This blog is more than an account of Near Death Experiences. It ponders in detail the tough questions of life. Who are you, and why are you here in this physical world? What happens when you die, and is there a judgment? However, most anything could appear here. This is not a news blog, archived posts are just as relevant as new posts. Check the boxes at the top of the page for the Contents, Contact, Forum and other links.
As it explains on the video Pam is a musician, and has composed a CD with some of it relating to her near death experience. You can go to her site to purchase the music if you wish. One line of a song she wrote says: “I had to die in order to learn how to live.”
These two videos tell the incredible story of Pam Reynolds. She had a Near Death Experience that was monitored by a surgical team. What this reveals is proof we humans are spiritual beings. We will live after the death of our body.
There are more videos in the “Contents” of this blog. The videos may repeat some of her experience more than once. But the evidence is real, we are eternal beings, and living a compassionate loving life is very important.
A measuring tape is a great way to find the true length of a 2×4 wooden board. But it won’t tell you how many gallons of water are in your bathtub.
No one measurement, or group of measurements, will suffice to find truth in all situations. Lets look at the problem of consciousness, or psyche, or mind, or soul, or spirit, whatever you wish to call it.
Consciousness is who you are, and science says it resides in the brain. OK. If consciousness resides in the brain then it must be biological, and it must die when the brain dies. So we look at the brain, and find that brain cells look pretty much alike. It seems “memory” would take up a lot of brain space, but we can’t find memory anywhere, does it have a color? Do we look for red for memory, green for thoughts, where are the thoughts?. Well we have looked over 100 years at the brain, and can’t find consciousness anywhere in it.
So, we just assume it’s there, but we can’t see it. Maybe brain mapping will tell us where it is, so scientists start mapping the brain. A problem arises, the maps don’t match, and then when a portion of the brain is damaged, another portion takes over to continue the function. How does the brain do that?
Enter the near death experience. Surgeons and medical doctors noticed their patients recalling strange stories after they were revived from cardiac arrest. One doctor Raymond Moody decided to study this strange phenomenon with the permission of the doctors and hospital. When he completed his study and published a book, his peers were outraged, and kept him from working as a Psychiatrist for the rest of his life. Dr. Elisabeth Keubler-Ross spent her whole life studying death and dying. She came to the same conclusion that Dr. Moody did. Consciousness is spiritual, and Spirit does exist without the body.
I think Pam Reynolds will become the benchmark of near death experiences. Here is an event that was experimental surgery. It was monitored and taped with every modern device of medicine.
Stopped heart and no brain waves
A mother of three, 35 year old Pam Reynolds lay on the operating table in the summer of 1991 with a life-threatening bulge in her brain.
Doctor Robert Spetzler, the director of the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix had arranged for Pam to be hooked up to a brainstem monitoring machine. And other machines tracked Pam’s heartbeat, temperature, breathing and other vital signs. Additionally, Pam’s eyes were taped shut. Pam was also under anesthesia. Doctor Spetzler had to stop Pam’s heart which caused all bodily signs to cease.
Shortly after Doctor Spetzler turned on the surgical saw to begin cutting through Pam’s skull, Pam felt herself “pop” outside her body and hover above the operating table to a position where she could hover over Doctor Spetzler’s shoulders where she could observe the operation on her motionless body below.
From this position she saw Doctor Spetzler working on her with a saw which looked to her like an electric toothbrush. Pam heard and reported later what nurses in the operating room had said and exactly what was happening during the operation.
A little while into the operation, Doctor Spetzler ordered that Pam’s blood begin to drain from her body. Still every monitor attached to Pam’s body registered “no life”.
Pam found herself going from monitoring the operation above the table to traveling down a “tunnel” which had a light at the end. At the end of this tunnel Pam could see her relatives and friends waiting, including her long-dead grandmother. Time and all worries seemed to stop for Pam.
It wasn’t long, however, before a “dead” uncle led her back to her body.
Reentering her body felt to Pam like “plunging into a pool of ice”.
BIBLE PROBE COMMENT:
THE ABOVE STORY was reported in the August 2003 Reader’s Digest.
What is important about this story is that with no brain wave function, no heart function, and blood being drained from her – Pam’s is a case that rules out any “hallucinations” from chemical or psychological reasons. Combine this with the preponderance of evidence from thousands of similar near death experiences – and any thinking person would have to be led to the belief that the “soul” is cognitive, and that it survives death….
Pamela Reynolds Lowery, 53, died on March 22, 2010 of heart failure at Emory University Hospital. She was truly a brave person. This video is about the surgery Pam underwent to fix a brain aneurysm in 1991. The surgery was successful, and Pam Reynolds became famous for her near death experience.
Question:Can NDEs be duplicated by Scientists under controlled laboratory conditions?
Answer: Yes and No. As of this writing I know of no studies or experiments that have produced a full-blown Near Death Experience. By that, I mean an experience that contains a discussion between the Experiencer and a “Spirit Being” as to whether or not the Experiencer will continue living their physical life. Usually this consists of a statement from the Spirit Being telling the Experiencer “you must go back and finish your life.” Absence of this “life” discussion excludes the experience from being labeled a near death experience, in my opinion. However, it does not exclude it from being a real spiritual event. When Dr. Raymond Moody coined the phrase “near death experience” it was appropriate for his time, but now the phrase is being applied to sports teams and companies when they come close to losing either the game or a lot of money. This phrase no longer serves its intended purpose. Some researchers are now using the phrase “Clinical Death Experience” which more aptly fits the real event.
Near (Clinical) Death Experiences are only a small part of the very large field of spiritual experiences. But a very important part, since they show evidence life continues after death. Other spiritual experiences include Out-of-Body experiences, Pre-Birth experiences, Lucid Dream experiences, Death Bed Visions, Psychic experiences, After Death Communications, Spiritual Healings, experiencing the Oneness of all things, feeling surrounded by the Creator’s unconditional Love, and experiencing spiritual justice and morality through insights into life. If one studies spiritual experiences, it soon becomes apparent these experiences all thread into the fabric of the Greater Spiritual Reality that is our real beginnings, our real home.
Keeping in mind that Near (Clinical) Death Experiences happen when the body ceases to function (dies), we can examine scientific claims of duplication. There are three basic types of these claims to duplicate NDEs that I am aware of:
The use of mind/body altering drugs.
Stressing the body to the point of collapse, as in the Navy Airmen gravity testing by centrifuge.
Stimulation of the brain by electical, laser, chemical or other means.
The first method is discussed fully in a previous “frequently asked questions” concerning Ketamine and can be applied to any other drug as well.
The second method invokes stress, disorientation, interference with normal body functions, and even trauma in some cases. Too much stress, or too many G-forces will cause the subject to die clinically and thus have a death experience or some elements of one.
The third method, brain stimulation, begs the question that consciousness is biological and a product of the brain. However, there is no biological proof that memory or consciousness exists in the brain, or, is a product of the brain, see the Brain Thing for further explanation.
So, while some of these “drug and body stress” experiments have produced certain “elements” found in the NDE, and it is understandable that they would. There is no biological argument for science just because they can give drugs, or apply gravitation forces to the body that stop the blood flow to the brain, which then causes a person to experience some “elements” of the NDE. Heart attacks do the same thing. It is just a difference of method, fortunately the centrifuge or drugs can be stopped quickly, a heart attack usually can not. None of these G-Force stresses or drugs have actually duplicated a full-blown NDE.
The only way science could (might) produce a real NDE is to take the subject into clinical death. I saw an account of this on television (A&E). A patient’s body temperature was lowered to 60 degrees and the heart stopped so surgery could be done on a brain aneurism. All the blood was drained from the patient’s body effectively bringing her body into clinical death. At which point she left her body, looked down upon it, and observed the instruments being used in the operation. When she was revived, more than an hour later, she described the instruments used, and the surgery in detail. The surgeon was amazed, he believed her due to the accurate account she gave. She was certain the experience was real and spiritual. She had the experience independent of her clinically dead body. Her brain showed no activity on the EEG, nor any brain stem activity. She had been clinically dead for almost two hours.
The paragraph below is a quote of the same event from an anonymous writer in the NDE newsgroup. It has more detail than mine, so I thought it would interest readers.
“Such is the case of Pam Reynolds who is quite well known in the NDE community. She was having surgery performed to remove an aneurism from her brain. Her body was cooled to below 60 degrees F. and all of the blood was drained from her brain. Her EEG and brain stem response showed no activity, the definition of brain death in many states. During all of this, she reported rising from her body and seeing the operation performed below her. She also reported contact with “The Light” and many of her deceased relatives. Remember, she had no brain activity whatsoever. Even hallucinations register brain activity. It is interesting that upon recovering she recounted accurately many details of her operation, including conversations heard and a description of the surgical instruments. It has been postulated by a NDE skeptic, that Pam overheard the sounds in the room and generated a “mental map” of things around her. What the skeptic failed to acknowledge though is that instruments were inserted into Pam’s ears that generated clicks to measure brain stem response. Her brain stem response throughout the surgery was inactive. If conversations were heard, her brain stem response should have registered them.”
So, yes and no: Yes, science could (might) produce a NDE if the conditions (clinical death) for having one were met. But, no, these scientific experiments have not shown NDEs are biological in nature. There is no research showing memory and/or consciousness is biological. Think about it. Memory of all the events in our life would have to be huge. Yet, brain cells are all alike, if biological memory were there it should be easy to see some changes or coloration differences in the memory held cells.
According to Pam, she was present, above her body, viewing the whole surgical operation, her consciousness, memory, personality; her whole individuality intact. She proved this with an accurate, detailed description of the instruments, conversation, and procedures used during the surgery. At the same time science, using scientific monitoring instruments, was proving that her body was dead. No brain response, no heart response, no response of any kind. Obviously, the brain nor any other organ of the body was needed to sustain her life, and this account is just one example of the hundreds that exist in the NDE literature.
I believe this is as conclusive as proof gets. Clear, solid proof that man is a spiritual “being” inhabiting a physical body. I hope that in the future, scientists and others concerned with NDEs will consider this preponderance of evidence before telling the general public, or experiencers that NDEs are just biological events. In that manner humankind can benefit from this “knowledge of self” in many ways, and get on with its spiritual growth.
P.S.: Skeptics need to show proof of two things. First, they need to show proof, tangible, physical evidence of consciousness, and memory existing within the physical brain, and that this evidence can be collaborated by their peers. Second, they need to prove how this physical consciousness can remain alive and capable of gathering information of the body’s surroundings while the body is in a state of clinical death, showing no brain or heart or respiratory response of any kind, in order to promote their belief that humankind is wholly biological with no future beyond death.
Finally: In the interest of truth, let the skeptics present their biological proof, or forever cease calling Near (Clinical) Death Experiences some sort of biological misfire. I personally don’t expect this proof to ever be forthcoming. Ironically, it is science that has proved man will live beyond physical death. Science has finally validated the spiritual nature of man.
Eternally: All people hold within themselves the perfect light of their Creator. Skeptics, believers, and experiencers alike share the common bond of their Creator’s Love. There are no cracks to slip through, the program is perfect, individual souls struggling to affirm their identity, to extend the love they feel within while trying to balance the contradictions of physical dualism. Near Death Experiences remind us that we are safe, secure, and eternal in our Creator’s Love. We are One.
