Near-Death Experiences (NDE) FAQ
By Leroy Kattein
Question: Does NDE proof the reality of reincarnation?
Answer: Not directly, what it does do is prove the spiritual nature of man. More than any other type of spiritual event, the NDE has got the general public interested in metaphysical ideas again. I have read NDEs where reincarnation is discussed and where the experiencer asks questions about it. It was not discussed in my NDE, but the event increased my will to learn everything about the spirit world and indirectly caused me to learn, ask about it, and prove it to myself. I now know many of my past lives.
Question: Do you know how NDE in other cultures are similar?
Answer: I have read what books I could find of NDEs in other cultures. Someone wrote in the newsgroups that in Africa they see tall buildings and modern cities instead of the light. I have read enough to know that each culture sees something different because of their belief systems. They are filtering the spiritual world through their physical belief systems. How else would they understand and bring back the spiritual information. There are not many words used in the spirit world, communication is by pure thought.
Question: What is the purpose of NDE, assuming there are no accidents?
Answer: The NDE is a personal dialog between the spirit world and the experiencer. It is meant to help, encourage and in some cases shake the individual back on the path to love.
Question: I have read that research scientists are inducing NDEs in their subjects by using a dissociative drug called Ketamine. Is this true?
Answer: No. There is a theory held by some scientists that a NDE is caused by a flood of brain chemicals at the time of death. Endorphins and associated chemicals are triggered, at this time, by a lack of oxygen causing the subject to see light, feel loved, and experience other NDE-like events. After the subject returns to life, the brain chemical flood is remembered as a NDE. Since the drug Ketamine also seems to cause subjects to see light, feel loved, and experience other NDE-like events, they believe it mimics or causes a similiar brain chemical reaction as death. So, to their thinking, they are inducing NDEs in subjects with the drug Ketamine.
This theory was proven wrong several years ago. Dr. Raymond Moody, Dr. Melvin Morse and other NDE researchers eliminated the possibility of brain chemicals causing NDEs by collecting scores of NDE accounts in which the experiencers returned to life with information unavailable to them at the time of death. Briefly put: a patient goes into cardiac arrest, brain and heart monitors flatline, after trying unsuccessfully to revive him, the doctor pronounces the patient dead. At this time there can be no brain chemical action. There is no life. The patient is dead. After a time period of several minutes to several hours the patient returns to life. He is able to tell the doctors what they were doing while he was dead, what was happening out in the hallway and who was sitting in the waiting room. This information could not have come from a brain chemical reaction at the time of death, because the information the patient returned to life with was not available at the time of death, and since the patient was bathed in the light and felt loved at the same time he was gathering such information, it is logical to assume that brain chemicals did not cause them either. In summary: No, the drug Ketamine can not, and does not induce a NDE.
Question: If Ketamine doesn't induce NDEs then what does it do. The subjects who take this drug do see light, feel loved, and experience other NDE-like events. Can you explain why this happens?
Answer: Yes. We are spiritual consciousnesses enjoying a physical life created for the purpose of self learning. Picture yourself standing on the edge of two dimensions. One spiritual and the other physical. If you look outward from your physical body (which is only a communication tool) you will focus in the physical dimension. If you look inward through the physical body you will focus in the spiritual dimension. Christians will remember reading when Jesus was asked where the Kingdom of God was, He replied: "The Kingdom of God is within you". Unfortunately, many are focused so intensely in the physical that they no longer feel or believe in the spiritual. However, when the physical body malfunctions or dies, the focus returns to the spiritual dimension which is home.
If you direct your point of consciousness inward and hold it there. After a time, the physical world will begin to fade, dimmer and dimmer. Eventually you will see the light and feel the love that NDEers do. You may also meet deceased friends and experience other NDE-like events. You will have entered the fringe of the spiritual dimension. This process, I have described, is called meditation. Meditation is the safest, most reliable way to visit the spiritual dimension, and there are many, many varieties of it. If you read the literature on meditation you will find an abundance of NDE-like events mentioned. In fact, some Yogi masters warn their students to ignore the lights, and things they may see because they believe it is a distraction from the purity of the meditation.
However, meditation has one very large drawback. It may take many months, even years of daily practice to learn how to lower the physical senses (focus) to the degree necessary to experience the spiritual dimension. And, for one reason or another, some practitioners are never able to reach the spiritual. So, over the centuries, man has devised, invented and discovered shortcut methods.
These methods included anything that could diminish, or fade the physical senses. Sweatlodges, dancing in circles for hours, hypnosis, staring into crystal balls, watching pendulums swing, and of course a wide assortment of drugs. Peyote, loco weed, hash, opium, and now Ketamine. The drug Ketamine, along with numerous others, diminishes, lowers the physical senses (focus) of man and allows the spiritual dimension to be experienced. The real NDE is caused by the death of the body which temporarily cancels ALL physical focus, thereby producing the intense spiritual experience that it is. A severe warning about drugs is needed here. The use of drugs to enter the world of spirit can be very dangerous for those who are unprepared emotionally for the trip. The results can be disasterous to the personality of the individual.
In summary: the world of spirit is alive and well. The drug Ketamine, and any others that may be developed in the future, only allows the spiritual experience, and does not cause it. The Near Death Experience is very real, and is, exactly what it appears to be: man encountering his Creator at the time of his physical death. The NDE is a wake-up call. It is time to return to our roots of Love, and Compassion for ourselves and others.
Question: Some people die, come back to life and don't have a NDE. Those that do have a NDE see all different things. Why don't they all see and feel the same things?
Answer: Individual consciousness' (people) do not just pop-in and pop-out of the physical experience. Serious thought is given the decision to participate. The individual agrees to abide by the "limitations" and "rules" of the adventure. Then, there is a period of preparation necessary for entering the physical and a period of re-orientation upon returning from the physical back to the spiritual.
Background material:
During the physical experience, from the moment of birth, one is constantly learning and building a "belief system". This belief system contains our knowledge of the world as taught to us by our teachers, parents and peers. We also learn and add to our beliefs through personal experience. This belief system becomes the "filter" of our minds. New knowledge is always filtered through our beliefs and checked out. This is how we decide what we will accept or not accept as truth. The belief system filter is so powerful that it is capable of completely blocking out data that it deems worthless, unreal or unsubstantial.
Now, belief systems vary greatly from person to person and may contain many conflicting beliefs. People seldom organize their thinking as well as they do their homes or offices. From these beliefs arise thoughts, expectations, intentions, emotions, and the choices we make in our daily lives. Many live so close to their beliefs that they don't recognize them as beliefs. To those people, their beliefs are absolute truths and must be held and defended at all cost.
Back to the original question:
When the body malfunctions or dies, the individual consciousness (person) returns to the spiritual dimension. However, at the time of arrival, he is still holding on to the physical belief system. This is where the re-orientation process begins. Here, the individual is met by trained "Border Guides" who aid in the orientation back into the spiritual dimension.
These Border Guides (Light Beings) will literally set up, or stage an environment that matches the expectations (belief system) of their arriving guest. They will call in friends, family and other important spiritual beings to help deliver whatever messages are necessary for this particular individual. This will enable them to communicate in surroundings that are comfortable to the person crossing over. From that point of the familiar and expected the orientation can proceed.
Now, how do the Border Guides know when a particular individual is coming? Before entering the physical everyone is assigned a personal guide to watch over them during their physical adventure. They are your constant companion whether you realize it or not. It is their job to notify the Border Guides of your arrival. You are never alone or friendless. You are loved and held safe and secure by God at all times.
What this all means is: that Christians may see Jesus. Islam followers may see Allah. Buddha followers may see Buddha. Those that believe in, and want to go to heaven will do so and those who expect hell will find it. Those who believe "when you're dead, you're dead" may see nothing, have no experience at all. Now, please don't think what I say here limits the spiritual. Anything can happen, I am just explaining what is the usual procedure. Also, I am talking here about NDEs. If the person is not coming back to the physical, then the orientation will proceed to more involved circumstances which is not to be covered here.
In summary:
There are three main things that determine what a person sees during a Near Death Experience. First and formost is the personal message to the experiencer. Each NDE is a personal experience designed for the one receiving it. It will contain information that is pertinent only to the recipient. Second is the belief system filter this personal message must flow through and third is the expectations arising from the belief system about what death is like. I hope this explanation will be of some value to you.
Question: I had a NDE several years ago. It was a beautiful, positive experience. It changed my life. It showed me hope and love are real. Why do some people try to say the NDE is not real?
Answer: To my knowledge, it is the people who have not experienced a NDE that claim they are unreal. Every NDEer that I have met, knew, what they experienced was real. But we can examine some of the arguments and talk about what might be a solution to the problem.
Defining the real NDE:
The first problem seems to be agreeing on what constitutes a real NDE. Some researchers like Dr. Raymond Moody have published lists of the events they feel necessary to constitute a real NDE. Others have written about the emotional value, pointing to the changed personality and life style of the experiencer, as a requirement to be called a real NDE. However, the only true way to understand what a NDE consists of, is to read a few hundred of them. Yes, a few hundred. I also suggest you read NDE accounts at least 10 years old or older. Since the NDE has become a media sensation, many questionable "me too" NDEs have appeared that blur the older accounts quasi-consistency. The older accounts will all differ in content and length, but there will be a certain mood, and sameness to them, that can only be discovered by reading a large number of them. Experiencing my own NDE, and reading hundreds of other's NDE accounts, I have written a summary called proof that I believe covers the main points of the real NDE:
In NDEs (Near Death Experiences) one of the first things the experiencer notices is being outside his body. Below, I have described two typical OBE (Out-of-Body Experience) situations found in NDEs. These are used for illustration purposes and are not intended to be comprehensive.
In the first, the experiencer finds himself floating in the air looking down on the activity below. If this is a hospital room, he will see doctors and nurses working on his lifeless body. The doctors' conversations will be remembered and the tools they are using identified by the experiencer after he is brought back to life.
In the second, the experiencer leaves the location of his lifeless body and visits other places and/or people. Upon being brought back to life the experiencer will remember in detail the conversations and events seen while OBE. Many of these conversations and events will later be verified by those the experiencer observed while OBE.
The focus here is on the Out-of-Body element because it is the beginning of the NDE. The NDE starts when the body stops. And when the body stops "something" leaves the body. That "something" is the "individual vitality" of the experiencer and it's usually very surprised to find itself free of the body and still alive. That "vitality" has been called "spirit, soul, essence," and a few other words. But these words carry with them a history of interpretation and meaning that tends to distort rather than clarify the event taking place.
Hundreds of NDE-OBE accounts like the ones outlined above are in print at this time. There are estimates ranging from thousands to millions of NDE-OBE occurrences that have not been published.
Do these occurrences, reported by respectable people, prove that life continues after death? Well, maybe.
Religious groups are divided on the issue. Most believe in life after death, but only along doctrinal lines. Some support the NDE phenomenon and others reject it saying: "it is the work of the devil". Since the typical NDE includes events of caring, support, and unconditional Love shown to the experiencer. I would say this is strange behavior for the alleged "Source of all Evil".
Scientists are also divided. Some accept. Some reject. The main argument against, is centered on brain chemistry. There are in print many accounts of how brain activity can produce "thoughts, visions, and hallucinations" that are similiar in content to the NDE.
That may be true, but the experiencer would be unaware of these since he is out-of-body at this time and throughly enjoying his new view of the surroundings.
Could the OBE part of the NDE be proof of life after death? Probably. But...
The really interesting part of the NDE comes after one has left the body. This is the part of "Light Tunnels", "Life Reviews", "Feeling surrounded by Love"; speaking with "Deceased Friends", "Light Beings," and "God". This part is a little different in every NDE. (If you're not familiar with the material, run out and buy a few NDE books. Exciting reading.) These events have been catalogued, compared and analyzed in many ways. But, the only way that matters is the personal meaning the NDE has to the experiencer.
And that meaning, almost always, causes profound personality and life style changes in the experiencer. Some NDE experiencers go back to school to become teachers or counselors. Some lecture, write books. Others do volunteer work at Hospices, Nursing Homes and Hospitals. Some open "Centers of Learning" or start classes/support groups. Even those who don't "go public" with their experience are "changed" into kinder and more loving individuals. The impact of the experience is "to change the experiencer" and the "change" lasts a lifetime.
I have never read of hallucinations, delusions, or any other kind of misperception that produced such positive changes in large numbers of scattered individuals. What these individuals experienced certainly had to be real. Only Truth is powerful enough to produce this kind of phenomenon.
Now, is the NDE proof of life after death? Yes it is. But...
The story is not finished until something is said about what happened that made these individuals change their perception of life.
Simply put. The body ceased to function. They found themselves free from, and outside of their body. They were still alive. They could still see and hear the surrounding activity. They felt different, but were still basically the same person outside the body as they were inside.
Then the Light/Love entered. Light/Love blending together to surround the experiencer with unconditional Love, Peace, and Safety. Many said the Light was "God". They knew they were in the presence of "Higher Intelligence". An intelligence that loved and cared for them. Not many wanted to return to their body. This place was more desirable. But return they did: for one reason or another.
What is significant about this group of NDE experiencers? Absolutely nothing.
The experiencers represent all races of people. All ages. All nationalities. All religions. No religion. Atheists. Theists. Agnostics. Educated. Uneducated. Rich. Poor. Leaders. Homeless. And yes, even the criminals. Murderers, thiefs and such.
The message is clear and to the point. There is life after death.
What they bring back is an expanded perception of what life is about. What they leave behind is their fear of death.
"God's" Love is greater than any mistake we have ever made. The priority of our future is learning to Love. First ourselves. Then one another.
Defining the critics and their arguments:
The critics of NDEs come mostly from that group of people who believe in a mechanical world. Those who believe nothing exists beyond the physical. This group includes Scientists who have theorized that NDEs can be induced by chemical (drugs), electrical (brain stimulation), and/or severe loss of oxygen to the brain. A few of these Scientists have run experiments with drugs and announced that they induced NDEs in their subjects. While it is true, that the subjects of these experiments, did experience a few of the background events common to most NDEs, such as seeing light, feeling loved, knowledge of Oneness; none, NONE of the subjects experienced a full-blown real NDE. What they did experience is common to what meditation experts experience without drugs. Drugs do not cause the experience, they only allow it to happen by lowering the physical perception and focus. It is like they went to the swmming pool and stuck their big toe in the water, then came back and told everyone they went swimming. Unfortunately the media gives credit to what they say and many people have been misinformed. This misinformation will continue to proliferate until the public learns more truth about the NDE phenonmenon.
For those who wish to explore this subject in more detail, Scott's web site on NDEs provides the opportunity. You can read accounts of NDEs and compare them with what the subjects of the drug tests experienced. You will find that the Near Death Experience is an interactive communication between the experiencer and the spirit world. It is about physical life goals and accomplishments. It is about spiritual growth and responsibility. It contains: life reviews, talking to God, talking to deceased relatives, talking about returning to the physical or not, and other intense spiritual events. None of these events will be found in the drug test subjects. So, I will say again, no one using any drug or artificial stimulus has induced a NDE in anyone. NDEs are brought about by death only. Verified, documented, medically defined death.
Swinging the Gauntlet:
TV Networks have produced many shows about the NDE phenomenon. A typical presentation includes a number of experiencers telling about their respective NDEs. Then, at the end, skeptics are brought on to "explain" the NDE phenonmenon and attempt to discredit the NDEers personal experience. They always use the same theories that were proven wrong years ago. Any rebuttal of these dead theories by famous NDE researchers are not presented.
Never in the history of mankind has there been so much documented, verified, proof of a spiritual event as there is of the NDE. Using the knowledge of the Greater Reality brought to us by the NDE, a TV Network could produce a show called something like: "Toward Proving the Existence of God." In explaining that the world of spirit is within us (quoted from Jesus if desired), they could present evidence gathered from meditation, OBEs, NDEs, drugs, channelling, pendulums, and a hundred other methods people use to connect to it. They could accent how the spirit world contains the Oneness of consciousness which explains ESP, synchronicity, and other psychic phenomenon that has amazed people for centuries. They could describe how the body acts as gateway and communication tool and the brain as a tuning device for focus and management of data between the spiritual and the physical. This information can also explain mental health mysteries, i.e., savant-idiots, hearing voices, and why one 8-year-old can write an entire musical symphony and another can not even write his name. Or, why a 9-year-old mentally retarded girl was able to read Japanese although she had been instutionalized since birth in the U.S. These are just a few of the possibilities. All the secrets of the physical are revealed in the understanding of our spiritual nature.
The research for this show would be expensive and take a great deal of time. Integrating the many physical mysteries into the Greater Spiritual Reality would be monumental considering the mountains of metaphysical, paranormal and unexplained material available. But, if such a production ever came about, it would be a prodigious event. It could bring about a consciousness shift of perception about life in general; and it would be sure, to shake the sacred beliefs of religion, as well as science, right down to their foundations. Any risk takers out there?
Question: Why people like you address skeptic arguments regarding NDE?
Answer: I have asked myself that many times. I answer the skeptics because someone needs too. They are preventing many people from finding love and hope when they need it most. Unfortunately most of the general public just take for granted what they hear a scientist say, just because they have been taught to do so. There needs to be a voice for the truth of love. I am also trying integrate all spiritual events into a seeable, understandable pattern. Instead of having many kinds of spiritual happenings, have a picture of the whole spirit world in which these happenings take place.