In many cases after an NDE, the NDEr has a very rapid recovery from illness or traumatic injury. Also, many
times, the NDEr can accurately report seeing and hearing things that they could not have seen or heard by
ordinary means. These so-called “veridical perceptions” are a strong indication that the NDEr’s consciousness
has somehow in fact separated from the physical body.
Common elements
The accounts of NDEs are remarkably similar over a wide range of physiological and pathological conditions
that trigger the experience. NDEs can occur from acute trauma or illness, an allergic reaction, a severe
depression or simply the perception that one is in danger of dying. Yet each of these experiences has many of
the common elements—a feeling of peace, a sense of separation from the physical body, traveling through a
tunnel or dark space, being in a heavenly realm, meeting deceased relatives or spiritual beings, seeing a loving
being of immense light, having a life review, visiting a place where all knowledge exists, having a choice or
being told one needs to go back, and returning to the physical body.
Not hallucinations or illusions
NDEs are not hallucinations. People looking back on hallucinations typically recognize them as unreal, as
fantasies, whereas people typically describe their NDEs as ultra-real, more vivid and real than waking
consciousness. Hallucinations tend to be illogical, fleeting, bizarre or distorted, whereas the vast majority of
NDEs are logical, orderly and comprehensible. People tend to forget their hallucinations, whereas most NDEs
remain vivid for decades. NDEs often lead to profound and permanent transformations in personality,
attitudes, beliefs and values, something that is never seen following hallucinations. Furthermore, people who
have experienced both hallucinations and an NDE describe them as being quite different.
What NDEs tell us
The similarities among all NDEs, regardless of the conditions that triggered them, imply there is a commonality
among all of the cases that is not tied to specific physical or physiological conditions. Moreover, the common
element appears to be the state of the NDEr’s consciousness: vivid, ultra-real perceptions, lucid thought
processes, freedom from pain and the limitations of the body, and the sense of separation from the physical
body with veridical perceptions of the NDEr’s surroundings from a vantage point outside the body.
All of this strongly suggests that the NDEr’s consciousness in fact separates from the physical body and
operates independent of it during the NDE. And that implies that a person’s consciousness is an objective,
autonomous entity in the world. The conventional scientific theory is that consciousness is produced by the
brain’s electrical activity, but an equally valid interpretation—one which also explains NDE phenomena more
fully—is that the person’s “mind” or “soul” or “spirit” interfaces with the brain to produce consciousness. This
interpretation opens up a completely new way of viewing the nature of reality—that we are indeed, as
Teilhard de Chardin put it, “spiritual beings having a human experience”.
What near-death experiences tell us
Robert Mays, B.Sc. www.selfconsciousmind.com
Near-death experiences are rare, but if you have one, it is likely to be overwhelmingly peaceful, however painful it might have been to get to that stage. This is the conclusion from the first study into how the cause of trauma affects the content of a near-death experience.
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Originally posted by Dumpster Diver
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