Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience (43 page)
Read Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience Online
Authors: Pim van Lommel
Nonlocal Consciousness
As I wrote earlier, our consciousness is intrinsically connected with nonlocal space. In this view, nonlocal space or the vacuum is the source of both the physical world and consciousness while in turn nonlocal consciousness is the source of both waking consciousness and all other aspects of consciousness. Just as consciousness is infinite and endless, so is each part of consciousness. This is exactly what is meant by nonlocality.
Again I would like to stress that this notion of nonlocal consciousness does not explain the origins of consciousness. It is merely a description that helps us understand the various experiences of consciousness discussed in this chapter. As stated before, the origins of consciousness are and will probably remain a mystery forever.
An NDE Is an Aspect of Endless Consciousness
All-encompassing consciousness is known by many different names. I call it endless or nonlocal consciousness.
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But it has also been called the higher or supreme consciousness, cosmic consciousness, divine consciousness, or the pure source or essence of our consciousness. Others prefer terms such as boundless consciousness, transpersonal consciousness, ultimate consciousness, unitary consciousness, or eternal consciousness, but all these terms refer to the same all-encompassing principle. Systems philosopher Ervin Laszlo calls this supreme form of consciousness the Akasha field because it stores all knowledge and an infinite amount of information.
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All of these different names refer to one and the same thing: there is an ultimate source of consciousness in a multidimensional space, and virtually every part of this endless and nonlocal consciousness is accessible to humans.
Forms of enhanced consciousness, coupled with a sense of disembodiment, are experienced under a range of different circumstances. The experience of this special state of enhanced or endless consciousness is totally different from normal waking consciousness, which is merely one element of nonlocal consciousness. Each aspect of our consciousness can be described as an aspect of endless or nonlocal consciousness, and the primary distinction between them is the intensity of the experience.
This endless consciousness can be experienced under different circumstances. In life-threatening situations we speak of a near-death experience. But this term is far from ideal because enhanced consciousness can also be reported under circumstances that are not life-threatening.
Experience of insight
and
enlightenment experience
may be suitable terms as well as
religious
or
mystical experience.
But perhaps
experience of nonlocal or endless consciousness
is even better.
Surprisingly, these kinds of experiences seem to be quite common. In response to a separate question in a new poll by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life in 2009, half of Americans (49 percent) say they have had “a religious or mystical experience—that is, a moment of religious or spiritual awakening.” This represents a sharp increase over the past four decades because in 1962 only 22 percent of Americans reported having had such an experience.
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Here is an overview of the circumstances (listed in chapter 6) under which an enhanced consciousness can be experienced:
- Near-death experiences
can occur during a medical crisis, for example during a cardiac arrest, coma, or near drowning, in which brain function is usually seriously impaired. - Fear-death experiences
are brought on by sudden and intense mortal fear and are reported after a seemingly inevitable death caused by, for example, almost having a traffic or mountaineering accident. - Identical experiences
are reported under circumstances that involve feelings of despair, loneliness, or isolation. For example, Charles Lindbergh reported one such experience during his first solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, and they are also known to affect astronauts during space flight. Possible circumstances include isolation (shipwrecked people, astronauts), extreme dehydration or hypothermia, and depression or existential crisis. - Experiences of an enhanced consciousness
are also reported in the absence of mortal fear, despair, or loneliness, such as during meditation or total relaxation (enlightenment or unitary experience), during regression therapy (sometimes done under hypnosis), and during the use of mind-expanding drugs such as LSD or DMT.
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Other Forms of Nonlocal Consciousness
This chapter will also look at some additional experiences of enhanced consciousness that can be explained with the theory of nonlocal consciousness. Some of these examples are less familiar because people tend not to talk about what they feel are inexplicable and often overwhelming, emotional, and extremely personal experiences. The social and scientific taboo on them is often even greater than, until recently, the one on near-death experiences. I hope that my detailed and careful descriptions, where possible in combination with reference to scientific literature and the concept of nonlocal consciousness, will contribute to breaking this taboo. Perhaps this will encourage more people to come forward and raise awareness of these intimate and often emotional experiences.
Deathbed Visions
During the end of life people sometimes report encounters with deceased loved ones (usually a partner or parent), the sight of a beautiful, unearthly environment and a bright light, or a sense of unconditional love. The content of such deathbed visions (or end-of-life experiences) can bear a striking resemblance to an NDE except that the dying person experiences waking consciousness during the deathbed vision and can discuss the enhanced and nonlocal consciousness at about the same time as they experience it. Those who have a near-death experience, by contrast, do not experience waking consciousness: they are unconscious and uncommunicative. Like an NDE, a deathbed vision takes away the fear of death. I know the story of a family doctor who made daily visits to a dying man who was terrified of his imminent demise. But one day he was surprised to find the dying patient sitting up in bed, beaming. In response to the doctor’s inquiry about what had happened, the patient explained that he had had a visit from Jan, a good friend and neighbor who had died three years earlier and who had reassured him about death. Two days later the patient died peacefully.
Many accounts of deathbed visions are either not recognized as such or are interpreted as hallucinations, terminal confusion, or as the side effects of medication. But since nurses and volunteers, especially in hospices and other palliative care institutions, have become more open to this kind of experience, deathbed visions are now acknowledged more frequently. Deathbed visions are described by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, the Swiss psychiatrist whose books broke the taboo on death and dying in the medical world; by Marie de Hennezel, a French psychologist with many years’ experience of working with terminal patients; by the American doctor John Lerma; and by two American nurses, Maggie Callanan and Patricia Kelley, all with a great deal of practical experience in terminal and palliative care institutions. A recent book on end-of-life experiences has been published by neuroscientist and NDE researcher Peter Fenwick. Earlier I mentioned the empathetic NDE, in which those attending a deathbed are included in the dying patient’s experience.
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There are few retrospective scientific studies of deathbed visions. Because most people die shortly after or even during their deathbed vision, most of the reports are from nurses, doctors, and family and not from patients themselves. The best-known study is the one by the psychologists Karlis Osis and Erlendur Haraldson. In a more recent scientific paper, psychologist Emily Williams Kelly writes that 41 percent of dying patients in her study reported a deathbed vision. The fact that only 4 percent of respondents to a general survey in Germany reported experiencing a deathbed vision during the terminal phase of a beloved family member suggests that these experiences often go unreported or unrecognized. Better, more systematic, and prospective research is needed to improve our understanding of the incidence, content, and effect of deathbed visions.
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Contact with the (Nonlocal) Consciousness of Deceased Persons
The concept of a nonlocal, endless consciousness also explains visions of remote, dying people around the moment of their death and of people who are already dead, usually during the first few days, weeks, or months after their funeral. These experiences or visions, being a form of nonlocal communication, are mostly reported by relatives of the deceased person, and are called perimortem and postmortem experiences, or after-death communication. The term
perimortem
refers to the moment of death and
postmortem
to the time after death. I shall return to this in the next few sections. The most comprehensive book on the subject, featuring anecdotal evidence, is by Bill and Judy Guggenheim.
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However, there are no scientific articles or monographs on this topic because the taboo on the possibility of contact with the (nonlocal) consciousness of deceased persons is such that these experiences are usually not mentioned, not even to next of kin. However, the European values survey of 1980–1983 carried out by researchers at Tilburg University in the Netherlands asked the question anonymously whether or not people had ever had a sense of contact with somebody who had died. In Europe 25 percent of people (125 million) answered yes, compared to 30 percent (100 million) in the United States. Although the positive reports in the Netherlands amounted to only 12 percent, this still means that nearly 2 million Dutch people have experienced some form of contact with (the consciousness of) deceased persons. Research into postmortem experiences among widows and widowers revealed a percentage of contact with (the consciousness of) the deceased partner of roughly 50 percent. Among parents who had lost a child, the chances of some form of contact with (the consciousness of) their deceased child was as high as 75 percent. As mentioned earlier, contact with deceased relatives is quite common during an NDE.
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Perimortem Experiences
When somebody’s presence is sensed at a moment when this person’s death is still unknown, we speak of a perimortem experience. This involves sensing the moment and sometimes even the manner of death of a loved one, often at a great distance, when none of this information could have been known. It often does not emerge until later that the perimortem experience took place at the exact same moment of death elsewhere. The experience typically involves an inner awareness that the person in question has died. Occasionally it is accompanied by a proper farewell, with direct, silent contact or with a word of thanks for a shared life. This type of experience can take place during the day, with witnesses or with shared experiences, but more often than not these events take place at night, in the form of what is usually called a lucid dream, which leaves an exceptionally deep impression and feels much more real than a normal dream. What follows is an account of a perimortem experience from the Guggenheims’ book:
Tom and I grew up together. We were next-door neighbors, but I hadn’t seen him since he entered the priesthood. I lost complete contact with him and his family after I moved to Texas.
One night over ten years later, I woke out of a sound sleep. I saw Tom standing at the bottom of my bed in a Navy uniform! When I saw his uniform, I couldn’t believe it because I thought he was a Catholic priest! He said, “Good-bye, Melinda. I’m leaving now.” And he disappeared.
My husband woke up, and I told him what had happened. But he said I was just dreaming.
Three days later, I got a letter from my mother stating that Tom had just been killed in action. I also found out he had been a chaplain in the Navy!
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Postmortem Experiences
Another big taboo is talking about the sensation of contact with (the consciousness of) a deceased loved one during the weeks, months, or years after his or her death. This contact can consist of sensing a presence, feeling touched, or seeing the deceased person and is sometimes accompanied by communication, certain fragrances, or unexpected, “chance” incidents that are intuitively linked with the dead person. This postmortem experience is often so intensely emotional and coupled with an inner conviction that the experience or message derives from (the consciousness of) the deceased loved one that people initially struggle to accept that the experience actually took place. Any kind of systematic scientific research into postmortem experiences has so far proved impossible.
However, there is a great deal of anecdotal evidence; there are books from the United States as well as from the Netherlands and Belgium, and dozens of people have confided in me their experiences, often with great reticence and with the request for confidentiality. Tsjitske Waanders shares one of those postmortem experiences in her book: “I was aware, without seeing, hearing or touching, of my child next to me…. This awareness had nothing to do with reason. It was an intuitive awareness.”
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