One of the most common memories of people who have experienced clinical death is the well-known light at the end of the tunnel. People report that while their body showed no signs of life, they felt like they were moving through a dark tunnel, at the end of which they saw the figure of Christ or another luminous creature. In most cases, this disembodied being ordered them to return to their physical body, which they did with great reluctance. A similar experience was experienced by people who were in a state close to clinical death.
The tunnel is not the only memory of clinical death survivors. Sometimes people talk about meeting with deceased relatives and friends.
• One of these stories was aired on the main television channel in New York in the late 70s of the XX century. Its hero was a 20-year-old boy who was attacked on a street in South Manhattan. By the time he was found and taken to the emergency room at Bellevue Hospital, he was practically bleeding to death. The doctors in the admission department did not find any signs of life and announced the time of death immediately after his arrival at the hospital. But one of the residents, seeing that the guy was still very young, decided to try to revive him. The young man was sent to the operating room, where the doctor continued to sew up the wounds. The guy received a blood transfusion to start his heart, which stopped due to hypovolemia.
While the doctors were fighting for the patient's life, the guy watched their efforts from above, hovering under the ceiling of the operating room. He later described that he looked with complete calmness at the feverish activity that took place around the body, not understanding why doctors spend so much effort to save his life if he felt completely happy. Then a hole suddenly appeared in the ceiling, and several creatures appeared in front of the young man, who also began to closely observe the actions of the doctors on his lifeless body.
Among these creatures, the guy recognized his older brother, who had died in an accident a few years earlier. He had a strong desire to join his brother and tried to approach him through the hole in the ceiling, but he pushed him away saying: “You cannot leave. There is no place for you here. You must return. The guy begged his brother to let him stay with him, but the requests were unsuccessful. Then his brother pushed him so hard that the young man was again in his body, lying on the operating table.
At the same moment, the surgeon exclaimed: "There is a pulse!" - and doctors with renewed zeal began to help the man who miraculously escaped death. The guy was still in a wheelchair when, a few weeks later, he appeared in front of television cameras to tell about what he experienced and declare that he would rather stay with his brother in the other world than return back to our physical world.
• Relatively recently, the husband of one of my students told a similar story. This guy - let's call him Paul - went to a bachelor party to celebrate a friend's engagement. Shortly after midnight, one of the men present, who had previously been abandoned by the hero of the occasion's bride, took out a revolver and began to shoot randomly. Fortunately, no one was killed, but one of the bullets punctured Paul's neck at the base of his larynx and lodged inches from the left lung. Paul started bleeding heavily and was immediately taken to a nearby hospital, where doctors began to fight for his life.
And while the doctors were scurrying around his body, Paul felt that he had slipped out of his body through his feet like a piece of light material thrown off by a gust of strong wind. Then he saw that he was in a long line of people awaiting the hour of God's judgment. Next to him stood an old friend who had died several years ago in a car accident. They began to talk, and during the conversation Paul heard a beautiful unfamiliar melody. In this place there were many unusual colors of such shades that it is impossible to describe, because they do not exist in earthly life. Everyone present, including himself, was dressed in long dresses in pastel colors.
Promotional video:
Suddenly, the imposing figure of an elderly man in white luminous robes appeared in front of them. He calmly looked around and immediately noticed Paul and the little girl standing behind him. "You two," he said loudly, "what are you doing here?" Paul answered for himself and for the girl: "We are waiting for God's judgment." The elder shook his head and said: “You have nothing to do here. You both need to go back now. Your time has not come yet. " Having said this, he waved his hand as if letting them go. At that moment, Paul felt that he had fallen back into his body from a great height, and immediately heard the voice of the doctor, saying to his sobbing wife: "It's okay, he'll handle it." Telling this story, he noted that he would like to know what happened to that little girl who was next to him and also had to return to our world.
We can find many of these kinds of stories. One of the most famous books that deals with near-death experiences is undoubtedly Dr. Raymond Moody's Life After Life. This work summarizes the results of studying the stories of hundreds of people who returned to life after clinical death.
An important exception to all of the stories collected by Dr. Moody are the near-death experiences of those who tried to commit suicide. These people told the terrible details of their experiences, which helped them to repent of their deeds and come back in order to be able to correct their mistakes. All these people confirmed that near-death experience convinced them that "suicide cannot be considered a solution to problems, because a person's individuality continues to exist after his death," and that "in another world, the punishment for suicide awaits."
• In one of his more curious stories, Dr. Moody recounted the story of a woman whose elderly aunt was seriously ill. The whole family prayed for her healing. Aunt stopped breathing several times, but each time the doctors brought her back to life. In the end, the aunt called her niece to her bed and told her that she had been in the "other world" where people go after death. This is an amazing place where she wants to stay, but the fervent prayers of her family members kept her alive. She asked to be given the opportunity to leave in peace. The niece conveyed this request to the relatives of this woman, and they stopped praying for her recovery. The woman died shortly thereafter.
Dr. Moody was not the only scientist with an interest in life after death. Another researcher, Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, has also studied this issue in detail. Several years ago, experts from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine conducted a series of near-death experiments. They found that many of the survivors of clinical death reported a dark tunnel, a light at the end of the tunnel, where the figure of Christ or deceased relatives were waiting for them. Naturally, only Christians see the figure of Christ. Adherents of other religions see angels or saints related to a given religion.
• Several years ago, when I was still living in Vienna and working at the UN, I had an out-of-body experience. I had a very calm and harmonious period in my life. Once I was lying awake in bed, and suddenly I heard the buzzing sound that some of Dr. Moody's patients were talking about. At that very moment, I felt as if I were rising above my body.
In a second I was already floating under the ceiling. At first there was a feeling that I had grown a lot in size, but in reality I simply quickly rushed upward. The most surprising thing was that what happened did not seem unusual to me and did not cause fear. On the contrary, I took everything that happened to me very calmly. Hovering under the ceiling, I found that the buzz was increasing, and suddenly I felt that some powerful force was pushing me towards one of the corners of the room.
I thought, "Lord, I'm dying." I only managed to say: "Lord, into Your hands I commit my spirit," and then with an indescribable speed I rushed somewhere through the dark space and lost consciousness. I don't know where I was, while I was "outside" my body, if in reality I was somewhere. The next thing I remember was that I was floating under the ceiling again, feeling a great desire to be back in my body. As soon as I thought about it, I immediately returned back to the body. I still remember that it seemed to me motionless, cold, like a long-empty dwelling.
These events support the assumption that the mysterious phenomenon that we call the mind has no direct connection with the body in general and the brain in particular. The mind can exist independently of the body. Experiments in the PEAR program have shown that enough scientific evidence has been collected to support this hypothesis.
I would like to think that people who left their bodies during a serious illness or clinical death, as well as those who experienced spontaneous out-of-body experiences not associated with any disease, can serve as proof of the existence of life after death. But we must not forget that none of these people actually died. All those who talked about their travels to the “other world” - like the woman who asked her niece to stop praying for her recovery - were alive during the events.
Unfortunately, no one has yet returned to our world a few years after death to tell about their experiences. Ouija or channeling may be an exception, but by themselves they cannot be considered as evidence of the existence of life after death.
This can mean one of two things. Either an out-of-body experience is a brief hallucination caused by a sudden malfunction of the human body, especially the brain, or it is a short-term separation of the spirit from the physical body, according to the teachings of yoga. Such an experience can be the result of trauma, as a result of which a person finds himself between life and death, fatigue, or intense occult practices and meditation.
Some biochemists believe that the ability to see the afterlife or the experience of an out-of-body experience is caused by a hallucinogenic substance produced by the pineal gland. According to them, this chemical begins to be produced at the moment of threat or death, in order to mitigate the terrible trauma that a person's brain experiences in the last minutes of its life. This mechanism makes it possible to facilitate the dying process, reducing the fear and suffering of the dying person. But, although this theory can argue the reason why a dying person experiences these visions, it is not able to explain how a perfectly healthy and not dying person can leave their physical body.
Perhaps only living people are able to project their astral body. And then death is the end of any existence. And it may not be so. Perhaps the experience of astral projection, a luminous tunnel, majestic figures, beautiful landscapes of the astral plane and the appearance of deceased relatives and friends are evidence that the human individuality continues to live after the death of the physical body.
One of the most curious discoveries made relatively recently by science is the existence of so-called black holes. Astronomers believe that this cosmic phenomenon occurs when a star like our sun explodes. These exploding stars are known as supernovae. In the process of development, the high density of the core becomes the cause of their self-destruction, resulting in a phenomenon called by scientists a black hole.
A black hole has a tremendous force of gravity, attracting everything around. According to one theory, black holes are gates to other worlds. The description of the dark tunnel, bright light and the figure of Christ is strangely similar to the description of a black hole and its enormous gravitational force. It remains only to find out the answer to the question of whether the black hole that astrophysics is studying is in fact the gateway to the astral world.
Migene Gonzalez-Whippler