168. Near Death Experiences 1

0:24 The world is full of incredible mysteries, but one mystery seems to be the one that stands above the rest. Many people have their beliefs, and those beliefs stem into different paths that attempt to answer life's biggest question. No matter if you consider yourself to be religious, spiritual and atheist or agnostic, or even a person of science, chances are that you have a belief when it comes to the answer to this enormous and elusive question. What happens when we die? Roughly 5% of people will experience an event that leaves themselves clinically dead or so close to death that they believe they witnessed a glimpse of what truly occurs to our consciousness after our life expires. Throughout time, details such as a third person view of your dying body, a white light, an incredible utopia, a processing center, a regrouping with lost loved ones, an incredible presence, increased power of senses, a bright light, and a boundary that if you crossed, means that you will forever leave your physical body on Earth and continue on into your next chapter.

1:27 But no matter what the experience was, it seems that those that go through this claim that this is an experience unlike any other. It's an experience of something that human languages fall short of being able to successfully describe. A word of perfection, belong, understanding and clarity. On the surface, many look at this phenomenon as a modern event brought on by the popularity of the subject after the publishing of the 1975 book Life Afterlife by Doctor Raymond Moody, which in turn spawned many different forms of entertainment to flood the pop culture world with references and stories involving tales of the afterlife. They point to this and claim that it is nothing more than a way for those that crave attention to get their fix, saying that the phenomenon is simply a tool in order for quote UN quote experiencers to get their 15 minutes of fame that they so desperately seek.

2:20 But the truth is that documentation, this phenomenon goes back way further than 1975. Ancient and medieval documentation does exist of accounts in which a person died only to be revived and tell their stories of how they watched themselves in their final throes of death and saw loved ones who passed on in previous years. We cover all this and much more today when we dive into the mystery of the near death experience. Welcome back to infinite rabbit hole. Imagine. This line represents the time present, 1985 Future Past prior to this point in time, Somewhere in the past, the timeline you've gone into this tangent, creating an alternate 1985 alternate. Welcome back to the Infinite Rat Hole podcast. I'm your host Jeremy, and today we're going to be diving into the world of the Near Death Experience. Actually, we're going to dive into it twice. This episode end up being a little on the long side, so I'm going to split this up into two,

3:51 let's we'll say shorter episodes. I think they're going to be about 25 minutes apiece. Either way, this is an absolutely incredible topic and it's really tough to explain because I have never had a topic that touched me or changed my perception of things in a way that the Near Death Experience has. It is just absolutely mind blowing. We may be part of something completely bigger that we may not actually just be living our actual lives. Yeah, this ties a little into the simulation theory and other really cool stuff like that. But, you know, for the most part, just looking at this in the nutshell that it is, it really makes you think. Really, really does.

4:35 And travelers, I just want to say that if you're listening to this episode and you have an NDE, something along these lines, please let us know. We'd actually love to have you up in the episode and talk to you about it. We want to hear it. Want to hear what you went through? Without further ado, just go ahead and slap a 5 star rating on this podcast if you will. It would mean the world and enjoy travellers. I'll see you on the other side. What is an NDE? There are no widely accepted definitions of what an NDE actually is, so let's start with the acronym itself.

5:17 NDE stands for Near Death Experience, and those that experience these near death events are referred to as NDERS or Near Death Experiencers. The term near Death experience was first coined in the 1975 book Life Afterlife by Doctor Raymond Moody, and according to the book Evidence of the Afterlife by Doctor Jeffrey Long, the definition that his organization, the Near Death Experience Research Foundation, or NDERF, assigns to Ndes is quote events that take place as a person is dying or indeed is already clinically dead. According to the NDERF website, over 5300 experiencers have contributed to their purpose by answering questionnaires that help the organization determine key factors of each experience and the similarities that they have with each other.

6:03 One such questionnaire being what they refer to as the NDE Scale questions, which consists of 16 questions about the content of their experience, which when fully answered helps the NDERF determine the severity or scale of their experience. Through questionnaires such as this, the organization was able to determine that there are 12 elements that commonly occur during an NDE. Now not every NDE will have every one of these elements, but at least one of them shows up in seemingly most events, these being one. Out of body experience 2. Heightened senses 3. Intense positive emotions 4. Passing through a tunnel 5.

6:44 Brilliant Light Six other beings 7. The Feeling of Time and Space being altered 8A. Life review 9. Heavenly Realms 10. Learning Special Knowledge 11A. Boundary and 12A. Return to the Body. Also in Long's book, Evidence of the Afterlife, Long highlights the nine reasons why he, as a scientifically minded person, believes that there is in fact life after death. One, the lucid experience 2 The out of body experience 3. Ndes occur during times in which they shouldn't. 4IN possible consciousness. 5 perfect playback of life events. 6 reunion with others. 7 Similarities no matter of the age 8.

7:30 Consistency across the world and its cultures. And nine Ndes are life changing. Now, after the next section, we'll dive into these specific reasons that Long highlights a little bit more the skeptic view. Before we dive into the bulk of this presentation, I want to take a second to discuss the skeptic side of things. When it comes to the authenticity of the near death experience, it is important to understand that there are plenty of people in the world, most of which are scientists in varying fields of research, that do not believe that the NDE is a real thing. One of the first arguments that are pointed out by Long in his book Evidence of the Afterlife is the Oprah hypothesis that points to her show as a major influence in people reporting their quote UN quote false Ndes.

8:14 Skeptics claim that this is one of the strongest proofs that the NDE is nothing more than a popularity contest that was brought on by Oprah in her show that glorifies the NDE, which leaves many wanting to claim one as their own to garnish attention for themselves. There are a few skeptics in academia who point towards those who experience an NDE as suffering from an either temporary bout of or undiagnosed case of mental disorder known as schizophrenia. This is in response to experiencers mentioning hearing a voice or many voices talking with them or sharing information non verbally and their recounting of events. But as Doctor Bruce Grayson pointed out, those that suffer from schizophrenia tend to be scared, anxious and wanting to get away from the voices over their episodes.

9:01 But those that experience an NDE thrive to understand their events and most go as far as seeking those that study the phenomenon for answers. Then there are those that point to Ndes as no more than being influenced by a society that glorifies religion. Long points to Harvard trained theologian Carol Zaleski, who he quotes from a book titled The Skeptics Dictionary by Robert Todd Carroll as saying quote and the stories are now known to a large audience. Thus, when new stories are told about going into the light, et cetera, one has to be concerned that these stories may have been contaminated. They may reflect what one has heard and what one expects. Then there are those that are a part of a certain religious group that claim that the entire near death experience phenomenon is the work of Satan himself.

9:50 Another critical point that many scientific minded skeptics point to in their arguments about Ndes and their authenticity is the idea that many elements such as the life review are simple survival defense mechanisms that our brain uses when facing the scariest parts of our lives. They specifically call out the possibility of the brain may be firing off one last grand finale of electrical pulses in the area of the brain responsible for memory that very well could be perceived to the one who is witnessing the flashback. As a life review, one of the biggest mysteries when it comes to Ndes, which we will talk about in length later in the presentation, is the seemingly fact that people under anaesthesia also experience Ndes when their consciousness is supposed to be temporarily but completely lost. The skeptic's claim here is that there are cases in which the amount of the drug is not correct and there may be too little properly administered in order to correctly leave the patient completely unconscious.

10:45 As for the out of body experience that is claimed by so many NDERS, the common skeptic claim here is that this is nothing more than a fragmented memory pieced together by a mind that is so good at doing just that. Meaning that the memory of whatever it is that caused someone to die is what is being remembered, with the holes being filled by the mind and is perceived when the person wakes up. As an NDE, we will be discussing the arguments and rebuttals against all these skeptical answers among many other incredible topics in this episode. The lucid experience. There are many incredible details about Ndes, and one of the most incredible pieces of evidence for the afterlife is the fact that even though oxygen has stopped flowing to the brain, an Ndes still takes place.

11:31 To explain a little bit about what Long means, when the heart stops, blood stops flowing to the brain and other critical parts of the body. Blood is what carries oxygen to these critical parts. The brain, which is where our consciousness is housed within our body, loses the ability to support consciousness after only 10 to 20 seconds without fresh oxygen. When an electroencephalogram or EEG no longer measures electrical activity in the brain. The EEG then gives a flatlining audible signal and display, which can then be translated as a brain dead situation. Side note, this technology and terminology is also applied to electrocardiograms or EC GS, which measures electrical activity in the heart.

12:12 The evidence that Long has gathered from his NDERF website nderf.org, not only points to people still having lucidity during their ND ES, but they have a complete understanding of everything. Many have reported being aware of not only where they were, but also everything that they could possibly want to know. And all of this information was being given to them not verbally by another being, but rather it was just there in their knowledge. Many try to explain how the reception of knowledge in this altered state is not the same and completely conceptually different from the ways that we gather information in our physical lives here on Earth. They felt like they were a part of the universe itself. In a way.

12:52 The incredible feeling that one has when they obtain this sense of belonging is rivaled by nothing here on earth, according to author Jason Hewlett. All questions are answered, all details are known, and every life that you live prior has all been remembered. To go along with this, there are common descriptions of all issues from life on earth also being gone. All physical or mental injuries and securities, anger, resentment, anything else falling under the constraints of our earthly lives are gone. This information unfortunately is not carried back over to the realm of the living when they recover, but the sense of knowing and pure peace and love is one that many claim to never be able to forget. This information compounded onto the experience of knowledge. Experiencers also report that the colors that they witness are unearthly and vibrant, unlike anything they have ever witnessed before.

13:42 Their thinking is clear and without any mental hurdles and a plethora of other increased inputs to their senses, such as a 360° vision or as some have described it, spherical vision. One very good piece of evidence for the lucidity of Ndes are the sheer amount of people who have had Ndes while overdosing on various drugs. Doctor Bruce Grayson outlines a few of these in his book After a doctor explores what near death experiences reveal about life and beyond. The first case he discusses is that of Justin, who had died while overdosing on LSD in college. Justin explains that the trip was very bad. Quote I wanted out but couldn't stop. My worst nightmares were coming true.

14:23 After about 45 Benson he fell face 1st and stopped breathing. At this point all of the unclarity from the drug was gone and he was expelled from his body into a state of extreme clarity and understanding. Quote I had been through hell with LSD, but as soon as I left my body, that hell left me. I was 100% involved in this experience. I felt clear and on my toes throughout this experience, but then as Justin was coming back after being brought to the hospital by ambulance, he was back under the influence of the LSD which left him confused and unable to recognize or do anything. This is incredible as this shows an example of the clarity of Ndes even when the brain is clearly under the influence of a chemical drug.

15:06 The fact that there was LSD, then a clear NDE, then back into the same LSD trip lends to belief that there very well may be something when it comes to Ndes. So the question that remains is how is it that in a brain dead situation a person can still have incredible loose experiences in the form of an NDE, The out of body experience? One of the 1st events in the chronological order of an NDE is typically the Out of Body experience or OBE and defined by Doctor Jeffrey Long as the separation of consciousness from the physical body as part of the lucid memories described in the previous section. The evidence for out of body experiences comes from incredibly detailed descriptions of conversations happening not only nearby but also 10s to hundreds of feet away from their unconscious body, or the perfect retelling of events that involve the attempts of resuscitation on their lifeless person. An OBE caused by a near death experience typically involves a spontaneous rising of one's consciousness as they look down at their body.

16:09 Often this involves the consciousness watching the happenings from the corner of the room's ceiling, and in rare occasions the experiencer witnesses the event from a level field when compared to their body and the other people involved. In Longs Book Evidence of the Afterlife, Long refers to a study done by Doctor Michael Sabom in 1982 on the authenticity behind Nders claiming out of body experiences during their events. In this first of its kind studies, Sabom interviewed 25 patients who suffered cardiac crisis who did not report an NDE event to see if they could describe the events of their resuscitation as thoroughly as those that claim to have an OBE. This turned out to not be the case as those who reported OB ES were able to successfully describe their own resuscitation much more precisely than those who did not.

16:57 To build off of the previous sections breakdown of the lucid experience, the question that comes to mind is how does one perfectly recall the OR station a doctor had with a loved one about their death in the waiting room of the hospital? Or how can someone retell details about their attempted rescue such as how many times they were given CPR even after their pulse had stopped? Ndes occur during times in which they shouldn't. The main example that Long points at in this piece of evidence is that people who were born blind also have very detailed visual experiences with Ndes. A person who cannot be given a conceptual description of what they can clearly perceive in the sense of what vision actually is by inputs to the other four senses alone, will have perfect sight and descriptions of what they see in Ndes. How is this possible if people who are born blind don't even have visual dreams?

17:50 In their book Mine Site, Doctor Kenneth Ring and Sharon Cooper tell of the experiences of their patient Vicki. Vicki was blinded shortly after birth due to damage to her optic nerve caused by too much oxygen in her incubator and has never had a dream with visuals in her life. When she was 22 years old, Vicki was in a really bad car accident. The injuries that she suffered were so bad that it took over a year for her to completely recover. But during the immediate time following the accident, Vicki explains that she was able to see everything that was going on from a point of view above the wreckage. She was able to reiterate descriptions of things in ways that she was never able to do before, as she claims. Quote. This was the only time I could ever relate to seeing and to what light was because I experienced it.

18:35 This came from a woman who never understood the concept of vision prior to the incident and is still blind after it as well. Impossible consciousness. According to Long, there should be absolutely no way that a person should be able to have an out of body experience or even enough consciousness to have an NDE when under general anaesthesia. And this is also a very common argument by skeptics who claim that these Ndes are nothing more than consciousness not being fully gone during a procedure due to too small of a dosage being administered. But Long's rebuttal to this is then how do you explain those that have died on the operating table due to too much anaesthesia being administered? That's still of a vivid NDE. One thing to note here is that general anesthesia affects the entire body and works to complete a state of complete unconsciousness in the patient.

19:25 This is done for pain relief, motionlessness, to make the procedure safer to conduct, reduced heart rate which brings down the blood pressure so as to not stress out the body. Removes the ability to remember the procedure and the one that we are most interested in today, loss of consciousness. This procedure is so good at what it does that patients do not even dream while under its influence. But yet, a high amount of people who die while under due to an allergic reaction or complication during surgery while under anesthesia claim to have Ndes with vivid details about what is going on during their time away from the body. This stands as another very strong argument for Ndes not simply being another dream or hallucination of the mind, as this procedure makes it impossible for either of those to occur. In an early study conducted by Bruce Grayson at the University of Virginia, they found that 127 NDERS that experience their Ndes while under general anesthesia claimed the same elements previously mentioned that the other 451 participants in the study also experienced.

20:25 Not to beat a dead horse, but the obvious question here is of course, how can this be true if the brain needs to be conscious in order to experience a near death experience like the skeptics claim? Perfect playback of life events. Along with my research into the subject of near death experiences, there was one common event in the period after death that really stuck out to me and the way that many people have written about it in their books is fascinating fascinating the event that many interpret the event slightly differently, but in the overall scheme of things, the basics of the events stay the same. That is the post life event known commonly in many religions and spiritual circles as the life review. First, I'll bring up the conversation outlined in Jason Hewlett and Peter Wren's book, Dying Light and Investigation into Near Death Experiences in which Hewlett interviews Scott Taylor, who within his 36 year career at the Monroe Institute has spent two years as the organization's president and executive director on his thoughts and beliefs of various details within the topic of near death experiences. During this conversation to discuss topics such as Taylor's own personal, quote, UN quote, shared death experience with the son of a love interest of his who passed away in the same accident that sent her son to the hospital. The continuation of consciousness after death, the many theories of our consciousness existing on many planes at once.

21:42 And at the end of this chapter, they of course touch on the topic of the life review. In this section, Hewlett describes that during the early process of death, some people describe being paired with a coach or guide of sorts that helps you through the initial process of transitioning into the afterlife. One of these processes in which this guide helps you with is the life review. In this life review, the experiencer has replayed all of the scenes from their lives. Yes, that includes the good and the bad, but during this process there is no judgement and it is strictly used as a learning experience. Quote. This review takes the experiencer through their life, reviewing the good and the bad times you've had and the good and bad things you've done and how those affected others. Taylor is then quoted Quote the guide can take and play that scene the 2nd way where you were the nice guy and a compassionate person instead of being a jerk who snipped at the trainee at the grocery store.

22:33 Hewlett then makes a nice little connection to the theory of the multiverse as this is seen as a possible connection to how the information could have been recorded for you to witness during this period and how it also may be tied into the phenomenon of Deja Vu. One example of a life review that not only had the experiencer relive incredibly influencing times in her life but also from the point of view of others is seen in Doctor Bruce Grayson's book After in which he tells of the NDE experience by a Barbara Harris Whitfield when she was 32. Barbara relived times in her life of abuse and neglect at a very young age by her mother who was addicted to various drugs, was very abusive and angry. But not only did she relive these points in her life from her own point of view, but she also saw it all simultaneously through the perspective of her mother, father and brother as well. She came to learn that her mother didn't hate her, she simply didn't know how to be loving and supportive due to her own relationship with her own mother. She learned that her brother was mean to her because of the abuse that their mother targeted him with. She felt how he was taking the pain and embarrassment dealt to him by their mother and reflecting it back to her to help with his own coping quote.

23:41 I saw and experienced it just as I lived it. At the time it first happened. Not only was I me, I was also my mother, my dad, my brother. We were all one. She wasn't trying to be me. She didn't know how to be loving or kind. She didn't know how to love. Some of these events that are shown in NDERS are so subtle and unremembered that they can only confirm their authenticity after researching the event once they come back. Now tell me, how is that reunion with others? Long points out that a common event that occurs during an NDE is a reunion with people who have already passed. Very rarely is it reported that an NDE R comes into contact with someone who is still alive. Many times these are people who you are familiar with, such as a parent, sibling, child, friend, or grandparent who is already deceased.

24:30 But the more intriguing encounters come from those that are not recognizable during the NDE, who have their identities uncovered after the experiencer sees them in an old family photo or they give a description of them to a family member who does know who they are. How is that possible? Another piece of evidence for the authenticity of the concept of near death experiences is the most common description of already deceased members of your life being the ones that you come into contact with. If this was a trick of the brain or even a dream state as many have explained in the past, then it is most likely that the people you would run into would be the ones that your mind has to do less to project into your experience, such as the ones you see every day who have not passed away yet. Similarities no matter of age Children younger than the age of 6 have reported eerily similar descriptions to their Ndes as the people who are older in age.

25:24 In long study of 613 Ndes, he gathered a total of 26 of which were of the age of five or younger, with an average age of 3.6 years. When comparing the 26 young child reports with those from the remaining 587, Long found that the elements that we previously mentioned as being commonly experienced during Ndes were also being experienced by the younger group that have not lived long enough to have cultural influences such as the ones that are pointed to you from skeptics in the form of the Oprah hypothesis quote. There was no statistically significant difference in the response to any of the 33 survey questions regarding the contents of the Ndes between very young children and older children and adults. Why is this important?

26:09 Well, this is important because at young ages very few are aware of such details such as an out of body experience, life review, a white light meeting, great grandparents they never knew existed, among many other commonly described details. This proves that there is something after death and that the outcome of your NDE is not a symptom of culture, upbringing, personal beliefs or anything that you have been influenced to see. So if someone's so young and without any influences to believe in such events is given the same descriptive elements as those that are old enough to have these influences, then it is safe to say that there may be more behind this than it just being a culturally influenced Daydream that happens when you die.

26:55 Consistency across the world People from all around the world and back in time, as far as Ndes have been documented, have all described very similar details to one another's experience. The most common difference between cultures or other influences are how these things are described. For example, in the case of sleep paralysis, many western cultures will tell of an entity sitting on your chest known as the old hag, or how they feel like they are being watched by someone in the shadows of their peripherals. But in other portions of the world this is changed to demons, aliens, goblins, or elves among many others. They may all be using different words to describe what they believed to be in the room with them, but they all seem to be describing the same general experience.

27:40 Doctor Jeffrey Long established the world's largest cross cultural study on the phenomenon of Ndes and through his studies he makes 2 statements regarding the topic of how cultural influences can change Ndes. Quote the core NDE experience is the same all over the world and quote pre-existing cultural beliefs do not significantly influence the content of Ndes. To back up these claims, he uses the experiences told to him by the experiencer to highlight similarities with the major elements that were discussed in the beginning of this presentation. Similarities such as OB ES, tunnels, bright lights, peace, beings of light, the life review, transformation of attitude and lifestyle after experience and a reluctance to come back to their earthly body.

28:28 This also applies to cases of children under the age of five and people who have died due to the complications from anesthesia from all around the world. All of this coming from Long's database of NDE events, which includes over 2000 non-english Ndes from 20 different languages. The most shocking result from the pool of Ndes wasn't that there seemed to be no differences in what elements were included in the Ndes, but rather that there was also no difference in the frequency of these elements. Quote. The percentage of Ndes with each NDE element was the same in both groups. No NDE element occurred statistically significantly more or less often in either group, according to Doctor Bruce Grayson in his book After a Doctor Explores What near death Experience Reveal About life and the Beyond. The similarities don't just stop with distance in the length, but are also reflected in text from time as well. Quote I discovered a multitude of NDE accounts from ancient Greek and Roman sources, all the major religious traditions, narratives collected from indigenous populations of the world, and medical literature of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

29:37 Doctor Bruce Grayson tells of a surgeon, Sir Alexander Ogston of the Scottish military, who felt I'll with typhoid fever in 1900 and would later document his experience after obtaining confirmation from the sisters of the hospital that what he did witness during his NDE did in fact happen exactly as he said. Quote. I saw plainly, for instance, a poor RAMC surgeon, of whose existence I did not know, and who was in quite another part of the hospital, grow very ill, scream and die Afterwards. When I told these happenings to the Sisters, they informed me that all this had happened, just as I fancied. But what about people of varying mental states? Could a person's mental state have anything to do with the rate of NDE occurrences?

30:23 In Grayson's book, he also highlighted a year long study in which he looked at two questions. Does someone with a mental disorder such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, or dissociation among many others have a higher rate of reporting an NDE? And the reverse question of do those that have reported Ndes typically have mental health disorders as well? After his review of over 800 subjects, Grayson determined that there was in fact no difference between the rate of NDE occurrences and those that suffer from mental health disorders when compared to the rates from studies that did not separate their subjects into such categories. Yet again, this was just another piece of evidence and the point made by Long that there really does seem to not be any difference in the rate of Ndes and occurrences in people from different places, cultures, time, and health. Well, that's all we have for you today. Like I said in the intro, going to have to go ahead and split this one into two.

31:27 Just riding slightly long. So we're going to end it here. But next week we're going to go ahead and finish up with Grayson's points and then we're going to jump into some other stuff like science as well as some stuff that other researchers have pointed out throughout the years. Well, until next time everybody, my name is Jeremy and I'll see you in the next fork in the bath of the Infinite Rabbit Hole. Goodbye. I would like to thank you once again for tuning into the Infinite Rabbit Hole podcast. Please make sure to give us a follow in one of those beautiful five star ratings on your podcast player of choice. If you would like to join the conversation and stay up to date on all things Infinite Rabbit Hole, head on over to Facebook and search for the Infinite Rabbit Hole Facebook group.

32:17 You'll know it's us when you see the logo. If you would like to help contribute to the 'cause, there are a few ways to do so. First, head on over to anchor dot FM forward slash infant rabbit hole and click on the subscribe button where for $5.00 a month you'll get access to all our old episodes that we'll never see the free spotlight ever again. It's horrible stuff, but if you're into that kind of thing and go check that second, head on over to infiniterabbithole.com and click on the IRH merch shop tab and grab yourself a sweet T-shirt sticker or whatever else you see that you wouldn't mind on. Until next time, travellers. I'm Jeremy, and I'll see you at the next fork in the path of the infinite rabbit hole.

33:14 Prior to this point in time, somewhere in the past the timeline, you went into this tangent creating an alternate 1985 alternate tube. Near. Einstein fondue without a team for everyone else.