Near-death experiences
A seriously injured or seriously ill person can lie motionless with closed eyes with barely noticeable indicators of vital functions, but at the same time hear what was said, see what is happening around. Examples of such an incident:
•… one nurse told about her own admission to the emergency department. She was one of four people who were injured in an accident … she could not utter a sound, could not move. But like many traumatized people, she heard sounds and voices around her. "This one is dead," she heard a voice. "Let's test others." The nurse realized that she was presumed dead. Her reaction: “I was furious - just outright rage! I didn’t want to remain dead for them!.. It seems that I shouted: "I am not dead yet, you bastards!" I'm not sure these words reached them, but some of the sounds burst out."
• Several years ago I had an accident … I was lying in the emergency room and heard two nurses trying to determine my blood pressure. One of the other said: "Pressure, you can't feel it here" or something like that, and says: "Well, try again." I heard all this, but I could not tell them anything. I heard clearly the intercom: "Some of the doctors are on the floor, please respond, urgently to the emergency room." I just lay there and thought: "But someone is bad in the emergency room." I didn’t even understand what they were saying about me … I don’t know what the doctor was doing to me, but he brought me back to life, and it felt like someone had poured a bucket of hot water on me … And the doctor said: “You there were no signs of life. " But I didn't see anything. I just heard. On another occasion, during cardiac arrest and a near-death experience, I looked at myself from above, from the ceiling.
• 1964, July. I was in a hurry to see the dentist, it was raining. I had to catch the bus; I was walking along a pedestrian crossing, there was no traffic light … When I was crossing, one man shouted something to me, and I turned to understand what he was saying - apparently he wanted to warn me - and then a black car hit me from behind … This is the last thing I remember before I was already above this whole scene and looked from above at what is happening. I was completely separate. It was amazing for me …
I don't remember hearing anything. I was just looking … I kind of floated up there … at roof level or maybe a little higher. What struck me most was that I was devoid of emotion. As if I were a pure mind. I was not scared, it was very pleasant … I remember I saw my shoe crushed under the car, I saw a crushed earring. I was in a new dress, I put it on a second time - I thought: oh no, my new dress was destroyed. I didn't even think about my body, which was probably also badly damaged. It was strange, but I didn't really think that the situation was serious … The next thing I saw was a crying woman (car driver) … She was standing by the car … I remember seeing a dent in the car. My attention was on my body when the arriving doctors put it on a stretcher …
They looked me in the eye. They probably checked my pupils. Then they began to lift my body and took me to the hospital as quickly as they could. How they treated me is something … I was surprised, because they raised me in an amateurish way. They simply took me under the shoulders and under the knees instead of rolling the stretcher under me and then only lifting me. There were two doctors on duty. I thought they should have been professionals, but they didn't know what they were doing. I thought very distantly, and did not feel like a victim of the incident. Everything was somehow separate.
The next thing I remember was that I was crying in the emergency room because I could not see … I woke up blind and could not see for about three minutes after I fully regained consciousness.
Promotional video:
• 1977, May - a married couple was at a dance with friends. During the dance, the man felt a severe chest pain. Taking it for an upset stomach, he went out into the fresh air, but the pain did not subside. One of those gathered advised him to go to the local emergency room. There he passed out, woke up the next day, connected to a heart monitor, with an IV. While unconscious, the patient had this experience:
I remember the delivery to the hospital entrance as they dragged me out of the car. This is when I began to move away … I remember how someone said: "His heart stopped." And I walked away … At that time my life flew before my eyes. All my life … Things that happened in my life, for example, our wedding, flashed before my eyes, flashed and disappeared. Then I saw when we … had our first child. The greatest thing, I think, and the longest thing that stopped before my eyes, was my acceptance of Jesus Christ, which was a few years before.
It happened when I entered the tunnel. I felt like I was in a round, black tunnel. Only darkness. At the end of the tunnel, I saw a glowing light. It was so orange - did you see the sunset this afternoon? The light was compiled into an orange glow with a yellow tint in the center of the circle. This is how the end of that tunnel looked like … It was incredible peace. It was the most impressive thing in my life, and I didn't care if I woke up or not. It was relaxing. I remembered the sound of the voices … I thought it was Jesus Christ who spoke to me … I saw … the golden gates of Heaven, I think. I saw the steps. I remember their appearance … I climbed several steps that I shouldn't have climbed, and I don't know how I got there, but I was there … Someone said a few words to me, and I fell asleep again.
Dark area or vacuum
For 14 people, the near-death experience began with the feeling of entering a region of darkness or vacuum. Instant fright or bewilderment sometimes accompanied the beginning of the passage into darkness, when a person thought: "What's going on here?" But, quickly these unpleasant emotions were replaced by silence or calmness as further elements of the near-death experience that began to unfold. Several people felt as if they were standing motionless inside this dark vacuum. Such was the situation with a 47-year-old electrician from Florida, who described it this way during resuscitation following cardiac arrest in March 1977:
• “I just entered a completely dark, silent vacuum. You seem to be just there in the darkness."
• Other people were aware of some sense of movement through the area of darkness. During an episode of postoperative shock, a 23-year-old young woman felt this:
All around me there was total blackness. I had the feeling that I was moving incredibly fast in time and space. I moved through the tunnel. It did not look like a tunnel, but when you are in it, all you see is blackness all around. When you move very quickly, you can feel the walls approaching you, whether there are walls there or not, I don't know, there is darkness around, this is such a feeling.
• The case of a 60-year-old woman who “watched” her cardiac resuscitation in January 1978, outside her body, surrounded by an area of darkness:
(In case of cardiac arrest) I left my body and was on the sidelines in some kind of pipe. It was really dark in there, but I saw what they were doing. I heard them. I watched them do all this nonsense to me … It was like they put a big pipe away from the bed, and I just slipped out of the bed right into that pipe, just moved there … But around my body it was light, like in a room. Anyway, I was in darkness, but I could look outside and see everything.
• And in this case, the patient moved through the darkness, in an area resembling a corridor, and could observe the resuscitation of his unconscious body:
I saw my body from the side … I saw a whole show … I moved up slowly, as if floating in a kind of semi-dark corridor. They worked hard on me … I did not stop thinking: what is it? What's happening? And I kept going higher and higher and higher … then I went even further … I entered another world.
Shine
Seventeen people described a brilliant light source signaling the end of the dark region or vacuum and the beginning of a transcendental environment of immense beauty. The "movement" was towards this light from the area of darkness.
• The 56-year-old Chief Executive (Florida) described it this way:
I passed through this darkness … A light was seen far away, as if someone was holding a lantern, and I began to walk towards it. Then it all came to life, and the next thing I remember was that I was floating … I passed through this ray of light … The light was getting brighter and brighter … It was very bright, and the closer I got, the brighter it was, it was blinding.
• 45-year-old pharmaceutical salesman for cardiac arrest:
I went out the window. Is it like flying an airplane in the clouds when the sun is shining on them? All that was was a bright light, which became brighter and brighter, but it did not blind my eyes.
• A former 54-year-old mechanic who recovered from a deep shock in 1972 referred to this light as "the absence of darkness."
It was not light, but the absence of darkness, total and complete … We speak of light as illuminating objects and creating shadows, etc. This light was the real absence of darkness. This light was so total and complete that you do not look at it, you are INSIDE the light.
• On two occasions the light was interpreted as a human spirit or a religious figure. For example, a 53-year-old survivor of a 1977 cardiac arrest felt like “two people”:
There was a great white light, and there was not one person, there were two of them in the light. It was not a blinding, bright light, it was just white light, like two people, but I actually didn't see who it was … It felt like two people were walking towards me. Also I could not recognize them as people. Light contours only.
Michael Sabom