Life After Death

Imagine this. You’re working in a hospice, and one person there that you’ve taken a liking to is a former Merchant Marine who is dying of stomach cancer. Let’s call him Ron. One day you are sitting at his bedside reading to him and suddenly you feel a great force take hold of you. Before you know it, you are floating in the air, as if you are somehow out of your body. But guess what, there is another ghostly body floating in the air. It's Ron, and he looks at you and smiles. He looks very content indeed, as if trying to tell you that he’s A-OK with clocking out and getting a new room in the afterlife. Suddenly you feel yourself drop, as if your soul has joined your body again. On the bed next to you is Ron. He takes a few more breaths and dies. The End.

We acknowledge that some of us may question the validity of our stories, and while some may seem unbelievable, today's topic is especially thought-provoking. This story may change your perspective on life and death. William Peters volunteered at a hospice and witnessed something remarkable. He claims that Ron, a patient at the hospice, became his friend during his time there. When Ron's soul left his body, William was astonished. He confided in his friends, but they were skeptical. Despite this, William felt that he had experienced something profound and began to investigate further. His findings revealed that what he experienced is known as a "shared-death experience," something that others have also reported. If William's account is accurate, then it raises questions that science and even atheists may need to address.

Let's begin by examining shared near-death experiences before delving into the incredible things people have seen after they have died and come back. The term "shared near-death experience" was coined by Raymond Moody, who spent twenty years studying what happens on the other side. He discovered that many people walk down tunnels towards a bright light, but some people encounter other spiritual beings just before they pass away. Raymond rejected the notion that near-death experiences are caused by "anoxia," a lack of oxygen in the brain that causes hallucinations. He argued that this explanation is unlikely, as it does not account for healthy individuals dancing with the dying. In an interview, he said, "We don't have that option in shared-death experiences because the bystanders aren't ill or injured, yet they experience the same kind of things." It's worth noting that most shared death experiences differ from Bill's, in which people dream of the dying person and wake up to find that the person in the dream has passed away. This has happened to many people, including the American artist, Caledonia Curry.

This is what she said, “I opened the window, and the snow started to come through my body, transforming into points of light that bloomed into these intricate snow blossoms. I heard my mom’s voice talking to me, and I was filled with a very profound sense of wellbeing and love. I woke up weeping, my face covered in tears.” A few hours later, her sister called to tell her that mom was dead. Do a bit of research, and you can find stories like this all over the web.

Ok, so now the skeptics take the floor and grab the mic. “Ladies and gentlemen,” they say, “There’s nothing to see here. Don’t rush back to church too fast and put a hold on that Paranormal club membership payment.” They say, “The reason this happens, and we agree it happens, is just because they are traumatized, not enough oxygen is getting to their brain, or they are affected by medicine, or they are simply dreaming. All these things can do strange things to the mind.”

“Really,” quip the folks that have experienced this, “Your scientific explanation for Ron floating in the air and people dying in dreams with their loved ones is that grief did it? Hmm, it sounds to me that because science can’t explain this phenomenon you are just blaming temporary madness or a brain that isn’t working right. That’s too easy. It’s a cop out.”

Back to Raymond Moody. He went on to obtain a PhD in psychology and became a forensic psychiatrist and philosopher. He was an academic and later he became a writer, a writer who wrote a lot about deathbed experiences. He wrote a book about this called “Life After Life'' and in it he details scores of cases where folks were clinically dead but went on a bit of a jaunt. Raymond also believes in past lives, having had nine of them himself.

Do you ever experience déjà vu? Well, according to Raymond, it might be a sign of a past life. Raymond was inspired to write his book after speaking with the late Dr. George Ritchie, a psychiatrist who shared his own near-death experience. At 20 years old, George died for nine minutes, and was pronounced dead twice by doctors. However, he eventually came back to life after receiving a Pulp Fiction-esque shot of adrenaline directly to the heart. During those nine minutes, George claims to have met Jesus Christ, the central figure of the Bible. Jesus took George on a journey through space and time, which included traversing various dimensions. George once said, “Death is nothing more than a doorway, something you walk through.” Despite some questioning the validity of George's experience, as he was both American and Christian, it is important to remember that God can reveal Himself in different ways to different people. So let us keep an open mind and heart to what He may be showing us.

Raymond, who is still alive, wrote a book that includes over 150 cases of near-death experiences. This book has sold over 13 million copies and is considered the go-to guide on the subject. Many people report feeling peace when they are released from their bodies and describe their experience as similar to being on molly or feeling ecstatic. Some NDEs include leaving the body and going somewhere else, walking down a dark tunnel, seeing a bright light at the end of the tunnel, meeting another being, revisiting their past, or experiencing a land of beauty. Raymond claims to have had his own NDE after attempting suicide, but some empiricists are skeptical and argue that these experiences have nothing to do with an afterlife. The Society for Psychical Research in London also believed that some things cannot be scientifically explained, and in the 1800s, William Barrett wrote about death-bed visions after listening to his wife's stories about strange occurrences before people died. One story in the book describes a woman on her deathbed who saw her sister, Vera. She held out her hand and said hello, but what the dying woman didn’t know is that her sister had passed away some three weeks earlier. Anyhow, she was reacquainted before passing away herself. According to that book, that kind of thing happened to lots of people. In the 1970s, researcher Karlis Osis looked into deathbed visions in both Christian and non-Christian societies.

Karlis wrote that in the U.S., a woman was on her deathbed and suddenly sat up with a huge grin on her face, saying, "Oh, Katie, Katie" as if looking at someone. It turned out she had a friend and an aunt both named Katie. In India, dying folks often had visions of Hindu Gods, particularly Lord Yama, The God of Death, whom many claimed to have met. One man in a Muslim hospital in India, who was actually Christian, saw Jesus and waved him over before telling the doctor that he was going to die. And in another Indian hospital, a man with a high fever caused by an infectious disease sat up and claimed he saw a Yamdoot, a messenger of death in Hindu religion, who took him away soon after. These experiences might be explained by terminal lucidity, a strange phenomenon where a person who is very ill suddenly becomes better and then dies. They might even come out of comas and bid farewell before passing away. The re-emerged are said to be "spiritualized and elated" and typically pass away within a few days, sometimes within hours or minutes. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease reports that in one case, a man who had been catatonic for 20 years stood up one day, looked normal, and then passed away.

A 92-year-old woman in the UK, who had been suffering from severe Alzheimer's disease for many years, had lost all memory and understanding of her surroundings and family. However, one day she suddenly became normal and recalled her past, recognized her family, and engaged in long conversations with them. She was happy and talkative but unfortunately passed away soon after. This type of occurrence has been witnessed by respected physicians and researchers, with the most remarkable case being that of Anna Katharina Ehmer, a severely disabled woman who had never been able to talk or care for herself. After having her leg amputated, Anna suddenly started talking and singing with her family and doctors, expressing joy and spiritual ecstasy. Half an hour later, she passed away, and no scientific explanation has been found to this day. The phenomenon challenges scientific materialism. Can you explain it?

What Happens When You Die? What Happens to You Just Before You Die? If you're interested in learning more about what happens when you die or just before you die, there are resources available for further exploration.