Characteristics and and Example of NDEs
Near Death Experiences Are Universal and Have Common Features
Sep 11, 2008
Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross was the pioneer in the field of dying, death and transition. She spent years working with people who were dying and did in-depth research about life after death. Dr. Raymond Moody is the pioneer in NDEs, a term which he coined. He listed its characteristics. Not all events are experienced by all people.
Some of the experiences are parallel to parapsychology’s survival theory, the belief that a part of the human survives the death of the physical body. What lives on is called by various names, including spirit, apparition, entity and others.
NDE Characteristics
- People heard themselves pronounced dead. Some were able to give details of conversations they heard while unconscious.
- There were pleasant feelings. Pain was gone.
- Noises were heard, including bells, loud ringing, buzzing, clicking, banging, roaring and music.
- Experients went through a dark tunnel.
- Out of body experiences, OBEs, often happened. People found themselves floating and being able to go through solid objects.
- They met deceased loved ones and guardian spirits.
- Meeting the Being of Light or encounters with a brilliant light not experienced on earth.
- A rapid, vivid and detailed life review occurred.
- There is a border that from which, if crossed, there is no return.
- Going back into the body was experienced. Some are reluctant, but are told it’s not their time.
- There’s difficulty in talking about the NDE. While reluctant to discuss it, experients are profoundly affected. They have reflections and more concern with spiritual and/or philosophical matters.
- Death is no longer feared. There’s a new sense of life’s mission; suicide, rejected.
One Man’s NDE
Dr. Kubler-Ross related what was her most unforgettable case. She had prayed that someone who had an NDE would share it with her. She finished a talk to a Santa Barbara hospice group when the organizer handed her a note. A man in the bowery wanted to share his NDE with her and the audience.
He had been looking forward to a family reunion. His parents-in-law, wife and eight children were in a van that was to pick him up when they were in an accident with no survivors. After this, he was in a state of total shock. He stopped working and was unable to communicate. The man drank a half-a-gallon of whisky daily and tried heroin and other drugs to numb his pain and to commit suicide. He became homeless.
He lived like this for two years. One day, he was intoxicated and lying on a dirt road at the forest’s edge. He desperately wanted to be reunited with his family, no longer wanting to live. A large truck headed towards him. He didn’t have the energy to move.
The man was critically injured and observed the accident scene from a few feet above. His family appeared in front of him, in an aura of light. Communication was thought transference. They shared with him the joy and happiness of their existence.
He was profoundly affected by his family’s acceptance of their transition and their unconditional love. He vowed to re-enter his physical body so that he could share his NDE with people. He was taken to the emergency room and returned to his physical body, tore off the straps that bound him and walked out of the emergency room. He never had any aftereffects from the drugs and alcohol abuse. He was healed and shared.
Related article:
Apparitions: Intelligent Ghosts
Sources:
Life After Life, Moody, Raymond A., Jr., M.D. (Atlanta: MockingbirdBooks, 1975)
On Death and Dying, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, (Published by Routledge, 1973)
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