Near-death experiences: What really happens?

This week, in its infinite concern for humankind, science has initiated efforts to explain the beginning (Europe's Large Hadron Collider a.k.a. "Big Bang Machine") and the end (scientists aim to study what really happens to the brain and consciousness when someone is on the verge of dying).

Wow.

I think that the Big Bang Machine is a giant waste of money. I would rather have a nice Swiss Army knife!

Oh yes! The Large Hardon Collider, excuse me, Large Hadron collider.

I left my body when I was 3 years old and nearly drowned in the Florida coast. A wave pulled me out and suddenly I was floating underwater above my face-down body which was also underwater, looking at the interplay of sunlight in the ocean and the fish, and thinking, "What was Mom talking about (she told me not to go too far in the water), this feels good." I had the most tremendous feeling of peace and well being I've ever experienced. And this is when I was 3 so I had few preconceived ideas about "death" or "afterlife."

The lifeguard pulled me out just in time I guess and after sputtering I said, "Why did you pull me out?" I wanted to stay.

I had NDE when my daughter was born, Jan 23, 1986. Bled out when an artery was cut during C-section,negligence by a resident with no attending physician present. He freaked out, left the OR to find doctor...after waking in the ICU, after what seemed like forever, was told I was "gone" for 3 min, 28 secs. I only remember being outside the OR, viewing the whole lifesaving effort through a rectangle window shape. Only awareness of a "woman" under all the green linen, not feeling it was me or someone I knew, could see oozing blood spilling to floor. I remember each and every word, he doctor entering OR, the life paddles, the adrenalin injection, and my thoughts fluttered over horror of inserting long needle into "her" chest. When nurse tried to start IV, I remember frantic words of "collapsed veins, can't get a vein," and the doctor ordering a try at ankle vein. Thoughts again fluttered, "not the ankle, she hates needles..." So bizarre, because I am phobic about needles, yet did not make connection that it was me I was talking about. Aware of a grayness around me, hearing my deceased grandpa, my "world" until his death, who kept saying, "She's beautiful, she needs you," and , confusion why he was saying this. I saw no light, no tunnel, but was deeply aware of peace, intense feelings of love, and a comforting warmth behind me, as if sitting under a desk lamp or sun on your back on a lazy beach day. I did not see my grandpa, only heard his words and every word in the OR and my caring feeling for the bleeding woman. Next thing I know, I'm in ICU, with IVs and lots of equipment around me. Very confused, and intense longing to go back to the "warmth." My daughter almost died too, but when 3 days later I was able to see her, she was beautiful, but I have no doubt I was somewhere else during that 3 minutes. If not Heaven, then some other dimension or plane of existence. That experience is as clear today as then, and yes, lots of folks think I'm strange when I've shared it. Last year I was at my uncle's bedside in his final fight with cancer. He'd tell me who he saw in that room, and then kept asking my aunt if so-and-so had past in whatever date. We all witnessed conversations he would have with "someone" when he would fall into periodic unconsciousness, and had recall of those when he would wake again. The day before he passed, he told me he understood what I had gone through myself, and I think that sharing was a great help to both of us as he finally let go.

In 1991 I had an out of body experience. I had a heart attack and was given nitro to stop the pain. The Paramedics kept asking if I was feeling better and when I answered no, they gave me more nitro. Many years later when I became a volunteer EMT I finally knew that they were doing the wrong thing. By midnight that evening I was very sick to my stomach and finally I found myself floating near the ceiling of the room and I could see my wife and the nurse looking at me. I was very peaceful and not afraid. I finally said that this is not right and I screamed to the nurse to stop giving me the nitro. I fell asleep and when I woke in the morning I felt almost normal. I have, to this day, never forgotten that experience and I know if I have another MI or some other disaster, then I will be ready to move into another world.

This topic facinates me. I "died" 30 years ago, when my son was born...we never investigated what the whole issue entailed, but I know even though I had received general anesthesia, I was awake when a C-section was performed, I heard the doctors work on me for 52 minutes to deliver my son. I could not wiggle my finger or blink my eye...I wanted to scream I was awake...but no luck.

Then I felt myself being "sucked" from my body, I so well remember the "wooshing" noise. I went through a tunnel, with a light on the end, I was greeted by people and saw a very beautiful field, that had people singing, children playing and the sun was setting. The man who talked to me offered me the option of staying or returning to my husband and son. He mentioned that "28" would be important in our life...6 year later we moved to 28th Ave...and still live there. So many other coincidences revolve around 28, from other births on the 28th, phone number ending with 2828...the son was married at 28.
I made the choice to return. A choice I am happy I made. To this day I have absolutely no fear of death...something I feared prior.

I had one, but it is too scary to even discuss, but I will tell you, it did become better when I realized I was the one who wanted to die and I was allowing it to happen by not fighting to live , I had invited the demons in because God was not ready for me and I was tired of the pain. I did see the demons and it is not anything like you imagine, no fire and brimstone, just a dark cavernous space with floors that looked like a cracked desert with this little evil imp looking creature laughing at me, but then I heard voices about fighting and not giving up---guess those were my husband and then all of a sudden this beautiful Golden Angel lifted me up and I was back in my bed, fighting for dear life. The next day when they took me back to surgery, I spoke and held my aunts hand and she told me I was going to be fine. I know I saw her, but she told me she was at church that morning praying that I would get through this surgery without problems. My next experience was during my recuperating period and I awoke and sat up in my bed and saw and talked with this beautiful little red haired girl in a dress with a white pinafore. I awoke my husband because I wanted him to see her, but he couldn't. She waved goodbye and I could not go back to sleep after that. My explanation was this was the child we lost to tell me God was not ready for me yet. I lost my fear to fly after that. The other time was just an out of body experience where I saw my doctor wearing red tennis shoes and watched him as he took all of my intestines out of my body and laid them on a table next to me and examine them as he put them back in. You see, I don't care what people think. I was a non believer in all that near death stuff, but I am a true believer now. You see when I was near death, my husband said I asked " When will this be over". I was not on life support this time, but when I was dying the second time, it was very calm with a soft cloud of fog like substance.

When I was in my late twenties, I fell off a roof on a construction job and hit my heat on concrete, which caused blood clots in the brain. While in the ER, they had a noted neurosurgeon check me out and ordered a test involving injecting die in my veins and following the blood flow by X-ray. He ordered me prepped for surgery and successfully removed the clots. During the wait before surgery, I remember seeing darkness gather, but leaving a bright light at what resembled the end of a tunnel or pipe. I also remember the sensation off floating in the room and feeling a sense of peace with absolutely no pain. The next sensations I had were that of coming to after the operation, and starting the hard road back to recovery. I sometimes wonder if what I experienced, was a shutting down of my brain due to the blockage, causing me to lose my peripheral vision, and causing me to lose the sensation of gravity, and also the sense of pain and stress, due to the failure of the brain to receive the messages from my nerves that normally make you aware of pain and stress, resulting in the surreal feeling of being at absolute peace

I think Willow's response is very telling. She witnessed a white light at the time of the patient's death. Also, a roommate at the scene thought that the lights had been turned on in the room at the time of this same patient's death, when they actually hadn't been turned on. We have two people who weren't the ones having the NDE or death experience, yet they both saw a white light at the same time. Again, a very telling experience.

How could someone explain this away as the mind playing tricks, or a lack of oxygen to the brain, etc.?

Wow ! This is intriging ! But no one has shared a story like mine. I have seen the dark side,a glimpse of Hell. Please bear with me.
I was at a biker party one summer day with several of my friends. I considered myself a big bad ass biker, tougher than nails and didn't need God or his son. Well , I had an experience that completely changed me. After a full day of partying, enjoying the bikes, beer, pretty girls and such. I decided to leave, go home and get a few hours sleep. I said my goodbyes and left. I got on my hawg hit the 4 lanes and cranked it up to 70. The off ramp was coming up, but I knew I could handle it. The last thing I remember was seeing grass under my front wheel.... the next thing I knew, I was surrounded by blackness. An inky black so thick you could feel it ,and intense heat! No light at all,none ! No feeling of well being, just fear ! And I feared NOTHING ! Don't know how long I laid there, must have been a long time. Then, I heard the siren of the ambulance coming to get me and THEN I saw the light come rushing back. A welcome sight it was ! I could go on, the story gets even more bizzare but I'll try to stick to the subject.
I believe that God held me in his hand and showed me the place my life was heading If I kept on my path. I believe he gave me a taste of Hell. And I didn't want to go back !!! It states clearly in the bible that "no drunken soul shall be admitted to heaven". He couldn't take me to heaven, so he scared the Hell out of me ! It worked ! This happened back in 96 and I've been a changed man ever since. I gave myself to Jesus about a month after, go to church, teach Sunday School. Live a good clean life and am thankful every day I wake up. It's true that NDE changes you. That's my story and I'm stickin to it !!

I was 14 years old when I contracted Dengue fever while I was in the Philippines visiting my relatives. I became very sick and was rushed to a hospital. I was in the emergency room lying on a stretcher feeling so cold, but sweating at the same time and I also had a severe stomach ache. After lying there for a few minutes looking up at the lights on the ceiling, the light started getting brighter and brighter until everything around me was surrounded in bright white light and the noise in the room gradually faded away. I felt like I was still lying down and I looked around for my family, but I couldn't see anybody; it was all white. Then I realized my stomach pain was gone and I felt the best feeling I've ever felt, peace. Nothing was troubling me. I wasn't thinking about what just happened or what was going to happen. No thoughts about the past or future entered my mind. I was in the moment. After what seemed like a few minutes the white light started to fade away and noise started fading in until everything was back to the way it was in the emergency room. I turned and looked to my right to see my mom and my aunt crying and holding my hand and then I passed out. I woke up the next day and they told me what had happened. They said my heart had stopped beating for at least 15 min. until the doctors were able to revive me.

Ever since then, I don't really fear death anymore. I've been in a few accidents where I would have been seriously injured or killed, but for some reason I didn't feel afraid during those moments, I was able to stay calm.

I have to believe these stories. Some involve way more than what I experienced, but I know mine to be fact. I went to the hospital for an out-patient procedure tp clean out the artery in my leg. All went well with the procedure and the method they used (don't remember what it was called) to plug the entry into the artery had to do with a boot like thing put into the hole and then direct pressure applied until it clotted and sealed. Once the pressure was stopped my BP would drop. They dropped the head of the bed until it came back. This continued and they did a CT scan and found I was bleeding by and surgery was required to repair the problem. Since it was after hours a surgical team had to be called in. Before they arrived the plug totally let loose and I began to bleed out. Surgery was done to repair it and all is well today. However, after I was put under I experienced a very bright, very white room, from what seemed to be a high vantage point. No seeing memories or people or any of those things. The next day one of the doctors stopped in to see me and said he was amazed I was okay and doing well. He explained to me that they had removed six pints of blood from my abdomen. The dipstick was low. I truly believe there was some intervention involved beside what the doctors di.

I want to believe that we have recollection of our past when we pass, however, one fact that we cant dispute is we had no idea where we were at before we were born into this world so why would we when we die?

Had a NDE in 1985(teenager at the time) and it was due to a large quantity of beer and Jack Daniels that was consumed in a very short period of time.I had a out of body experience, I was "looking down" on me and one of my high school friends slapping my face,trying to wake me up from my passed out state.The thing I remember the most was the before and after the "looking down on me" that I was enveloped in a soft white light and I felt that whatever it was very peaceful.

Back in 1984 when I was 15 I also had a near death experience. I was hit by a car while riding my bike and after I was hit I found myself going through a tunnel with a bright light at the end with dark figures waiting for me. The feeling of peacefulness was something you can not put into words. I do remember hearing a voice tell me it wasn't my time yet and I found my self being pushed back and then awoke laying on the ground not able to move or speak. After that I don't fear death just like many others who have gone through this kind of ordeal.
I really do not think science can explain this kind of stuff at all. There is something out there whether it is a heaven or not. That is for each person to decide them self's.

I, unfortunately, had complications after my 2nd open heart surgery within 4 months of my first one. I had had a valve replacement that gone bad. After the 2nd surgery, I went into Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome. This also led to a 12 day comma, & renal failure. I saw NO light. No tunnel. What I did "dream" was a "conversation" between myself & my husband (of 21 years at that time). I told him, "I was too tired to pull through this time." My husband "told" me in the dream that he wouldn't not be able to live without me.

Wether or not this actually took place, didn't matter. In my mind, the fact that my husband said he would die without me, was enough to motivate me to survive. And, survive I did. The Doctors thought I would need major physical rehab, because they thought I had also had a stroke. After I woke, it was a matter of 3 days before I was walking again! It wasn't until I was home for several weeks before I knew everything that had happened to me. I truly believe it was my husband's love that pulled me through, not god.

I had a NDE in 1966, here at home, in the attic of a ranch style house. I was electricuted on 110 volt power. My last conscious thought was 'when will the fuse blow?' I learned later that it never would have stopped the energy flowing through me. I am an engineer. Today, a GFIC would have prevented the NDE. I do have the remains of third degree burns to prove the accident. During hte incident, I found myself drifting away from the house, above the roof. I saw my body laying as it was, as if the roof was not there. It was at late dusk, but my view was very clear and bright. My body was convulsing and I hit the back of my hand on the ground and I felt myself 'sucked' back into my body. That is as good a term as I have found. I was able to seek medical treatment and survived. But

It did change my whole life. Previously I was a typical type A person. thereafter I was much more relaxed and found life much more rewarding. I am by nature a leader, and I found life much easier and more fulfilling after the accident. I cared about people much more. I cared about myself much more, but in a sharing/giving way. I have been blessed over these many years in every way imaginable.

I thank God every day. I am a Catholic, but before the incident God was just an idea. After, God is very real, as is the concept of existance after death. I have no fear of death, but I have no wish for death until I am called home.

I told my wife of my experience right after it happened. She poopooed me so I did not talk about it. Years later, when books had been written about NDEs, she remembered my telling her about my experience. She came to believe it and told me so. When she died two years ago, I found it very easy to let her go. She lived a good life and her passing on was made easy for her. I miss her but I know she is in a much better place. There is a hole in my life but she is with God. In recent years I have talked with other about my NDE. I have found others who have gone through the experience. We all seem to share the same attitude about our final death and our existence after passing on. We accept the notion that we have been blessed. Even though we have no body mass, nor eye nor brain, we retain the ability to see, to remember, and recall.

A little over a month ago, I had just finished a full-court basketball game, sat down on the bench and proceeded to go into cardiac arrest (clogged coronary arteries). A doctor who was at the park administered CPR. When the paramedics arrived a few minutes later, they picked where he left off, got me on a monitor. I was flat-line, no pulse, no respiration. There was someone with a videocamera who taped the whole thing. My wife and I watched the video. I was down for at least 15 minutes. They shocked me once that I could see. They loaded me into the ambulance flat lined. As they were leaving the parking lot of the park, I suddenly got my heartbeat back and have since basically recovered. When I came to the next day at the hospital, some of my basketball buddies came by and I asked them, "Did I have the heart attack after I came back?" They told me I never left the park. I had had a dream while I was under that I had rode my mountain bike home, spoke to my wife and then told her that I had to go back to the park and then rode back to the park. I guess that was my out of body experience. I think my mind just took me to my most peaceful place, which was on my bike.

I definitely believe in life after death. I have had an experience. What it was I don't know. It was definitely an out of body experience although I can't say whether I was clinically dead or not since this happened at home. I was sitting with my mother and I was drinking a Dr. Pepper. I got an air bubble caught in my throat, the kind that hurts going down and then I hiccuped, before I could catch my breath I hiccuped again and then I felt really weird. I looked at my mom and said "I don't think I feel well." Then I kind of faded away. I was above my body and I could see my mom shaking me, but I didn't care I looked above me and then I was gone out of the house. I appeared on a beach with golden sand and the ocean only there were no waves, just the still water. I had people around me and a woman who went to my church who had just passed away was standing in front of me, she lifted my chin up and smiled at me and then I was instantly back in my body. It was all so real, it seemed more real then this life in a lot of ways, but still it was very different then what the majority of people say they witness, so again I don't really know what happened, but I think about it often.

I have had no near death experiences, but my dreams must be similar. 60 years ago I hypnotised my self to go to sleep.When I was successful my dreams were crazy,maybe similar to near death experiences. Some dreams were the same dream for maybe two years.Not exactly the same but more like a continuation of the same dream. 60 years later I can remember all those dreams. They say there is no part of the brain that indicates dream storage.So what is my problem? Now that I am 86, and am having trouble going to sleep, I concentrate on one of my dreams. Sometimes, it works,sometimes no,but if its going to work I am gone in 5 seconds. Interesting I think.

Critical Thinking telss me that if we had no recollection of where we were prior to our birth, then how or why would we know where we are going after death? I have faith and believe in GOD however one must also put ideas like this in perspective

I had a near death experience after having stints put in my heart. I was suppose to keep my leg that they did the angiogram still but because of a bad back I couldn't. Boiled down to hemorrhaging most of my blood internally. I was told that I was white/ashen, cold, blood pressure barely readable, and totally unresponsive (this is how my mom & sister described it). The Dr's. and nurses ran me on my hospital bed to a room where they put a blood line directly into my jugular vein in my neck. During the whole process I didn't have any flash backs of my life, no bright lights, but I do have a peace about dying because I didn't know, see, or feel anything. The only thing I felt was after the blood was directly going into the jugular vein was the Dr. putting a stitch or 2 into my neck to hold the bloodline secure without Novocaine.

I died after an operation. They gave me too much morphine and killed me. I woke to the Dr. beating on my chest, But when I was "gone" I was sinking through the floor. No bright lights, no Jesus or angels, no dead relatives welcoming me over. I dunno. I'm a good person, why was I going downward and not upward? I have spent some thoughts on this.

I had a NDE when I was in the sixth grade, back in 1966 and was being put under for an appendectomy. They used ether on me. (very foul smelling stuff, I don't recommend it.) They told me to count backwards from 100 and I got to about 94 and was gone. First I remember the sensation of flying very fast through pitch dark space. Then I saw that I was headed toward a grid of lights, like a screen door but with laser lights instead of metal wires. There were two grids, a green one and an orange one, but I can't remember which color was first. Anyway, I flew through the first grid, fearful that I was going to get sliced into pieces, but I went through it with no more sensation than if I had just flown through nothing more substantial than lights. When I saw the second grid coming up I became fearful that, if I passed through it too, I might not be able to get back. I said "Oh boy." as in, what am I getting into now, and I could hear my words echo as if down a long culvert. The last thing I remember is reaching the second grid. The next thing I remember after that is waking up in the recovery room after my operation. It was as if absolutely no time whatsoever had passed between my contacting the second grid and my waking up in the recovery room, they were two sequential moments in time. I've NEVER had a dream that was anything like that. Years later, when I was an adult, I was talking about my experience with my mother and she told me that they were afraid to tell me back then but, when I had first gone under, I apparently went too far and they had had to resuscitate me before they could perform the operation. I sometimes wonder what, if anything, possibly happened on the other side of that second grid, and what those grids were.