What is an NDE?
An NDE occurs when an individual has been declared clinically dead due to having no brain waves, no heart-beat, dilated pupils and a cooling body temperature. However, in the case of NDE survivors, the individual spontaneously revives or is resuscitated after minutes, hours (or even in some cases, days), after clinical death.
In the western world, researchers and medical opinion have stated that the NDE is a phenomenon in its own right and is not caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain, drugs, or electrical stimulation to the frontal lobes of the brain.
Some medical opinion believes that death cannot truly be said to have occurred if the individual eventually revives, no matter how long he or she has been declared clinically dead. Medical opinion also believes that the brain is irreversibly damaged if it has been deprived of oxygen for longer than 9 or 10 minutes. Research of the near-death experience shows that amongst near-death experiencers there is full recall of what happened whilst were clinically dead. This has caused the medical world to research more fully into this phenomenon, and revise its views about death. Currently there are major medical research studies in the NDE field, completed in the US, the UK and the Netherlands.
In a national (US) survey published in 1990, George Gallup Jr. found that there were an estimated 22 million reported Near-Death Experiencers. The US population on 1st April 1990 was 248,709,873, which implies roughly about 1 in 11 people in the US had had an NDE. (For the population finder used, click here.)
The experiences of NDErs show some common elements. At the point of death or just before it, there is an Out-of-Body Experience (OBE) in which the individual separates from the body and is aware of this, and of the situation around the body, who is there, who said or did what, etc. Next there is usually an awareness of a darkness or a dark tunnel, and through the darkness there is a light, which on being approached is found to emanate from an evolved Being. The Light fills the individual (NDEr) with unconditional love, and most do not want to leave this Light, but are told they have to return to their physical bodies, in order to complete the mission they had undertaken in life.
The real trauma of positive-experience NDErs, is in coming back to life, not leaving it. They have to learn to integrate their new spiritual understanding with their old way of life, and sometimes this readjustment takes years. Also, there is still a lot of general public ignorance about the NDE, which means that often the NDEr is not properly understood or taken seriously, and does not receive the right kind of help and support. Often the way of thinking and the concept of life has naturally changed for the NDEr, but this has not been understood or acknowledged by those who are close to, or work with, the NDEr.
Not all NDErs have positive experiences, and to date there is not very much research on distressing NDEs. On the Resources page, there is a link that gives more info on this.
In the western world, researchers and medical opinion have stated that the NDE is a phenomenon in its own right and is not caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain, drugs, or electrical stimulation to the frontal lobes of the brain.
Some medical opinion believes that death cannot truly be said to have occurred if the individual eventually revives, no matter how long he or she has been declared clinically dead. Medical opinion also believes that the brain is irreversibly damaged if it has been deprived of oxygen for longer than 9 or 10 minutes. Research of the near-death experience shows that amongst near-death experiencers there is full recall of what happened whilst were clinically dead. This has caused the medical world to research more fully into this phenomenon, and revise its views about death. Currently there are major medical research studies in the NDE field, completed in the US, the UK and the Netherlands.
In a national (US) survey published in 1990, George Gallup Jr. found that there were an estimated 22 million reported Near-Death Experiencers. The US population on 1st April 1990 was 248,709,873, which implies roughly about 1 in 11 people in the US had had an NDE. (For the population finder used, click here.)
The experiences of NDErs show some common elements. At the point of death or just before it, there is an Out-of-Body Experience (OBE) in which the individual separates from the body and is aware of this, and of the situation around the body, who is there, who said or did what, etc. Next there is usually an awareness of a darkness or a dark tunnel, and through the darkness there is a light, which on being approached is found to emanate from an evolved Being. The Light fills the individual (NDEr) with unconditional love, and most do not want to leave this Light, but are told they have to return to their physical bodies, in order to complete the mission they had undertaken in life.
The real trauma of positive-experience NDErs, is in coming back to life, not leaving it. They have to learn to integrate their new spiritual understanding with their old way of life, and sometimes this readjustment takes years. Also, there is still a lot of general public ignorance about the NDE, which means that often the NDEr is not properly understood or taken seriously, and does not receive the right kind of help and support. Often the way of thinking and the concept of life has naturally changed for the NDEr, but this has not been understood or acknowledged by those who are close to, or work with, the NDEr.
Not all NDErs have positive experiences, and to date there is not very much research on distressing NDEs. On the Resources page, there is a link that gives more info on this.