Shared NDEs: Unto death don't we part

Researchers such as Dr. Raymond Moody and P. M. H. Atwater have been educating the public about near-death experiences (NDEs) since the 1970s.  Skeptics have continued to doubt the veracity of such experiences, theorizing that they are hallucinations resulting from brain damage and oxygen deprivation.

As research began to shift from individual near-death

experiences to shared and group near-death experiences,

it became more and more apparent that the NDEs of

physically healthy people were remarkably similar to those of dying people.  In fact, it also became more and

more apparent that healthy people were able to somewhat accompany others through death and into the afterlife.

During a video interview by Paul Perry, Dr. Moody

explained that many a physically-healthy bystander has reported seeing the spirit of a dying person rise out of the physical body and pass through the ceiling.  This spirit has has been described as a globe of golden light, as a grayish cloud, or as a transparent replica of the deceased individual.  Some bystanders have also reported seeing the geometry of the room change (e.g., from cube-shaped to hour-glass shaped) at the time of the death.  Others report participating in a panoramic life review of the newly-deceased individual.  Many insist that there are just no words to fully describe these shared NDEs.

Nevertheless, Kevin Williams of near-death.com attempts to convey at least some of their aspects.  He presents one story about a group of fire-fighters that were trapped in a forest full of flames.   As one of them “found himself looking down on his body which was lying in a trench,” he also saw “other fire-fighters standing above their bodies in the air.”  Williams calls this a Group NDE. 

Williams also presents this example of  a Shared NDE.  The German poet, Karl Skala, was huddled together with his best friend in a World War II foxhole.  When a shell hit and killed his friend, Skala felt his friend’s physical body “go limp with death.”  Suddenly, Skala “felt himself being drawn up with his friend, above their bodies and then above the battlefield.”  Skala reports that they both began traveling towards a bright light together.  Skala then “stopped and returned to his body,” whereas his friend kept heading into the light.

Resources

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-ihzzYjqeE

http://www.near-death.com/experiences/evidence09.html

http://www.near-death.com/group.html

Copyright May 13, 2012 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved