Clinical Death
- Thread starter truestory
- Start date
I haven't, but my father was shot square through the back at Iwo Jima during WW2 while he and his buddies were scrambling out of a foxhole that was being overrun. He woke up while being stuffed into a body bag and says he remembers seeing Christ telling him to go back because it wasn't time yet. He had the whole tunnel of light thing, the feeling of people around him, and everything. He was sent back home, recovered, and returned to the front in plenty of time to finish the war and be onboard the Missouri to watch the Japs surrender. (Okay, that last part sounds a little bit like a Pecos Bill adventure summary, but he did see the war through to the end afterward.)
He tells me that up until that point the concept of life after death was something he left to the philosophers and theologians. What he saw on the other side was beyond description. All he can say is "Beautiful...so beautiful..."
He says that after his experience dying didn't seem like such a big deal. To this day he says that the only reason he does NOT want to die is because of family obligations, and not because of any fear of death. He feels that it actually made him a better fighter during the war, and afterwards he was able to deal with his feelings of guilt of having killed so many men because he knew that where they went to was not such a bad place. He became more conscious of the frail human condition and more observant of events around him and how life seemed like a web that, if just one strand was touched, the whole web felt the effect no matter how small. It was all intertwined. He had become a deep thinker, and not just some kid from a coal-mining town in Arizona whose only fate was to go home to a mining job and marry the girl his aunt had picked out for him.
To this day he has no fear of death itself, only concern about the circumstances left behind. In fact, he's working harder than ever to help my brothers and I get situated better (not easy to do in Silicon Valley, even with the whole family pitching in) so he can join my mother, who passed away in 1997.
Death, it seems, improved his quality of life.
He says that after his experience dying didn't seem like such a big deal. To this day he says that the only reason he does NOT want to die is because of family obligations, and not because of any fear of death. He feels that it actually made him a better fighter during the war, and afterwards he was able to deal with his feelings of guilt of having killed so many men because he knew that where they went to was not such a bad place. He became more conscious of the frail human condition and more observant of events around him and how life seemed like a web that, if just one strand was touched, the whole web felt the effect no matter how small. It was all intertwined. He had become a deep thinker, and not just some kid from a coal-mining town in Arizona whose only fate was to go home to a mining job and marry the girl his aunt had picked out for him.
To this day he has no fear of death itself, only concern about the circumstances left behind. In fact, he's working harder than ever to help my brothers and I get situated better (not easy to do in Silicon Valley, even with the whole family pitching in) so he can join my mother, who passed away in 1997.
Death, it seems, improved his quality of life.
Here I must object, untill fairly recently I thought that the clinical death experiences where some kind of proof that life after death existed. The reason was that there seemed to be some consistency in what those people told : the tunnel, the feeling of happiness, the light at the end.
The consistency however has a different origen, unfortunatly : the human brain ! Experiments with people who lose consciousness have shown very simular results as what happens with people who approach the rims of death. First of all the brain releases a highly effective morphine like hormone that takes away the panic and eventual pain, it also gives the subject a very pleasant feeling. Next thing the higher visual sectors of the brain begin to shoot random impulses since they lack coördination from the rest of the brain, these impulses are interpreted as lightpulses. Since our front nerves coming from our eye are the most sensitive it appears as if most of the light comes from a point in front of the subject, hence the tunnel effect.
I must say I was kind of disappointed myself when I learned of these experiments but on the other hand it just shows again that every way we try the gap between death and life is crossable only in one way.
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"If I have been able to see further, it was only because I stood on the shoulders of giants."
Isaac Newton
The consistency however has a different origen, unfortunatly : the human brain ! Experiments with people who lose consciousness have shown very simular results as what happens with people who approach the rims of death. First of all the brain releases a highly effective morphine like hormone that takes away the panic and eventual pain, it also gives the subject a very pleasant feeling. Next thing the higher visual sectors of the brain begin to shoot random impulses since they lack coördination from the rest of the brain, these impulses are interpreted as lightpulses. Since our front nerves coming from our eye are the most sensitive it appears as if most of the light comes from a point in front of the subject, hence the tunnel effect.
I must say I was kind of disappointed myself when I learned of these experiments but on the other hand it just shows again that every way we try the gap between death and life is crossable only in one way.
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"If I have been able to see further, it was only because I stood on the shoulders of giants."
Isaac Newton
Well, Plato,
If I see a tunnel of light and feel grand on my last breath I doubt very much I will be putting it down to morphine release and random impulses of light.
Here's a tip. Lighten up and enjoy the ride. It will be your last one so don't bother getting bogged down into the proffesori attitude of rationalizing the transition to death. It will just kill the buzz
Regards,
Dave.
P.S. How does one explain the conversations with people on the other side, that they have never met but in later discussions recounting the near-death experience, it ends up being a lost (passed on) sister or aunt etc??
[This message has been edited by Dave (edited September 29, 1999).]
If I see a tunnel of light and feel grand on my last breath I doubt very much I will be putting it down to morphine release and random impulses of light.
Here's a tip. Lighten up and enjoy the ride. It will be your last one so don't bother getting bogged down into the proffesori attitude of rationalizing the transition to death. It will just kill the buzz
Regards,
Dave.
P.S. How does one explain the conversations with people on the other side, that they have never met but in later discussions recounting the near-death experience, it ends up being a lost (passed on) sister or aunt etc??
[This message has been edited by Dave (edited September 29, 1999).]
Dave-I've read quite a bit on the subject and have never come up with a story where the subject meets an ancestor they had no prior knowledge of. I'd love to read a few however. Can you point me towards any of them?
I find myself in a funny position in regards to life after death. I believe in the morphine explanation, but I also believe in reincarnation. I've also got a story about a bird:
Right outside my front door I saw a sparrow flopping around on the ground. I thought one of my cats had wounded it and left it (such cruel, cruel kitties!) I went out to see if I could help, but finding no wounds on the poor bird I decided that it was in the process of dying and was fighting it off every step of the way. I sat with the bird, stroking it's feathers and whispering to it to let go. It finally calmed down for a minute or two and shut it's eyes. Suddenly the eyes flew wide open and looked very alert. The head lifted and the wings began to flap not in a panicked manner, but in the steady repetitions of flight. There was no doubt in my mind that this bird was going somewhere. It "flew" for maybe five seconds, then folded it's wings back against it's body, closed it's eyes and went to sleep for the last time. I buried it beneath a rose tree.
If you have time for one more story about what is seen at the moment of death, I was applying for a job at a convalescent hospital. While I was talking to the head nurse, an old woman tried to force her way out the front door. She was in a wheelchair, so stopping her was easy. She kept insisting that she had to catch a flight. Outside was nothing but a major thoroughfare filled with speeding traffic. She refused to accept this story and insisted that her plane was about to leave and she had to catch it. I grabbed a clipboard from the nurse's desk and walked up to the wheelchair. Kneeling by the old woman I looked at the clipboard, then at her. I told her that her flight was delayed because there was bad weather on the route we would be taking. I told her that the weather would last another 12 hours and that we would leave at the same time tomorrow. She calmed down instantly. I went back the following day and was informed by the head nurse that the old woman had died less than an hour before. "Whaddaya know?" I said. "She caught her flight."
I withdrew my application.
I find myself in a funny position in regards to life after death. I believe in the morphine explanation, but I also believe in reincarnation. I've also got a story about a bird:
Right outside my front door I saw a sparrow flopping around on the ground. I thought one of my cats had wounded it and left it (such cruel, cruel kitties!) I went out to see if I could help, but finding no wounds on the poor bird I decided that it was in the process of dying and was fighting it off every step of the way. I sat with the bird, stroking it's feathers and whispering to it to let go. It finally calmed down for a minute or two and shut it's eyes. Suddenly the eyes flew wide open and looked very alert. The head lifted and the wings began to flap not in a panicked manner, but in the steady repetitions of flight. There was no doubt in my mind that this bird was going somewhere. It "flew" for maybe five seconds, then folded it's wings back against it's body, closed it's eyes and went to sleep for the last time. I buried it beneath a rose tree.
If you have time for one more story about what is seen at the moment of death, I was applying for a job at a convalescent hospital. While I was talking to the head nurse, an old woman tried to force her way out the front door. She was in a wheelchair, so stopping her was easy. She kept insisting that she had to catch a flight. Outside was nothing but a major thoroughfare filled with speeding traffic. She refused to accept this story and insisted that her plane was about to leave and she had to catch it. I grabbed a clipboard from the nurse's desk and walked up to the wheelchair. Kneeling by the old woman I looked at the clipboard, then at her. I told her that her flight was delayed because there was bad weather on the route we would be taking. I told her that the weather would last another 12 hours and that we would leave at the same time tomorrow. She calmed down instantly. I went back the following day and was informed by the head nurse that the old woman had died less than an hour before. "Whaddaya know?" I said. "She caught her flight."
I withdrew my application.
No question mark about it, Girlie!
I have heard stories of that kind as well.
It scared the pants of me (well, almost! ) and the accounts were no pretty lights, tunnels or angels, but hellfire and damnation with screaming, writhing torment!
So much to learn, so little time.......
Dave.
I have heard stories of that kind as well.
It scared the pants of me (well, almost! ) and the accounts were no pretty lights, tunnels or angels, but hellfire and damnation with screaming, writhing torment!
So much to learn, so little time.......
Dave.
I've read a lot of near death accounts. If you just do a web search on "near death" you'll find a bunch of sites. There are also many books, of which I read "Embraced By The Light".
By the way Plato, that is really just weak. Such a stretch; I mean, really.
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God loves you and so do I!
By the way Plato, that is really just weak. Such a stretch; I mean, really.
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God loves you and so do I!
This isn't exactly on topic, but I think it's relevant.
My father's side of the family has somehow managed to keep a traditon of saying goodbye just after death. My great-grandfather died suddenly in an accident. My grandfather was in school, and daydreamed that his father came and said goodbye. When he went home from school, he told his mother who called her husband's work - they found him dead out in the field due to a tractor accident, time of death was right about the time grandpa was "daydreaming". When my grandfather died (of cancer, in the middle of the night) my father dreamt that his dad came and said goodbye. He wouldn't stay, and said he had to go. The next morning, the hospital called with the sad news - again time of death was perfect (they were only sleeping 2 or 3 hours at a time those nights, so it was easy to get a rough timeframe for the dream). When my dad told me this story, I got a chill. I think the reason he didn't stay and visit with my dad is because Grandpa had a lot of people to say goodbye to that night. I made my dad promise that he'd come say goodbye to me when he has to go. He said he will, and I believe him.
My father's side of the family has somehow managed to keep a traditon of saying goodbye just after death. My great-grandfather died suddenly in an accident. My grandfather was in school, and daydreamed that his father came and said goodbye. When he went home from school, he told his mother who called her husband's work - they found him dead out in the field due to a tractor accident, time of death was right about the time grandpa was "daydreaming". When my grandfather died (of cancer, in the middle of the night) my father dreamt that his dad came and said goodbye. He wouldn't stay, and said he had to go. The next morning, the hospital called with the sad news - again time of death was perfect (they were only sleeping 2 or 3 hours at a time those nights, so it was easy to get a rough timeframe for the dream). When my dad told me this story, I got a chill. I think the reason he didn't stay and visit with my dad is because Grandpa had a lot of people to say goodbye to that night. I made my dad promise that he'd come say goodbye to me when he has to go. He said he will, and I believe him.