Those who were on the verge of life - what do the stories have in common
The possibility of the existence of consciousness after death was rejected until recently by science not because the data of clinical observations contradicted it, but a priori, because the concept itself was incompatible with existing scientific theories. But scientific paradigms should not be confused with truth - they represent, at best, a working model for organizing modern research.
For the first time, a serious study of the experience of death was carried out not in the 20th century, but in the 19th, by the famous Swiss geologist Albert Heim. Mystical experiences during a fall in the Alps, which almost ended in death, awakened in him an interest in the subjective experience associated with life-threatening situations and with dying. For several decades, he collected observations and testimonies from people who survived serious accidents: wounded soldiers, bricklayers and roofers who fell from great heights, workers who fell into natural disasters in the mountains and railway accidents, drowning fishermen. But the more important part of Heim's work is based on reports from climbers who have experienced serious falls in the mountains.
Heim first published his findings in a lecture at the Swiss Alpine Club convention in 1892. He concluded that the subjective experience of near death was surprisingly similar 95% of the time, regardless of the attendant circumstances. Mental activity at first is sharply accelerated and exacerbated. The perception of events and the foresight of the outcome are usually quite distinct. Time stretches out extraordinarily, and people act with the speed of lightning and in full accordance with real circumstances. Usually, this stage is followed by an unexpected overview of life.
According to Heim, incidents in which people are suddenly faced with death are much more "horrific and cruel" for the witness than for the victim. In many cases, witnesses were deeply shocked and experienced long-term mental trauma, while the victim, if not seriously injured, left the situation painlessly.
1961 - Karlis Osis et al. Analyzed more than 600 questionnaires returned by medical workers to detail the experience of dying patients. Of the 10% of patients who were awake an hour before death, the majority had various complex visions. Some images more or less corresponded to traditional religious ideas about heaven and hell, the Eternal City, in other visions there were worldly images of indescribable beauty: amazing landscapes with exotic birds, idyllic gardens. Less common were frightening visions of devils and hell and the feeling of being buried alive. Osis stresses the similarity of these near-death experiences with images of eschatological mythology and psychedelic phenomena caused by LSD and mescaline.
1971 - Russell Noyes, professor of psychiatry at the University of Iowa, researched a large number of life-and-death reports, including Heim's material on Swiss climbers, literary death scenes, and autobiographical observations of prominent personalities such as Carl Gustav Jung. Noyes identified similar, recurring elements in these experiments and defined three successive stages of dying. The first phase, he called "resistance," is characterized by a consciousness of danger, fear of death and, ultimately, resignation before death. Then there is a "review of life", when the most important moments of his life pass before a person or a compressed panoramic picture of his life appears. The last stage - "transcendence" - associated with mystical, religious and "cosmic" states of consciousness.
Noyes's analysis of death experiences can be illustrated by the story of a young woman who described her condition during a car accident. Her car has failed brakes on the main highway. The uncontrolled car slid on the wet pavement for several seconds, hitting other cars, and eventually crashed into a truck.
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“In those few seconds while my car was in motion, I experienced sensations that seemed to span centuries. The unusual horror and overwhelming fear for my life was quickly replaced by a clear awareness that I was going to die. Surprisingly, at the same time there was such a deep sense of calm and peace that I had never experienced before. It seemed that I was moving from the periphery of my being - the body that enclosed me - to the very center of my I, a place of imperturbable calmness and rest. The mantra merged into my consciousness with an ease that I had never experienced during meditation.
Time seems to be gone; I watched my own life: it passed in front of me like a movie, very quickly, but in amazing detail. Having reached the border of death, I seemed to find myself in front of a transparent curtain. The driving force of the experience drew me through the curtain - I was still completely calm - and suddenly I realized that this was not the end, but rather a transition. I can only describe my further sensations as follows: all parts of my being, whatever I was at that moment, felt the continuum beyond what I previously considered death. I felt that the force that guided me to death, and then beyond, would forever lead me into an endless distance.
At that very moment, my car crashed into a truck. When he stopped, I looked around and realized that by some miracle I survived. After that, something amazing began to happen: sitting in a pile of broken metal, I felt that the boundaries of my personality disappear and I begin to merge with everything around me - with the police, the wreckage of a car, workers with crowbars who tried to free me, an ambulance, flowers in a neighboring flowerbed, TV reporters. Somehow I could see and feel my wounds, but they seemed to have nothing to do with me - they were only part of a rapidly expanding system that included much more than my body.
The sunlight was unusually bright and golden, it seemed that the whole world was shining with a wonderful light. I felt happy and overflowing with joy, despite the drama of the situation, and this state persisted for several days in the hospital. This incident and the experience associated with it completely changed my worldview and concept of existence. Previously, I was not particularly interested in matters of the spirit and believed that life was concluded between birth and death. The thought of death has always scared me. I believed that “we walk through the stage of life only once,” and after that, nothing. Along the way, I was tormented by the fear that I would not have time to implement everything in my life that I had planned. Now I have a completely different idea of the world and my place in it. My sense of self surpasses the idea of a physical body, limited by the framework of time and space. I know,that I am part of a huge, limitless creation that can be called divine."
The publication of Raymond Moody's book Life After Life in 1975 increased Western interest in the subjective experience of the dying. The author of the book, a doctor and psychologist, analyzed 150 descriptions of the experience of clinical death and personally interviewed about 50 people who had been in a state of clinical death. Based on these data, he identified characteristic, with great consistency, recurring elements of the death experience.
A common feature of all stories was the complaint that these subjective events could not be described, due to the limitations of our language for expressing their essence. The same is typical for mystical states of consciousness. Another important element was the feeling of being out of the body. Many interviewees reported that, being in a coma, they observed themselves and their surroundings from the outside and heard the conversations of doctors, nurses and relatives who discussed the patient's condition. They described in detail the manipulations performed with their body.
These descriptions of reality were confirmed by subsequent verification. Out-of-body existence can take many forms. Some have described themselves as a bundle of energy or pure consciousness. Others felt that they had a body, but the body was permeable, invisible and inaudible to those belonging to the physical world. At times, people experienced fear, confusion and a desire to return to the physical body. In other cases, ecstatic feelings of lack of time and weight, calmness and serenity arose. Many have heard strange sounds: obviously unpleasant noises or, on the contrary, caressing sounds of magical, divine music. There are many descriptions of movement through a dark, enclosed space - a tunnel, a cave, a chimney, a cylinder, a gorge, etc.
People often talked about their encounters with other beings - previously deceased relatives and friends, “guardian spirits” or “guiding spirits”. Especially frequent are visions of a "luminous being" appearing as a source of unearthly radiance, but at the same time exhibiting such personal qualities as love, warmth, compassion and a sense of humor. Communication with this creature occurs wordlessly, telepathically, and is often accompanied by experiences of life review and divine judgment or self-esteem.
Based on these data, Moody tried to recreate a picture of a typical posthumous experience. And although his "composite" model is the result of a generalization of a large number of experiments, and not a reflection of the actual individual, it is of great interest.
While dying, a person reaches the highest point of physical suffering and hears how doctors ascertain his death. Then he hears an unpleasant noise, loud ringing or buzzing, and at the same time feels that he is moving very quickly through a dark narrow tunnel. He suddenly finds himself out of his body, but still in the same environment and observes everything that happens and his body from the side, like a spectator. From this unusual position, he sees attempts to bring him back to life and is confused.
After some time, he gets together and gets used to his new state a little. He notices that he still has a body, but of a completely different nature and possessing different capabilities than the physical body he left behind. Then other creatures appear. They meet him and help him. He sees the spirits of the dead - relatives and friends, and then a spirit filled with warmth and love, unlike anything seen before - a luminous creature - appears before him. This creature asks him questions without words, helps to evaluate life, showing its most important events for a moment.
At some point, a person feels his approach to a certain border or barrier, as seen separating earthly life from the next one. Nevertheless, it turns out that he must return to his body and that the time for his death has not yet come. The thrilling experience of unearthly life makes him resist returning. He is overflowing with feelings of joy, love and peace. Despite all this, he somehow reunites with the physical body and continues to live.
Later, he tries to talk about what happened, but meets with a number of difficulties. Firstly, the human language turns out to be unsuitable for describing unearthly events, and secondly, those around them treat these stories with distrust and ridicule, so he abandons his attempts. Yet this experience has a profound impact on his life, especially on the idea of the relationship between death and life.
Remarkable are the parallel passages in Moody's studies and descriptions of the afterlife in eschatological literature, especially the Bardo states in the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Similar, if not identical, elements are observed during psychedelic sessions, when the subject experiences an encounter with death as part of the death-rebirth process.
S. Grof