The life death reveals

Ed. Note: This is the second in a series of articles by Ms. Atwater on Near Death Experiences, or NDEs

Life, that's what I want to talk about, life! But not the way most people do. I want to talk about life as it really exists, unbounded by anyone's prejudice or preference and unhindered by scientific claims or personal belief systems. I want to talk about the life death reveals because dying taught me that life is far more dynamic and far more diverse than any dream or fantasy. Death taught me to wake up and realize just how alive life is.

Millions of people can echo my sentiments, adults and children alike, all of them people who experienced the near-death phenomenon as I once did and who believe they actually crossed over to the other side of death and returned.

It's incredible when any of us get together for, in the sharing of our stories, we talk about what happened when death came, how that affected us, what we learned, how we've changed, and how our lives have altered because of what we went through. Oft-times there's more laughing and crying and hugging than there is conversation, because our hearts know more now than our heads and our eyes usually see beyond appearances.

That moment of death, whether clinical or nearly so, unites us, not just because we experienced something unique yet common to us all, but more because we now know that the greatest of all secrets isn't any secret . . . death doesn't end life, it only ends the physical form we wear.

A 1992 Gallup Poll survey estimated that thirteen million Americans had experienced the near-death phenomenon but better resuscitation methods and more effective medical care have expanded that original estimate. Today, between forty to forty-five percent of those resuscitated in a hospital environment will probably undergo the experience. When you include significant others in those figures - families, friends, health-care providers, anyone affected to whatever degree - then the numbers mushroom.

Anyone can have a near-death experience. Religion or culture makes no difference, neither does age. Children, even tiny babies, can have one, remember it, and when they are old enough to be proficient at language tell their parents and their story will match the adult experience, though seldom will you hear children mention past-life reviews or concerns about this-life problems. When both adults and children draw pictures of what happened to them, the subject matter they illustrate is virtually the same.

The phenomenon itself consists of a universal and consistent pattern of components which can include a sensation of floating out of one's body and existing apart from it, accelerating through a dark tunnel, ascending toward and entering into a bright light at the end of the tunnel. Many individuals claim they are met in the light by angelic beings or loved ones previously dead, and conversation ensues. This dialogue, which seems more telepathic than verbal, can involve questions about life and its meaning or perhaps revelations about personal issues. Many report a review of the life just lived followed by an assessment of gains and losses made during the life. Seldom do experiencers want to leave the light-filled world they discovered on the other side of death, but eventually they are told to leave or sense they must. Reviving is not always pleasant. Although it is rare for any single report to include all the elements possible with the phenomenon, most cases do encompass about half of them.

No serious researcher has yet been able to disprove the near-death phenomenon, although many have tried. Popular arguments are: "The tunnel component is a symbolic replay of birth." A representative sample of those reporting the tunnel effect were contacted again to determine the manner of their birth. The result - there is no statistical difference whatever between those born vaginally and those born caesarean in reports of the tunnel effect. "The phenomenon is a drug-induced hallucination." Most reports come from people who had not been given drugs before their experience. In cases where drugs had been administered, most of those were drugs known not to cause hallucinations. Only a relatively small percentage could have been drug related. "It is caused by oxygen deprivation." Almost all reports are consistently lucid, clear, coherent, and richly detailed. Often information gained during the experience which could not have been known before is later verified as accurate. "No reports have come from people who revived after being completely dead." Not true. Some reports have come from people dead for over an hour, even from individuals pronounced clinically dead and taken to a morgue.

A typical case of the many I researched. . . a woman who was badly injured in an automobile/truck accident and declared dead during surgery, revived on the operating table. Excited, she spoke to her doctors of a world of brilliant light and meeting her father there. She claimed her father told her he too had just died, and where and how. Then he revealed why she had been born and what she had yet to accomplish before she could continue her journey through the light beyond death. Relatives who had gathered at the hospital pooh-poohed her story saying they had spoken with the father that morning and he seemed in perfect health. So to prove the woman's story a mere hallucination, one of the doctors telephoned the father, who lived several hundred miles away. After several attempts to locate him, the doctor learned that the woman's father had died exactly as she had described five minutes before she did. None of the relatives knew of his death since it was so recent and no one had yet been notified.

Amazing stories such as these are becoming more numerous, but now details are being carefully cross-checked. Contrary to what some would prefer to think, the stories are not only holding up under scrutiny, they are proving more incredible than at first glance.

This implies that what near-death survivors have been saying about the truth of life deserves more serious consideration, statements such as: you don't need a body to be alive, physical handicaps have no bearing on the "real" person, earth life is purposeful and worth its living, death is but a shift in consciousness from one mode of awareness to another, we are responsible for what we make of ourselves for life is more than it seems and we each have a role to play, life is actually the gift of eternal love.

And they discover that God exists.

The vast majority of near-death survivors talk about God, regardless of whatever they may have believed or not believed before their experience occurred. Almost to a person they claim that the light they encountered, that incredibly warm and loving and compassionate light, was God or an expression of God. "The light beyond death is pure ecstasy," one survivor explained, "and the light I encountered is the Light of God." This knowing of how life is ordered changes one, but not necessarily as one might think.

Certainly, not every near-death survivor went through what I did but, in ways unique to each, the majority did come face to face with unsettling differences in their ability to respond to the strange newness of a once familiar world. … There seems no way to short-cut the process of shifting around one's world. Even though what happens is sudden, integrating the event and determining what it may mean can take years.

I can't begin to emphasize what a difference caring and receptive people make, or maybe I should use the word "informed."

After a near-death experience you want to talk about it, you want to tell the whole world that death ends nothing but the physical body, that God exists and love is God revealed. You want to scream this news from the highest rooftop, you want to shake up a deluded humanity. God is real - life is ongoing and never ending and worth its living. And the life we have is multi-dimensional, limited only by the ignorance of our own misperceptions and the folly of blind belief. You want to say this. You need to say this. …

… And the changes I am referring to are not just attitudinal. This is a fallacy. These changes can be quite organic and physical as well. Because I know first-hand how helpful a support group can be, I would urge any near-death survivor who might be reading this article to contact the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS); the address follows this article.

For those who are unable to avail themselves of what IANDS has to offer, I recommend the following five-point plan as a way to help near-death survivors adjust:

1) Active participation of empathetic listeners who exhibit interest instead of scorn. Give the survivor plenty of time to talk. If he or she is a child, encourage drawing or play acting.

2) Absence of pressure to resume everyday life routines. Let them ease back. For awhile, do not expect them to be the same person they once were, and do not be too surprised if they want to make sudden or unusual changes in their life.

3) Freedom to explore ideas and ask questions without shame, ridicule, or guilt.

4) Supportive therapy of some kind, even if it is just a family rap session conducted in a non-judgmental manner. Group therapy with fellow survivors is ideal, but ONLY if professional or caring strangers are also present to give clear feedback. Survivors need other viewpoints and opinions besides their own, but not to the point of being overwhelmed.

5) Exposure to as much information about the near-death phenomenon and its aftereffects as possible, including scientific findings, books, and articles.

Once survivors realize how normal and natural their problems are for what they went through, the faster they will stabilize the aftereffects and the easier they will reintegrate back into society.

The near-death phenomenon suggests, and quite persuasively, that life does not end with death, and that death is but a shift in consciousness from one level of existence to another. Experiencers make plain, however, that earth life is special and we each have a job to do in the outpicturing of a divine plan.

I am overjoyed at the people, regardless of who or where, who find inspiration from reportings of the phenomenon and from the people who talk about it. There are a number of counselors now who use the pattern of the experience as a model to help their clients move past restricting fears and feelings of loss to reconnect with their own innate potential for positive life fulfillment. Also, people in the process of dying often find encouragement and peace when they come to realize that the light described by millions of experiencers may indeed be the Light of God.

Although there are other ways, easier ways, to learn about the reality of God and the validity of the spiritual path (taking on a personal relationship with God), I have no regrets about what happened to me. At the time, I instinctively labeled my experiences "The Heavenly Sledge Hammer Effect" for that best describes how stubborn I was beforehand. My life today is happier and more wonderful than anything I could have ever imagined. …

… Repeated most often from "The Other Side" is the message: LOVE ONE ANOTHER. I hope the world is listening.

Click here for the full text of this article. For information about IANDS, please go to http://www.iands.org