“Before, before I started working with the dying, I did not believe in life after death. Now I believe in her without a shadow of a doubt. When Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross made this statement in 1974, she amazed the scientific world, and especially her fellow psychiatrists. Over the years, she has been a recognized authority on all aspects of death and dying. She studied the emotional aspects of death, how it affects the patient and his family, wrote down the stories of the dying and those who came back to life. But should such stories be taken as proof of the existence of life after death?
Surprisingly, some of the religious leaders also attacked her. "Dr. Kubler-Ross's confidence should be well received, as it can support the weakening faith of many Christians," said one priest, "but her statement does not work that way for me." The Rev. Robert M. Herhold, Lutheran priest in California, believes Dr. Kubler-Ross has gone too far. His objections are:
“Life after death goes beyond scientific research; it is in the realm of the supersensible, not the sensuous. If life after death can be empirically verified in such a way that it leaves no "shadow of doubt," then there probably won't be much need for faith. " Another priest proves that "there will be no need for Easter if the soul is reborn, if life lasts." Critics seem to be more concerned about the prospect that science will prove life after death and that little will remain for religion.
The remarks of some psychiatrists were more unexpected. They sharply criticized the work of all researchers who collect and analyze stories of people about encounters with death. Basically, the criticism focuses on the fact that the experience of people returning to life after death can turn out to be a simple hallucination. One of the main critics is Dr. Russell Noise, Jr., psychiatrist at the University of Iowa School of Medicine. Dr. Noyes studied 114 cases of people who came out alive from a near-death situation, but did not find that they were evidence of life after death.
Dr Noyes noted that RVTs reported by victims of accidents and deaths may be the basis of the "adaptive circuitry of the nervous system." He sees this as "depersonalization" rather than astral flights.
"Depersonalization can be an almost universal response to a threat to life," he said. The sudden withdrawal of pain, as many people tell stories, and the resulting feeling of peace and quiet, says Dr. Noyes, can be "an emergency mechanism, a kind of relaxing response" so that the person does not suffer. Regarding stories that seem to be indicative of life after death, Dr. Noise agrees with Freud, who believed that the subconscious cannot see its own defeat and, faced with imminent death, evokes pleasant, reassuring fictions.
Dr. Noise says: “Our own death is not really imaginable, so we imagine that we will survive as a spectator. Thus, in the face of mortal danger, we find that a person becomes an observer, protecting himself from danger. Dr. Noyes regards the religious connotations of many of the death stories as hallucinations based on faith. This view is shared by virtually all scientifically minded critics.
Such arguments seem to be rational and based on serious psychiatric and medical theories. But they mainly concern only encounters of the first kind with death, which are based on purely subjective experience that arouses scientific curiosity, but does not require scientific verification. Unfortunately, meetings of the first kind with death are the most famous, they were collected earlier than all, and, probably, these meetings are the most. But evidence of second-, third-, and fourth-birth encounters undermines the critics' argument that clinical death OBT is a hallucination.
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When events that occur nearby or in the distance are perceived by a person who has no heartbeat, there is no activity of the biorhythms of the brain, deprived of consciousness, and when these events are confirmed as fact, in this case, the objections of critics can be considered untenable. When someone gut feels that a family member or loved one is in great danger or may have died, and at the same moment the person in question finds himself in a life-threatening situation, in this case, critics should look for others arguments. When a person sees, hears, or feels verifiable paranormal sensations, critics should seriously ask how such things are even possible? Can consciousness separate from the body? Is there life after death? We'll probably find it all truewhen researchers study the encounters of a higher kind with death.
Criticism of a different kind, perhaps more justified, is directed against the stories of survivors of death. In fact, all such stories describe peaceful and calm sensations: majestic panoramas, heavenly music, luminous, radiant creatures, meetings with deceased relatives - extremely wonderful and desirable sensations. Could these brilliant tales of death inspire someone to commit suicide? As one psychiatrist put it: “Many emotionally unbalanced or deeply depressed people are hesitant to commit suicide because they are not sure what to expect. If they knew that a wonderful afterlife awaits them, they would have acted more decisively."
Dr. Robert Kastenbaum, professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts, believes that this could very well happen if it hasn't already, and thinks that research into life after death will not calm people, but rather cause more suffering and pain. Only when society understands the emotional and physical distress the terminally ill is experiencing, says Dr. Kastenbaum, will we change our minds and decide that dying is ultimately a happy moment. The view that “all is well that ends well” assumes that everyone goes through a certain moment of death, says Dr. Kastenbaum. This concept is questionable and does not agree strongly with clinical experience.
Some of the critics say that we have only reports of people who "returned" after clinical death, what is it possible to say about the millions of millions who went on a journey without return, forever? Was their journey a happy one? Did they have the opportunity to return, which they gave up, choosing a more peaceful existence? Did any of them survive the horror of hell? We do not know this. It is also not known why only about 15% of people who have experienced clinical death talk about their experience, while the majority do not tell anything.
The call of temporary death can be fundamentally different from leaving life for good, says Dr. Kastenbaum.
Other critics of the “happy death” experience point to negative aspects. Some of their arguments make sense, others miss the mark. Characteristically, these critics refer to stories that report terrible cases of premature burials: exhumed bodies with handfuls of hair torn out in horror, faces with incredible horror frozen on them, the walls of wooden coffins, scratched with nails in vain attempts to get out. But upon closer examination, criticism of this kind turns out to be untenable.
Consider the three stages of dying that Dr. Russell Noise spoke of: Resistance, Life Review, and Transition. The horror of those buried alive, the agony of a car crash or fire, a desperate struggle with an unopened parachute - all this happens at the "resistance" stage, at the first stage, when the human ego is desperately trying to hold on to life. When thanatologists talk about peaceful death, about “happy death”, they mean the final stage - “Transition”. Suffering and struggle often precede this stage, but it is in the third stage that the curtain falls."
Dr. Kastenbaum looked for genuinely negative death experiences. He spoke of a nurse who had an accident and was taken to hospital with an injury that paralyzed her and made her voiceless, although she was able to hear sounds and voices.
Dr. Kastenbaum says:
“It's all over with this one,” a voice said, “send for the next ones.” The nurse realized that it was she who was mistaken for the dead. How did she react? “I was furious - real rage! I had no intention of being dead to them. " She decided to go through the invisible border that separates life from death. Gathering all her strength, she was eventually able to attract attention to herself with barely noticeable movements and faint sounds. “I shouted to myself:“I’m not dead yet, bastards.” I'm not sure if it got to them, but there were some sounds, and I didn't stop moving and talking until I convinced them that I was not dead."
Dr. Kastenbaum cites this account as “a woman’s experience completely different from the cases suggested by Dr. Kubler-Ross and Dr. Moody. She was "dead enough" to be mistaken for a deceased, and went through a critical period - whether or not they would take care of her. But she did not hover over her body, looking down happily and with surprise. She did not resist the efforts to bring her back to life and did not feel that the heavenly silence was disturbed by ruthless doctors. This woman wanted to live and she did everything in her power to return to life, deeply traumatized by the death sentence."
This incident does not in any way affect the “happy death” hypothesis or the significance of the out-of-body experience. The traumatized woman suffered from the so-called "social death" in which a person is mistaken for dead, although biological facts may contradict this. The nurse's experience clearly relates to the Resistance stage. When looking for evidence that might disprove the "happy death" hypothesis, researchers must carefully distinguish between the stages of dying. Moreover, the fact that many people experience a short period of "Transition" before death may remain unnoticed by doctors who do not follow the long-term ailments of the hopelessly sick. The idea that life ends with a moment of happiness will never have an impact on how society views caring for chronically ill, slowly dying patients.
One type of criticism remains that the spread of stories of “happy deaths” may lead people to commit suicide. Perhaps this could help to find out whether the death of a suicide gives the same experience as ordinary or clinical death. If the experience is the same, for some, suicide may seem like an easy escape from their problems. On the other hand, if ordinary or clinical death leads to a peaceful outcome, then death of its own accord may turn out to be a journey to hell - in this case, suicide will not look so attractive.
Unfortunately, the evidence we have is conflicting. Many religions strictly prohibit suicide, with the exception of some Eastern sects that allow suicide as a protest against social or moral injustice. The punishment for suicide ranges from eternal damnation and burning in hell, loneliness in the kingdom of snow and icy wind, to reincarnation in animal form. None of the punishments looks easy and any one can prevent you from losing your life.
Our current knowledge of mental disorders is changing the traditional view of suicide. Many religions believe that a person who is taken to the extreme and takes his own life is unbalanced by definition and therefore unable to take responsibility for his actions; he cannot be doomed to eternal hell.
This argument is humane and provides an opportunity to reassure the relatives of the suicides.
In this controversial and controversial issue - the experience of death by voluntary departure from life - we have one indisputable fact: judging by the literature about encounters with death, all those who have returned to life deny suicide as a way to get to the next world. Whether they returned to life as a result of the efforts of doctors or out of a sense of duty to loved ones, they firmly knew that suicide is taboo, this way is prohibited.
Some of those who have returned to life claim that, being in a state - outside the body, they gained the knowledge that suicide is a despised act and entails severe punishment. One person told Dr. Moody:
"When I was there, I felt that two things are absolutely forbidden for me: to kill myself or to kill another person … By committing suicide, I throw his gift in God in the face … By killing someone, I break the commandments of God."
A woman who was brought back to life after taking a lethal dose of sleeping pills says:
“I had a clear feeling (while she was being brought to her senses) that I had done something terrible. Not according to social norms, but according to the highest. I was so sure of this that I desperately wanted to return to my body and live."
Dr. Moody is one of the few researchers to have examined suicide, but even his work in this area is sketchy, based on a few cases. But Dr. Moody came to the conclusion that if there is any difference between encounters with death due to suicide or for other reasons, then it is as follows: natural death is characterized by a feeling of calmness and a feeling: "everything is right, this is the completion of my destiny", while suicide is characterized by mixed feelings, anxiety and a very specific feeling that "this is wrong, I should go back and wait for my death."
This information is in this form - all that we have for today. However, this may be enough to deter people from trying to enter the afterlife ahead of time.
A. Landsberg, C. Faye