Back and forth: near-death and the other side

In Surviving Death Leslie Kean writes: “In the days before death some patients say they move in and out of an alternative reality, which they describe as an area full of love, light, and compassion. This alternative reality appears just as real to patients as being in the hospice. In our retrospective survey new realities were reported by 55 percent of the Dutch and 30 to 32 percent of the English caregivers, but in the prospective study they were found by 48 percent of caregivers in each group. In one Swiss study over 50 percent of the caregivers experienced this. Here are three reports:

 

“Sometimes people seem to oscillate between the two worlds for a bit, sometimes for hours. They seem at some points to be in this world and at others they’re not. I think for many people death is not just going through a doorway. You’ve sort of got a foot on the step and you stick your head in and you have a look . . . I’ve had people open their eyes and say, Oh, I’m still here then.

"In the last two to three days before she died, she was conscious of a dark roof over her head and a bright light. She moved into a waiting place where beings were talking to her, her grandfather among them. They were there to help her. Everything would be okay; it was not a dream. She moved in and out of this area. (Patient’s mother)

“Suddenly she looked up at the window and seemed to stare intently up at it. This lasted only minutes but it seemed ages. She suddenly turned to me and said, Please, Pauline, don’t ever be afraid of dying. I have seen the most beautiful light and I was going toward it. I wanted to go into that light. It was so peaceful. I really had to fight to come back.  Next day when it was time for me to go home, I said, Bye, Mum. See you tomorrow. She looked straight at me and said, I am not worried about tomorrow and you mustn’t be. Promise me. Sadly, she died the next morning . . . I knew she’d seen something that day which gave her comfort and peace when she only had hours to live. (Patient’s daughter)”

Leslie Kean, Surviving Death: A Journalist Investigates Evidence for an Afterlife (Three Rivers Press, 2017).

Returning to life after being clearly medically dead

Leslie Kean writes in Surviving Death: “The point is often made that these ‘clinically dead’ people have not actually died, so maybe their experiences are different from those that occur during irreversible physical death. However, the experiencers are convinced that they journeyed to the same realm that they will return to when they die, and this is why they no longer fear death. David Fontana, author of Is There an Afterlife, who spent many decades studying evidence for survival raises a bigger question. ‘It is little use saying that if a person is revived after clinical death this means they were not dead,’ he wrote in 2005. ‘It may indeed be that the boundary between life and death can be crossed, albeit briefly, in both directions. Why not? What is to stop us at least accepting this as a working hypothesis, and then studying what people have to tell us about their NDEs in order to learn what they have to tell us about this shadowy boundary between the two states?’

"Dr. Sam Parnia, who specializes in resuscitation science, has learned more about that shadowy boundary in recent years. Now, with such advanced techniques as cooling down a body, a person who has been dead for hours can be brought back to life because the cells within the body take may hours to die. And we are talking about a motionless, stone-dead corpse—a body with no heartbeat, no respiration, and no brain activity. ‘Recent scientific advances have produced a seismic shift in our understanding of death. This has challenged our perceptions of death as being absolutely implacable and final,’ Parnia wrote in 2013.

 

"In June 2011, a thirty-year-old woman died in the forest following an overdose of medications. She had been dead for several hours before the ambulance arrived, so her body temperature had dropped to 68 degrees F. The ambulance team could not revive her. The emergency doctors went through many procedures to try to revive the woman, and after six hours of treatment, her heart restarted. ‘Although she had remained physically dead for at least five to ten hours overnight while undergoing lifesaving treatment, and then for a further six hours while undergoing lifesaving treatment in the hospital, the woman was able to recover and eventually walk out of the hospital without organ and brain damage three weeks later  . . . the woman had, in fact, died,’ Parnia reports.

 

“Two-year-old Gardell Martin fell into an icy Pennsylvania stream in March 2015. By the time the emergency rescuers arrived, he had been dead for at least thirty-five minutes with no heartbeat. He was taken to a hospital and then flown to a medical center, with no one able to revive him. Since he was so young and his body was cold, doctors continued trying to bring him back by continuous chest compression and the infusion of warm fluids into his veins and organs. This went on for an hour and a half. He was a ‘flaccid, cold corpse showing no signs of life,’ recalled Richard Lambert, a member of the critical care team. Then, a faint but steady heartbeat was detected. Gardell walked out of the hospital three and a half days later, after having been dead for 101 minutes.”

 

Leslie Kean, Surviving Death: A Journalist Investigates Evidence for an Afterlife (Three Rivers Press, 2017).

Near-death experiences have a unique EEG

Journalist Leslie Kean writes in Surviving Death: A Journalist Investigates Evidence for an Afterlife: “Could NDEs be incorrect memories, or fantasies that are simply imagined? Seven scientists from the University of Liège, Belgium, have studied the characteristics of NDE memories as compared with both real and imagined event memories. In 2013, they found that NDE memories have more characteristics than either, which alludes to NDEs appearing more ‘real,’ as experiencers so often report. ‘The present study showed that NDE memories contained more characteristics than real event memories and coma memories. Thus, this suggests that they cannot be considered as imagined event memories. On the contrary, their physiological origins could lead them to be really perceived although not lived in reality,’ the scientists report.

“A lengthy 2014 paper in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience by nine scientists from the University of Padova, Italy, reports on the use of electroencephalography (EEG) ‘to investigate the characteristics of NDE memories and their neural markers compared to memories of both real and imagined events.’ This team reached the same conclusion as the Belgian one. ‘It is notable that the EEG pattern of correlations for NDE memory recall differed from the pattern for memories of imagined events,’ they state. ‘Our findings suggest that at a phenomenological level, NDE memories cannot be considered equivalent to imagined memories and at a neural level, NDE memories are stored as episodic memories of events experienced in a peculiar state of consciousness.’ These memories were very similar to memories of real events in terms of their richness and strong emotional content.

 

“Something actually happens during an NDE that we have yet to understand. Experiencers have no doubt that they crossed over into a wondrous afterlife realm to which they will someday return, and that death is merely a doorway into another world.”

 

Leslie Kean, Surviving Death: A Journalist Investigates Evidence for an Afterlife (Three Rivers Press, 2017).

Passing over the bridge to the "other side"

Joyce Whiteley Hawkes writes: "Carl was only forty years old when he was diagnosed with cancer. He had sought medical assistance after the pain became unbearable. I was called by his wife to his bedside at a hospice center attached to a local hospital. My first meeting with Carl was upbeat and interspersed with visitors coming to cheer him. Carl’s bedside was a social event. He was not ready to die, although his tumors had massive metastases and his prognosis held no promise of recovery. Over weeks of short visits, usually interrupted by his many friends, family, and colleagues, the end approached. No longer besieged with visitors, only his wife came to the hospice unit to see Carl. He was sleeping more and more, and his breathing was intermittent and labored. When Carl’s breath repeatedly stopped, his wife hoped each time that it was his final rest and relief from intense suffering. Sadly, he would shudder back to life, appearing terrified.

 

"At this point, I was called. With both his wife and myself at his bedside, I synchronized my breath and awareness with his. I journeyed with him into the altered states of consciousness I had learned to navigate safely under Jero Mangku’s tutelage. I saw fearsome images looming before him and understood why he had jammed back into his body. In seeking what he saw, I could speak quietly to him, guiding him past the frightening illusions. I paused with him and encouraged him to move steadily toward the light beyond all the apparitions. The energy from this extraordinary light communicated Divine Love and welcome. We proceeded until he finally broke completely free from his body and soared toward the light. Tremendous peace pervaded the room. Carl’s wife acknowledged that he was gone, free, and blissfully at peace, and then we wept together, almost in joy.

"Choosing to die at home, Sarah had left the hospital with all of her treatment completed and only pain management to help her during her transition. Meeting her for the first time at her home, I was directed to her bedroom, a small space with a futon bed, a high window, and respectfully quiet roommates. As I sat beside her, silently meditating, she seemed to slip into a coma-like state. However, there was no sense of her life being at an end. No death energy lingered around her. I simply tracked her while staying fully grounded in present time and space. It seemed that my work was to provide an anchor for her return. After nearly an hour, she opened her eyes and excitedly told me about her vision. She had seen a glorious light. She described a beautiful place where she felt totally whole. Sarah virtually glowed with a perceptible light of her own as we spoke.

"When I returned a week later, she looked much better, and she was even able to walk a bit. We went ahead with another healing session. Similar to the first session, Sarah found that place of beauty and healing, returning with more amazing stories of light and peace and glowing with an even more strongly emerging radiance. Sarah said she felt markedly better. Eventually she recovered significantly, as her journeys to the other side seemed to fill her with healing energy. She eventually died eight months later, but she had used the extra time extremely well. She found a sustained sense of peace, viewed her life with new awareness and appreciation, and accepted loving care from her formerly estranged family. Although not a cure, our work together was profoundly healing.

"When assisting a person who may appear to be dying energy from the other side may actually be physically healing. Not fearing the journey beyond this material reality allows us to gather healing energy for physical life. We do not return easily, unless it is truly our time to make our transition. Each morning in my own meditations, I envision a bridge to the other side and ask to cross it in order to bask in the luminous energy and then return to my day’s work. Sometimes it looks like a mossy footbridge on a mountain trail. At other times it stretches across the sky with rainbow colors. My sense of connection and being ‘at home’ both in my body and the universe are enhanced with each meditative session. In working with others, I often feel as if I have one foot here and one foot on the other side. The clarity of insight and palpable touch of healing energy are strongest at those times. Over the years, the gap between this side and the other has shortened, and the bridge is not as vast as it once was.

"May your own practice of gratitude, clearing, focus, and Cell-Level Healing create your own bridge to connect Soul to Cell and back again, thereby extinguishing any fear of death. May your experiences be safe and blessed, and may they sustain you in all your endeavors."

Joyce Whiteley Hawkes, Cell-Level Healing: The Bridge from Soul to Cell (Atria Paperback, 2006).

Joyce Hawkes trained to help others face death

"Before my near-death experience, I thought there was no afterlife and, consequently, no continuation of consciousness. In my view, death was total, complete, and utterly final. Much to my surprise and joy, after my near-death experience the notion of continuation of consciousness became an unshakable realty. It was not an abstract idea of a passage in a book but an experience of the fabulous riches of total peace and belonging that eased my concerns about death. Actually, more than easing my concerns, my fear of death left and has not returned. Part of my work as a healer includes being called by families to the bedside of their dying loved ones. Odd as it may sound, helping someone find peace through prayer and meditation as they enter the afterlife is profoundly intense and strangely joyful. 

"Staying centered in the hope of a conscious, good death is a valuable endeavor for anyone, and conversations with a counselor, pastor, or family member can be quite helpful. The closer death comes, the more the universal experience of being welcomed to the other side increases. Materialism, status, and defended beliefs drop away. We enter the world naked, and we leave our body without credentials, bank accounts, or designer jeans.

"The process of leaving the physical body has been well described in writings such as Sherwin B. Nuland’s How We Die: reflections on Life’s Final Chapter and Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s On death and Dying. Many religions describe the soul leaving the body and hold different beliefs about intermediate states of being, journeys down tunnels, across rivers, on paths in the jungle, and out across an expanse of emptiness. My own experiences at the bedside are not gauged by a particular belief system but are offered here from personal observation.

"When a patient is in a coma, with all of their vital signs still functioning, and their soul departs, the feeling in the room changes. The person looks different in a manner difficult to describe. Usually the final signs of death—heart stopped and no respiration—occur within ten to thirty minutes after the mysterious departure of the soul. The person’s consciousness may remain near the body for some time, but frequently, and especially with preparation, the soul takes immediate flight to the safety of the beyond: Heaven, Heart of God, Universe, Creator, or luminous emptiness—however you may think of the afterlife.

"Two general principles have emerged from my work with people approaching and completing this transition between the physical and spiritual realms:

The fear of death reduces the fullness of life and holds part of us captive.

When we face and overcome our fear of death, we can live in a new dimension of ease, clarity, and vitality.

"Let me illustrate my understanding of the bridge that overcomes the fear of death, allows a new appreciation and fullness of life, and can support us in our own death or help us to compassionately assist others at their time of crossing over.

"One of the key elements of training for indigenous healers in remote (or not-so-remote, anymore) parts of the world is personally facing death. The intent is to conquer this ultimate fear and then be able to walk between the worlds of physical and purely spiritual realities. Most of these training events are overwhelmingly fearsome. In Bali, an aspiring healer may be taken by the teacher to a specific temple situation on an ocean side rocky outcrop of land that is accessible only during low tide. The initiate is left there to spend the night without shelter, food, or water. Alone in the open air, as the tide slips around the temple perched on rock, night settles in that unabated inky darkness. The waves crash all around the initiate and cobras emerge from their underground dens to investigate the intruder. The only way to survive this ordeal is to sit in the stillness of meditation with no fear. Perhaps you can imagine my gratitude that my tests, arduous enough for me, did not include this particular one.

"If the healer is alive and sane when the tidal waters recede, the initiation is considered complete and successful. Is there any doubt why shamans and indigenous healers are so respected in their communities? At work in their villages, these healers are expected to bridge between worlds in order to obtain information for the family from the spirit realm. Perhaps there is an herb, a source of healing water, a ritual, or advice on an emotional issue that could help bring peace to the troubled individual. On occasion, the healing unexpectedly reaches into the cells of the body and brings remarkable physical healing. My ten years of study, during six trips to Bali, provided me with an understanding of the value of carefully crossing the chasm between heaven and earth—and between meditative states of consciousness and ordinary perception. The wisdom of Jero Mangku Sri Kandi, my Balinese teacher and mentor, transcended cultural rituals and beliefs. She was a master healer with great skill in linking dimensions of consciousness. Over a decade of experiencing her rigorous tests, her implacable demeanor, and her profoundly loving spiritual connection, she taught me to safely and reliably embrace a greater reality beyond the material world.

"Although I was not required to endure an overnight with cobras, in one of our ceremonies on the east coast of Bali, Jero Mangku directed me to sit in a certain place at a remote temple. Then she walked ahead three or four feet and began chanting. To my shocked amazement I was sitting at the entrance to a heavily populated and busy red-ant hill. These fire ants, infamous for their nasty bite, were running about, all over the place. My attention, however, came back immediately to the sound of Jero Mangku’s chanting, and I entered a blissful state of mind. In twenty sweaty (a side effect of the weather, not the ants) but peaceful minutes the ants went about their own business. Not one bit me! Certainly one of her most memorable tests, Jero Mangku repeatedly placed me in situations that required the qualities of focus, fearlessness, and compassion.

"I have since learned to apply in my work as a healer the more than thirty conscious passages Jero safely facilitated for me. These practices provide information for my clients that can only be perceived during altered states of consciousness so deep that they almost approach a deathlike state. The knowledge I gained from working with Jero has helped me as a healer in my own culture, without the necessity of reproducing Balinese temples, clouds of incense, a gamelan orchestra, or a startling chant."

Joyce Whiteley Hawkes, Cell-Level Healing: The Bridge from Soul to Cell (Atria Paperback, 2006).

Soul and body resonate in the cell's energy system

Joyce Whiteley Hawkes writes: "Cells are the foundation of physical life. Groups of cells form tissues, and similar tissues join together and form organs, which are dependent on the health of the underlying cells.

"Individually, cells are small: ten thousand can fit on the head of a pin. Yet if your cells were spread out like a galaxy of stars, they would occupy a space in the heavens a thousand times larger than the Orion Galaxy. Within each cell there are trillions of molecules composed of trillions of atoms. Like the spaces between stars, which contain huge amounts of energy, the ultrasmall nano-spaces inside the atoms team with energy to constantly manifest new creation. In this microworld of the inner composition of your cells, energy and matter interface in ultrafast blips of time: nano- or pico-seconds. When an event occurs in these swift pulses of 10^-9 or 10^-12 seconds, the cells enter a type of quantum reality—no longer linear and no longer predictable. The cell is the interface between ordinary and nonordinary reality; possibilities exist here that we have barely begun to understand or develop.

"It is a good thing that we do not have to keep mental track of the operation of all these tiny parts. Yet we can influence them with our consciousness. Conventional research has established the detrimental effects of negative thinking, stress, and toxicity on the cells of the immune system and brain. Science has begun to offer evidence of positive thinking on the beneficial effects of spiritual practices such as meditation. Improvements in health and happiness can be achieved by embracing the healing power of positive Flow.

"Hundreds of years ago, the poet Rumi put words to the mystery of the interconnectedness of soul and body when he wrote, 'Soul, a moving river. Body, the riverbed.' Cell-Level Healing happens at this interface of soul and body.

"There are five components of cells that need to be understood in order to activate your intrinsic capacity for renewal and healing. The scientific names of those parts unwittingly hide the amazing functions they provide. Each one has a crucial and defined function.

"Most living cells share similar basic components and biological functions, although they may differ significantly in appearance. A single animal cell may be round, cubic, columnar, or long and stringy, depending on its location and particular job. Each cell has an outer membrane, to which receptor molecules attach. These sites grab free-floating messenger molecules, such as hormones, and help push them inside the cell in order to trigger specific cell activities. This is one of several ways in which cells stay in communication with the rest of the body and adapt their biochemistry accordingly.

"Inside the cell membrane an entire cosmos of complexity and beauty lives in the watery medium of the cell sap, the cytoplasm. More than 90 percent of the cytoplasm is water, and one can only speculate how our thoughts might affect this cell-water and thereby affect the critical life functions of the other subcellular component. Masaru Emoto’s provocative work certainly challenges us to consider the messages we give our own water milieu. Floating fibers in the cytoplasm create a loose inner skeleton for stability, yet they allow Flow throughout.

"The nucleus, enclosed in its own membrane, occupies a good portion of each cell. Molecular pores punctuate the nuclear membrane for the passage of rather large arrays of molecules, which translate the directives of the genetic code. DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), into cell production and function. DNA is the information center of the cell.

"Messages carried by molecules direct the assembly sites of the cell to make very specific substances needed by the body. These sites of assembly lie outside the nucleus in the cytoplasm. There, long sheets of folded membranes called the endoplasmic reticulum comprise the ‘action’ part of the cell. Massive numbers of ribosomes spin from the surface of the endoplasmic reticulum. On these sites, molecular information from the nucleus direct the action of plugging one atom into another, thereby forming molecules in precise sequences, which then become proteins. Each protein is unique. One will become a muscle fiber; another, an estrogen molecule, an enzyme for digestion, or a protein that will partially shape your nose.

"Cells may also export products into the bloodstream to be circulated to another part of the body for use. Neatly packaged in vesicles, these products are wrapped in their own membranes. They float to the cell surface and make their way out of the cell.

"How does a cell obtain energy for all this work? After food is digested and absorbed into the bloodstream, cells take in what they need for the power stations of the cell to spring to life. Tiny ellipsoid dynamos, hundreds of the power-station-like mitochondria inhabit each and every cell. Magnificent, linked complexes of enzyme chains called the Kreb’s cycle buzz in each mitochondrion, further breaking down glucose, one of the end products of food digestion (glycolysis) and releasing energy. As the bonds between carbon atoms in the backbone of glucose are unplugged, energy is released and then stored for future needs. This crucial energy does not run rampant, gleefully tripping through the cells, but rather it is instantaneously taken up by yet another type of enzyme (ATPase), which hangs on the inside of the mitochondrial double membrane like a bat on a cave wall. Safely sequestered, the stored energy is available to the cells for heat, structural repair, or synthesis.

"Curiously, the ATPase enzyme, which captures and releases energy, spins as it works. In fact, the universal spiral is resonant in every cell. The most impressive telescopes look outward and see spiral galaxies, and the most powerful electron microscopes look inside cells and see spiral structures smoothly running the business of life. The ribosomes perched on the endoplasmic reticulum arrange themselves in a spiral as they create all of the life-dependent proteins in the body.

"DNA is packaged in a double spiral, and now we know that the enzyme responsible for all energy maintenance in the body spins as it works in the mitochondria."

 

Joyce Whiteley Hawkes, Cell-Level Healing: The Bridge from Soul to Cell (Atria Paperback, 2006).

 

Hawkes clarifies energy Flow and Soul-Signature

Joyce Whiteley Hawkes explains that: “Ancient philosophies call the energy of life by many different names—among them Chi. The robust flow of Chi is associated with vibrant health, whereas a natural return to the absence of flow is correlated with ill health. A natural return to the unobstructed flow of Chi occurs when blockages are removed allowing the body, mind, and spirit to be open and clear.

 

“What is the nature of this flowing life energy? In my early work with clients, I could sense flow patterns—and, curiously, each person’s felt different. The patterns were unique, much like fingerprints or snowflakes. In fact, I was able to recognize an individual and recall the issues we had previously addressed simply by noticing the particular signature of their energy flow.

"How could Chi be so variable? I wondered whether there was an ‘energy signature’ that was a part of personal identity. Eventually, two principles emerged:

1.     Each person embodies a distinctive variation on universal energy: a natural and unique pattern exists for each individual consciousness. I call this quality their Soul-Signature.

2.     In a healthy individual there is an abundant flow of energy through the body. In this regard I will use the word Flow to convey the quantitative aspects of speed and direction of the Soul-Signature.

"Let’s look at what Flow means to the cells from the point of view of the following fundamental fact about biological life: all cells experience a constant in-and-out flow of the elements necessary for survival. This essential pattern includes growth, repair, replication, response to stimuli, acquiring nutrients, and expelling waste. Scientists call this biological flow homeostasis, which literally means ‘a relatively stable state of equilibrium.’ This profound state of balance prevents sudden changes that could kill these delicate units of life. Complex feedback loops keep the cells at the correct temperature, regulate size, and maintain a relatively consistent molecular organization Food and oxygen move into the cells, and waste is removed. Life ceases for a cell or group of cells without this Flow. If disease prevents large areas of Flow in a critical organ, the entire body dies.

"The topic of Flow places us on that delicate threshold between spiritual, emotional, and physical issues. Well-established Flow changes a person’s inner perception from empty to full, from waking in a state of dread to waking with contentment, anticipating the day ahead. Joy at simply being alive may prompt spontaneous outbursts of gratitude. When Flow reaches all of the levels from Soul to Cell, liveliness enhances simple daily routines. The body responds with improved health. Spiritual healing, therefore, works best in concert with the natural order of life.

"Ed called me for an appointment because he was intrigued by the ideas I expressed about energy healing during an interview on Art Bell’s Coast to Coat radio show. Ed had felt the chill of death when he nearly died during hospitalization for alcoholism. Fortunately, he recovered completely and no longer uses alcohol, but he was not faced with serious heart problems. Our first session seemed to have little effect. Intense concentration was required to clear enough of the stuck energy in Ed’s body to allow him to feel any Flow. Fortunately, we both saw enough progress, albeit it temporary, to continue. After a few sessions, Ed began to respond physically. His stamina increased and his fatigue receded. ‘I just feel better!’ was how he described it.

"We continued with individual sessions, and Ed also attended my classes to develop his own healing gifts. He enjoyed focusing healing energy on others and was quite effective in clearing blockages and increasing Flow in his fellow students. The results in his own body were significant; his health steadily improved. Ed’s purpose in life was now expanded, and he volunteered each weekend at a local spiritual bookstore doing energy healing.

"Our sessions continued on a monthly basis, with emphasis on supporting the Flow in his body. As his physical health continued to improve, he began to have extraordinary spiritual experiences. Sensations of floating, expansion, and great lightness came over him. He experienced joy and awe. Each session opened him to new levels, which were reflected in a profound evolution in his view of himself.

"Our goal was to find a specific quality of energy and a Flow pattern that would stabilize Ed so that he would not become re-blocked after our sessions when confronted with the stresses of work and the ordinary trials of traffic, groceries, and his checkbook.

"As I listened to him, I began to experience the unique energy that resonated within the very core of his being. Many experiences in my own journey had taught me to tune in to the particular energy imprint of the client. Ed had his own angels, his own guides, and his own healer’s heart, but they were buried under years of creating himself as an astute manager and business person and an alcoholic. While working with Ed, I discovered something I have come to think of as each person’s specific Soul-Signature.

"Ed’s way of seeing himself as an administrator did not support health in his body or peace in his soul. Ed felt wonderful when we uncovered his core energy. The next step was to stabilize the energy and then to teach him how to access his own Soul-Signature. Once again, I was reminded that energy work is most effective when it respects and harmonizes with the specific energy of the individual."

Joyce Whiteley Hawkes, Cell-Level Healing: The Bridge from Soul to Cell (Atria Paperback, 2006).