The Art of Dying

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The religious affiliation of our respondents was 54 percent Church of England, 12 percent Roman Catholic, 19 percent other Christian, 1 percent Jewish, 8 percent Agnostic, and 2 percent Atheist, with 41 percent of respondents indicating that religion was not important. This profile of religious affiliation is quite similar to the overall English religious profile, so we were able to say that religious belief at the time of the NDE played no part in it. Indeed, some of the atheist respondents wrote some really cross letters saying that they had not wanted this experience and they found it quite difficult to incorporate into their lives. Morse, M., and Perry, P. (1990). Closer to the light: Learning from the near-death experiences of children. New York, NY: Villard.

Willoughby Britton and Richard Bootzin’s 2004 study is interesting, but unfortunately the data set is too limited to draw any conclusions. They suggested that near-death experiences are a manifestation of temporal lobe epilepsy. This suggestion has been made on previous occasions by other authors, and it is always made by those who do not deal with epilepsy on a daily basis and who do not have a comprehensive understanding of the features of an epileptic seizure. No epileptic seizure has the clarity and narrative style of an NDE. And this is because all epilepsy is confusional. Epileptologists all agree that one thing that near-death experiences are not is temporal lobe epilepsy. Britton and Bootzin’s paper is, I think, going to bias the near-death literature in a way that is quite unjustified by the data of the study.In 1963, I nearly died from a suicide attempt. I went down into a deep pit, slowly, like Alice in Wonderland, as if I were in a lift. The near-death experience (NDE) is intriguing for two major reasons. First, it is very common and secondly, it is cross-cultural. The results of one NOP survey in America suggest that over 1 million Americans have ‘seen the light’. Any experience that is so common must have had some influence on the way we think about life and death. Indeed, it could be the very engine that drives our ideas of an afterlife. Gigi had died many years ago. The mother loved her deeply — more than him and his brother, Rob jokes. And to make a point that I have already mentioned, double blind, randomized, controlled trials on many aspects of spiritual medicine are now being conducted. The role of spirituality in medicine has become a legitimate and frequent subject of empirical research. A book by Daniel Benor, Spiritual Healing: Scientific Validation of a Healing Revolution. Professional Supplement (Vision Publications 2002) is an excellent reference volume. Goswami, A., Reed, R. E., and Goswami, M. (1995). The self-aware universe: How consciousness creates the material world. New York, NY: Tarcher.

A major and relatively rapid shift is underway in the field of medicine. In the past 10 years, medical professionals have gone from looking upon spirituality with a skeptical if not cynical eye, to embracing it enthusiastically. Consider these developments:A 67 year old woman saw her husband, who had died 4 years previously, with her 22 year old deceased dog. She stated that her husband had taken her hand and, along with the dog, told her he would show her the path to follow to be able to die peacefully.” Ring, K. (1980). Life at death: A scientific investigation of the near-death experience. New York, NY: Coward, McCann and Geoghegan. You probably know that a large number of astronauts had transcendent experiences. Edgar Mitchell is one (Mitchell and Williams, 1996). But the astronauts who were in control of the capsule did not have these experiences because they were busy with calculations and responsibilities. It was the guys that could stare out of the windows, who were not doing so much, who had the luxury of contemplation, who had transcendent experiences. And, again, if you talk to Mitchell, he will tell you quite simply that the universe is a universe of consciousness and love. Goswami’s ideas go along with this, but the challenge is in formalizing these observations so that they can, in fact, be used by science. Question: In childbirth, people are not dying, so why do they have NDEs? Holden, J. M. (1988). Rationale and considerations for proposed near-death research in the hospital setting. Journal of Near-Death Studies, 7, 19–31.