ARE NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES REAL?

Near-Death Experiences and Life After Death

Also known as near-death experiences, these are phenomena reported by some people who come close to death because of a serious illness or accident, or while undergoing major surgery that places them in a near-death state due to substantial doses of anesthesia.

Professor Enrico Facco describes them as “experiences lived in critical brain conditions associated with loss of consciousness” (2010, p. 57). By their nature, they challenge science and the conventional paradigm on which it is based. They are studied by doctors, anesthesiologists, and cardiologists around the world who are open to new ideas and free of preconceptions, as well as by organizations, groups, and individuals interested in expanding knowledge about human nature.

These phenomena could indicate that there may be life after death—or, in the experience of those who have them, that there is life after death.

It is interesting that these phenomena share features in accounts from people around the world, across all socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds, regardless of sex or other characteristics. The features recur so often that researchers have been able to develop a measurement scale.

In the 1970s, Professor Moody had already provided a representative list of common features in these experiences. Dr. Bruce Greyson later revisited this work and organized the features into a scale named after him, designed to study them and determine whether an experience belongs to the category of near-death experiences or is simply imagination.

The Greyson scale is a standardized questionnaire with questions about common features identified in these experiences, from altered time perception and the tunnel effect to light and OBEs (out-of-body experiences), among others. Responses are assigned scores; for research purposes, an experience is considered a near-death experience if it receives a score of at least 7 out of 32.

Common features of these experiences include:

• A perception of time that differs from everyday physical life—it may seem slower or faster, but in any case it is different and does not match ordinary time.
• OBE (out-of-body experience): finding oneself outside the body, for example floating above a hospital bed and seeing and hearing what medical staff say. The literature on the subject also cites Vicky Noratuk, who was blind from birth and was able to see while outside her body.
• A spontaneous panoramic review of one's life, in which a person sees the most important or pivotal situations and events of their life in a sweep beyond ordinary space and time.
• Intense, clear sensations; self-awareness; and a sense of trust, peace, and serenity.
• Seeing a tunnel with a light at the end.
• Some people describe meeting serene, more evolved beings of light.

There is still no general consensus on the nature and meaning of these experiences, but contributions, research, reflection, and discussion on the subject continue to grow.

This is not merely an abstract interest pursued for its own sake. It is a drive to investigate and understand, and a desire to find clues that can help us determine whether human nature exists beyond matter and, if so, in what form; whether we will continue to exist consciously and think when our physical body is gone; and how we will manifest.

Studying these phenomena and related ones (such as OBEs) challenges us to consider the possibility of life beyond the biological death of the human body through which we now manifest. That body may serve as a vehicle—an avatar—for our true consciousness, which manifests here in a restricted but practical way to take part in the great spectacle of our lives.

Bibliographic sources

Facco, Enrico. Near-Death Experiences: Science and Consciousness at the Boundary Between Physics and Metaphysics. Altravista, 2010.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_cgliFjlZk, Bruce Greyson: the mind-body problem in light of NDEs.

Conference: http://icc.iacworld.org/it/ (2015)