People may have questions after learning about the out-of-body experience of temporary death survivors. First of all, did all who went through clinical death have the described perceptions, or only a part of them? Did everyone testify about the continuation of life after the death of the body? These questions concern all of us closely. Will I continue to exist after the death of the body, or does my existence end there? We know that such a phenomenon as the continuation of life after the death of the body exists, but does everyone?
By the 80s of the XX century, more than 25,000 cases of return to life after temporary death had been collected. Kübler-Ross reports that, according to her data, only 10 percent of those surveyed had clear memories of their experiences. Other authors talk about 25, 40 and more percent. Osis and Haraldson sent out a questionnaire to the doctors and received many answers. Of the 3,800 patients who were dying in full consciousness, more than one third, being on the verge of death, saw various disembodied figures or, leaving the body, had certain perceptions. Osis and Haraldson noted that believers had more visions than non-believers. 5 year olds and 75 year olds saw and felt the same thing. The longer they remained outside the body, the brighter and stronger their experiences were.
It turned out that less than half of the people who had been on the verge of life and death testified about life after death, while most spoke about emptiness, about loss of consciousness.
Does this mean that only some of us, not all, will find life after death? Objective science cannot yet answer this question. Not everyone talks about being in the afterlife. Many of the respondents did not want to answer, perhaps fearing mistrust and ridicule. And we ourselves, waking up in the morning, can we always remember our dreams? Many perceptions, especially disturbed ones, are not stored in memory.
Christianity answers this question absolutely definitely: the human soul is immortal and will live forever. BUT the quality of this disembodied life will be very different for different people.
Surely each of us, to one degree or another, is afraid of death. How do we die? Will we suffer? Will we feel pain? Is it very strong?
It is probably possible to give a definite answer to this question. None of those who have been “beyond the threshold of death” and, therefore, those who have stepped over the “moment” of dying, spoke about pain. There was no pain. There was no physical suffering either. Pain and suffering could be caused by life, but they only lasted until the critical "moment"; neither during it nor after they were. On the contrary, there was a feeling of calmness, peace and even happiness.
The very "moment" of the transition is imperceptible. Very few people talked about short-term loss of consciousness.
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One more thing is curious. Most of those who died for a while did not know they were dead. They continued to live, hear and think as before, but found themselves in an unusual environment - they hovered under the ceiling, watched their bodies from the side, and so on. And only gradually did they begin to suspect: "Haven't I died?" Before that, they did not perceive the moment of death at all. But this is understandable and absolutely natural. The personality does not stop living, there was no death of the personality. This means that no sensations of what was, and could not be.
Here is a short excerpt from an interview. The doctor asks the patient who returned to life about how he died: "At what point did you lose consciousness?" The patient says with irritation: “I did not lose consciousness at all. I saw everything and remember everything. " Continuing, he says: "At first I did not understand why they were crowding over my body, it never occurred to me that I was dead … No pain … there is nothing to fear death."
There is no disappearance, nothingness, but there is a transition from one state to another, and this transition is painless and imperceptible in itself. The situation changes, the nature of perception changes, and only then comes the understanding: "I am dead."
It is pleasant to realize that at a critical moment there will be neither pain nor any unpleasant sensations, but another question immediately arises: Well then? What will happen to me after?
Almost everyone who had the experience of dying spoke of peace and quiet. They were surrounded by love and felt safe. Is it possible to hope that this applies to everyone and that after the death of the body, nothing bad threatens any of us? Science cannot answer this question; the information obtained by her speaks not of the afterlife, but only of its beginning, of the first minutes, in rare cases - of hours after the transition.
Most of the descriptions of these first minutes are actually light in nature, but not all. The stories of suicides brought back to life are bleak. In addition, it is a well-known fact that the unpleasant is often forgotten, and difficult and undesirable experiences are forced out of memory into the subconscious.
Dr. Maurice Rawlings writes about this in the book "Beyond the Threshold of Death" (a description of this case is given in the book "Life Beyond the Coffin" by Tim Lagey). He was concerned that reports from Raymond Moody, Kubler-Ross and others were giving a false impression. Not all transition perceptions are pleasant. He talked about his patient who ended up in hell after cardiac arrest. During resuscitation, he regained consciousness several times, but his heart stopped again. When he found himself in our world and found the gift of speech, he did not stop seeing hell and in horror begged the doctors to speed up the revival. Two days later, the patient had no memories of what had happened. He forgot everything, as if he had never been in hell and had never seen any hell.
After the transition, the personality finds itself in new conditions of existence. “In the afterlife,” writes Ritchie, “all the laws of matter are violated. There it is possible to walk through walls, not to feel touches, to fly "instantly". Probably, having crossed the threshold of death, the person enters into some other relationship with time and space. "I could instantly be transported to any place at will."
Nobody mentioned the time when the dying were outside the threshold, and probably did not think that it was not at all. Afterwards it turned out that the revision of the whole life, long visions, meetings and conversations lasted one or two minutes of earthly time, maybe even less. Freud writes about "time compression" in dreams and gives examples of long and complex dreams that took less than one minute of earthly time.
The father of the family saw in the other world six dead children, all at the age when they were closest to him. "They have no age there."
Time and space are different there than on earth. We do not know what they are and whether they exist at all, but, apparently, they are less absolute for an incorporeal being than for us.
The third chapter describes meetings with deceased relatives and friends. A soul that has passed into the afterlife meets and somehow unmistakably recognizes those it knew on earth. She meets only those who were close to her, and at that age when the love that bound them was especially strong, as if akin was attracted to each other.
Everything that happened in the afterlife was perceived by the dying as completely real. Everyone was sure that what they experienced and described had actually happened. For them it was indisputable, even when their minds refused to admit it: “I don't understand … Yes, it was, although it shouldn't have been. It cannot exist in any way, but it exists."
“Yes, I know, many will not believe me, they will say that this could not be. But this will not change anything at all, and let them say to me: "It cannot be, science will prove that this does not exist" - I know, I was there."
He has left the body and is observing the operation on himself. He is fine, he does not need any operation. He tries to stop the doctor, but he fails. “I grabbed his hand, but she was not there. I was real, he was unreal … like in a mirror. He, in his world, feels and understands that he is real, but the doctor is not really there.
A woman psychiatrist who suffered a temporary death said: "People who have had these experiences know: those who have not had them must wait." While the body and the part of the person that left it existed separately, all external stimuli were perceived by the latter. The body felt nothing, and everything that happened to it was observed and described from the outside. She hovered under the ceiling and watched: "When the current was turned on, I saw my body jump up … I did not feel anything, no pain …".
Everything that was stored in memory was related to the perceptions and experiences of the released part, not the body. The body was motionless and absolutely indifferent, it did not see, did not hear, did not feel until the time when the part that came out returned to it; after that, the physical eyes began to see again, the ears to hear, and the brain began to function. The person became what he was before the cardiac arrest or accident.
Exactly the same sequence of events occurs when the "astral body" travels.
The existence of those who passed into another world was a reality, but the situation in which they found themselves, especially in transcendental perceptions, was so unusual that it was almost impossible to describe it. “There is no such thing in life (on earth). There is no such word in our language to describe … This is different … This is not our world ….
There are many stories about how the part of a person that left the body saw itself. They are sketchy and not very clear. Probably others were attracted. When we first find ourselves in an exotic country, we do not consider ourselves, but the environment around us.
All stories about otherworldly perceptions have one very curious side. It is absolutely definitely said about the preservation and even exacerbation of physiological functions. Vision and hearing are clearer than they were, the understanding is so complete that it is impossible to deceive or conceal something. At the same time, there are almost no descriptions of the anatomical substance, form.
One woman, finding herself "beyond the threshold", tried to push the hand of the nurse, who was rubbing her lifeless body. When asked if she saw her own hand, she replied: "Yes, I had something like a hand, but when it became unnecessary, it disappeared."
But even such a vague message is highly unusual. As a rule, in the messages of people who had otherworldly experience, there is no mention of their own appearance and shape of organs, as if the latter were not at all.
Consequently, the physiological functions known to us are preserved, but exist without an appropriate anatomical substrate.
Seeing is possible without physical eyes. Blind from birth, leaving the body, he saw everything that doctors did with his body and later told about what was happening in all details. Dr. Kübler-Ross tells of a blind woman who saw clearly and then described the room in which she "died." Returning to her body, she became blind again. As you can see, with spiritual vision it is possible to perceive both worlds, and with bodily vision - only the material world.
The legless soldier could walk and felt that both legs were intact.
Contact with other disembodied beings occurs without the participation of speech organs and physical brain cells that perceive words or thoughts.
The function also exists without matter, or, in any case, without the known form of matter.
Saint Gregory Palamas wrote: “In mystical contemplation, a person sees not with the intellect and not with the body, but with the spirit; he knows with complete confidence that he perceives light supernaturally, which surpasses any other light, but he does not know by what organ he perceives this light."
In the afterlife, sight and hearing are preserved. But the sense of touch seems to disappear or weaken. Ikskul said: "My body is really a body … I saw clearly … but it became inaccessible to touch."
"Pushing their hands away, I felt nothing."
"He just passed through me …".
"I stood and could not reach the floor: the air is probably too dense there."
There was no pain in the afterlife. There are almost no mentions of any bodily sensations, but many felt warmth in the presence of Light.
After the transition, there is a change in the emotional sphere of the personality. She loses interest in her body and what is happening to it. "I go out and the body is an empty shell."
The dying person observes the operation on his heart as a “disinterested observer”.
Attempts to revive the deceased body "were not interesting to me." Probably, the past, earthly life is over.
No one regretted material losses, but love for relatives, care for abandoned children remained, sometimes there was a desire to return back, despite the fact that “there” is better than in earthly life.
But there were no radical changes in the character of the personality, it remains the same as it was. She is in the afterlife and here she sees and realizes a lot of new things for herself, but she will not have some kind of higher knowledge or understanding.
There is some evidence of such a higher knowledge. All of them relate to those cases when resuscitation took a lot of time and stay "out of the body" was long. The returnees spoke of an unexpected "enlightenment", when any knowledge and any information were attainable, all knowledge - past, present and future - was timeless and easily accessible. "Knowledge is around you, and you can take it."
This state was fleeting. Upon returning to the body, the feeling of all-embracing knowledge was preserved, but its content disappeared without a trace. Nothing remained in my memory.
Of course, in the afterlife, the personality has to learn a lot of new things, but at the moment of transition and immediately after it, it remains the same as it was during life on Earth. She sees and understands what is happening in the same way as before, sometimes very primitive and naive. She may try to help the orderlies carry the stretcher with her dead body. In her opinion, walking in the operating room in boots is unsterile.
“The assumption that, after leaving the body, the soul immediately knows and understands everything is wrong. I appeared in this new world as I left the old one”(Ikskul).
New knowledge and understanding does not come immediately. During the transition, the personality does not change. The individuality is preserved. We do not have two lives, but one: the afterlife is a natural continuation of our earthly life.
Pantes Kiroson