ispectrum magazine 11
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Insights into near and after-death experiences. First-hand accounts from medical and scientific experts.TRANSCRIPT
ISPECTRUM MAGAZINE
Issue 11/January - February 2015
insights into near and after-death experiences
first-hand accounts from medical and scientific experts
Near Death Experiences
special issue
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Features
03Neurological explaNatioNs For NDe´s07 are nde’s imagined events or hallucinations?11 the five phase theory of near death experiences
15to HeaVeN aND BacK:interVieW With marY c. neal19 how is “heaven”?21 “to heaven and Back”23 can science prove the afterlife?
27is tHere psycHological explaNatioN For NDe29 psychological theories and evi-dences for the nde
37iNterVieW WitH Dr. eBeN alexaNDer:the sKeptic neurosurgeon Who Went to heaVen and came BacK40 ndes in the laboratory42 “proof of heaven”
45scieNtiFic eViDeNce ForliFe aFter DeatH52 research into nde57 past-life regression therapy58 evidence of reincarnation
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CONTENTS
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Mado MartinezEditorial Director
Editorial DirectorMado Martinez, [email protected]
Art DirectorRayna [email protected] Contributing EditorsMatt [email protected]
Jennifer James
Ravinder Dhindsa
Contributing WritersEllie Pownall
Rob Hutchinson
Elaine Vieira
ImagesCover : ©Pikuwww.commons.wikimeadia.org ,www.morguefile.com ,www.freeimages.com
editorial
Ispectrum magazine
Dear Readers This month we have a special issue, and it is special because it is monographic. We have compiled all the articles pub-lished in previous numbers about near-death experiences and we have added new ones, as we have noticed that this topic is one of the most debated.
Is there a life beyond death? How can we define a near-death experience? As an hallucination? As proof of an after-life? In this number you will find inter-views with two doctors who survived near-death experiences; Eben Alexander, Neurosurgeon, and Mary C. Neal, ortho-pedic surgeon, authors of bestselling books Proof of Heaven and Heaven and Back.
You will also find in this special dossier, different approaches to the phenomenon. Through the variety of points of view we may gain a better insight into the matter.
Enjoy the reading, share your thoughts and comments with us, and follow us in Google Plus, Facebook and Twitter. www.ispectrummagazine.com
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Published Bimonthly ISSN 2053-1869
by
ELLIE PoWNALL
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ave you ever had a moment close to death? Perhaps your heart stopped beating or you were momentarily paused in
between living and dying? Medical staff talk of bringing people back from the dead, restarting hearts. Clinically dead patients recollect strange phe-
nomena that cannot be explained, sights, sounds and tastes that have no rationality. Socially we describe these as Near Death experiences (NDE’S), and it is one of life’s great questions that remains unanswered “What is the source of these occur-rences?”
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Neurological explaNatioNs for NDe´s
Some scientists argue we suf-fer a near death experience due to our brain malfunctioning, and the neurological explanation of our ‘near miss’ causing our minds to be tricked into a fractional moment, in which we believe we are dead. These events are usually brought to the attention after an individual has been pronounced clinically dead or has been very close to death. With recent developments in cardiac resuscitation techniques, the num-ber of reported NDEs has rapidly
increased. Indeed, the accounts of near-death and out-of-body experi-ences can be found in the recount-ed stories and written literature of about 95 percent of the world’s cultures (Shelis 1978). The media has become increasingly interested with near death experiences after Raymond Moody’s 1975 published the book, ‘life after life’1 and the international association for near-death studies in 1981 was founded.
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The dramatic recol-lections of a variety of patients has fascinated the public, and fuelled a variety of profes-sional debates. These
experiences have been reported in the press for example “Then, sud-denly, the pain lifted and I was fading, float-ing above my body.” “Though I could still hear the voices of the nurses, everything was quiet, gentle and a beautiful pinky white colour” and “it was a dream-like scene where I found myself float-ing high above Earth, looking down from outer space”. There is a desire for people to understand what hap-
pens when the physical body dies and this fun-damental question of life underpins religious beliefs, personal views and scientific doctrine. Hollywood has, through film and television, used the question of the afterlife and near death experiences to entertain the public, to encourage debate, self-reflection and enable the screen writer the opportunity to voice both their personal and societal opinion.
Dr Melvin Morse describes in his video ‘Near death experiences and what they mean to our spirituality impov-erished society’2 a near death experience is “by no means due to lack of oxygen to the brain” and “not what we com-monly call hallucina-tions”. He also outlines the idea that the pres-ence of light is essential in a near death expe-rience, arguably the cause of patients recall-ing “I saw a bright white light”3 .Morse suggests
Photo credit: www.aboutmodafinil.com
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that you do not have to have a hypoxic (oxygen starved) brain and be close to death to have an NDE for example, “you could be jogging or meditating”. Many scientists disagree with him, for example Janice Holden who quotes in ‘The Handbook Of Near Death Experiences’, “many NDEs occur under conditions in which brain function is severely compromised4 ” suggesting a near-death state occurs only when brain function is damaged, this oppos-es Dr Morse’s idea of no brain damage being needed to have a near death experience. Many scientists agree that near death experiences are a product of neu-rological stress to the brain and the derange-ment of electrical sig-nals in the brain imme-diately following cardi-ac arrest, however just
how far are near death experience’s simply a neurological outcome?
In 2009, Janice Holden reported that when examining 93 veridical perception cases in the NDE literature, 92% were completely accu-rate in recounting the reality of events, 6% were with some errors and only one case was completely errone-ous. Yet the question still remains if NDE’S are imagined events or hallucinations? Sam Parnia’s research into hospitals in t he
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Are NDE’S imagined events or hallucinations?
UK concluded that “only 9 per cent had experi-ences compatible with NDEs and 2 per cent exhibited full awareness compatible with Out of Body Experience’s (OBE’s) with explicit recall of ‘seeing’ and ‘hearing’ events?”5 But do we believe these see-ing and hearing events are hallucinogenic rath-er than imagined?Janice Holden answers these remaining ques-tions by confirming, “First, these phenom-ena are rare and elu-sive. For example, for my chapter in The Handbook, I combed the professional litera-ture through 2006 and could find only a little over 100 cases. Second, I have conducted two of the six studies, and one of the many challenges is to find a target of a nature and in a location that the NDEr would (a) be able to perceive, (b) would notice, and (c)
would remember, and also have evidence that the NDEr perceived it while they were well past cardiac arrest but not yet resuscitat-ed. Until recently, we believed that our best hope was in a multi-hospital study, but Sam Parnia’s study has so far not yielded a clear case. As to whether these failed attempts mean that veridical perception does not exist: It might. On the other hand, as illustrat-ed in my chapter in The Handbook, sever-al independently veri-fied anecdotal accounts exist, which suggests that the phenomenon may simply be rare and elusive. A very rare phenomenon that has not yet been observed under controlled condi-tions may be assumed not to exist--or may be assumed to exist but be very difficult to capture. For now, the question
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must simply remain unanswered. In the meantime, I believe that the weight of existing evidence sup-ports the hypothesis that veridi-cal perception exists but is dif-ficult to capture under controlled conditions.” This conclusion sug-gests that it is unclear whether Near Death Experiences are mere-ly imagined, and it is difficult to define the boundary between hal-lucination and reality. Jan Holden suggests that the conditions are so rare in which we can see these phe-nomenon’s that knowledge on the subject is limited. However, there is reason to argue that in Near Death Experiences the hallucinations’ or imagined events are not veridical perceptions, and are merely a fig-
ment of our imagination. “This sug-gests a more spiritual explanation to the NDE’s.”.
There is also wide debate as to whether near death experiences give evidence towards an afterlife, Jan Holden tells us more on this subject “Regarding the question of an afterlife, even if NDEs are tran-scendent phenomena, from a pure-ly scientific perspective, they alone cannot provide definitive proof of, or information about the nature of, an afterlife. The reason is that every NDE has not stayed dead and has not, therefore, fully entered the afterlife. The nature of a hypoth-
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esized afterlife experience might change drastically once one is phys-ically irreversibly dead. Research with irreversibly dead people is challenging--though perhaps the most promising is research using mediums, such as that being con-ducted at the Wind bridge Institute.“ Other opinions on the afterlife can vary, some people believe an after-life is merely a myth such as Dr Kevin Williams who explains the after-life as a ‘void’ that is visited brief-ly in Near Death Experiences. He suggests that “the general consensus among near-death reports is that the void is totally devoid of love, light, and everything. It is a realm of complete and profound dark-ness where nothing exists but the thought patterns of those in it. It is a perfect place for souls to examine their own mind, contem-plate their recent Earth experience, and decide where they want to go next.”6 This idea of ‘the void’ and
a middle ground to ‘examine one’s own mind’ touches on the idea of spiritual explanations for near death experiences, proceed fur-ther into religious ideas of ‘heaven’ and ‘hell’ and deciding ‘where they want to go next’. Janice Holden
also suggests that “The limits of NDEs to inform about an afterlife being acknowledged, I concur with cardiologist and NDE researcher Pim van Lommel who has asserted that a “convergence of evidence” from research on several phenom-ena point to the existence, if not the specific nature, of an afterlife. These phenomena include NDEs; nearing-death phenomena such
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The five phase the-ory of Near Death Experiences presented by Maureen Venselaar also suggests a neu-rological occurrence in a near death expe r i ence is the most d o m i n a n t over other spiritual or religious hap-penings. The theory sug-gests the five stages to be; “Separation from the p h y s i c a l body, a jour-ney through a tunnel to a heavenly light, being in the presence
of light [near a border], the return through a tunnel to the physi-cal body and unifica-tion with the physical body”7 This suggests
as terminal lucidity and deathbed visions; after-death communi-cation; and medium-ship”. This suggests a blurred haze over the true extent of the exis-tence of the afterlife. Whether it be ‘’the void’ suggested by Dr Kevin Williams or the theo-ry in recent news that Professor Robert Lanza ‘claims the theory of biocentrism [the theo-ry of everything or life centre] teaches that death as we know it is an illusion created by our consciousness’. We must attach the exis-tence of the afterlife with Near Death expe-riences as we pause to question where exactly our minds visit, if it is not simply a hallucina-tion as previously dis-cussed.
THE FIVE PHASE THEORY OF NEAR DEATH ExPERIENCES
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the mind comes away from the body which would explain the term “don’t head towards the light” used in many media productions. This theory eliminates the idea that Near Death Experiences are merely imagined events, and the physicality of this theory suggest there is no other way for the
mind to exit the body whilst being declared physically dead.
The idea of the neu-rological explana-tion for Near Death Experiences and the five phrase theory was further explored by Jan Holden as she answers
the question of ‘how far do you person-ally believe near death experiences are merely neurologi-cal and follow the five phase theory rather than due to religious, super natural or stress reasons?’ to which she replied “Although I try to maintain a dis-tinction between my personal beliefs and my scientific beliefs, my personal beliefs are influenced by my scientific ones, so here are my scientif-ic conclusions. First,
regarding explanato-ry theories of NDEs, I concur with Greyson, Kelly, & Kelly’s conclu-sion in their Handbook chapter that, so far, no physiological model accounts for all fea-tures of NDEs. For now, that leaves only the transcendental model as accounting for all features. For me, most notable among those features is veridical per-ception during NDEs--the subject of my sole-authored chapter in The Handbook 8 . Although occasion-al cases of veridical perception might be explained alternative-ly through physiologi-cal processes, not all can be, which, again, leaves the transcen-dental model. So, regarding my per-sonal beliefs, I have come to believe that NDEs represent tran-scendental phenom-
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ena: functioning of the mind/conscious-ness/spirit apart from the physical body.” This gives evidence for the transcendental model of Near Death Experiences and also a biological explanation, similar to examples of near death experiences in the media. Scientist Sam Parnia undertook a study which found that forty percent of cardiac arrest patients described themselves as having some kind of ‘awareness’ at the time they were pronounced clinically dead 9. This gives further evidence of brain activity dur-ing near death experi-ences and suggesting a coexisting relation-ship between the neu-rological cause and the spiritual happenings in these Near Death Experiences.
40% percent of cardiac arrest patients described themselves
as having some kind of ‘awareness’ at the time they were pronounced
clinically dead
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Experiences. Whether it be a visit to the spiri-tual void or a rare and exclusive phenomenon, Near Death Experiences hold an important spot-light in social media. Overall the neurologi-cal explanations for NDE’s do cover all of the ideas presented by
different theories and individuals, with fur-ther research it may become easier to pin point the exact aeti-ology of occurrences. However, is it bet-ter that some things remain unknown…….
In conclusion, Near Death Experiences are explained in many dif-ferent ways, doctors and psychologists such as Janice Holden, Dr Kevin Williams and Dr Melvin Morse all hold different opinions of the events that take place in Near Death
REFERENcES:
1 Raymond Moody book and information www.raymondmoody.org
2 Dr Melvin Moore Video http://youtu.be/PWT7N0uj_7U
3 Near Death Experiences Stories Toldhttp://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104397005
4 The Handbook for Near Death Experiences- Edited by Janice Holden, EdD, Bruce Greyson, MD, and Debbie James, MSN.
5 Study into consciousness- Sam Parnia http://www.horizonresearch.org/main_page.php?cat_id=38
6 Kevin Williams- The Void and Near Death
Experiences http://www.near-death.com/experiences/research15.html
7 Five Phrase Theory http://www.noetic.org/noetic/issue-twenty-three-june/physics-of-near-death-experienc-es/
8 The Handbook for Near Death Experiences- Edited by Janice Holden, EdD, Bruce Greyson, MD, and Debbie James, MSN.
9 Sam Parnia Article http://www.independent.co.uk/news/sci-ence/life-after-death-largestever-study-provides-evidence-that-out-of-body-and-neardeath-experiences-may-actually-be-real-9780195.html
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TO HEAVEN AND BACK:
INTERVIEW WITH MARY C. NEAL
o Heaven and Back” is a book that Dr. Mary C. Neal had written about her spiri-tual journey and the near-
death experience she had in 1999, while kayaking in the Los Rios region of southern Chile. She wrote it because more than anything she wants people to know that God’s unconditional love for each of us is intense, complete, and is reflected in all of Heaven. According to Dr. Neal, before we return to Heaven, our real home, we have an incred-ible opportunity on Earth to face challenges that will help us learn, grow and to become more Christ-like in the fruits of our spirit. Our time is so short that we need to be about God’s business every day.
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MADo MARTINEZ
WEbSITE
WWW.MADoMARTINEZ.CoM
Who is Dr. Mary C. Neal
Dr. Mary Neal is a board-cer-tified orthopaedic spine sur-geon who drowned while kay-aking on a South American river. She experienced life after death. She went to heaven and back, conversed with Jesus and experienced God’s encompassing love. She was returned to Earth with some specific instruc-tions for work she still need-ed to do. Her life has been one filled with the miracles and interventions from God. Her story gives reason to live by faith and is a story of hope.
Dr. Neal was born and raised in Michigan and graduat-ed from the University of Kentucky before attending the UCLA Medical School. She completed her ortho-paedic surgery training at
the University of Southern California after which she lived in Sweden, Switzerland, and Los Angeles while under-going one a half years of specialty training in spinal surgery before becoming the director of spine surgery at USC. Five years later, she left the University for Private Practice.
She currently lives and works in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where she and her family enjoy everything the outdoor world offers, especially all forms of skiing, bicycling, boating, and hiking.
Dr. Mary c. Neal
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M.M. You had a NDe and you assure that you were a in place that you clearly identify with Heaven, with a god and angels. is afterlife a christian Heaven? M.N:Near death experiences occur in all cultures, all faiths, and even in atheists. In fact, 50% of atheists encounter Jesus in their NDE. Mine was a Christian experience, but I will never pretend to know what someone else’s dying experience will be like. What I do know, how-ever, is that God loves each one of us intensely and eternally, regard-less of who we are, or the circum-stances of our birth.
M.M. Before you had your NDe, did you believe in the afterlife or were you sceptic? M.N. Before my NDE, I would have said that I believed in God and I hoped that there was “something more” after death, but I was defi-nitely sceptical about reports of near-death experiences. I am a
very realistic sort of thinker and am always sceptical of people’s moti-vations and hidden agendas when they make claims such as these.
M.M. What does it feel like - dying? M.N. I had always thought drown-ing would be a terrible way to die, but for me, it was painless, with-out fear, and peaceful. I never had a sense of panic or air hunger. I never felt pain, even as my legs were breaking. I felt wonderful.
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M.M. How is “Heaven”? What did you see there?M.N. I do not have the language to adequately describe what heaven is like. It is as though I am trying to describe a 3-dimensional world, using 2-dimensional language. That said, it was filled with beauty and colour that was of an intensity far greater than anything we experi-ence on Earth. I could “see” all of the colours of the rainbow and more, all at the same time. It was as though I could see, feel, experi-ence, and understand the essence of the colours and aromas. The aroma of the flowers was equally
magnified and intense, and every-thing was exploding with a joyful, complete, pervasive, all-encom-passing love of God. I believe that God sends His most gentle mes-sengers to collect us at the time of our death and speaks to us in ways we will both understand and appreciate. For example, everyone who experiences a NDE describes great beauty, but the details of that beauty vary from person to person, just as they do on Earth. I respond to colour, flowers, aromas, etc., so that is the beauty that I describe in my NDE. Other people may respond more to music or animals, so that is
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what they describe. We all describe the palpable and all-encompassing love of God.
M.M. i have interviewed many people who had suffered a NDes and many of them assure that they came back to life with special powers or knowledge
(visions or information about the future). it happened to you too, right? M.N. I came back with knowledge of several things that were going to happen, such as the future death of my oldest son, and with expecta-tions as to how I would respond to these events.
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M.M. Your book is a personal story full of love. Why did you decide to share such a personal thing? M.N. Indeed, this book is very per-sonal and not something I would have chosen to do under normal circumstances. My husband and I have always been very private people, I knew nothing about writ-ing, and I have never felt comfort-able speaking in public. When I was sent back to Earth, however, I was given a mandate to share my experiences with other people and, in giving of myself in this way, help others transform their hope or faith, in the promises of God, to an absolute trust in their truth. The writing of my book “To Heaven and Back” was in obedience to what God expected of me. It continues to be a very personal story and it is often painful to share, but it is simultaneously a great privilege for me to help other people make this transformation.
M.M. You and Dr. eben alexander have in common NDes that has made you to be sure that there is an afterlife. M.N. Our experiences were similar, yet different in the details. We are both people of science and would never have expected that this sort
Dr. Eben Alexander
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of experience would happen to us and both experiences speak to the reality of life after death. I think that readers will find “To Heaven and Back” is not just a story about someone else’s experiences, but that it contains many stories with which the reader can identify. “To Heaven and Back” shows readers how they can also experience the transformative nature of NDEs into each person’s life and inspires oth-ers to embrace this transformation in their own life.
M.M. as a doctor and surgeon, do you have any scientific the-ory about NDes?
M.N. I spent many months review-ing the details of my accident, reviewing my medical records, lis-tening to those who were at the scene and in the emergency room, and researching the dying process. I thoughtfully considered whether my experience could have just been a dream or hallucination, a result of anoxia, or the chemical effect of a dying brain in which there is a sudden and large release of neu-rotransmitters. I read the literature on NDEs. After all the data was col-lected and analysed, I came to the conclusion that my experience was beyond the boundaries of medicine and of science.
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M.M. are you looking forward to your future death?M.N. I have no fear of death and look forward to the day when my time is over. I would not accelerate my death as I know that I have, just as every person has, more work to do here on Earth. One of the over-whelming feelings I had while I was in heaven, however, was the sense that I was “home” and I definitely look forward to the day when my work is done and I am able to go home again.
M.M NDes it’s a very controver-sial topic. Most of the doctors simply deny them. Do you think it will arrive one day that sci-ence can prove the afterlife or is it impossible, proving spiri-tual things with material tools? What’s your opinion?M.N. I believe spiritual things are outside the boundaries of science and medicine. I think our observa-tions on death and on NDEs will continue to become more detailed, but absolute proof will continue to
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be lacking. There is power in choos-ing to believe something without seeing it. As for evidence, however, I believe there is plenty. Judicial systems determine the guilt or innocence of a criminal based on one or two accounts of witnesses. There are hundreds of thousands of accounts of NDEs. How many is enough? I don’t think physicians are different from other people in the sense that they are threatened by the concept of life after death and it is much easier to casually discount and discard accounts of NDE. I think this reflects an intel-lectual arrogance (that if we are smart enough and skilled enough we can understand and control everything), a laziness (it takes time and effort to collect data), and mostly a fear (if there really is a God and there really is life after death, then we each become accountable for our choices, our behaviour, our treatment of others, and how we spend each moment of time). Humans try to control what we do not understand.
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M.M. Would you say that you are a differ-ent person since your NDe episode? in what sense? I would like to think I was a “good” person before my NDE, so I hope I have not outwardly changed dramatically, but I have certainly experienced a profound internal change. The reality of God, of life after death, and of the truth of all of God’s promises changes the way I experience every moment of every day. I live in a state of gratitude and prayer – that is, constantly giv-ing thanks and listening for where God is lead-ing me. I always try to say “yes” to where I think I am being led rather than findings the many reasons and ways
to say “no”. I accept not always knowing the answer to the questions of “Why…?” trusting that God has a plan for each person that is one of hope and that beauty comes from all things. I try to always reflect God’s love and to see God’s beauty in other people. I am still a very
organized person and plan for the future, but I hold on to my plans loosely, knowing that God may have different plans for my life.
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by
Rob HUTCHINSoN
WEbSITE
WWW.ISPECTRUMMAGAZINE.CoM
is There a psycholoGical explanaTion for The near DeaTh experience?
n the last issue of Ispectrum magazine we had a fas-
cinating interview with Dr Eben Alexander, a distinguished neuro-surgeon and sceptic of the near death experience (NDE). He never foresaw that, despite writing a paper discrediting people’s experi-ence of NDEs, he would one day become a believer. After bacteria attacked his brain and put him in a coma for seven days he had his own NDE in a heavenly realm, and he awoke from that coma a changed man, a believer.
I I have always had an interest in NDEs and despite never experi-encing one myself I am a strong believer in them. However, as a psychologist I couldn’t help but delve into the past research and see if there was anything verging on a purely psychological explana-tion for the NDE. Many scientists point to neurobiological evidence, such as a lack of oxygen in the brain as the reason for NDEs, and other corroborating evidence also points to neurobiological factors. In fact, oxygen starvation causing
Photo credit: bp girl (devianart.com)
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hallucinations is the most popular explanation for the NDE and does have various merits. Although neu-roscience and psychology overlap I am more interested in focusing purely on the psychological aspect as so far this has been largely ignored in favour of neuroscience. It is possible that the NDE fulfils a psychological need, or could even be a psychological defence mecha-nism. In terms of the reports of the NDE itself it is likely that the recol-
lections are subject to psychologi-cal interpretation, so an exploration of psychological mechanisms could shed light on the NDE reports and lead to a better understanding of the NDE itself. Could a psychologi-cal model explain the NDE? And if there is no psychological evidence, where would a psychological theory for the NDE start and what would it need to prove?
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PSYCHOlOGICAl THEORIESAND EvIDENCES
One of the earliest psychological theo-ries for the NDE was put forward by Grof and Halifax in 1977. They were looking for a psychological expla-nation as to why NDE reports are so univer-sal. Their birth - mem-ory - activation model postulated that a close shave with death trig-gered repressed mem-ories of the process of birth. After all, every-one is born in gener-ally the same way, so
that would explain why there is such consisten-cy in NDE reports. The peace and transcen-dent feelings alongside the advancing through a tunnel is in fact a subjective recountance of being born and trav-elling through the birth canal, with the peace and light at the end representing the feeling of being born into the world. However, there are obviously major issues with this, not least that being born
is a pain-ful experi-ence for the baby. Also, the infant does not have the capacity to remember this experi-ence so it
is highly unlikely that it can remain buried and be activated by the moment of death. No empirical evidence supports this theory, and scientific evidence strongly indicates that infants simply do not have the mental pro-
Photo : ©Piku
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fulfil a psychologi-cal need. However unlikely this may seem, it could be possible to explain the NDE in this way. The theory of crisis intervention sup-poses that patho-logical states can lead to an oppor-tunity for positive growth. This oppor-tunity for growth in crisis involves the person entering a state of disequilib-rium due to great periods of stress. In this period the ego is overwhelmed and the person becomes more susceptible to positive and correc-
tive influences. It is possible that the per-son has a regression to a very primitive level and this return to basic functioning leads them to view their experi-ences (real or imag-ined) in a sense of childlike awe and bliss. In essence, they are
regressing to a prever-bal stage of develop-ment where they had an imbedded trust in the ‘realness’ of their experiences and feel-ings of bliss associated with a time when, as a child, all their needs were readily met. This could explain why peo-ple report feeling so at ease and in awe of their experiences with-in the NDE. But could this regression indicate that the NDE served a psychological need? Greyson (1981) tried to explain why posi-tive personality trans-formations sometimes occurred in those who had attempted sui-cide and experienced an NDE. He concluded that it was possible the NDE reduced the per-son’s suicidal intentions in the future by using psychological mecha-nisms. Some of these psychological mecha-nisms he used for these explanations included
cesses necessary to remember their expe-riences of birth.
Many psychologi-cal theories have shown that our reac-tions, experiences and desires are working to
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that the NDE represents the death of the ego, providing a substitute for the death of the person, and the life review helps to resolve old conflicts and move on with life.
Could facing death cause a regres-sion in the mind of the individual to a developmental stage of life, thereby allowing psychological mechanisms to kick in , manifesting as the NDE? There is no hard evidence for this and this idea relies a lot on factors that cannot be tested easily. Also, does this happen just to survivors or to everyone at death? If this regres-sion occurred in everyone it would be pointless as the huge majority of people who are dying do in fact
die, so the psychological mechanism would serve no purpose. And, if it occurred just to those who went on to live, how could these mechanisms possi-bly know if the person was going to live or die? On the positive side, it would explain the consistency of the NDE reports, as well as it’s paranormal aspects and why it can have ben-eficial effects on the indi-vidual.
The most promising psychological theories all seem to focus on why people have such a universal expe-rience. There are some academics, such as Grosso, who have pointed to the similarities between the universal experience of those who experience the NDE with that of patients who suffer Delirium Tremens. This disease is caused by withdrawal from alcohol or sedative - hypnotic drugs, such as barbiturates. The symptoms of Delirium tremens include, amongst others, palpitations, convulsions and auditory and visual hallucinations. These hallucinations involve distor-tions of the environment and tactile sensations such as animals crawling
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on the skin. The interesting part in relation to the NDE is that there is a common ele-ment reported in these hal-lucinations, be it walls mor-phing or visions of rats for example, and that this ele-ment is reported across cul-tures, age groups and personalities. It seems that the common hallucina-tory experience is universal in the same way as the NDE. we know Delirium Tremens is caused by withdrawal from a drink or drug that is usually preva-lent in the body sys-tem, and it is charac-terized by high blood pressure and pulse, increased
breathing rate and sometimes sei-zures. All these physiological chang-
es are rapidly affecting the system, just like the body
may go through sharp changes just before, or during, a person’s NDE. In the case of Delirium Tremens these changes cause hallucinations
that are similar in most sufferers, so why
does it seem so strange to suggest that the simi-
lar experiences reported in the NDE could be caused by the physiological changes that they are experiencing? Many people assume that the NDE is such a special experience because of the common elements reported, but Delirium Tremens shows that it is not unique for people who suffer drastic changes in the physiological components of the body to experi-ence common elements in visions or hallucinations.
The most promising psychologi-cal theories all seem to focus on
why people have such a universal experience.
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So far the evidence for a psychological expla-nation for the NDE is looking pretty thin on the ground. The theo-ries or ideas are there but nothing has been shown to be solid enough to be rigor-ously tested to provide hard evidence. A key factor in all psychologi-cal theories is having a workable model that can be tested, so what would a model for the NDE have to account for and how could it be put to the test? If we assume that the NDE does have some sort of psychological func-tion then a working model would be able to explain it.
A psychological model would have to account for three things in rela-tion to the NDE; the consistency of reports and the universality of those who report them,
the psychological rea-son behind it and the physiological process-es in the brain that occur during the pro-cess. At the moment it is extremely difficult
to construct any kind of model in relation to the NDE as the psy-chological theories are just not robust enough to form the basis of a model. looking back
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At this moment there seems not be a strong psychological explana-tion for the NDE. There are some loose theo-ries that are difficult to prove but could serve as a starting point for further analysis if a more in depth investi-gative method can be found. However, inter-esting points are raised in terms of explaining the consistency of NDE reports. As for pro-ducing a psychological model, the criteria it would have to explain are clear, but as yet no-one has been able to put forward anything substantial in terms of ticking all the boxes and providing valid results.
points but still remains elusive in terms of pro-viding anything that could lead to concrete results.
on Grof and Halifax’s birth - memory activa-tion model it is almost impossible to test, and in terms of a model based on the regression theory it has more valid
At this moment there seems not be a strong psychological explanation
for the NDE
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Physiological evidence on the other hand remains the most solid scientific explanation for the NDE. However, Dr Kenneth Ring, who has committed sub-stantial time and efforts into researching the NDE, feels that with the consistency of the NDE reports and the fact that these reports are across cultures, age groups and different backgrounds, cover-ing such a large spec-trum, that it is hard to explain by just using the processes of the brain. How can it be so consistent across peo-ple from all continents? After all, scientists are still struggling to explain the conscious-ness, itself a key part of the NDE. If scien-tists cannot unravel the intricacies of this piv-otal factor of the NDE, how can they hope to explain the NDE itself? This gives added impor-
tance to a psychologi-cal approach, which, if a testable theory could be developed, would at least focus more on the mind than the biology
of the brain and may lead investigations into a different, more pro-ductive, direction.
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MADo MARTINEZ
WEbSITE
F rom a skeptic to a believer. What makes an atheist neurosurgeon who didn’t believe in Near-Death Experiences (NDEs), change his mind to the point of affirming that Heaven is real?
For many years, Dr. Eben Alexander thought that everything finished when you die. Near-Death Experiences? What were they? Surely a result of a lack of oxygen in the brain but nothing else, and he was so sure about it that he even manifested it. But today Dr. Eben Alexander is a dif-
WWW.MADoMARTINEZ.CoM
ferent man. Now he truly thinks, he truly knows that there is life beyond death.
What happened? Well, it’s easy. Dr. Alexander almost died. His brain was attacked by a bacteria that kept him in a coma for seven days and turned off his synapses. While his physical body was in the bed of a hospital surrounded by his family, this neurosurgeon was in another place; a Heaven where he learnt important lessons…
Do you want to know which ones?
iNterVieW WitH Dr. eBeN alexaNDer
THE SKEPTIC NEUROSURGEON
WHO WENT TO HEAVEN AND
CAME BACK
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E.A. As a surgeon, I was used to believing in what I could see, feel, and measure. At the time, NDEs and conscious-ness independent of the brain seemed like wish-ful thinking to me, and I never really looked for
proof of what happens after death. But after my experience, when I started really looking for scientific papers—not necessarily papers that had made it into the news, but papers and research with rigorous
M.M. You are a famous neurosurgeon that in the past, didn’t believe in NDEs. You even wrote papers against any remote possibility of life after death. What was your theory in this period of your past?
science behind them—I found a wealth of infor-mation that revealed a firm grounding in sci-ence and belief in NDEs are not mutually exclu-sive.
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E.A. Consciousness might be defined as aware-ness of things outside oneself. So while phi-losophers have been debating more precise definitions for millen-nia, and the finer points are quite complicated, the core of the thing is easy; if you’re reading this, if you’re aware of this newspaper, you’re conscious.
The tougher question, and one that I have learned a lot about since my experience, is whether consciousness is essentially mechani-cal—that is, arising sole-ly from physical pro-cesses in the brain—or holistic, in that it tran-scends the brain. As a neurosurgeon, I was used to a one-to-one correlation between the
physical brain and how the mind appeared to work. For example, if I had a patient with a tumor that affected a part of the brain asso-ciated with language, he would have trou-ble communicating. But I’ve since learned that it’s a lot more compli-cated than that.
M.M. So today you defend NDEs as real experiences, more real than the reality in which we live. Can you affirm that consciousness exists?
M.M. Do you affirm it from the personal point of view or from a scientific point of view?
While the science has been emerging throughout the last few decades, I refused to seriously consider it until my own per-sonal experience. Since
then, I have learned a lot, and based on my experience, a wealth of anecdotal evidence, and emerging research in medicine and physics, I have come
to accept the hypoth-esis that consciousness exists beyond the phys-ical brain.
Е.A.
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M.M. Is it possible to experiment with NDEs in a laboratory?
M.M. Can Science explain everything, or does it need to open up to other disciplines of knowledge to explain the mysteries of life, physics and the universe?
Absolutely. However, as a doctor, I hold the Hippocratic oath—do no harm—in the highest regard. Doctors and sci-entists cannot in good conscience perform experiments that could harm their patients. Our lives are infinite-
ly precious, and while research in this area interests me, the health and well being of other people far outweighs anything we might learn using that method. I’m in contact with teams of researchers all over the world doing some very
exciting research in this area, and all of them have found creative ways to learn about consciousness—from neuroscience to theo-retical physics—without risking patients health in any way.
Е.A.
Е.A. Ultimately, science is the study of the observ-able universe. I think science can explain everything—if we can find ways to observe a broader range of the universe.
Just a few hundred years ago, illness seemed like a curse, and the
mentally ill were assumed to be pos-sessed. Now we have the right vocabulary and conceptual frame-work to talk about viruses and bacteria, and the right tools, like microscopes, to observe and measure them. But the differ-ences between “magic”
and theory and proven fact aren’t always clear
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M.M. When a person says that she/he has had an NDE, a scientist doesn’t believe her/him. When people like Louis Hay, Gregg Braden, etc, say that they have cured themselves from a cancer with positive thinking, what do you - a doctor - have to say?
As a doctor, I’ve seen people recover who every medical test indicated should have died. And I’ve seen people deteriorate who should have responded to treatment. We just don’t know everything about how the human body heals itself.
Some studies show that show people in a coma do better when they hear positive talk
at their bedside from doctors and loved ones—even people who “shouldn’t” be able to hear or process audio. Clearly, we still have a lot to learn about how the brain works, and how we interact with our environment when the brain is severely injured.
We know that modern treatment for cancer, including chemothera-
py and radiation ther-apy, works better than anything else. But it doesn’t work in every case, and there’s often no clear reason why it works for one person and doesn’t for another. I would never advise a patient to forgo chemo in favor of meditation or other mental efforts, but I don’t dismiss the power of positive think-ing.
Е.A.
until much later. And while we’ve learned a lot, we’re nowhere near 100%. Witch hunts continue even today in countries like Papua New Guinea, where a woman was burned alive in 2013. It would
be incredibly arrogant of us to assume that we have discovered every way to see the world and every tool to mea-sure it. Scientists are at their best when they are open to all possibilities, and arrive at a study
without assumptions or preconceptions. from neuroscience to theoretical physics—without risking patients health in any way.
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M.M. During your experience you met other beings, and you knew about other worlds, other universes, other existences. Do these experiences prove that “aliens” exist?
M.M. In “Proof of Heaven” we find the testimonial of a person that is a neu-rosurgeon; but it is not a scientific book. Are you only interested in ‘spread-ing the word’ or have you thought about conducting scientific research in order to publish papers and books for the scientific community?
I believe that there are more things in heav-en and earth than are dreamt of in most peo-ples’ philosophies. We know now that there
are other planets capa-ble of sustaining life. Statistically speaking, it seems likely that at least some of those that can, do. Humanity is a
miraculous thing, but I am not so egotistical or naive as to think we have a monopoly on consciousness.
I wanted Proof of Heaven to be acces-sible to people without a medical background. While there are lots of studies about near-death experiences, research jargon can be daunting for many peo-ple.
Right now, I’m focused on continuing to share my story and help-ing people understand
how what I learned can change their lives for the better. While I don’t feel a calling to do labo-ratory work with NDEs, I do continue to follow current research about consciousness and NDEs, and support the researchers doing that work. There is some really exciting research out there right now, and I feel very blessed to be here at a time when we
Е.A.
Е.A.
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A beautiful, incredible dream world… Except it wasn’t a dream. Though I didn’t know where I was or even what I was, I was absolutely sure of one thing: this place I’d suddenly found myself in was completely real.
[A girl] Without using
any words, she spoke to me. The message went through me like a wind, and I instantly understood that it was true. I knew so in the same way that I knew that the world around us was real […] The mes-sage had three parts, and if I had to trans-
are constantly learning new things about who we are, where we are, where we’re going, and what it all means.
WHO IS DR.EBEN ALExANDER?
eben alexanderis an American neu-rosurgeon and the author of the best-sell-ing Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife, in which he describes his 2008 near death experi-ence and asserts that Science will determine that Heaven really does exist. If you want to know more about him, check out http://www.ebenalex-ander.com/
PROOF OF HEAVEN: THE ExCERPTS
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late them into earthly language, I’d say they ran something like this: “You are loved and cherished, dearly, for-ever. You have nothing to fear. There is nothing you can do wrong”.
Through the Orb, Om told me that there is
not one universe but many –in fact, more than I could conceive- but that love lay at the center of them all. Evil was present in all the other universes as well, but only in the tini-est trace amounts. Evil was necessary because without it free will was
impossible, and with-out free will could be no growth –no forward movement, no chance for us to become what God longed for us to be.
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scieNtific eViDeNce for life after DeatH
MADo MARTINEZ AND ELAINE VIEIRA
WWW.MADoMARTINEZ.CoM
ince time immemorial, human beings have won-dered if there issomething beyond life.
Many cultures, religions and sys-tems of knowledge have been based on the belief that the dead are raised up into another world, going to paradise or reincarnating. But what if science could show evi-dence that there is life after death? In the last few decades, many scientists and medical researchers from universities and institutions around the world have been revo-lutionising the paradigm, provid-ing evidence that consciousness indeed survives physical death.
S
New scientific methods andtechnologies are being used to research the age-old question of whether life exists after death.Rigorous studies of mediumship,near-death experiences and past-life memo-ries suggest that consciousnessindeed survives
WEbSITE
by
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MEDIUMSHIP IN THE LABORATORY
Mediums claim that they can some-how feel the spirits of deceased people.According to spiritist terminology, these spirits are called “discarnate”.
The famous Brazilian medium Chico xavier, who died in 2002, wrote more than 400 books by 600 spiri-tual authors but never took credit for being the author of any of them. Heavily influenced by the works of 19th-century French spiritist Allan Kardec, xavier professed that his hand was guided by spirits who dic-tated to him.
An estimated 50 million copies of his books have been sold, and all the profits from these sales have been channelled into charity work. In 1981 and 1982, xavier was nomi-nated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Furthermore, he attended to, free of charge, around 60 people per day in his modest home in the city of Uberaba. Apart from books, xavier wrote letters from deceased people Allan Kardec
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whose family members were visiting him.In 1991, Chico xavier’s mediumship was investi-gated by Dr Paulo Rossi.His study confirmed that 93.3 per cent of the peo-ple who visited xavier hadnot known him before-hand. Information from the letters received through xavier contained so many details about the deceased and their families as tomake fraud impossible. Around 62.2 per cent of the messages showed morethan six relevant facts each, and 71.1 per cent had detailed informationabout the deceased people which was sub-sequently confirmed by their families. Dr Rossi concluded that the information revealed by Chico xavier actually came from the spirits of dead people and was not the result of any kind of fraud.
In 2004, Alexander
Moreira de Almeida gained his PhD degree from the University of São Paulo, Brazil, with his research focus on mediumship experi-ences. He studied 115 spiritist mediums with the aim of building theirsociodemographic pro-files and checking their mental health. His study was based solely on spiritist medi-ums who follow the doc-trine founded by Allan Kardec, because they
only use their medium-ship free of charge to help the spirits. It is important to men-tion that Moreira de Almeida and his teamchose these mediums because the spirit-ism founded by Allan Kardec is wellknown worldwide for its seriousness in study-ing the relationship between the spirit world and human nature.
chico Xavier
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The researchers con-cluded that the majority of the mediums devel-oped their mediumship during childhood and that they also showed a high socio-educational level. In addition, they found only a very low level of psychiatric dis-orders among the medi-ums. Thus, the medi-ums who have so often been labelled as “crazy” turn out to be people with few psychological problems and a high
level of education.
During 2001–2008, Professor Gary Schwartz and colleagues from the University of Arizona conducted detailed research into the authenticity of medi-umship.They investigated the well-known mediums George Anderson and John Edward, and other mediums such asSuzane Northrop, Laurie Campbell and
Anne Gehman.Their studies confirmed that all of the mediums were very precise, and their degree of suc-cess was very highcompared to probabil-ity. Factors suchas fraud, error and coincidence were con-sidered and eliminated. At The Windbridge Institute in Tucson, Arizona, USA,from 2008, Dr Julie Beischel has been con-
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ducting fascinating research with mediums to demonstrate that there is life after death. Basically, she uses three methods to study the phenomenon of medi-umship: proof-focused research, involving tests to verify whether the mediums are giving accurate infor-mation; process-focused research, which studies the experience of the mediums during their spiritual com-munications; and applied research, which examines how the information can benefit society in general.
The mediums studied by Dr Beischel have given accurate information about deceased people which was subsequently verified. DrBeischel’s results confirm the hypoth-esis that the spirit survives death. We emailed Dr Julie Beischel in
August 2011 to ask more about the scientific method which she applies in these investigations. She said that she uses strict controls to investigate the phenomenon of mediumshipthrough a scientific program that contains a great amount of data: “At The Windbridge Institute, we are primarily interested in mediumship, ITC [instrumental transcommunica-tion] and haunting-related occur-rences.
We use the scientific method and strict controls to investigate these phenomena, and the mediumship research program involves the larg-est amount of robustdata.
Through our unique quintuple-blind-ed readings with Windbridge certi-
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fied research mediums (WCRMs),we can demonstrate a phenom-enon called ‘anomalous informa-tion reception’ (AIR), which involves mediums reporting accurate and specific information about thedeceased loved ones (termed ‘dis-carnates’) of living people (termed ‘sitters’) without any prior knowledge about the discarnates or sitters, in the absence of anyfeedback and without using deceptive means.
Based on the inten-sive test-ing pro-c e d u r e we use to screenp r o -spe c t i ve W C R M s and the sub-sequent studies in which they participate, we can confidently state that certain medi-ums are capable of AIR.”
In addition, Dr Beischel said: “This
research paradigm is ideal in that the phenomenon is easily replicable and occurs on demand.
We do not need to try to catch spontaneous events or experiences as they occur; we can bring the mediumship phenomenon into the laboratory and study it under con-trolled conditions and on a schedule that is convenient for all of the par-ticipants.”
…the mediums have higher brain activity and increased blood flow in the region of the pineal gland compared to the control group.
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In her study of mediumship, Dr. Beischel is very strict and accurate, applying a quintuple-blind scientific method, i.e., involving five elements. Compare this with the double-blind study, a very well known scientific method that is used in experiments with the aim of avoiding bias in the results induced by two elements: the placebo effect and the researcher. It is called “double blind” because the subjects in the study do not know to which experimental group they belong.
In a tripleblind study, a third ele-ment is included with the aim ofavoiding even more bias. Forinstance, the third element could be a statistician who interprets the data without knowing the type of experiment that was performed, or a scientist who works on the pro-ject but does not know the experi-mental group.
Dr Beischel’s research demon-strates that the anomalous infor-mation reception phenomenon is indeed authentic.
THE PINEAL GLAND AND MEDIUMSHIP
Neuroscientist Dr. Sérgio Felipe de Oliveira from SãoPaulo University, Brazil, investigates the relationshipbetween the pineal gland and medi-umship. In performing his research, he uses techniques such as x-ray diffraction, computed tomography and magnet-ic resonance imaging. Comparing the “brain sand” (calcified struc-tures in the brain) of mediums and non mediums,he showed that medi-ums have a higher amount of brain sand in the pineal gland than do non mediums.In addition, he demonstrated that, during spirit communication, the mediums have higher brainactivity and increased blood flow in the region of the pineal gland com-pared to the control group. Dr. Felipe de Oliveira hypothesises that the pineal gland is the sensorial organ of mediumship. For instance, the gland would be like a mobile phone that captures the electro-magnetic waves coming from the spirit world.
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Once the waves reach the pineal gland, they bounce off the brain sand, sequestering the electro-magnetic field and transmitting the information to the cerebral cortex for the interpretation of the message.
In October 2010 in Valencia, Spain, I (Martínez) conducted an interview with Dr. Sérgio Felipe de Oliveira, who showed images from his magnetic resonance experi-ments and pointed out these dif-ferences in the level of brain sand in the pineal gland that are related to extrasensory abilities.
RESEARCH INTO NEAR-DEATH ExPERIENCE
At King’s College London there is a revolution going on in the world of thanatology, the scientific study of death. The researcher, Peter Fenwick, MD, is performing detailed experiments on the phenomenon that takes place betweenthe 24 and 48 hours before and after death and also at the moment of death. He concentrates on visions from people who were lying in bed and spoke with deceased family
Dr Sérgio Felipe de Oliveira
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Moody, Jr., MD, wrote his book Life After Life (1975) and Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, MD(the now-deceased eminent researcher who received ascore of honorary doc-torates from universi-ties around the world) compiled hundreds of stunning testimonies and wrote some of the most powerful books concerningNDEs, scientists have become very attract-ed to this phenom-enon.
members who cameto receive them. He also investigates coin-cidences involving deceased people who contacted someonejust to tell them that he/she has died. In addition, he studies family members who saw shadows around the bed of the ceased and observed that the room became a lot of brighter at the time of the person’s death.These occurrences happen in a very high percentage of cases, he concludes. Dr. Fenwick also insists that the soul is different from the brain.
The term near-death
experience(NDE) refers to a broad range of experiences associatedwith impending death. These can encom-pass multiple possible sensations including: detachment from the body; feelings of levi-tation, extreme fear, total serenity, securi-ty, warmth or abso-lute dissolution; and the presence of light. These phenomena are usually reported after an individual has been pronounced clinically dead and then comes back to life. These experiences suggest the existence of life after death. Since psy-chologist Raymond
Dr Peter Fenwick
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Dr Kenneth Ring, then based at the University of Connecticut, and Sharon Cooper, then a PhD candidate from the University of New York, performed a two-yearstudy of near-death experiences in the blind, with amazing results. These were published in their bookMindsight (1999), which provided strong evi-dence from 31 blind people who describe the experience of seeing for the first time in their lives, giving details of medical procedures on the operating table, for instance.Jeffrey Long, MD, an oncologist, directs the Near Death Experience Research Foundation (http://www.nderf.org), which has collected more than2,500 case studies worldwide of people who have had near-death experiences.
Because Dr. Long applies
the scientific method in his research, we decid-ed to contact him to find out more about his work. In our e-mail interview with him in August 2011, hestated: “My area of expertise is in near-death experiences. NDEs provide, in my opinion, the strongest scientific evidence of life after death.” In his book Evidence of the Afterlife: TheScience of Near-Death Experiences (2010),Dr. Long gives a sum-mary of the ninelines of evidence that point to thereality of NDEs and their consistent message of an afterlife:
1.C r y s t a l
Clear Consciousness
The level of conscious-ness andalertness dur-ing near-deathexperiences is usually evengreater than that experienced in everyday life, even though NDEs generally occur when a person is unconscious or clinically dead.This high level of con-sciousness while physi-cally unconscious is medically inexplicable. Additionally, the ele-ments in NDEs gener-ally follow the same consistent and logical order in all age groups and around the world, which refutes the pos-sibility that NDEs have any relation to dreams or hallucinations.
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Realistic Out-of-Body Experiences
Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) are one of the most common elements of NDEs. What “NDErs” see and hear of earthly events in the out-of-body state is almost always realistic. When the NDEr or others later seek to verify what was observed or heard during the NDE, the OBE observa-tions are almost always confirmed as completely accurate.Even if the OBE observations during the NDE included events far from the physical body and far from any possible sensory awareness of the NDEr, the OBE observations are still almost always confirmed as com-pletely accurate. This fact alone rules out the possibility that near-death experiences are related to any known brain functioning or sensory awareness.This also refutes the possibility that NDEs are unrealistic fragments of memory from the brain.
Heightened Senses
Not only are heightenedsenses reported by most
who have experienced NDEs,but normal or supernormal vision
has occurred in thosewith significantly impaired vision and even legal blindness. Several people who have been totally blindsince birth have reported highly visual near-death experiences. This is medically inexplicable.
Consciousness DuringAnaesthesia
Many NDEs occur whileunder general anaesthesia—at a time when any conscious experience should be impossible. While some sceptics claim that these NDEs maybe the result of too little anaesthe-sia, this ignores the fact that some NDEs result from anaesthesia over-dose.Additionally, the description of anNDE differs greatly from that of one who experiences “anaestheticawareness”. The content of NDEsthat occur under general anaesthe-sia is essentially indistinguishable from NDEs that did not occur under general anaesthesia. This is further strong evidence that NDEs are occurring completely inde-pendently from the functioning of the physical brain.
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2.
4.
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Perfect Playbacks
Life reviews in near-death experi-ences include real events that pre-viously took place in the lives of those having the experience, even if the events were forgotten or hap-pened before they were old enough to remember.
Family Reunions
During an NDE, the peopleencountered are virtually always deceased and are usually relatives of the person having the experience;sometimes they are even relatives who died before the NDEr was born. Were the NDE only a product of memory fragments, it would almost certainly include far more living peo-ple, including those with whom the NDEr had interacted more recently.
Children’s Experiences
The near-death experiencesof children, including very young children who are too young to have developed concepts of death, reli-
gion or near-death experiences, are essentially identical to those of older children and adults. This refutes the possibility that the content of NDEs is produced by pre-existing beliefs or cultural condition-ing.
Worldwide Consistency
Near-death experiencesappear remarkably consistent around the world and across many different religions and cultures. NDEs from non-western countries are incredibly similar to those that occur in people in western countries.
Aftereffects
It is common for people to experience major life
changes after having near-death experiences.These aftereffects are often power-ful, lasting and lifeenhancing,and the changes generally follow aconsistent pattern. As the NDErs themselves almostalways believe, near-death experi-ences are, in a word,real.
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5.
7.
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PAST-LIFE REGRESSION THERAPY
The research on past-life regres-sion consists of practices and evi-dence based approaches. The results come from questionnaires completed before and after the therapy with a large number of individuals with a specific type of problem, including a control group to demonstrate their effectiveness (the double-blind scientific meth-od). Between 1985 and 1992, Dr. HazelDenning (now deceased), founder of the International Association forRegression Research andTherapies (http://www.iarrt.org),studied the results of eight regres-sion therapists with about 1,000 patients. The results were mea-sured immediately after the ther-apy, with follow-ups six months, one year, two years and five years afterwards. From the 450 patients who could be traced after five years, 24 per cent reported that their symp-toms had completely disappeared, 23 per cent reported a significant improvement, 17 per cent reported an improvement, and 36 per cent reported no improvement. Overall, this makes a positive balance of
64 per cent.In 2006, Ron van der Maesen obtained his PhD in the research area of past-life therapy from Utrecht University in the Netherlands. His doctoral thesis was based on different studies with people who underwent treatment with past-life therapy. The studies includ-ed one in Suriname, one with the Dutch Association of Reincarnation
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Therapists and anoth-er with patients with Tourette syndrome. The studies showed that the pastlife treatments had statistically signifi-cant beneficial results in patients compared with the controls (with no health problems). The level of satisfac-tion among the patients who had improvements with past-life therapy was very high. Psychologist Dr. Helen Wambach, who carried out past-life research from the mid-1960s until her death in 1985,
conducted a 10-year survey of past-life rec-ollection and reincar-nation. She performed her main study with 26 regression thera-pists who had worked with a total of 17,350 patients. Among those, 63 per cent reported an improvement in physi-cal symptoms whereas 40 per cent reported an improvement in their interpersonal relation-ships. Dr. Wambach had very specific questions about the time periods in which people lived other lives, the types
of clothes and shoes they wore, the kinds of utensils and money they used, the style of house they lived in, and so on. She concluded that the results were very accu-rate, and that fantasy and genetic memory could not account for the patterns that emerged from the results. With the exception of reports from 11 subjects, all descriptions of cloth-ing, footwear, utensils, housing and so on were consistent with histori-cal records.
EVIDENCE OF REINCARNATION
Psychotherapist Brian Weiss,MD, is Chairman Emeritus ofPsychiatry at the Mount SinaiMedical Center in Miami. Oneday he found that one of hispatients started to recall pastlifetraumas in recurring nightmares and began to give astonishing details about Weiss’s family and his dead son. Although at the beginning he was very sceptical,
Attorney Victor Zammithas gathered evidence forthe existence of life afterdeath that he thinks is strongenough to be accepted inany court of law.
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he decided to do some in-depth research. He has since published several books where he describes his investigations of past lives. In Many Lives, Many Masters (1988), Dr Weiss explains the real-ity of reincarnationand the spirit world from the psychi-atric perspective. Ian Stevenson, MD, who died in 2007, was one of the most well known researchers to have provided strong evidence for the reality of reincarnation. From 1957, at the University of Virginia, he headed the Department ofPsychiatry and later the Division of Perceptual Studies until his 2002 retirement. He did not use the method of hypnosis to verify whether a person had a recollec-tion of a previous life; instead, he studied thousands of cases in chil-dren in the USA, England, Thailand, Burma, Turkey, Lebanon, Canada, India and other countries who had spontaneous memories about their previous lives.First, he verified all the informa-tion from a child about their pre-vious life. Next, he identified the deceased person whom that child claimed to be in their previouslife. Later, he verified the facts of the past life of the deceased per-son that coincided with the memo-ries of the child. He also compared
and verified body marks and birth defects with wounds and scars of thedeceased, all of them confirmed by medical records. A good example of a birthmark case involved Ravi Shankar. This child remembered being decapitated inhis previous childhood by a family member who was hoping for a patri-mony from the child’s father. RaviShankar had a birthmark around his neck. When Dr Stevenson investigat-ed this case, he was able to confirmthat the child whom Shankar told him about from his past life had in fact been decapitated.
Dr Ian Stevenson
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It was Jim Tucker, MD, who took over Dr Stevenson’sresearch. At the University of Virginia, Dr Tucker is currently Medical Director of the Child and Family Psychiatry Clinic as well as Associate Professor ofPsychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences. His book Life Before Life: A Scientific Investigation of children’s Memories of Previous Lives (2005) summaris-es the 40 years of investigation of reincarnation which Dr Stevenson performed during his career.
In August 2011, we conducted an email interview with Dr Tucker about the scientific evidence for life after death. He responded:“As to your questions, the most important evidence for lifeafter death, other than neardeath experiences, includes controlled mediumship studies, carefully stud-ied reports of apparitions, and veri-fied claimsby children of past-life memories. The most important evidence of reincarnation is this last phenom-enon: children’s reports of past-life memories.Ian Stevenson spent 40 years study-ing such cases, documenting them as carefully as he could. Most of his cases came from cultures with a
belief in reincarnation.I’ve been focusing on western cases, and I’m finding thatthe phenomenon is essentially the same here as it is in Asia. At this point, we certainly don’t have as many really strong cases here as Ian found in Asia, but we do have some interesting ones.”
THE SCIENCE OF THE AFTERLIFE
Australian lawyer turned full-time researcher/writerVictor Zammit has investigated the afterlife from the judicial point of view. He thinks that the evidence he has gathered for the existence of life after death is strong enough to be accepted in any court of law(http://www.victorzammit.com). In his book A Lawyer Presents the case for the Afterlife (2006, 4th ed.), Zammit showed 23 different areas that demonstrate theexistence of life after death. He has put out a challengeto scientists to provide evidence that there is no life after death, promising to pay $1,000,000 if they do.
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The pioneering research of Dr Raymond Moody and Dr Elisabeth Kübler-Ross has contributed to the development of this discipline. Now there are numer-ous studies being con-ducted in the area of spirituality and life after death, utilising the lat-est technologies and scientific methods.Over the years, sig-nificant research has been carried out by such luminaries as Dr Erlendur Haraldsson ofIceland University, past-life therapist Dr Morris Netherton, psycholo-gist Dr Peter Ramster,psychotherapist Andy Tomlinson, cardiologist
Pim van Lommel, MD, and many others.Is the quest progressing towards a final answer?Probably never: the more answers unveiled, the more questions revealed. Professor Lisa Randall is a theoreti-cal physicist at Harvard University, a leading expert on particle phys-ics and cosmology, and a member of the sci-entific staff at CERN. She theorises that our universe exists within a universe of many high-er and unseen dimen-sions, and that the laws of nature may be very different in differ-ent regions of this so-called multverse. Then,
if this is so, the larg-er hidden dimensions in which our universe exists may influence our own three-dimensional space-time world and its laws of nature. But what is consciousness, one of the mostvibrant areas of study in science today? According to ProfessorRandall (Discover, 29 July 2006): “Neuroscience is excit-ing. Understanding howthoughts work, how connections are made, how the memory works, how we process infor-mation, how informa-tion is stored—it’s all fascinating.Experimentally, though, we’re still rather limited in what we can do. I don’t even know what consciousness is. I’dlike someone to define consciousness.” Right. So if we want to know more about thepossibility of the surviv-al of consciousness after death, maybe we need more accurate studies
Professor Lisa Randall
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which considerconsciousness itself. In the meantime, some scientists are finding impressive evidence to suggest that there is life afterdeath, or at least sur-vival of consciousness, although they don’t know yet how it works.
This is the reason why the key is in the brilliant confession of Professor Lisa Randall, one of the most influential scien-tists in the world: “I don’t even know what consciousness is. I’d like someone to define consciousness.” Yes, sometimes sci-
ence works like that; for example,astronomers and astro-physicists can identify a relationship between the activity cycles of the Sun andthe weather on Earth, so they assume that this relationship exists although they don’t
know how it works. Yet, as Professor Sami Solanki, of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany, hasstated (http://tinyurl.com/77taz9c) :“The correlation between solar cycles and terres-trial weather has not
been demonstrated.” Then why do they study this “correlation” if it has not been demon-strated that it really exists? The answer is simple: it is because they have observed evidence which sug-gests that it may be that way…
Well, it seems that we are in a very simi-lar situationwith stud-ies about the afterlife. S c i e n t i s t s h a v e observed evi-dence which
suggests that there may be life
after death, but they don’t know what the process is or what con-sciousness is, and they can’t say that life afterdeath can be real in case it really is real!
In the meantime, some scientists are finding impressive evidence to suggest that there is life after death, or at least survival of consciousness…
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W W W . I S P E C T R U M M A G A Z I N E . C o M
“one of the near-death experience truths is that each person integrates their near-death experience into their own pre-existing belief system.” - JoDy LoNG
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