Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience (11 page)

It is important to bear in mind that, irrespective of NDEs, the percentage of nondenominational people in the Netherlands increased sharply in the twentieth century. In 1900 only 2 percent of the Dutch people were not affiliated with any church, by 1960 their number had risen to 18 percent, and by 1999 it was up to 63 percent. More and more people believe that religiosity has nothing to do with church attendance. Figures from 2002 also show that 37 percent of nondenominational people in the Netherlands believe in life after death, 25 percent believe in heaven, 19 percent believe in the sense of praying, and 31 percent believe in religious miracles. In other words, religious beliefs can exist independently of religious affiliation.
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There is no comparable decline in religious affiliation in the United States: 78 percent of Americans today are still Christian, of which the majority (55 percent) are Protestant, and only 16.1 percent have no religion. In the United States 28 percent of people never attend any religious service, and 40 percent attend at least once a week. In the United Kingdom there is similarly a high percentage of people with a religious affiliation: 71.6 percent are Christian and 2.7 percent Muslim, but only 14 percent attend church at least once a week (statistic from 2005). From 1964 to 2005 religion combined with church attendance decreased in the United Kingdom from 74 to 31 percent while at the same time the percentage of nondenominational people increased from 3 to 38 percent.
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Greater Spirituality

Happiness does not depend on outward things, but on the way we see them.

—T
OLSTOY

A near-death experience can evoke the sense that the old self has died and that a new person has been born. The NDE and its subsequent changes are thus experienced as a spiritual death and rebirth. If religious affiliation declines, people also report an increase in religiosity and a greater interest in spirituality, meditation, prayer, and surrender. With their precious life restored, people view themselves as having a unique mission, and they are fueled by a heightened sense of spiritual purpose. They feel part of a meaningful universe and adopt a more philosophical attitude to life.

By contrast, cardiac arrest survivors without an NDE display a marked decline in interest in spirituality (see the table “Life Changes After a Cardiac Arrest” on Chapter Three).

Physical Changes

People not only experience psychological transformations, they also report important physical changes. The NDE can precipitate hypersensitivity (hyperesthesia) to bright lights, in particular, sunlight. In fact, the experience can trigger a heightened sensitivity to all sensory impressions, such as sound, taste, touch, and smell. Some people can no longer stand the physical proximity of their partner. There are also frequent reports of synesthesia, a phenomenon in which sensory impressions influence one another. In these cases, areas of the brain that play a role in processing data from the various faculties are more closely connected than usual and exchange information. In other words, they sort of get their wires crossed. People affected in this way talk of seeing smells and hearing or smelling colors (for example, “smelling red”). The NDE can also result in a greater sensitivity to loud noises, a desire for silence, and a newfound preference for soothing music.

Some people experience an increased sensitivity to alcohol or develop an allergy to conventional medicines, which then sparks an interest in complementary or alternative medicine. It is possible for metabolic rates and energy levels to change, and people to recover faster and look younger. There are frequent reports of electric phenomena: at emotionally charged moments, in particular, the body can emit an electromagnetic field that interferes with electrical equipment—lights go out, the computer crashes, the car starter fails, or the supermarket checkout scanner refuses service.

Some people do not wear a watch because it stops as soon as they wear it on their wrist. Thinking that the watch is broken, they buy a new one, only to have the same thing happen. Some discover the ability to direct healing power at others, which enables them to help people with physical or psychological problems. There are also reported cases of inexplicable self-healing after an NDE.
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Enhanced Intuitive Sensitivity

Without really wanting to, many NDErs feel inundated with information from or via another dimension. This appears to affect between 84 percent (Ring’s study) and 92 percent (Sutherland) of people, making enhanced intuitive sensitivity one of the most common but also least spontaneously reported consequences of an NDE (see table “Symptoms of Enhanced Intuitive Sensitivity”). All of a sudden these people have a very acute sense of the emotions of others. Heightened intuition can cause major problems. Clairvoyance, enhanced sensitivity, and precognition can feel extremely threatening.
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NDErs rarely volunteer information about their heightened intuition in interviews. Neither do they have the right words for it. Indeed, what could they say? That they have become paranormal or something? A researcher or other interested party will have to ask targeted questions and explain that a great many people experience enhanced sensitivity after their NDE. Most of us have had the odd sensation of thinking about somebody only to find that when the phone rings it is the person we were thinking of. Synchronicity, as the phenomenon is called, is quite common and refers to the not strictly causal, or seemingly accidental, concurrence of events.

However, in the case of post-NDE enhanced intuitive sensitivity, such synchronicity is much stronger.

People suddenly sense emotions and sadness in others, or they sense that somebody has a serious illness. For example, there was the case of a young father who saw a brain tumor in his eighteen-month-old daughter. Unable to explain why he suspected that she might have a tumor in her head, he did not visit his family doctor. Three months later, when she suffered her first epileptic seizure, she was referred to a neurosurgeon who decided to operate on her brain. Similarly, people sometimes sense a person’s imminent death. And more often than not these premonitions are correct. Enhanced intuitive sensitivity leaves people feeling extremely insecure; struggling to deal with the information that comes pouring in unbidden, they often withdraw into themselves. They avoid busy places, such as supermarkets or public transport. They do not dare to talk about this new and unwanted quality for fear of being rejected or even declared insane. After all, other people tend to become very nervous when they know that somebody “can look right through them.”

Another post-NDE phenomenon is the ability to see auras. Even children sometimes spontaneously report seeing all kinds of beautiful colors around people. Equally, NDErs are often aware of invisible energy fields with which they can help others. Indeed, some decide to volunteer in the palliative or terminal care sector, not just to share the insight that death is not the end, but also to help terminal patients by bringing peace of mind and alleviating pain.

Psychological Problems After an NDE

Were I a composer of books, I would keepe a register, commented of the divers deaths, which in teaching men to die, should after teach them to live.

—M
ICHEL DE
M
ONTAIGNE

The NDE remains a largely unfamiliar and misunderstood phenomenon, as society cannot readily accommodate this kind of spiritual experience. The resulting tension can lead to psychological problems. Talking about the NDE is usually impossible. Prejudice means that when people do try to broach the subject, they are often misunderstood and even ignored or ridiculed. Sutherland’s study shows that when people tried to discuss the NDE, 50 percent of relatives and 25 percent of friends rejected the NDE, and 30 percent of nursing staff, 85 percent of doctors, and 50 percent of psychiatrists reacted negatively.
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The issues arising from the inability to share the NDE with others—that is, the negative interaction with others—are known as “interpersonal” problems.
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They include a feeling of exclusivity or a sense of isolation from others without an NDE; a fear of being ridiculed or rejected by others; problems reconciling personality changes with the expectations of friends and family; an inability to communicate the meaning and impact of the NDE; difficulties maintaining old patterns that have lost their meaning since the NDE; trouble accepting the limitations and shortcomings of human relationships compared with the unconditional love experienced during the NDE; conflicts with relatives about the marked personality changes, seen as a “social death of the former personality” and sometimes absurdly high expectations of relatives who learned about positive post-NDE changes from popular science writing, radio, or TV programs.
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