Something inexplicable happens at the point of death as the person who is about to fully experience it has one foot in this world and one on the other side. Many surviving relatives and caregivers share stories of deathbed visions, accounts of watching their ailing loved ones and patients communicate with invisible beings and relatives in the days preceding their deaths.
If we decide to believe these deathbed vision stories we can ascertain that there may be life after life. An even greater mystery follows what we witness when our relatives pass on- what exactly happens beyond the last breath.
Some people claim to know the answer to this ominous question. With the popularity of books like Life After Life by Raymond Moody and Embraced By The Light by Betty J. Eadie, it is becoming more acceptable to discuss experiences that were once deemed symptoms of mental illness.
Near death experiences, or NDE’s are stories of experiences that happen to people who believe they were clinically dead for a short period of time and were revived, bearing a memory of a journey they took outside of their bodies.
The International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) website lists hundreds of such accounts. After reading and analyzing nearly 300 near death experience submissions from the IANDS website, one could easily find several common threads woven through these stories submitted by people from all walks of life and in many different countries. The commonalities were astounding, each one building upon the details left by the others like scattered footprints leading to a hidden treasure.
Most Near Death Experiences Share These Common Traits
1. The catalyst for the near death experience is almost usually an accident (or suicide attempt) that leaves the person in critical condition.
2. At the point of “death” the person feels as though they slip out of their body and hover just above the scene of their demise, watching what goes on with their body but feeling no attachment to the body at all. They are instantly and completely relieved of the pain they were experiencing moments before. They listen to the doctors/rescue workers/witnesses talk and notice details about the room from a vantage point that they could not see if they were in their body.
3. The person realizes they are dead and accepts their death without remorse. They allow their spirit or soul to float away, usually into a tunnel or toward a bright light that they report feeling magnetized toward.
4. The “light” is usually described as bright, warm and comforting but it can also be a small dot that grows bigger. It is often described as ‘brighter than the sun’ yet it doesn’t hurt to look at it.
5. As they go toward the light they experience watching scenes from their life shown as images on a screen and some report feelings of shame or guilt from some of their life choices. There is no judgment from a higher being, only self judgment is reported.
6. The “light” which is soon recognizable as a being, even if not shaped in a human form, encourages them and comforts them, sometimes embracing them and they feel the most blissful and content, peaceful and pleasured than they could ever imagine or describe.
7. They often refer to this light/being as God, Jesus, Christ. Some refer to it as female or genderless but most refer to it as male. Sometimes it has physical features like a human and they describe it as having golden skin or blue eyes, wearing robes, having a beard, etc. None of the physical descriptions were exactly the same.
8. All report that there is no concept of ‘time’ as we know it.
9. Most often the person reports experiencing being filled with infinite wisdom or being able to talk to someone who answers all of their questions about life, existence and God. None of the communication is verbal. Most describe it as a transfer of ideas from mind to mind without using their mouths or voices.
10. The most common question asked to the light/angel is: What is the purpose of life? The most common answer was: To help each other. The most interesting answer I read was: Life was created for the entertainment of the spiritual realm. The most prevalent wisdom gained during an NDE: We are all one.
11. Any additional wisdom is typically forgotten once they are back in their bodies but the experience remains more vivid that this human reality.
12. Sometimes a deceased relative will show up to deliver a message – “It’s not your time” and tell the person they have to go back. Other times a ‘being’ will deliver the message or even the “light” itself will tell them that it’s not their time to be there.
13. Most often the person who just died will try to convince their deceased relative/God/Jesus/light that they don’t want to go back to their earthly body because it is so wonderful in death and so loving and peaceful. Sometimes the person does not want to go with the light because they are attached to their new family/want to do more things in their physical bodies/feel their family needs their help.
14. Most often the light/God/deceased relative etc, will tell the person who just died that their work is not complete on earth. A few times they actually showed the person their mission in life to convince them that they had to come back to complete it. Apparently every living person has a purpose in life.
15. Often there is a beautiful garden, a high wall, a door or some type of barrier that the person having the experience understands is the threshold of death.
16. Sometimes a panel of beings will appear to confer about the whether or not the person stays or goes.
17. Most often the person experiencing the NDE is given the power to decide for themselves whether they stay in the spiritual realm or return to earth.
18. The person who does not want to return but has been persuaded to do so will reluctantly agree to go back to their body and is whisked away at a high speed back through the way they came and into their body, often experiencing pain immediately.
19. There were very few reports of near death experiences that involved evil or the concepts of hell or punishment.
20. Most report healing miraculously and quickly from their ailments following an NDE.
21. Most report having pre cognition, visions of events that come to pass or being able to feel or hear deceased relatives or friends following an NDE.
22. Some report depression after the NDE because they realize that life does not compare to the bliss of death. There is absolutely no fear of death reported after an NDE.
23. Most report giving up on religion following an NDE because they believe religion is limiting and unsatisfying.
24. Nearly all report being told they were crazy if they bothered to share their NDE story. Because of this, they only shared it with people who were grieving or close to death as a way to comfort them.
25. Most NDE survivors go on to careers of service like teaching, counseling, medicine, lots of healers, reiki practitioners and lots of yoga instructors.
