Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences (7 page)

The NDERF study uncovered hundreds of accounts of NDEs that included out-of-body experiences. I have studied them in a way similar to the previously discussed Holden study, but with some important differences. For the out-of-body experience study, I personally reviewed 617 sequentially shared NDEs that were posted on NDERF. All near-death experiences meeting the study criteria that were shared on the NDERF questionnaire form from October 10, 2004, to October 10, 2008, were reviewed. The study criteria were that the near-death experience accounts be shared by the individual who personally had the NDE, describe a single NDE, and be shared in English, plus we needed to be allowed to post the NDE on the NDERF website. My goal was to see if there were
any
out-of-body observations of earthly events that either the NDErs or I considered to be
not
realistic. If
any
unrealistic out-of-body observations were found, the NDE would be classified as unrealistic.

A questionnaire was prepared for the study of several elements of the near-death experiences, including OBEs. In my review of these 617 near-death experiences, the first question I answered was: “Did they see or hear any earthly events at a time their consciousness seemed separated from their physical body?”

If the answer to that question was “Yes,” two additional questions were asked: “Did the [NDEr] later [after the experience] investigate the accuracy of the earthly events they saw or heard during their experience at the time their consciousness seemed separated from their physical body?” The second question asked was: “Is there any reason to doubt … that any of the earthly events seen or heard at the time their consciousness seemed separated from their physical body were real?”

For each of the preceding survey questions I selected responses that ranged from a definite “Yes” to a definite “No.”

The results of the study are astonishing. Of the 617 near-death-experience accounts, 287 (46.5 percent) described OBEs that contained observations of earthly events that would allow others to objectively assess the reality of their observations. Of this group of 287 OBErs, 280 (97.6 percent) were found to have had out-of-body experiences that were
entirely
realistic and lacked
any
content that was unrealistic. Finally, of the 287 OBErs, 65 (23 percent) of the OBErs described personally investigating the accuracy of their own OBE observations following their NDE. None of these 65 OBErs described any inaccuracy in their OBE observations based on their later investigations.

These are amazing results, given that I would count the out-of-body experience as unrealistic if
any
part of the OBE did not seem real to either me or the NDErs.

The finding that nearly all of the hundreds of OBErs’ observations of earthly events were realistic provides some of the strongest evidence ever presented that NDEs are real. The best evidence indicates that NDErs really do experience a separation of consciousness from their physical body. It is all the more remarkable that this is occurring at a time when the NDErs are unconscious or clinically dead.

I can’t help but marvel at these findings. There is absolutely no scientific or medical explanation for consciousness existing apart from the body. The fact that OBErs report seeing and hearing at a time when their physical eyes and ears are not functioning could have profound implications for scientific thinking about consciousness. The scientific community may now need to wrestle with a profound question: What does it mean to experience sensory perception without the use of the physical senses?

Many hundreds of NDEs that include out-of-body perception have been shared and posted on the NDERF website. Here are some more examples:

Thaddeus, a physician, had a blood infection that was threatening his life. As he lay in an isolation room at the hospital, suddenly his perspective changed:

Lying on my back. Awake. Suddenly I am looking down at myself from the ceiling. My position is reversed; that is, my head is opposite to my feet on the bed. I see myself very clearly. I have normal vision. I am presented with making a decision. No voice. Just “knowledge” that I have a choice. The choice is stay or go. There is absolutely no value to either choice, which surprises me.… A sense of absolute calm. I choose “stay.” Immediately I am back in my body.

In the summer of 1971 Diane was with her husband in northern Georgia. They were rafting the Chattahoochee River. She was with eight people in a large raft when it flipped and she was held beneath the rapids by the churning action of the water. Stuck beneath the mighty force of the river, Diane ran out of air, blacked out, and then had this remarkable experience:

The next thing I knew I was a hundred feet above the river, looking down at the raft stuck against the rocks below. I saw the two men in the raft looking for me to come out from underneath. I saw the other woman, who had been in our raft, downstream, clinging to a rock. I watched my husband and my teenage sister, who had rafted without incident down the rapids ahead of us, come running back up the hill to find out why all the debris was floating down the river. We had taken everything out of their raft and put it into ours in case they flipped over, but they went down so easily, we just jumped in to follow them down. From above, I watched my husband climb onto a rock in the river. He couldn’t hear what the two men still in the raft were shouting to him over the roar of the water. He had no idea where I was or what had happened, but he knew I was missing. He looked as if he wanted to jump in to try to find me, and I suddenly found myself at his side, trying to stop him because he wasn’t much of a swimmer and I knew there was no point. When I reached out to stop him, my hand went right through him. I looked at my hand and thought, oh, my god, I’m dead!

… The Being of Light told me it was my choice to stay or go but that there was more for me to do in that life and it wasn’t quite time for me to leave. Still hesitating, I was told that if I chose to go back, I would be given certain knowledge to take back with me to share with others. After much discussion, I agreed to go back and suddenly found myself in front of a tall, cone-shaped building—so tall it seemed to go on forever. I was told this was the Hall of Knowledge. I entered the building and flew, spiraling upward, through what appeared to be shelves of books, like in a library, many millions of books, and I flew through them all. When I reached the top, I burst through it into a kaleidoscope of colors and, at the same time, my head popped out of the water. I was downriver about ten yards from the raft.

I immediately became aware of where I was and grabbed for the nearest rock. I was able to pull myself up, and I coughed up a lot of water. I was in a state of shock but needed no medical attention. I don’t know how long I was under the raft; no one was looking at their watch at the time. It could have been three or four minutes; it could have been ten. There was no time where I had been.

At this time there is a major ongoing study directed by Sam Parnia, MD, principal investigator of the AWARE (AWAreness during REsuscitation) study.
⁷
AWARE involves the collaboration of many major medical centers around the world, and researchers hope to examine some fifteen hundred survivors of cardiac arrest. As the project name implies, researchers will examine the awareness of patients at the time they are experiencing a cardiac arrest. Pictures will be placed in hospital rooms in such a way that they are visible only from the ceiling to determine if they can be seen during the OBE. It will be several years before we have results from this study. Hopefully, this study will answer many further questions about OBEs during NDEs.

There have been several prior studies where targets were placed in areas of hospitals where critically ill patients might have NDEs. These targets were paper or computer screens with visual pictures or words. Targets were usually placed in a location where the patient, and those caring for the patient, would not ordinarily see them. Designers of these studies hoped that patients having an out-of-body experience during an NDE would be able to see the targets and thus provide objective proof of the OBE. So far there have been few NDEs and even fewer OBEs in these studies. None of the OBEs in these studies ever included visual perception directed toward the target.

Personally, I think it is extremely important to continue with this type of research. Not only does it contribute to an understanding of our physical and mental processes, it may also contribute to our understanding of the spiritual world. I am convinced that studying out-of-body experiences in a variety of ways will lead to a clearer understanding of the special state of consciousness consistently described in NDEs.

Some skeptics think that out-of-body experiences are simply fragments of memory that pop up as a person begins to die. They suggest that these fragments of memory might arise from what the near-death experiencer was able to hear or feel during the time of apparent unconsciousness. This argument also suggests that out-of-body experiences may be unreal reconstructions of partial memories from the time the NDEr is losing consciousness before the NDE or recovering consciousness immediately after the NDE. That some corroboration of the OBE observations with actual events or objects is found, they say, could be just lucky guesses.

The NDERF study shows that this argument is wrong. A review of 287 OBE accounts reveals that they are fully realistic, without
any
apparent error, in 97.6 percent of the cases. If OBEs were unreal fragments of memory or lucky guesses, it is unbelievable that there would be such a high percentage of completely accurate OBE observations in hundreds of NDEs.

Research says that memories formed just before or after a period of cardiac arrest, if they occur at all, are marked by confusion.
⁸
By contrast, NDEs contain confused memories only rarely. If
any
part of the NDE were due to simple reconstruction of memory fragments, such memories would be expected to become progressively more or less confused as the NDEr approached or recovered from unconsciousness. This is not what happens. Near-death experiences are typically highly lucid from beginning to end.

In the NDERF study we ask, “At what time during the experience were you at your highest level of consciousness and alertness?” People are invited to respond with a narrative answer. In reviewing hundreds of responses to this question, we have found that the highest level of consciousness and alertness is usually experienced not at the beginning or end of the NDE but somewhere during or throughout the entire NDE. Very few NDErs describe their highest level of alertness as occurring when they approached or recovered from their time of unconsciousness. This is further strong evidence that the OBEs that take place during near-death experiences are real events, not just memory fragments. In addition, NDERF research shows people in an out-of-body state usually experience a higher level of consciousness and alertness than they experience on a day-to-day basis during their everyday life.

There is additional striking evidence that OBEs occurring during near-death experiences are real. This evidence comes from the case studies of those NDErs who say they have left their body and traveled some distance from it, beyond the range of their physical senses. For instance, a patient whose body is being resuscitated in the emergency room might find himself or herself floating out of the room and into another part of the hospital. Later, the person is able to recount accurate observations about what was taking place far from the physical body. Many case reports describing this have been published over the years by NDE researchers.
⁹
In the previously presented NDERF study of OBE, there were ten OBE observations of earthly events that were clearly far from the physical body and beyond any possible bodily sensory awareness. All ten of these OBE observations were entirely realistic.

Out-of-body experiences containing observations far removed from the body are as realistic as the more common OBEs involving observations of events happening close to the physical body. This example comes from a doctor in India. He made an electrical calling device, but it malfunctioned and he was electrocuted. He was able to see through the walls of his house and saw his father approaching his body. He was able to see details on the roof tiles far above his body:

I rose to about ten feet off the ground, and I stopped, hovering near the roof tiles. I could see the letters written on the roof tiles from very near, almost a few inches. Each letter appeared very big to me.

As a physician, I am startled by such experiences. Even now, after encountering hundreds of out-of-body accounts, I am still sometimes amazed to think that our consciousness may know no bounds.

Still, there may be some who are not yet convinced that OBEs are an authentic phenomenon. Are you still a doubter? Try this experiment: Close your eyes for five minutes in a public place, staying as aware as possible of ongoing events during this time. Have another person there with you who is seeing and hearing events. At the end of five minutes, compare your impressions of the five minutes with the person accompanying you. Even though you were fully alert and trying to be aware of ongoing events, I can guess that your impressions will contain significant inaccuracies—far more than those found in the out-of-body experiences of the subjects in the NDERF study.

In 1998 Kenneth Ring, PhD, and Sharon Cooper, MA, published a landmark article in the
Journal of Near-Death Studies
about blind people who have vividly visual near-death experiences or out-of-body experiences not associated with NDEs.
¹
An especially interesting subgroup in this study was made up of case reports from individuals who were born totally blind and had NDEs with the typical elements, including detailed visual content. It is medically inexplicable that a person blind either at birth or shortly after birth would have an organized visual NDE.

One such example is the story of Vicki, who saw for the first time in her life during her near-death experience, as documented in Ring and Cooper’s book,
Mindsight.
She was blind from shortly after birth because of damage to her optic nerves as a result of receiving too much oxygen in an incubator. Vicki had two near-death experiences. One was at age twelve due to complications of appendicitis, and the second was at age twenty-two following a serious car accident. The first time in her life that she was able to see was during her first near-death experience when she had an OBE. According to Vicki, the content of both near-death experiences was similar, but the NDE following the car accident was more vivid and detailed. Thus, I will present details of her second near-death experience, which occurred after she sustained trauma, including head injuries, so severe that she was still recovering from the accident a year later. As her near-death experience began, she was in “stunned awe” above her body in the emergency room, watching the medical personnel trying to save her. After she calmed down, she had a very detailed and highly visual NDE that included visiting a beautiful unearthly realm, encountering deceased friends, and a life review. She reported her reaction to seeing herself:

I knew it was me…. I was pretty thin then. I was quite tall and thin at that point. And I recognized at first that it was a body, but I didn’t even know that it was mine initially. Then I perceived that I was up on the ceiling, and I thought, “Well, that’s kind of weird. What am I doing up here?” I thought, “Well, this must be me. Am I dead?” … I just briefly saw this body, and … I knew that it was mine because I wasn’t in mine.
²

Vicki was married and wearing rings, but of course had never seen them. Here are her recollections of her rings:

I think I was wearing the plain gold band on my right ring finger and my father’s wedding ring next to it. But my wedding ring I definitely saw…. That was the one I noticed the most because it’s unusual. It has orange blossoms on the corners of it.
³

What is so remarkable about Vicki’s recollection of these visual impressions is that she had never before understood the concept of vision. “This was,” she said, “the only time I could ever relate to seeing and to what light was, because I experienced it.”
⁴