EVIDENCE OF THE AFTERLIFE: THE SCIENCE OF NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCES

'the soul turned, at one time, toward matter: she fell in love with it, and, burning with desire to experience bodily pleasures, wishes no more to be separated from it. Thus the world was born. From that moment the soul forgot herself; she forgot her original dwelling, her true centre, her everlasting life…' The Nag Hammadi manuscripts: Doressse (2005)

Can we separate our earthly experience of some 'three score years and ten' from the near-immortal 3.5 billion year history of life on earth or the even older intelligent or conscious universe that makes cosmologists awestruck and lyrical? Isn't the universe a thoroughly integrated, quantum flux of energy-matter, encouraging serious consideration of immortality, consciousness beyond life and the universal Akashic record? Surely the testimony of countless mystical and spiritual experiences, Near Death Experiences (NDEs) and Out of Body Experiences OBEs is now so common and consistent that a new Consciousness paradigm is already all but accepted. Perhaps it is just personal intuition and experience that wishes to insist that ever-expanding interest in these realms of consciousness is no mere fad. But the fact is that these days compelling new studies proliferate. Among these I cite three recently penned by highly credible authors: Love Beyond Death (van Kraalingen, 2011), Consciousness Beyond Life (van Lommel, 2010) and Evidence of the Afterlife which I review here. This latter exposition, by senior author Jeffrey Long MD and co-author Paul Perry, is a well-organised account of (NDEs) that raises perennial questions about the mysteries of consciousness and spiritual dimensions of human 'existence.' The book is matter-of-fact, outlining Long's conventional medical education and conversion into a NDE believer through exposure to considerable evidence, quite reasonably regarded as compelling and 'scientific.' Thanks to a conventional medical education Long began as a typical skeptic with no knowledge of the NDE phenomena, but now, despite a still-skeptical profession, claims his absolute conviction that there is life after death. He established the NDE Research Foundation to solicit and post some 1600 online accounts www.nderfr.org/afterlife including those submitted in languages other than English, but since translated. Long outlines up to twelve 'elements' which may typically be associated with NDEs. They are 1) Out of body experiences, 2) Heightened sense, 3) positive feelings, 4) tunnel experiences, 5) mystical/bright light, 6) other world/mystical beings, altered time-space sense, 8) life review, 9) heavenly realms 10) special knowledge, 11) boundary encounters, and 12) return to body. Most of the book is then structured around nine 'proofs' of NDEs, each with its own chapter as follows: 1) Lucid Death, 2) Out of Body Experiences (OBEs), 3) Blind Sight, 4) Impossibly Conscious, 5) Perfect Playback, 6) Family Reunion, 7) From the Mouths of Babes, 8) Worldwide Consistency and 9) Changed Lives. Many such experiences typical of NDEs, most of which share the characteristic of extreme lucidity, are inexplicable by conventional wisdom if the individual patient is unconscious, or actually declared clinically dead! Long is therefore able to dismiss the explanations of skeptics who try to explain away reports as dreams or hallucinations. Given that reports from young children, and diverse cultures are highly consistent, we must also dismiss the skeptical notion that people may deliberately or inadvertently tell tales based on what they have read on the subject. Long reports that fraudulent website postings were vanishingly small, and very easy to spot. There is much literature on spiritual and/or mystical experience and its sustained after effects. Most who have had such experiences regard them as positive, long-term and life-changing, enhancing what Richard Bucke characterised as the intellectual and moral senses in Cosmic Consciousness. Changes arising from NDEs are remarkably similar and often include enhanced healing ability and interest in spiritual practices. This is not to say that the experiences do not sometimes create turmoil and difficulty adjusting to day to day life. Long reports that when seven of the survivors of attempted suicide jumps from California's Golden Gate Bridge were located, all subsequently reported spiritual rebirth experiences, with no further suicidal inclinations. It is not unknown for those who have had spiritual experiences (highs) and intimations of immortality to experience low points that fuel a yearning to shuffle off the mortal coil and aspire to a spiritual life beyond death (Snell, 1959). Herein lies a source of guilt and ambivalence about why a destiny of suffering is necessary in mortal life. Why do encounters with spiritual beings often involve the injunction to resume earthly life 'until the time is right?' Perhaps there is little more to say about Evidence of the Afterlife, except that besides being a very cogent exposition, consistent with almost all one reads, it touches the most fundamental questions of existence and the spiritual side of our being. Ever since Raymond Moody's pivotal Life after Life most SMN members are likely well-versed in the fascinating metaphysic that enlivens the new consciousness generation. David Lorimer's Whole in One stresses the theme of 'interconnectedness' and re-quotes Solzhenitsyn's conviction that the goal of existence is 'not happiness but spiritual growth'. History shows us that intimations of the human spirit's immortality are as old as our most venerable literary traditions and extend deep into our even more ancient oral traditions. The Nag Hammadi citation given above neatly expresses the experience of the fall into our present state of dual, self-consciousness, which inclines, even propels, us into a sensory relationship with the physical world. Our propensity to fall in love with sensuous bodily pleasures raises a plethora of interesting psychological issues including the common, but often dissatisfying, notion that the physical sensory world is all that exists. Whereas those of a certain religious bent regard sensuous pleasures as somehow profane, and distracting from our sacred relationship with the divine, others find the same pleasures as the medium for spiritual communion with the world. So, while happiness may not be the reward of hedonism it may be found in the 'right' appreciation of the physical world, seen not as 'all there is' but as part of a spiritually infused and interconnected universe. Lastly, I would stress that there appear to be remarkable parallels between NDEs, OBEs and various types of religious, spiritual or mystical experience. Almost all those reporting such experiences claim that their consciousness has undergone significant transformation, making them more aware of the spiritual, non-physical dimensions of existence, and the need for love, compassion and meaningful human relationship. Accompanying such shifts in consciousness many experience a new confidence in their intuition, new psychic gifts and healing powers. Sometimes quite a price is paid for such life-changing experiences, which may be initiated by periods of significant stress and suffering. But does this make the challenges of spiritual growth much different in principle from those faced in life's other physical, emotional and intellectual arenas? In the end, most report that spiritual growth and insight have been more than worth the challenges and difficulties. At the risk of oversimplifying the riddles of existence there is there would be little point in striving for spiritual, emotional, moral or intellectual growth if physical experience were all existence had to offer. Millennia of human experience attest to life after life after life. We may, in time, come to regard the notion of an 'afterlife' as a misnomer. Indeed that the very notion of linear time is compromised by spiritual and NDE experiences, and the intimations of immortality that accompany such experience appear to herald a shift in consciousness to which all humanity, and our present science, may succumb.

Doresse, J. (2005) The Discovery of the Nag Hammadi Texts, Inner Traditions, Rochester, Vermont. Van Kraalingen, E. (2011) Love Beyond Death, O Books, Ropley, Hants. Van Lommel, P. (2010) Consciousness beyond Life, Harper One, New York. Snell, J. (1969) The Ministry of Angels. Citadel Press, New York.