The line between life and death
People who have been on the verge of life and death often say that the experiences they experienced were extremely realistic and convincing: they cannot be distinguished from actual dying.
In hell
• Narrated by German actor Kurt Jürgens, a near-death survivor of a complex surgery performed by Dr. Michael De Bakey in Houston, Texas. To replace the worn out aorta with a plastic tube, the surgeon had to stop the heart. During the operation, Jurgens was dead for several minutes. Description taken from the book by Jean-Baptiste Delaker "Reflections of the Beyond."
The feeling of well-being that gripped me shortly after the introduction of pentothal did not last long. Soon, a feeling began to rise from the subconscious that life was fading away. The feeling that life was leaving me awakened a formidable sense of awe. Most of all I wished to restrain her and was, however, unable to do so. Before that, I had been looking at the huge glass dome above the operating table all the time. Now the dome began to change. Suddenly it gleamed red. I saw twisted faces looking at me and grimacing. Terrified, I tried to stay upright and defend myself from these pale ghosts, approaching ever closer …
Then everything began to look as if the glass dome had turned into a transparent vault, slowly descending and covering me. Now a fiery rain began to pour, but although the drops were abnormally large, none of them touched me. They fell and splashed nearby, and from them menacing flames grew, licking everything around. I could no longer avoid the dark truth: without a doubt, the faces that filled this fiery world were the faces of the damned. Despair seized me, a feeling of inexpressible loneliness and abandonment. The horror was so great that it choked me and I seemed to almost suffocate.
Of course, I ended up in hell itself, and bright tongues of flame could overtake me at any moment. At this time, the black silhouette of a man suddenly materialized, the figure began to approach. At first I could not clearly distinguish it among the fire and clouds of reddish smoke, but it quickly cleared up. She was a woman in a black veil, slender, with a lipless mouth, and cold chills ran down her spine from the expression of her eyes. When she came face to face with me, all I could see were two black, empty holes. But from these holes, the creature still looked at me. The woman stretched out her hands, and, drawn by uncontrollable force, I followed her. An icy breath touched me, and I stepped into a world that was filled with faint sounds of lamentation, although there was no one around.
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And only then, only there, I asked the figure: who is she? The voice replied, "I am death." I gathered all my strength and thought: "I will no longer follow her, because I want to live." Did I give out my thought? In any case, she moved closer and put her hands on my bare chest so that I was again under the influence of her magnetism. I felt the icy hands of a woman on my skin, and her empty eye sockets stared at me motionless.
I again concentrated all my thoughts on the living, in order to avoid death in this female guise. Before going to the operating room, I hugged my wife. Now her ghost has appeared to lead me out of hell and return to earthly existence.
When Simone (wife) appeared on the stage, the woman in the dark veil with a terrifying smile on her lipless face retreated without a sound. Death could not oppose anything to Simone, radiant youth and life. I felt only freshness and tenderness as she led me back the same path that I had just passed under the spell of the dark figure. Gradually, step by step, we left behind the gloomy world of shadows and came to the bright light. This radiance took us further and, in the end, became so dazzling that it began to burn my eyes and I was forced to close them.
Then, suddenly, a severe dull pain appeared, threatening to rupture the chest. I began to squeeze Simone's hand tighter and tighter, and then suddenly came to myself. I saw Simone sitting on the bed in a white nurse's coat. I barely had the strength for a faint smile. All I could do was put out one word: "Thank you." With it, I completed a terrible, yet enchanting journey into the underworld, a journey that I will never forget as long as I live.
Threat to life
In memoirs, poetry, there are many descriptions of an altered state of consciousness in people who find themselves in an emergency with a threat to life or who have experienced clinical death.
But psychiatrists and psychologists have a strikingly dismissive attitude towards them. The first studies in this area were not conducted by a psychiatrist or psychologist. The fundamental work was done in Switzerland by the professor of geology Albert Heim from Zurich, famous for his studies of the Alps. The professor concluded that the subjective experiences of a near-death state were surprisingly similar in about 95% of the victims. There are minor differences only in details. As you can see, in essence it did not matter where - from a cliff or from a glacier - and where - into a gorge or a waterfall - the person fell. Even the subjective sensations of a person being run over by the wheels of a wagon, a victim of an industrial accident, hit by a bullet on the battlefield, or nearly drowned were fundamentally similar.
Almost all people who have come into contact with death have developed a similar mental state. They did not feel the pain, despair, grief, or overwhelming anxiety that usually affects people in moments of less danger, without threatening their lives. On the contrary, at first the activity of consciousness increased, increasing the intensity and speed of thinking hundreds of times. Then there was a feeling of peace and awareness of the situation at a deep level. The perception of the event and the anticipation of its outcome were incredibly clear. As you can see, there was neither disorientation nor confusion. The passage of time slowed down significantly, and the person acted with incredible speed based on a clear and realistic assessment of the situation. All this was often accompanied by a mental replay of the victim's entire past life. After all, people in conditions that threaten their livesheard divine music of unearthly beauty. As an example of the description of such situations, collected by Heim, we will cite evidence from among those included in his outstanding article.
• The following is the report of Heim himself about an accident that happened to him while mountaineering in the Swiss Alps, when, having slipped, he fell from a 20-meter height into a snow shaft at the base of the rock. As I fell, I immediately realized that I would hit the rock, and imagined the force of the upcoming blow. In an attempt to slow down, I began to cling to the snow with twisted fingers. The nails were bloody, but there was no pain. I clearly felt the blows of my head and back on all the ledges of the rock and a dull blow from below. But the pain came to me after a few hours. The stream of thoughts began during the fall. What I managed to feel in 5-10 seconds cannot be described even for tens of times longer than this period. All my thoughts were perfectly logical and clear. They were in no way like unrelenting dreams.
The very first thing I appreciated the prospects and said to myself: “That section of the rock, on which I will soon be thrown, goes down a sheer wall, because I cannot see the foot. It is extremely important whether there is snow at the foot. If so, then the snow that has melted from the wall surrounds the base of the rock with a rampart. If I have to fall on this snow shaft, then, probably, I will survive, otherwise - I will have to hit on stones and if I fall at such a speed, death cannot be avoided. If after the blow I remain alive and do not lose consciousness, then I will have to immediately get out a small flask, where there is vinegar alcohol and drop a few drops on my tongue. I do not need to get rid of the alpenstock: it may still be useful."
So I gripped him tightly in my hand. The thought came to take off and discard the glasses in order to save my eyes from the fragments, but I was spinning so quickly that I could not gain strength to raise my hand for this. Then followed a chain of thoughts and considerations about the ones left behind. I told myself that as soon as I landed, it was necessary, regardless of the seriousness of the wounds received, to immediately call my companions in order to calm them down and say that everything was fine with me. Then my brother and three friends will quickly come to their senses in order to make a very difficult descent to me. The next thought was that I would not be able to give the first university lecture, which had already been announced and was scheduled in 5 days.
I imagined how the news of my death would reach the people I loved and consoled them mentally. Then I saw my whole past life in the form of numerous pictures, as if playing out on the stage at some distance. I was the protagonist of the show. Everything was transformed as if by heavenly light and was beautiful and free from grief, anxiety and pain. The memory of rather tragic events from the past was clear, but devoid of nagging sadness, and my heart was free from contradictions, struggle. Contradictions turned into love.
Elevated and harmonious thoughts connected together separate images and reigned over them. Like beautiful music, divine calm enveloped the soul. Wonderful blue skies, decorated with beautiful tiny pink and purple clouds, opened around me for eternity. Softly and painlessly, I plunged into them and saw that now I was in free fall and beneath me was a snowy field. Objective observations, thoughts, and subjective feelings unfolded at the same time. Then I felt a dull blow and the fall was over.
• The second example, taken from Heim's article, in his words, is a classic example of subjective experiences that occur when unexpected falls as a result of accidents. This is the account of a theology student who fell victim to a train disaster in 1891 when the Monshenstein Bridge collapsed.
Approaching the bridge over Bierce, I suddenly felt a sharp jerk. At the same time, the train suddenly interrupted its run. The inertia of the movement threw the passengers straight to the ceiling. I looked around, unable to understand what had happened. Due to the deafening metal grinding that came from the head of the train, I thought there was a collision. Opening the door, I tried to get out, but saw that the car that was behind us climbed up and threatened to collapse on me. Then I returned to my place and was going to shout to my neighbor at the window: "Move away from the window!" I closed my mouth, biting my tongue hard: in the shortest possible time, the worst fall you can imagine followed. Instinctively, I clung to the seat. The arms and legs functioned normally, as if taking care of themselves reflexively and parried all the boards at a subconscious level with lightning speed,poles and benches being crushed all around and falling on me.
At that moment, thoughts rushed through my brain in the clearest way. They said, "The next blow will kill me." A series of pictures quickly flew before my eyes, representing everything that I loved, and that beautiful that I once experienced. In the intervals between the pictures began to sound the mighty melody of the prelude, which I listened to in the morning: “God is almighty, Heaven and Earth rest in His hand; we must bow before His will. " With these thoughts in my soul, being in the center of the eerie confusion that was happening, I was overwhelmed by a feeling of endless peace. The carriage shook two more times, and then the head part suddenly slammed into Bierce at a right angle, and the rear, where I was, swayed from side to side, now hanging over the fence, then again leaning towards the river.
The car was smashed to smithereens. I lay squeezed on all sides, covered with a pile of boards and benches, and waited for the next car to collapse on me. But suddenly there was silence. The rumble died down. Blood dripped from my forehead, but I did not feel pain. Dizziness appeared due to blood loss. After a short floundering, I managed to get out from under the pile of rubble, to get out through the window. It was only now that I realized for the first time the terrible scale of the disaster that had occurred.
Heim ended his article with the assertion that death by falling is subjectively pleasing. Those who died in the mountains in the last moment of their lives review their past, being in a transformed state. Rising above bodily pain, they were dominated by noble deep thoughts, majestic music and with a sense of peace and reconciliation. They fell into wonderful blue or pink skies, and then everything suddenly stopped. According to Heim, fatal falls are far more "terrible and cruel" for survivors than for victims.
S. Grof, D. Halifax
