Is Death The End? The "Light" Says No
Many of us are terribly afraid of death because we believe that it is the END. The last breath and then... eternal darkness. The Void. But is it so? Is death the end? Do we really disappear for good with the last breath we take?
The reality may be not as we imagine it, for many people who had experienced “clinical death” and came back to life shared fascinating stories that show us that death is not the end of everything, but just the end of life as we know it. We do not really die, we just go somewhere else...
In 2008, a large-scale study involving 2060 patients from 15 hospitals in the United Kingdom, United States, and Austria was launched. The AWARE (AWAreness during REsuscitation) study examined the broad range of mental experiences in relation to death.
According to southampton.ac.uk, researchers also tested the validity of conscious experiences using objective markers for the first time in a large study to determine whether claims of awareness compatible with out-of-body experiences correspond with real or hallucinatory events.
The results of the study have been published in the journal Resuscitation and are now available online.
What does the study conclude? The themes relating to the experience of death appear far broader than what has been understood so far, or what has been described as so-called near-death experiences.
In some cases of cardiac arrest, memories of visual awareness compatible with so-called out-of-body experiences may correspond with actual events.
A higher proportion of people may have vivid death experiences, but do not recall them due to the effects of brain injury or sedative drugs on memory circuits.
A Mountain '30,000 Times Huger Than Mount Everest'
A woman who was clinically dead for over fourteen minutes says she saw a mountain range '30,000 times huger than Mount Everest' in the afterlife. Dr. Lynda Cramer said she was on her way to the toilet when she collapsed on the floor in the early hours of the morning. She claims she continued her journey and made it to Heaven as paramedics struggled to revive her.
The woman said she floated above paramedics working on her body before she explored the afterlife, where she could take any form she chose.
Once resuscitated, she shared what she saw during an experience that seemed to last five years in the dimension she was.
"That's when I found myself standing in what I termed the field of flowers. I was observing the mountain range 30,000 times huger than Mount Everest."
"There's a huge mountain range over in the back of wherever I was. I could see buildings with skyscrapers. Dubai is like little miniature huts in comparison. I saw lakes, I could see everything in a panoramic view," Dr. Cramer said.
"So I'm there interacting with people, talking to people, becoming them," she added.
A Doctor's Fascinating Story
A doctor from St. Spiridon's Hospital told a story about a patient of his who experienced a near-death experience.
"I was shocked by the case of a patient whom I knew very well, a simple country woman who had no information - she did not read scientific magazines, who had suffered a heart attack and was hospitalized in a regular salon, not in the Intensive Care section.
She went into ventricular fibrillation and was in cardiorespiratory arrest for several minutes.
After she was resuscitated, I talked to her and told her what happened. And she said that at one point she saw a very big light in front of her and she was walking very happily in a green and very beautiful field. She saw her mother and a little girl who had died waving at her. I was shocked because a person without much education could say such a thing".
A Pastor Said He Talked To God And He Came Back After Dying
Another interesting case is the one of Romanian pastor Claudiu Lapadat. He said that while he was on vacation with his family, everything turned, in just a few moments, into a real nightmare. The room where the two were was filled with carbon monoxide due to a faulty stove.
He recalled in an interview what he experienced.
"My soul rose from my body. I just got up, I was at the edge of my bed, I saw my body and at that moment I knew I was dead. My consciousness was clear as never before. I started to raise above. I went through the ceiling, through the roof, and I reached the top of the house, I saw the car, the light bulb, and then the clouds. I went up and at one point a beam of steam started coming towards me from above (..) it was steam flowing over me. Along with that steam was music, very special music. That steam that passed through me was composed of several elements, love, joy, peace, tranquility," he said.
The pastor also said that while he was raising, at one point, the image of his five children appeared on his right side and he heard God saying to him, "Son, choose where you would be going. In heaven or back to earth."
At that moment, without any regret, he said he was going to heaven and continued to float. As he ascended, the children appeared to him again, but there were also two coffins, his and his wife's, with a great crowd of people behind them. He says he felt the pain of the crowd and of the five children, and again he heard the same voice of God with the same question: where does he want to go?
His answer was the same, and he continued to fly higher when God appeared to him for the third time. A few moments later, he again saw people telling him to go home, and a white door appeared in front of him with the same steam coming out of it. Then he was asked again by God where he chooses to go and this time he told Him that he must be responsible for his sons. At that moment, he felt that God opened his mind and decided to return to earth. Immediately after, he began to descend. The steam led him, he passed through the roof, through the ceiling, entered the body, and immediately woke up. After that, days of hospitalization followed, but all went well.
A Blind Woman Has Sight Restored
Psychiatrist Brian Weiss tells the story of a blind, elderly woman:
"She suffered a cardiac arrest during her stay in the hospital where I [Weiss] was the chairman of the psychiatry department. She was unconscious as the resuscitation team tried to revive her. According to her later report, she floated out of her body and stood near the window, watching [the resuscitation]. She observed, without any pain whatsoever, as they thumped on her chest and pumped air into her lungs. During the resuscitation, a pen fell out of her doctor’s pocket and rolled near the same window where her out-of-body spirit was standing and watching. The doctor eventually walked over, picked up the pen, and put it back in his pocket. He then rejoined the frantic effort to save her. They succeeded.
A few days later, she told her doctor that she had observed the resuscitation team at work during her cardiac arrest. ‘No,’ he soothingly reassured her. ‘You were probably hallucinating because of the anoxia [lack of oxygen to the brain]. This can happen when the heart stops beating.
But I saw your pen roll over to the window,’ she replied. Then she described the pen and other details of the resuscitation. The doctor was shocked. His patient had not only been comatose during the resuscitation, but she had also been blind for many years," he recalled.
A British Social Worker Observes Everything That Happens To Her Body Whilst Dead
In 2011, Mr. A., a 57-year-old social worker from the UK, was hospitalized after suddenly collapsing at work. The man had a heart attack, and died for a few minutes, during which he was resuscitated by doctors and brought back to life.
During those few minutes in which his heart did not beat, Mr. A. told how he floated, next to a woman he felt he could trust, above his body. The medical staff was agitated, while the deceased patient observed every movement of those who desperately tried to "pluck" him from the world of the dead.
The actions of the doctors were successful, and Mr. A. came back to life. Shockingly, the man could recount in detail everything that happened in the operating room when he died.
Believing In The Afterlife Experience Can Change Our Actual Lives
Dr. Suzanne Newcombe, of the UK’s Open University, explores our beliefs in an afterlife and how they can impact our mortal lives.
"What we believe about death and our ideas about eternal life can really make a difference as to how we live, how we handle pain and suffering and experience being alive here and now.
"In my research, I have found that in practice, many people slip between ideas of mortality in the body and the idea of immortality (either as a soul or in a physical body), and holding open these ideas of the possibility of immortality can have very positive effects on health.
“From a biomedical perspective, this hope might help the body fight illnesses, improve the chances of spontaneous remissions or allow the illness to run its course. It’s more equanimity for the person involved. But even if there’s no biological change, a focus on the possibility of immortality can help some individuals ‘disidentify’ with their bodily pain and develop a more peaceful relationship with their experiences of suffering," she says.
But what's more important is that if we do not really die, we should instead focus on living a meaningful life, full of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. A life we can be proud of when we'll be leaving where the Light will guide us to.
The reality may be not as we imagine it, for many people who had experienced “clinical death” and came back to life shared fascinating stories that show us that death is not the end of everything, but just the end of life as we know it. We do not really die, we just go somewhere else...
In 2008, a large-scale study involving 2060 patients from 15 hospitals in the United Kingdom, United States, and Austria was launched. The AWARE (AWAreness during REsuscitation) study examined the broad range of mental experiences in relation to death.
According to southampton.ac.uk, researchers also tested the validity of conscious experiences using objective markers for the first time in a large study to determine whether claims of awareness compatible with out-of-body experiences correspond with real or hallucinatory events.
The results of the study have been published in the journal Resuscitation and are now available online.
What does the study conclude? The themes relating to the experience of death appear far broader than what has been understood so far, or what has been described as so-called near-death experiences.
In some cases of cardiac arrest, memories of visual awareness compatible with so-called out-of-body experiences may correspond with actual events.
A higher proportion of people may have vivid death experiences, but do not recall them due to the effects of brain injury or sedative drugs on memory circuits.
A Mountain '30,000 Times Huger Than Mount Everest'
A woman who was clinically dead for over fourteen minutes says she saw a mountain range '30,000 times huger than Mount Everest' in the afterlife. Dr. Lynda Cramer said she was on her way to the toilet when she collapsed on the floor in the early hours of the morning. She claims she continued her journey and made it to Heaven as paramedics struggled to revive her.
The woman said she floated above paramedics working on her body before she explored the afterlife, where she could take any form she chose.
Once resuscitated, she shared what she saw during an experience that seemed to last five years in the dimension she was.
"That's when I found myself standing in what I termed the field of flowers. I was observing the mountain range 30,000 times huger than Mount Everest."
"There's a huge mountain range over in the back of wherever I was. I could see buildings with skyscrapers. Dubai is like little miniature huts in comparison. I saw lakes, I could see everything in a panoramic view," Dr. Cramer said.
"So I'm there interacting with people, talking to people, becoming them," she added.
A Doctor's Fascinating Story
A doctor from St. Spiridon's Hospital told a story about a patient of his who experienced a near-death experience.
"I was shocked by the case of a patient whom I knew very well, a simple country woman who had no information - she did not read scientific magazines, who had suffered a heart attack and was hospitalized in a regular salon, not in the Intensive Care section.
She went into ventricular fibrillation and was in cardiorespiratory arrest for several minutes.
After she was resuscitated, I talked to her and told her what happened. And she said that at one point she saw a very big light in front of her and she was walking very happily in a green and very beautiful field. She saw her mother and a little girl who had died waving at her. I was shocked because a person without much education could say such a thing".
A Pastor Said He Talked To God And He Came Back After Dying
Another interesting case is the one of Romanian pastor Claudiu Lapadat. He said that while he was on vacation with his family, everything turned, in just a few moments, into a real nightmare. The room where the two were was filled with carbon monoxide due to a faulty stove.
He recalled in an interview what he experienced.
"My soul rose from my body. I just got up, I was at the edge of my bed, I saw my body and at that moment I knew I was dead. My consciousness was clear as never before. I started to raise above. I went through the ceiling, through the roof, and I reached the top of the house, I saw the car, the light bulb, and then the clouds. I went up and at one point a beam of steam started coming towards me from above (..) it was steam flowing over me. Along with that steam was music, very special music. That steam that passed through me was composed of several elements, love, joy, peace, tranquility," he said.
The pastor also said that while he was raising, at one point, the image of his five children appeared on his right side and he heard God saying to him, "Son, choose where you would be going. In heaven or back to earth."
At that moment, without any regret, he said he was going to heaven and continued to float. As he ascended, the children appeared to him again, but there were also two coffins, his and his wife's, with a great crowd of people behind them. He says he felt the pain of the crowd and of the five children, and again he heard the same voice of God with the same question: where does he want to go?
His answer was the same, and he continued to fly higher when God appeared to him for the third time. A few moments later, he again saw people telling him to go home, and a white door appeared in front of him with the same steam coming out of it. Then he was asked again by God where he chooses to go and this time he told Him that he must be responsible for his sons. At that moment, he felt that God opened his mind and decided to return to earth. Immediately after, he began to descend. The steam led him, he passed through the roof, through the ceiling, entered the body, and immediately woke up. After that, days of hospitalization followed, but all went well.
A Blind Woman Has Sight Restored
Psychiatrist Brian Weiss tells the story of a blind, elderly woman:
"She suffered a cardiac arrest during her stay in the hospital where I [Weiss] was the chairman of the psychiatry department. She was unconscious as the resuscitation team tried to revive her. According to her later report, she floated out of her body and stood near the window, watching [the resuscitation]. She observed, without any pain whatsoever, as they thumped on her chest and pumped air into her lungs. During the resuscitation, a pen fell out of her doctor’s pocket and rolled near the same window where her out-of-body spirit was standing and watching. The doctor eventually walked over, picked up the pen, and put it back in his pocket. He then rejoined the frantic effort to save her. They succeeded.
A few days later, she told her doctor that she had observed the resuscitation team at work during her cardiac arrest. ‘No,’ he soothingly reassured her. ‘You were probably hallucinating because of the anoxia [lack of oxygen to the brain]. This can happen when the heart stops beating.
But I saw your pen roll over to the window,’ she replied. Then she described the pen and other details of the resuscitation. The doctor was shocked. His patient had not only been comatose during the resuscitation, but she had also been blind for many years," he recalled.
A British Social Worker Observes Everything That Happens To Her Body Whilst Dead
In 2011, Mr. A., a 57-year-old social worker from the UK, was hospitalized after suddenly collapsing at work. The man had a heart attack, and died for a few minutes, during which he was resuscitated by doctors and brought back to life.
During those few minutes in which his heart did not beat, Mr. A. told how he floated, next to a woman he felt he could trust, above his body. The medical staff was agitated, while the deceased patient observed every movement of those who desperately tried to "pluck" him from the world of the dead.
The actions of the doctors were successful, and Mr. A. came back to life. Shockingly, the man could recount in detail everything that happened in the operating room when he died.
Believing In The Afterlife Experience Can Change Our Actual Lives
Dr. Suzanne Newcombe, of the UK’s Open University, explores our beliefs in an afterlife and how they can impact our mortal lives.
"What we believe about death and our ideas about eternal life can really make a difference as to how we live, how we handle pain and suffering and experience being alive here and now.
"In my research, I have found that in practice, many people slip between ideas of mortality in the body and the idea of immortality (either as a soul or in a physical body), and holding open these ideas of the possibility of immortality can have very positive effects on health.
“From a biomedical perspective, this hope might help the body fight illnesses, improve the chances of spontaneous remissions or allow the illness to run its course. It’s more equanimity for the person involved. But even if there’s no biological change, a focus on the possibility of immortality can help some individuals ‘disidentify’ with their bodily pain and develop a more peaceful relationship with their experiences of suffering," she says.
But what's more important is that if we do not really die, we should instead focus on living a meaningful life, full of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. A life we can be proud of when we'll be leaving where the Light will guide us to.
