Near death experience
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A near-death experience (NDE), refers to a broad range of personal experiences associated with impending death, encompassing multiple possible sensations including detachment from the body; feelings of levitation; extreme fear; total serenity, security, or warmth; the experience of absolute dissolution; and the presence of a light, which some people interpret as a deity.
These phenomena are usually reported after an individual has been pronounced clinically dead or otherwise very close to death, hence the term near-death experience. Many NDE reports, however, originate from events that are not life-threatening. With recent developments in cardiac resuscitation techniques, the number of reported NDEs has increased. Many in the scientific community regard such experiences as hallucinatory, while paranormal specialists and some mainstream scientists claim them to be evidence of an afterlife.
Popular interest in near-death experiences was initially sparked by Raymond Moody‘s 1975 book Life After Life[9] and the founding of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) in 1981. According to a Gallup poll, approximately eight million Americans claim to have had a near-death experience. Some commentators, such as Simpson claim that the number of near-death experiencers may be underestimated, mainly because some such individuals are presumably afraid or otherwise reluctant to talk about their experiences.
Characteristics
Gustave Doré‘s depiction of the highest heaven as described by Dante Alighieri in the Paradiso Researchers have identified the common elements that define near-death experiences. Bruce Greyson argues that the general features of the experience include impressions of being outside one’s physical body, visions of deceased relatives and religious figures, and transcendence of ego and spatiotemporal boundaries. The experience may also follow a distinct progression, as illustrated below.
The traits of a classical NDE are as follows:
- Receiving a message in words or sentences in the person’s mother tongue.
- The notice of a very unpleasant sound or noise.
- A sense/awareness of being dead.
- A sense of peace, well-being and painlessness. Positive emotions. A feeling of being removed from the world.
- An out of body experience. A perception of one’s body from an outside position. Sometimes observing doctors and nurses performing medical resuscitation efforts.
- A “tunnel experience”. A sense of moving up, or through, a passageway or staircase.
- Being given a Life Review
- A rapid movement toward and/or sudden immersion in a powerful light. Communication with the light.
- An intense feeling of unconditional love.
- Encountering “Beings of Light”, “Beings dressed in white”, or other spiritual beings. Also, the possibility of being reunited with deceased loved ones.
- Being presented with knowledge about one’s life and the nature of the universe
- A decision by oneself or others to return to one’s body, often accompanied by a reluctance to return.
- Approaching a border.
- There also seems to be a link between the cultural and spiritual beliefs where you live. These seem to dictate what is experienced in the NDE (Miner-Holder,