Near Death Experience

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Have you had one? Do you know someone who did? There are some great books on the subject. Some Doctors/scientists say that when the brain loses oxygen, there is an endorphin rush that causes people to feel really peaceful and happy, and have hallucinations. But if you talk to anyone who has had one, they swear that they were in heaven.

Specializes in Transplant, homecare, hospice.
They say LSD can cause a person to have an experience similar to a NDE.I wonder if maybe LSD trips can be real? Maybe they aren't just hallucenogenic, maybe they really do take you to that other dimension.

I wondered that too. Any hallucinagenic. I think subconscious things surface, but I wonder about those people who state that they have NDE-like episodes, if they aren't really having it....

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Specializes in Transplant, homecare, hospice.
My son related a memory from an NDE he had when he was not yet six years old. He had a significant stroke following a liver transplant; only a short time before the stroke he had been sitting up talking to me and pleading to be allowed to take a nap. When his lunch arrived I was unable to arouse him. What followed was a series of progressively more urgent exams and interventions that are the stuff of nightmares. The outcome was that he survived but suffered profound brain damage. He had to relearn everything, even how to hold up his head.

A couple of years later, I broke the news to him that an acquaintance of ours had died. When I asked him if he understood what that meant, he indicated that he did, that Paul was in Heaven. I reminded him that we wouldn't see Paul again. He said, "Yes we will, when he comes back," and I told him that people don't come back from Heaven. "Well, I did," he said and proceeded to tell me that he'd seen Jesus and Jesus told him, "That's not the way it's supposed to be, Son. You have to go back." He described the events happening in his room as if he had been a spectator, including how sad he felt when I started packing up his get-well cards and toys. The detail he used, this almost mute son of mine, made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. When I asked him if he'd still have come back if he'd known what he was coming back to (months in hospital followed by months of rigorous rehab, depression, the absence of who he had been), he very solemnly said simply, "No."

I believe.

Wow....That's incredible!

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

There are LOTS of good books relaying what people describe as NDE's. There are way too many for me to dismiss them as "trips" or other drug-induced incidences. I am a naturally doubtful skeptic, but am willing to be open-minded on this subject. TOO MANY are TELLING the SAME types of stories to dismiss this in my mind!

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Specializes in Transplant, homecare, hospice.
There are LOTS of good books relaying what people describe as NDE's. There are way too many for me to dismiss them as "trips" or other drug-induced incidences. I am a naturally doubtful skeptic, but am willing to be open-minded on this subject. TOO MANY are TELLING the SAME types of stories to dismiss this in my mind!

I agree. When I work the hospice cases, the pts tell me about how they go and see the people that passed away before them. Some say that they go to heaven, others just say someplace. They report fairly often that these same family members visit them at bedside and are there next to us when we are there too. It's an odd feeling. Sometimes you can feel that someone is in the room looking at you, but you see nothing, of course. It's a weird feeling.

One of my first hospice pts woke up upset one day and she said that her brother (who died years ago before her) was in the tunnel telling her to come with him. She was afraid and didn't want to go with him. The morning she finally did let go, I believe she was with him. About a couple of minutes after she died, a smile came to her face. It was amazing! I truly believe that was her way of saying that she wasn't afraid anymore and that she was okay. I didn't need anymore confirmation after that. Turned me into a believer. I'd never seen anyone smile after they died. Just amazing.

I hadn't thought about this in awhile. These NDE stories are awesome.

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Has anyone heard about silver cords that people seem to say are attatched to their spirits and bodies? I heard someone saying that many have had felt and seen this cord.

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My Mom didn't mention the silver cord, but I have heard of them. I think in the books I read that some saw it, some did not.

One of the interesting things mentioned that the depth of the experience depends on how long the person was down.

Some would only see what was going on during the resus, others would get as far as seeing an entire life review with a spiritual "presence" at their side.

When my mother had hers, she described the whole tunnel and an angel, I can't remember his name, told her it wasn't quite time for her, but it would be soon. She said it was so peaceful and loving that she didn't want to come back. A few months later she died for good. I think she was happy to go.

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the person that i heard talking about the silver cord being in many descriptions of the ndes. said that it talked about a silver cord in the bible, so i looked it up. here is the verse.

ecc 12:6 before the silver cord is loosed, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern,

ecc 12:7 and the dust returneth to the earth as it was, and the spirit returneth unto god who gave it.

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My son related a memory from an NDE he had when he was not yet six years old. He had a significant stroke following a liver transplant; only a short time before the stroke he had been sitting up talking to me and pleading to be allowed to take a nap. When his lunch arrived I was unable to arouse him. What followed was a series of progressively more urgent exams and interventions that are the stuff of nightmares. The outcome was that he survived but suffered profound brain damage. He had to relearn everything, even how to hold up his head.

A couple of years later, I broke the news to him that an acquaintance of ours had died. When I asked him if he understood what that meant, he indicated that he did, that Paul was in Heaven. I reminded him that we wouldn't see Paul again. He said, "Yes we will, when he comes back," and I told him that people don't come back from Heaven. "Well, I did," he said and proceeded to tell me that he'd seen Jesus and Jesus told him, "That's not the way it's supposed to be, Son. You have to go back." He described the events happening in his room as if he had been a spectator, including how sad he felt when I started packing up his get-well cards and toys. The detail he used, this almost mute son of mine, made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. When I asked him if he'd still have come back if he'd known what he was coming back to (months in hospital followed by months of rigorous rehab, depression, the absence of who he had been), he very solemnly said simply, "No."

I believe.

Wow ! That story gave me goose bumps. Awesome.

How is your son doing now? Does he still need therapy?

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JAN that was a heart wrenching story...bless you both

my father had a nde when he was in icu. they coded him and when he was able to talk again he told my mother that he was in a beautiful garden and that he was happy and not struggling to breathe..he was very angry that they had 'brought him back'

this gave my mother the courage to sign a no code authorization and he died three days later

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Specializes in Assisted Living Nurse Manager.

I had a friend who is a quadraplegic. He was always very happy and out going. He accepted the circumstances of his life with grace. After knowing him for awhile, I asked him what happened, how he became a quadraplegic. I also asked him has he always accepted his disability with so much grace. This is the story he told me.

He said that he was on his motorcycle driving home from work and ran into the back of a stopped school bus. There were no kids on the bus at that time and he said that he did not remember why he ran into the bus. He was lying on the road and a passerby stopped and lifted his head and took his helmet off before the paramedics arrived. This was in the 70's. Anyways he said that he heard this voice talking to him, it was dark where he was and he knew he was out of his body. The voice that he said he knew was God's said to him "you can stay or you can go back, but if you choose to go back your life will never be the same". He said he wanted to come back. He told me that is why he is okay with it, it was his choice and some where deep inside he knew he would be paralyzed for the rest of his life. He was only 17 years old when the accident happened and a very good football player.

When he told me this story I got goose bumps! I still do to this day. I believe in NDE's and I also believe it is God's way of showing some that there is life after death.

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They accidentally gave me my mother's Valium before my kidney transplant, and I had no time to tell the OR crew about it before they slapped the anesthesia mask on me-- so I got an overdose. They couldn't wake me up post-op, and my vital signs were getting weaker.

I remember that I was reclining in an armchair made out of blue-gray clouds, which was itself floating in a blue-gray room, with a warm breeze flowing over me. I was wearing white pajamas and I was barefoot, and SOOOO comfortable!

And then-- I woke up to find a nurse with her finger in my eye, yelling my name, and suddenly EVERYTHING hurt! It's a good thing I woke up when I did, because they already had out the big heart needle! My nurse yelled, "We don't need that!" and another nurse put the big needle away.

I had no tunnel or white light in my NDE, just a comfy place where I was recovering before returning to a VERY painful situation. (Incidentally, I was wearing a regular hospital johnny and some slipper-socks post-op-- no idea why I saw myself in white pjs and barefoot!)

Peace be with you friend....you will never be forgoten.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Thought it was relevant.

From "World of Dreams" by Peter Mayer (from Minn. So very awesome):

Even our own bodies

Are not as we perceive

They're made of the same stuff

Are thoughts are made in this world of dreams

So do we live and move

Amidst illusions

As what we're seeing fools

Because it only exists in our minds

And what are we to do

With such conclusions

For what can not come true

In the world of a mystical kind

A mystical kind . . .

~faith,

Timothy.

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