Is death the end?
What happens when we die? Is death really the end?
Thanks to the research of Doctor Raymond Moody and others, we now have an understanding of a highly intriguing phenomenon called in the popular culture, “the near-death experience.” This “near death,” or NDE, occurs once a person has died and their spirit or soul has left the physical body. Though initially skeptical of this reported event, I became extremely interested once I had actually lived through the near death experience myself.

My NDE experience:

It happened only a few months ago, during a time when I was gravely ill. Tests were being run, but I had received little encouragement regarding my condition, and actually felt quite hopeless. I remember thinking shortly before the event; “maybe I should just give up and die.” I fell asleep in this depressed state, and had slept probably about twenty minutes when the NDE took place. Just before passing out, I thought I felt someone touch my hand. I saw no one beside me on the bed, or in the room. During my nap, I suddenly realized that something unusual was taking place. My spirit began to float out of my body. I could clearly see the room around myself, as though I were completely awake and lucid. At the same time I felt the floating sensation, a peculiar oval shaped “tunnel” formed directly above me on the ceiling. The peculiar hole was moving toward me. In what must have been the twinkling of an eye, I noticed that the tunnel had a slight reddish cast, and was completely transparent. I could see the texture of the ceiling in the opening of the tunnel, yet it also had the appearance of water. I could only see a few inches into the opening. Next, I felt intense suction on my body. It felt as though my spirit was being sucked from the top of my head toward the tunnel as though caught in the suction of a vacuum cleaner! Instinctively I knew that this was it. I was dying. And, what’s more, I knew that if I went into that tunnel, there was no coming back – ever. Once this realization overtook me, I fought to remain in my body. As soon as I did, the suction stopped, and I struggled to regain consciousness. I learned much from that occurrence. First of all, there truly is an existence after the physical body expires – or life after death. And, I ascertained that we are intimately linked to the universe in a way more mysterious than we could have imagined, for we are connected to someone or something that truly knows our every thought. I had “wished” to die, and was almost granted that desire. I fought to stay, and that too was granted me. Of course I then wondered what else would have happened if I had not fought to cling to my earthly existence. This led me to search for more information on the “near death experience.”

Common elements of the NDE:

My NDE experience is not unlike that reported by thousands of other people from every walk of life, and every corner of the globe. Here are the most commonly reported aspects of the NDE as discussed in the book Life After Life, by Doctor Raymond A. Moody:

The “Oobe”

1). A feeling of hovering or floating above or near the deceased body usually referred to as an “out of body experience,” or the “oobe.” During this time, it is not possible to be seen or heard by others. Some people experience a desperate need to somehow get back inside their body, while others regard the corpse as something distasteful, or as a mere object.

2). Seeing their dead body, and often others near it. One man reported that after a terrible car crash, he saw his own body twisted in the wreckage. People were walking up to view the wreck, and to see if anyone needed help. He stood right in their path and tried to signal them, but they just kept walking – right through him!

3). Seeing a tunnel or portal. People have the sensation of being pulled very rapidly through a dark space of some kind. Some have described it as a cave, a well, a trough, an enclosure, a tunnel, a funnel, a vacuum, a valley, a cylinder, and incredibly, one man described it as a “sewer.”

4). Hearing a ringing, clicking, or a roaring sound, usually as one travels through the tunnel. One man described “a really bad buzzing noise coming from inside my head.” Intriguingly, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, provides “instructions” for the dying, and tells them what they can expect upon dying. It states that after the departed person departs from the body, he can expect to enter a “swoon.” He will then find himself in a “void,” in which his consciousness will continue to exist. He may hear alarming and disturbing sounds, and noises, described as roaring, thundering, and whistling sounds, like the wind. He may find himself and his surrounding enclosed in a Grey, misty illumination.

5). Being sucked into the “tunnel,” and then traveling a tremendous distance through blackness, (in the tunnel) with only a tiny pinpoint of light in the distance. The light grows bigger as you move closer to it. One fellow describes his experience in the tunnel as being in a series of concentric circles, like those in the sixties television show, The Time Tunnel.

6). Arriving at a beautiful peaceful place, with grass, trees, a river, and buildings – a world.

7). Seeing or meeting with previously deceased loved ones, or associates.

8). Seeing or meeting beings of light, or simply a being of light. The being of light in particular has a very definitive personality. It emanates love and warmth, and the dying person is ineluctably drawn to it.

9). A life review occurs at this stage of the near death experience, in which a person is made to feel every emotion, whether good or bad, from the perspective of those you have interacted with. If you beat your wife, you will feel every emotion, and every pain you inflicted on her – just as she felt it. The life review is not intended for the benefit of the being of light, but rather it is intended for the individual’s reflection. The memories, which are sometimes described as “television-like” images, take place in a chronological order. This display of visual imagery is incredibly vivid and real. Some are described in color, three-dimensional, and even moving. It all happens in what some would call, an “instant of earthly time.” Those who have experienced this stage of the NDE believe that the life review takes place as an educational event. There are two basic things that are to be learned in life, “learning to love other people, and the acquisition of knowledge.”

I believe that the NDE occurs more often than we might imagine, but people are reluctant to report this experience for fear that they won’t be believed, and that they will be ridiculed. I myself hesitated to tell anyone what had happened to me for those very same reasons. A friend of mine related her own NDE, which contains almost every element of those most commonly described in Doctor Moody’s book. Bernadette was undergoing extremely risky surgery for a tumor on her liver. She had been warned that she might not survive this operation. During the procedure, she suddenly realized that she was outside of her body, hovering near the ceiling. She could see the doctor and nurses attending him. They were saying that they had lost her. The next thing she knew, there was a dark tunnel on the ceiling, moving toward her. She later told me that “she just knew she should go into it.” She moved toward it, and strong suction whisked her into the tunnel at a very great speed. Inside the tunnel was dark, and she heard a roaring sound. She traveled for what seemed like a long time in the darkness hurtling in what she thought was the void of death. Eventually, she saw a tiny pinpoint of light in the distance, and realized in relief, that she was moving toward the light. The point of light kept growing larger and larger as she moved toward it. At long last, she reached the light, and emerged into a bright place. She felt the ground beneath her feet, and saw blades of grass everywhere. There were beautiful trees, flowers, and in the distance a bridge. Someone was standing on the bridge. She hurried towards it, and realized that it was her grandmother. She tried to cross the bridge, but her grandmother would not allow it. “You have to go back. Your work is not finished.” Bernadette was horrified. “I don’t want to go back! That body is no good…it hurts. I want to stay here.” Her grandmother just shook her head. “You are not ready yet. You still have a lot of work to do.” Then, to her horror, she felt herself being sucked backward into the dark tunnel. She lost consciousness. When she woke up, she was lying in a recovery room at the hospital. An anathesiologist was sitting beside her. “I died didn’t I?” asked Bernadette. “Yes, you did,” replied the doctor. “I didn’t want to come back,” lamented Bernadette. “No one ever does,” soothed the doctor.