Near-Death Experiences as Evidence for the Existence of God and Heaven: A Brief Introduction in Plain Language (6 page)

Doctors
Sabom and Spetzler (director of the Barrow Neurological Institute) confirmed
the accuracy of what she both heard and saw in the operating room. Even if
portions of her near death experience took place during general anesthesia
rather than after the blood was drained, this vivid, accurate experience
occurred while she was heavily sedated, with her brain monitored in three ways
to ensure that she was deeply anesthetized. Before the draining of the blood, her
eyes were taped shut. A loud clicking at a rate of 11 to 33 clicks per second continually
assaulted her ears. The volume of the clicks, between 90 to 100 decibels, has
been likened to the sound of a subway train, a whistling teakettle, or a lawn
mower. Even if the sedation failed, the clicking would prevent her from hearing
and the tape would keep her from seeing. How could she have known these things
unless she was observing them outside of her body?
(18)   

If mental
functions present themselves as remarkably clear, lucid, and even enhanced,
(19)
while the brain is severely compromised, the afterlife hypothesis (the mind
can exist independently from the brain) would seem to fit the data better than
a naturalistic hypothesis (mental functions are produced solely by the
brain).   

Exhibit
#3
- The presence of remarkably consistent, yet unexpected
elements, are not what we’d predict from a psychologically induced dream state.
 

Remarkable
Consistency

Dreams
differ wildly from individual to individual. So why the remarkable consistency
of NDEs, if they’re simply dream states?

Reflect
upon the random nature of dreams. If 20 people go to sleep agitated, some may indeed
have dreams that reflect agitation, but each dream would likely be completely
different. One dreams of hanging out with an obnoxious person. Another dreams
of camping out in poison ivy.

We’d
be shocked and mystified if we interviewed hundreds of people who fell asleep
agitated and find that 95 percent of them reported a uniform dream – like living
in a large city inhabited by zombies. We’d be even more mystified if they
reported uniform zombie characteristics that differed from typical zombie
movies, such as “all zombies in my dream communicated via tapping Morse code on
each other’s shoulders.” With no expectations of such strange behavior, the
uniform experience would likely defy explanation.
(20)
  

That’s
why there’s something very odd about what Moody refers to as the “striking
similarity”
(21)
of NDE reports. What people experience on the other side
forms a pretty consistent picture of life in another dimension. Why such
consistency, if it’s nothing more than a dream state? While the reports are
personalized (for example, the content of their conversations and the familiar
relatives they see) they are remarkably consistent regarding the specific,
often unexpected nature of this otherworldly life.

As
Dr. Rawlings writes:

“The remarkable repetitive sequence of
events and parallel experiences in completely unrelated cases seem to exclude
the possibility of any coincidence or connecting circumstances during this
out-of-the-body existence.”
(22)  

Unexpected
Details

If
NDEs were merely vivid dreams that resulted from people’s expectations
concerning death, I’d expect a close correspondence between people’s
expectations and what they actually report.

Yet,
most of what they report was totally unexpected. Who would expect the typical experience
of communicating directly mind-to-mind rather than using the medium of
language? Who expects to encounter a dimension where both time and space seem
to vanish, where they can see both up close and far away with equal clarity,
and view an entire lifetime in an instant? A bright light might be expected by
some, but who expects the common experience of not having to squint while
looking at the extreme brightness? 

If
such consistent elements were due to people’s expectations, those reporting
NDEs should typically report that they experienced precisely what they were
expecting. But they don’t. Who would possibly be expecting such odd things,
unless they’ve studied NDE literature and believed the reports?

Yet
among Van Lommel’s subjects, 43 percent hadn’t even
heard
of NDEs, much
less believed in them.
(23)
Those who are aware of NDEs, believe in their
reality, and expect one to occur would seem to comprise an extremely small
percentage of the population, especially in a land like Holland, where more
than half of the population “is relatively confident that death is the end of
everything.”
(24)
Thus, the average Dutch patient would have the
expectation of seeing absolutely nothing after death.

And
remember, NDEs weren’t widely reported prior to Moody’s study, so that it’s
very unlikely that any of his subjects had heard of NDEs. Moody actually coined
the phrase, “near-death experience.”

Moody
(later confirmed by other researchers) noted 15 specific, common elements that
people reported with remarkable consistency. (The 11 elements I mention below
actually take place
during
the NDE.) As I reflect upon the list, I find
that all of these elements have qualities that differ significantly from what
I’m expecting when I die. I’d suggest that I’m fairly typical of mainstream
religious Americans here, representative of many of those studied by Moody.

Again,
please note that my expectations, as well as almost anyone who comes near death,
would be of a
final
death rather than a
near-death
experience.
Surely nobody comes to the brink of death thinking, “I’m about to die and come
back to life!” 

So
here are the common elements of an NDE as observed by Moody, contrasted with my
differing expectations.

·
        
Ineffability
- Before studying NDEs, I
assumed that if I had such an experience, I could pretty easily describe it to
others.  

·
        
Hearing a doctor or someone saying I am dead -
I
don’t expect to hear this.

·
        
Feelings of peace and quiet -
After
death and before some sort of judgment, I’d expect some combination of incredible
excitement and a severe case of the jitters, certainly not the complete state
of peace reported in NDEs.  

·
        
Hearing a noise
- A buzz or ringing. No
expectation of this.

·
        
The dark tunnel -
Heard of it, but not expecting
it.

·
        
Out of the body -
Yes, I expect to be out of
my earthly body, but not in my hospital room, near those who are still living,
looking down at my body from the ceiling. 

·
        
Meeting others -
Yes, I expect to meet
people who’ve died before me, but after some kind of meeting with God. I have
no expectation of communicating with beings directly from mind to mind. I
picture speaking and hearing in English, since that’s my native language.  

·
        
The being of light -
I expect to meet
God, but picture Him as having bodily features (face, arms, hands) rather than
just light.

·
        
The life review -
I expect some sort of
reward for deeds done while on earth, but not the type of life review that
people are reporting – with no sense of time, almost reliving it rather than
just watching in a detached way, experiencing all the feelings of those I
impacted when I see myself doing things. I also expect this to come
after
a word from God about Jesus’ atonement. (Were my sins truly forgiven?) 

·
        
A border or limit -
I don’t expect to
come to a place where I feel that if I go beyond, I’ll have to stay.

·
        
Coming back -
I don’t expect to return to
my body after I die. I’m expecting a final exam, not a midterm.

So
when people say, “An NDE is no more than a vivid dream caused by people’s
expectations of the hereafter,” I couldn’t disagree more. It’s not at all what
I would expect; neither does it seem to be what the vast majority of others
expect. Moody concurs: 

“…what is most generally reported is
manifestly not what is commonly imagined, in our cultural milieu, to happen to
the dead.”
(25)  

And
since many of the people didn’t even know they were dying, how can those be
deemed psychologically induced?
(26)

People
hold widely diverse beliefs about what will happen immediately following death.
Several studies have found that that beliefs prior to the NDE didn’t impact
whether people had an NDE or not – neither prior knowledge of NDEs, their
religious beliefs, nor their standard of education.
(27)
Many who had
NDEs didn’t have a prior believe in life after death at all. According to van
Lommel,

“Any kind of religious belief, or its
absence in nonbelievers and atheists, was irrelevant….”
(28)  

It’s
typical for people to report repeatedly how astounded they were at what they
experienced, underscoring how totally unexpected many of their experiences
were.
(29)

·
        
Van
Lommel speaks of the “utter amazement” people report concerning such elements
as being in the hospital room, out of their bodies, without people being able
to hear or see them.
(30)  

·
        
One
subject reported, “Now, this whole thing had just astounded me, took me
completely by surprise.”
(31)  

The
combination of astounding consistency with unexpected details seems much more
consistent with actually visiting the other side (the spiritual hypothesis),
rather than a vivid dream brought about by expectations (a naturalistic
hypothesis).

Exhibit
#4 – NDEs aren’t abruptly interrupted, distinguishing them from dreams and
hallucinations

This
is related to Exhibit #3, but perhaps deserves special treatment. For a week or
so, reflect upon your dreams immediately upon awakening. Did your dreams typically
end with closure, like the end of a movie, or were they interrupted mid story upon
awakening?   

Analyzing
my own dreams over a period of months, I found that all of them stopped
mid-stream, often in the middle of a sentence. There was no closure. A story
would be developing, a conversation would be taking place, but then it would
cut off abruptly when I woke up. And if you think about it, that’s precisely
what we would expect of dreams and hallucinations. They should end when we wake
or return to reality, regardless of where they are in the story line,
because
dreams aren’t timed to end when we wake.

If
NDEs were either dreams or hallucinations, wouldn’t we expect them to end
abruptly, when sedation is discontinued or when the heartbeat is restored?   

Yet,
NDEs bear more resemblance to movie endings than dream endings. Meg Ryan finds
the perfect guy. They fall in love and move into their dream home. The end. We’d
be shocked if the film cut off abruptly, mid plot, mid sentence. Why? Because movie
story lines aren’t random – they’re planned, scripted, designed to end with
closure.   

Moody
identified “coming back” as one of the common elements of NDEs.
(32)
In
Long’s study, most of his NDErs reported being involved in their decision to
return to their bodies.
(33)
As Sabom reported, “In the majority of
cases, this ‘return’ was either influenced or directed by another spiritual
being.”
(34)  

This
seemed significant to me. Yet, I wondered, what of the reports where there was
no discussion about coming back? Did they cut off mid sentence and find
themselves abruptly back in their bodies? Although I’d never run across a case
like that, perhaps they were common but researchers never reported them. I
decided to research it myself.