have been deleted. The complete text is available as a pdf at https://www.nderf.org.

Blind woman sees during near-death experience

Supernormal sensory awareness is consistently described in near-death experiences. This is further evidence that consciousness in NDEs occurs separately from the physical brain, as would be expected if consciousness survives bodily death.

An excellent example of supernormal sensory awareness in near-death experiences is visual NDEs in the blind. Blind NDErs have reported normal and even supernormal vision. In 1998 Kenneth Ring, PhD, and Sharon Cooper, MA, published an important article in the Journal of Near-Death Studies. Their investigation found that visually impaired or blind people often described normal or supernormal vision during their NDEs. Several especially significant case reports described individuals born completely blind who had typical NDEs that included detailed vision.

The best documented case of a near-death experience in a person born totally blind was the account of Vicki. To Vicki, vision was unknown and unknowable. Vicki had two NDEs. Her first NDE was at age 12 due to appendicitis. Her second and more detailed NDE was at age 22 due to a car accident with head injuries so severe that she was still recovering a year later. In Vicki’s own words, she describes vision during her NDE:

I knew it was me... I was pretty thin then. I was quite tall and thin at that point. And I recognized at first that it was a body, but I didn’t even know that it was mine initially. Then I perceived that I was up on the ceiling, and I thought, “Well, that’s kind of weird. What am I doing up here?” I thought, “Well, this must be me. Am I dead?”...I just briefly saw this body, and ...I knew that it was mine because I wasn’t in mine.

Here is a sample of her detailed visual observations that occurred throughout her near-death experience:

I think I was wearing the plain gold band on my right ring finger and my father’s wedding ring next to it. But my wedding ring I definitely saw.... That was the one I noticed the most because it’s unusual. It has orange blossoms on the corners of it.

Vicki emphasizes the uniqueness of the vision she had during her near-death experiences, noting:

This was, she said, the only time I could ever relate to seeing and to what light was, because I experienced it.

I personally interviewed Vicki. There is no possible medical explanation for someone born totally blind to have a near-death experience with such vivid and detailed vision. 

Jeffrey Long, Evidence for Survival of Consciousness in Near-Death Experiences: Decades of Science and New Insights, https://www.nderf.org/.

 

Experiences God's love and healing by an angel

In the middle of the night, I awoke with a severe migraine. I'd experienced occasional migraines since I was a teenager, but this particular migraine was extremely painful and I should have sought treatment at the Emergency Room. However, since I had very young children at the time, I didn't want to wake them or my husband, so I attempted to treat myself. I took my prescription migraine medication, but it did not provide any relief from the pain. Instead of waiting an hour before taking the second dose as the instructions advised, I waited 20 minutes and took the second dose. I also took two over-the-counter pills for migraine. I have always been very sensitive to medications, but at the time I did not consider this. I was only focused on relieving the intense pain. 

After taking the medications, I became very sleepy and returned to bed. When I drifted off to sleep, I would awaken by gasping for breath. I quickly realized that when I drifted off to sleep, I stopped breathing. I was fearful I would fall asleep and die. I said a very simple prayer, 'Dear God, please don't let me die. I want to be a mother and a wife.' As I said the prayer, I doubted God would hear me. At that time in my life, I felt insignificant. I was not sure God existed, and if He did, I didn't think he would know me. But I was about to be proven wrong.

Immediately after praying, I felt a presence come over my bed. I was lying on my back with my eyes closed, but I could sense a shadow had been cast as something moved over my body and then stood next to my bed. As soon as I felt the presence, I was frightened and I heard a Bible verse in my mind, 'An angel of the Lord stood by them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.' I realized I had received the Bible verse telepathically and an angel had arrived to help me. 

Then it felt as if the angel slipped his hand directly into my stomach. I felt a sensation unlike anything I'd ever experienced. Static was moving in my stomach and throughout my torso. I also saw in my mind's eye a vison of black and white static, as like on a tv set without reception. At the same time, I felt my deceased father's presence and I could hear him speaking into my right ear. He repeatedly said, 'You're going to be ok, you're going to be ok, you're going to be ok.'

As the angel stood to my left and my father spoke to me from my right, a very large, powerful presence hovered over the length of my body. When I noticed the large presence, my inner vision was changed to that of a crystal blue waterfall. The water was sparkling clear and the most beautiful blue I have ever seen. As I marveled at the sight of the water, the static sensation in my torso dissipated and was replaced with a sensation of liquid love rushing into my heart. The love was so pure and overwhelming that I immediately began to weep. The liquid love flowed through my heart and filled up my chest cavity to the point that I could not expand my lungs to inhale. I was aware of having difficulty breathing, but it did not concern me. 

I was so blissed out from the love, that nothing else mattered. I had the realization of, 'This must be God.' It was so large, infinite, and powerful, that I just knew it could have no other name than God. Once I realized I was in the presence of God, my next thought was, 'Oh no, God is going to judge me for taking too much medication.' I waited for the judgement. It did not come. I moved into the flow of God, searching for His judgement. No judgement was there. Not a speck. Only pure, adoring love was in the infinite flow of God.

At this point I lost awareness of my body. I did not recall I was a mother, wife, daughter, friend. I had no recollection of life on earth. I merged into an infinite presence that utterly and completely adored me. God did not speak words to me. The love said it all. I felt as if I was an awareness, a being without a name or identity, and I was expanding to the size of the cosmos. I was home. I realized home was where I wanted to remain forever and in my blissed-out state, it took all the energy I could muster to telepathically communicate, 'Take me.' With these two words, I was attempting to communicate that I wanted to remain in the pure love forever. 

As my presence continued to expand in a state of bliss, it felt as if I was nearing a point where I would explode into a billion atoms and forever be with God. I mentally prepared myself for the explosion and gladly welcomed it. At the very last millisecond before the explosion of my being and my total emergence into infinity, God pulled me out of Heaven and I landed with a shocking jolt into my body.

I lay in my bed, dazed and confused. My hair and pillow were soaked from the tears I had cried as the love consumed my heart and spirit. I have no idea how long I was with God, but when I returned to my body, it was completely healed. The medication had been removed. I was breathing normally. I was not lethargic. And my head felt normal. Usually after having a migraine, my head would be very sore to the point that brushing my hair would be unbearable. Now I could push against my skull and feel no pain or soreness. 

I attempted to process what had just happened. I knew that I had experienced something beyond any earthly experience I'd ever had. I told myself that I would allow myself to believe I had experienced a miracle, if when I awoke in the morning, I remained pain-free. Eventually I fell asleep and when I awoke in the morning, my body had no after-effects of a migraine or medication. I felt wonderful.

NDERF.org #9268

Life review while drowning

I was in a backyard pool (with a deep end) at a swimming party for our Brownie group. Playing with a beach ball a friend accidentally hit me in the face and I went under water. I was told that my mother saw me and tried to get someone's attention, but then I looked like I was ok. I wasn't. I had struggled up to the surface three times, and then had a very warm, comfortable feeling that everything was going to be fine. I saw what I thought was the sun sparkling on the surface of the water, then suddenly the water was gone and I was moving toward a figure. 

Before I got to the person, I had a flash of things that had happened in my life. As short as it was at the time, and can recall three or four things that happened when I was an infant (ivy wallpaper, getting my hair washed, having my tonsils out, my first dog dying, etc.), but there was only a happy feeling, nothing sad. I could then see that the man had a funny hat and the most beautiful face. He smiled at me and seemed to say that it wasn't time yet, but I kept close to him because it felt so comforting to me.

During this unspoken communication, I was suddenly jolted back by a hard pressure on my chest, and then I was floating above a scene by the side of the pool. My mother was crying and kneeling over me while my friend's brother was pushing on my back. It seemed like it lasted for a long time, but I saw several people doing things that I remembered to be strange, as I was 'treetop level' in the yard, (there was only an avocado tree in the yard, not a tall one). At that moment, I came whooshing back into my body, feeling like I couldn't breathe. Back to reality. 

NDERF.org #4277