Page 4 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - February 2014 Edition

Looking Into Death “Through the study of the NDE (Near-Death Experience), psychology and science have shown that even the mysteries of death and the Great Beyond can be evaluated with scientific rigor.” D. Scott Rogo, The Return from Silence. In 1978, a 52-year-old night watchman suffered his second massive heart attack and his second near-death experience (NDE). Almost incredibly, he felt as if he had left the confines of his body and found himself looking down at his own heart operation. He later described in extraordinary detail what he saw the surgeons doing: equipment that sends a burst of electricity “They took some stitches inside me first through the heart to control a rapid or These NDE’s terrify patients and make them before they did the outside…the heart doesn’t uncoordinated heartbeat), Dr. Sabom wrote that glad to return to life. Some patients, however, look like I thought it did. It’s big. And this is this was “not something he could have observed report a negative NDE followed by a blissful after the doctor had taken little pieces off it… unless he had actually seen the instrument in experience, which suggest a kind of instant [The surface was] pinkish and yellow. I thought use.” purgatory. This aspect of NDE research is hotly the yellow part was fat tissue or something. contested. Some researchers, such as Dr. Yucky, kind of. One general area to the right…I Likely subjects Sabom, deny the very existence of the negative could draw you a picture of the saw and the experience, and it certainly takes some of the thing they used to separate the ribs with. It was Within a couple of years, Dr. Sabom had comfort out of the idea of NDE’s. There seems always there…It was draped all around, but you collated his findings and felt confident enough to be no known rule that decides who has which could see the metal part of it. I think all they to state that between 27 and 42 percent of type of experience, although Grey and Rawlings used that for was to keep it constantly open.” resuscitated patients report an NDE. He also report that attempted suicides seem to suffer The patient also claimed to have noted that patients who were unconscious for more negative NDE’s. The study of the NDE overheard the surgeons’ technical discussion more than 60 seconds were more likely to have only started in the 1970’s, and it is becoming about what they were planning to do, which he NDE’s than those who were brought back to obvious that the published findings represent was able to report in detail following the consciousness quickly. only the tip of the iceberg. Many thousands, operation. But perhaps the most amazing details Dr. Sabom confirmed that the stories arguably millions, of ordinary people may have were his observations that one doctor had blood recounted by people who had experienced an had an NDE and kept quiet about it, being under one fingernail and that the other wore NDE were often astonishingly similar. While fearful of ridicule or because the experience was patent leather shoes! their consciousness was separated from their just too intimate to share with others. bodies, subjects regularly reported feeling Inexplicable observations detached from, and able to observe, their A common encounter unconscious form. Many also stated that they It was the details of NDE’s such as this, where had been taken on a mystical journey from The researchers are sensibly cautious about the patient correctly described the medical which they were extremely reluctant to return. declaring any hard-and-fact conclusions at this procedure used in his own operation, that Dr. Moody’s own research, and that of stage in their studies, but some major finding persuaded Dr. Michael Sabom, of the University all the subsequent workers in this new field, have emerged. The NDE is certainly an of Florida, that the phenomenon could not be leads inescapably to the conclusion that there is experience shared by many normal people. If explained away easily. a distinct pattern to the NDE, something that Dr. the NDE does not confirm the existence of In 1976, prompted by the pioneering Kenneth Ring’s study underlined. He concluded another realm beyond death, it clearly does work of Dr. Raymond Moody, Dr, Sabom, that the NDE unfolds in sequential stages, and show that there are certain aspects of the human together with their psychiatric social worker the more deeply the patient enters the NDE, the imagination and workings of the mind never Sarah Kreutziger, decided to try to find people more stages he or she experiences. previously anticipated. The experience appears who had just NDE’s among his own hospital not to depens on any religious background, but patients. At the outset Dr. Sabom was by no The dark side on some consistent reality. It does not rely on means convinced of the authenticity of the our knowledge of the experience, for as Dr. NDE, and he expected to find a rational In Britain, psychologist Dr. Margot Grey Sabom and Dr. Grey have shown, those who scientific explanation for the phenomenon. amassed evidence for the NDE that seemed to know about NDE’s are less likely to have them, Sabom and Kreutziger did not have a long time parallel the work of the American researcher. or at least less likely to remember and report to wait for their first near-deather, and their She became interested in the subject after them. It seems not even to rely on our individual findings among early subjects were quite having had her own NDE while touring India in wishful thinking or vivid imagination, for the dramatic. 1976. Dr Grey took 18 months to assess the case experiences of prosaic adults and young The third resuscitated patient they talked histories of 41 subjects from Britain and the children are very much the same. to reported a classic NDE, one that almost U.SA. Much of her research replicated the idea tallied with those reported by Dr. Moody. of the “classic” NDE, where blissful sensations Continued on Page 5 Dr Sabom went on to study a large number of and heavenly figures give comfort. But there NDE’s, including seven cases like that of the was a frightening difference. She also had Now You Can Listen To night watchman, where near-deathers correctly discovered that a significant proportion of near- The ‘X’ Zone Radio/TV Show described surgical procedures. In one of these deathers reported “negative” experiences, cases, a near-deather remembered the highly something that cardiologist Dr. Michael with Radio by Telephone technical use of a defibrillator (a piece of Rawlings had found also. 213-401-0080