Near Death Experiences: Are they Evidence of an Afterlife?

Are Near Death Experiences (NDEs) Evidence of Life After Death?  Many Think So.

Near Death Experience (NDE)

Passage by Anna Sahlstén

Jul 27, 2024 CBN News:  A Kentucky radiation oncologist who has spent the last 25 years studying near-death experiences says his research confirms that there is life after death. Jeffrey Long, the founder of the Near-Death Experience Research Foundation, told Business Insider that he was studying how to best treat cancer using radiation when he stumbled across an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association describing near-death experiences.

“It stopped me in my tracks,” he explained. “All my medical training told me you were either alive or dead. There was no in-between. But suddenly, I was reading from a cardiologist describing patients who had died and then came back to life, reporting very distinct, almost unbelievable experiences.”

What Exactly is a Near Death Experience (NDE)?

A near-death experience (NDE) is a profound personal experience associated with death or impending death, which researchers describe as having similar characteristics.

When positive, which the great majority are,[1] such experiences may encompass a variety of sensations including detachment from the body, feelings of levitation, total serenity, security, warmth, joy, the experience of absolute dissolution, review of major life events, the presence of a light, and seeing dead relatives.

When negative, such experiences may include sensations of anguish, distress, a void, devastation, and seeing hellish imagery (Wikipedia)

Is it Possible NDEs are Hallucinations?

And while skeptics may scoff at the idea of these “experiences” and call them merely “hallucinations,” University of Virginia Psychiatry Professor Jim Tucker, who authored the 2013 book Return to Life, told a South by Southwest panel in Austin, Texas, last year that it is physically impossible for a dying person to have fantasies or hallucinations, according to Business Insider.

“Critics often argue that dying people’s brains play tricks on them, creating fantasies or hallucinations. However a near-death event compromises a person’s brain function, whereas hallucinations are usually the result of an overactive sensory cortex (the part of the brain that receives and interprets sensory information). That would make it hard for a dying person to hallucinate,” Tucker said.

Bruce Greyson has called into question the adequacy of the materialist, mind-brain identity model for explaining NDEs.[32] An NDE often involves vivid and complex mentation, sensation and memory-formation under circumstances of completely disabled brain function during general anesthesia, or near-complete cessation of cerebral blood flow and oxygen uptake during cardiac arrest. Materialist models predict that such conscious experiences should be impossible under these conditions.

Yet thousands of people have reported that they were conscious after their body died – hovering above the operating table, hearing doctors and medical workers trying to revive them.  Many also report leaving this reality, moving through a tunnel of light, and getting a glimpse of what be heaven.  And after all this, they return to their body and live to tell about it. 

How Many NDEs have been Documented?

In the U.S., an estimated nine million people have reported an NDE according to a 2011 study in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. Most of these near-death experiences resulted from serious injury affecting the body or brain.[9] (Wikipedia)

Are there Common Characteristics of most NDEs?

Themes Common in many Near Death Experiences

Jeffrey Long, MD, said he began to study near-death experiences or NDEs from a scientific standpoint and realized there were a few common themes in the described experiences. “No two NDEs are the same. But as I studied thousands of them, I saw a consistent pattern of events emerging in a predictable order.

  • About 45% of people who have an NDE report an out-of-body experience,” he shared. Near Death Experiences (NDEs)
  • He added, “The person can see and hear what’s happening around them, which usually includes frantic attempts to revive them.” 
  • “After the out-of-body experience, people say they’re transported into another realm.
  • Many pass through a tunnel and experience a bright light.
  • Then, they’re greeted by deceased loved ones, including pets, who are in the prime of their lives.
  • Most people report an overwhelming sense of love and peace. They feel like this other realm is their real home,” Long continued. 

Watch Longs documentary “Hidden Beyond the Veil” on NDEs: https://youtu.be/od6X2VMAf-U

According to Wikipedia’s article on NDEs, researchers have identified the following common traits that have been reported by NDErs:

  • A sense/awareness of being dead.[6]
  • A sense of peace, well-being, painlessness and other positive emotions. A sense of removal from the world. An intense feeling of unconditional love and acceptance.[21] Experiencing euphoric environments. 
  • An out-of-body experience (OBE). A perception of one’s body from an outside position, sometimes observing medical professionals performing resuscitation efforts
  • A “tunnel experience” or entering a darkness. A sense of moving up, or through, a passageway or staircase.
  • A rapid movement toward and/or sudden immersion in a powerful light (or “Being(s) of Light” or “Being(s) dressed in white”) who communicate telepathically with the person.
  • Being reunited with deceased loved ones.
  • Receiving a life review, commonly referred to as “seeing one’s life flash before one’s eyes”
  • Approaching a border or a decision by oneself or others to return to one’s body, often accompanied by a reluctance to return.
  • Suddenly finding oneself back inside one’s body.

After an NDE, are People Truly Changed, and if so, How?

Photo by Eduardo Dutra on Pexels.com

From Wikipedia: NDEs are associated with changes in personality and outlook on life. Ring has identified a consistent set of value and belief changes associated with people who have had an NDE. Among these changes, he found

  • a greater appreciation for life,
  • higher self-esteem,
  • greater compassion for others,
  • less concern for acquiring material wealth,
  • a heightened sense of purpose and self-understanding,
  • desire to learn,
  • elevated spirituality,
  • greater ecological sensitivity and planetary concern,
  • a feeling of being more intuitive,[6] 
  • no longer worrying about death, and
  • claiming to have witnessed an afterlife.[37] 

Although people who have had experienced NDEs become more spiritual, it does not mean they become necessarily more religious. (Wikipedia) 

Are all NDEs Pleasant, or are there also Scary NDEs?

Estimates of the percentage of near-death experiences (NDEs) that are distressing vary, with some studies estimating 11–22%, while others estimate 14% or up to 25%. However, some researchers have found that these estimates may be low because of how disturbing these memories can be (those that had such experiences may be reluctant to share them).

Are Near Death Experiences (NDEs) Evidence of Life After Death?

While there’s no definitive proof of an afterlife, some say that near-death experiences (NDEs) are the most compelling evidence for one. 

  • About 45% of people who have an NDE report an out-of-body experience.
  • When this happens, their consciousness separates from their physical body, usually hovering above the body.
  • Even though their body is clinically dead, may report that they can see and hear what’s happening around them, which usually includes frantic attempts to revive them

NDEs often occur during reversible clinical death, and can be caused by serious injuries to the body or brain. Some say that NDEs can include accurate observations of events that are far away from the person’s body, or that would be beyond their physical senses. Others say that NDEs can lead to people feeling more spiritual, connected to others, and less afraid of death

One Sample Near Death Experience

Charlotte Holmes from Missouri described a similar experience to CBN. Holmes was clinically dead for 11 minutes after suffering a stroke. She shares that she watched the nursing staff revive her before she was escorted to the “Pearly gates”. 

“They called a code and they came running in. I was above my body. I could see them doing chest compressions. I could see them, all the nurses around. I could smell the most beautiful flowers I’ve ever smelled. And then I heard music. And when I opened my eyes, I knew where I was. I knew I was in Heaven,” she said.

“There is no fear. It’s like pure joy. When the angels take over, there is no fear. When you are going home, it’s pure joy,” she added. Holmes told CBN’s PrayerLink that she saw family and friends who had passed away. “I looked and there stood my family. My mom, my dad, my sister, my best friend,” she said. “They looked young. They didn’t have glasses. My cousin that had had a leg cut off, had both legs. They looked like they were in their thirties.”

Long who has studied more than 5,000 accounts of NDE’s calls it a “phenomenon” that is real but cannot be explained by science. “I’m a medical doctor. I’ve read brain research and considered every possible explanation for NDEs. The bottom line is that none of them hold water. There isn’t even a remotely plausible physical explanation for this phenomenon,” he shared. Atheist turned Christian apologist Lee Strobel contends that science corroborates the Bible and the idea that Heaven is real.

“I was a skeptic about near-death experiences until I found out we have 900 scholarly articles that have been written and published in scientific and medical journals over the last 40 years,” he previously told CBN’s Faithwire, calling it a “very well-researched area.”  He pointed to a study surrounding people who are blind who go through near-death experiences. These individuals — who have never seen more than shadows — report suddenly observing resuscitation efforts, deceased loved ones, and more. When they return to their bodies, though, they report once again no longer having sight.

The Evidence for Life After Death is Strong – Are You Ready?

We all ought to behave ought to behave as though the Lord could come at any time. He may come for you during the End Times, as you are caught up to meet the Lord in the air as He return to take title once again the the earth; or, He may come for you when you die – of natural causes, of old age, or in a tragic car accident. The point is, no one knows the day when they will draw their last breath. Deity of Jesus Christ

IF you are a seeker, or skeptic, the message of the Bible is that God loves you, even  if you were the ONLY person alive, He would still have died to to pay the penalty for your sins and bring you back into a relationship with Him (remember the parable of the lost sheep, how that Jesus left the 99 to search and retrieve the one that was lost!).  He dearly wants you to know Him and have eternal life!

Do you have a personal relationship with the Lord who created you, loves you unconditionally, and wants you to walk with Him?  If you do, then you have everything to look forward to – in this life, and in the life to come!  You were made for a purpose, and receiving the Lord into your heart and walking daily with Him will help you come to realize His purpose in your life and fulfill it. 

Don’t be caught unprepared should your soul be required of you tonight!  If you don’t know the Lord, here is a link to Billy Graham’s website that can show you how you can accept the Lord into your heart, be born again, begin a right relationship with Him, have the abundant life Here and Now, and Eternal life to come!

Go to Steps to Peace with God ==> http://www.billygraham.org/SH_StepsToPeace.asp

 

Sources:

Sources of Information on NDEs as Evidence of Life After Death