Near Death Experiences

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

I once got knocked anout 30 feet by a bolt of lightning on a golf course (it hit a flagstick about 25 yards away). I guess that qualifies as being near death. All I remember of the experience is thinking "holy sh*t" when I regained my senses and running like hell for the clubhouse.

[Jordan Olsommer]

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running like hell for the clubhouse.

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HESH WANTS JALAPENO POPPERS!

But on an on-topic note, Raymond Moody is pretty much a fraud; he's written more material on near-death experiences than even the subculture that eats this stuff up could want, and he's never even had one himself. What balls.

Besides, they're simply a function of your brain going on the fritz when being deprived of oxygen/blood - astronauts get them all the time during those centrifuge-tests when they pass out due to the g-forces. Hell, I had an experience that would qualify as a "near-death experience" to people like Raymond Moody when I passed out after donating blood when I was 19; while I was out, I was dreaming and everything. Although I reckon I don't get the bonus points for seeing/running toward some kind of peaceful white light.

[dogmeat]

That's right, no bonus points for you. Also, FWIW, an author does not have to have experienced something to write about it - if this was true, there would be no history books etc.

Dogmeat [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

[Jordan Olsommer]

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That's right, no bonus points for you. Also, FWIW, an author does not have to have experienced something to write about it - if this was true, there would be no history books etc.

Dogmeat [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

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True, but generally speaking, you need to have some kind of qualifications (and, ahem, integrity) about the subject to write something meaningful about it - for example, VS Ramachandran wrote an excellent excellent book about Phantom Limb Syndrome, even though he has all his limbs and has never experienced it. Why is his different from Raymond Moody? Well because first off Ramachandran doesn't accept pure anecdote as the end-all be-all of scientific evidence, while Moody does.

My point was if you're going to write a book about near-death experiences whose biggest claim to their validity is anecdote, and are still going to do this while not having had one yourself, it just seems kind of disingenuous to me, even for someone who's got little to no integrity to begin with.

[dogmeat]

I understand your point - but since I don't believe in NDE, Astral projection, the Lock Ness Monster (I do believe in UFO's, because that is what those things are that people see - unidentified flying objects. However, I don't believe in space aliens flying UFO's into our galaxy, or that any non-worldly beings are wandering the face of the earth), reading auras, etc. - I don't care who writes books on these subjects. And this is because I believe it is all crap.

Dogmeat [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

[Jordan Olsommer]

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And this is because I believe it is all crap.

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I agree completely.

[LittleOldLady]

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I think the poster might mean like seeing and moving towards the "white light", or having an out of body expierience where you can see yourself in whatever state your physical body is in.

I remember one lady stating that when she got into a car accident she saw a white light and talked to a greater power saying that it wasn't her time to go. Then they all wake up reborn christians for some reason?

Not exactly something i belive in, but i've never expierienced it either.

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OK, I have had two such experiences--white light, out of body--and I was nowhere near death either time. Over the last 50 years I have had a number of bizarre experiences--visions, hallucinations, distortions of space and time, etc.--and have periodically sought medical assistance for these issues. The problem was always diagnosed as a psychiatric issue--a panic or anxiety disorder. However, just last month this was determined to be a neurological disorder--something called atypical migraine (migraine without a headache). This is genetic, and there is not a whole lot to be done about it. Basically I was relieved to get the right diagnosis...finally.

However, the migraine thing does not account for the really freaky part of this. Each time I had the out of body white light thing, I took someone else with me. The first time I was in college, and the experience occurred with a friend of mine, not the closest of my friends, but a good friend nonetheless. When it was over and we reentered our bodies, we simply fled without saying a word, and I went to student health the next day--and they sent me to a psychiatrist. Three years later he came looking for me, and we for the first (and last so far) time discussed in detail what we experienced--which was exactly the same for both of us. Ten years ago, he and I got back in touch. He is now a widower living on the Gulf Coast and a clinical psychologist. We basically avoid discussing this experience (he calls it the "intense" experience; I call it "the thing we don't talk about")--it is the elephant in the room. However, last month when I was having the problems which led to the migraine diagnosis, we talked about it a little and decided that the migraine explained what I experienced but can't explain the fact that he experienced it too. In fact he told me that when we got back in touch 10 years ago, at first he felt a weird vibe when he was around me, but not anymore. The second time was with my husband in the early years of our marriage--and we don't discuss it or much of anything else these days. I don't exactly understand my ability to take someone else to this white light place, but it sure hasn't made me a born-again Christian.

As for a near death experience, I have had one of those in the sense that I damn near died. It was, well, interesting and not what I would have expected. I was having a heart attack and didn't know it--women can get heart attacks with very mild and vague symptoms, When I finally had a symptom (cold sweat) I figured I knew what it was and called the alarm number. While I was talking to the emergency dispatcher, I started to fade out and I knew I was dying. It was actually quite pleasant and not at all scary. The dispatcher called me back, and I came back. I decided at that time that I wanted to stay in this world--it was a conscious decision. From that point on I knew I was going to live for a while yet--although I gather that the medical personnel were none too sure of that for several days. I have found it a very positive and liberating thing to have faced my own death and to have found it not horrible.

LOL