Until now, because of a lack of evidence, near-death experiences, NDEs, have been dismissed by many as non-existent fantasy, but American researchers have concluded that when a human is dying there is a dramatic raising of consciousness often accompanied by the visions reported by people who have come close to death, but who have survived. There is increased brain activity in dying animals, too, which is important to recognise.
While the scientists can explain the mechanics of consciousness at death, they admit they cannot understand the lights, the flashings, the white tunnels, the guides, the journey, the life memories and the joy which are the hallmarks of so many reported NDEs; it is good they cannot, for while this is a time of spiritual revelation, the world, the human world, is not ready for evidential proof of the truth of Spirit: that truth is so remarkable, and so far beyond the stories in the Bible, it would be shocking and dismissed.
The study on near-death reports that the brain, at clinical death, actually is more active than in a normal waking state. The researchers do not mention soul or Spirit, of course, but it is at this time that the soul is disengaging from the body, its vehicle of expression and experience for the lifetime, and is beginning to move to the higher dimensions; the individual is between life and death, earth and Heaven, and the veils which have obscured his or her spiritual memory are coming away with the raising of consciousness. The NDE visions are part of the new reality, not imagination but lucid truth.
Sceptics question the findings of the study already, of course, one “expert” saying they may apply to rats but not to humans, and another saying that it is just that the brain becomes over-excited at death. There is so much fear still about dying, life after death and about anything meaningful that cannot be explained, which is such a pity when mystery and the unknown, and the hints of the truth of Spirit, can bring such richness.
I have written extensively about what happens when we die, and the soul journey, in my book,
Spiritual Wisdom, available from Amazon and all good bookshops.
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G'day, Claire! 🙂
When I was finishing my masters degree online, my first attempt at the final masters project was adding a new chapter to William James' Varieties of Religious Experience - by discussing Near Death experiences (NDE's). That did not go over too well with the reductionist psychology professor I had at the time: I found myself subjected to passive aggression for such audacity on my part. That was in 2006.
Suffice it to say that, quite often in mainstream Psychology, some people are not really *dying* to discuss NDE's. 🙂
Thank you, William. Another example of prejudice and narrow-mindedness!
That's quite true, Claire, and it can account for some nasty political headwinds I've encountered at times in academe. David Bohm and Basil Hiley discussed the topic of prejudice that they encountered with regard to the concept of nonlocality in physics in their book *The Undivided Universe* (a book which I used when I completed my final masters project on the subject of human electromagnetic energy fields as a means of diagnosing mental illness and helping to smoke out terrorist suspects in conjunction with Carl Gustav Jung's method of word association as a psychometric test). They traced the prejudice back to the Renaissance, when science wanted to get away from 'magical thinking, as it were, and head off into less cloudy horizons. René Descartes exemplifies this mindset when he disparages astrology in his *Discours de la méthode*.
When Descartes did his disparaging act, however, he was ignorant about gravity being considered in light of contemporary string theory, or as wave functions in Bohm and Hiley's conception of physical reality as previously discussed. Einstein laid the groundwork for this approach when he discussed relativity and gravity in the same breath by referring to gravity as waves, as I recall. Within this context, planetary influences can be considered as wave functions that influence us all, thereby giving credence to astrology - especially when you consider the spine as an 'aerial', as Australian clinical psychologist Louise Samways describes in her book *Your Mindbody Energy* (which can be found at http://www.louisesamways.com.au).
In other words, mainstream science has been living a lie.
As science and spirituality begin to merge in earnest, however, that lie will eventually dissipate. As with intolerance and hate in the midwestern United States, it seems that it will be quite a slog, however.
Thank you - all so interesting. And as there is more spiritual "proof" coming through, scientists will be forced to accept there is more to life than matter.