SKEPTIC'S
ARGUMENT: "Another problem is
that no one who has returned has ever brought
back anything useful, such as, for instance,
the formula for the compound curing AIDS. All
we have is "the purpose of life is to love,
and to acquire as much knowledge as possible"
stories. That's nice, but I personally think
that a cure for AIDS would be infinitely more
expressive of God's love for humankind than
catchy near-death experience books such as
Betty Eadie's."
KEVIN WILLIAMS, B.SC.:
"Skeptics may argue that nobody brings back
anything useful from a near-death experience
such as a scientific discovery. The skeptic's
argument might resemble something like this:
"If people are actually
receiving unlimited knowledge during a NDE,
then why don't they bring back with them the
cure for AIDS to help humanity? While it's nice
that they have discovered humanity's purpose
in this world is learning to love others, it
would be infinitely more expressive of God's
love for humanity if someone would bring back
the cure for AIDS?
"Our skeptic presents
a very good argument and it's one that researchers
have an answer for. What follows is a discussion
of the scientific discoveries brought back by
near-death experiencers as told by several near-death
researchers. A complete list of scientific advances
from NDEs is available on my
NDE and Science
research conclusions.
"Yes,
people do receive higher knowledge and information
about cures for diseases such as cancer and
AIDS while they are in the light of the NDE.
Here are some descriptions:
"The
farther forward a person is propelled
through the tunnel, the more knowledge
can be received. The mind can feel
like a sponge, growing and expanding
in size with each addition. This
knowledge may come in single words
and in whole idea blocks. Everything
can be understood as it is being
soaked up or absorbed. The mind
expands and absorbs as each new
piece of information comes in. It
is receiving knowledge that was
already known but forgotten or mislaid,
as if it were waiting to be picked
up on the way by." (Virginia
Rivers)
"The
light gave me knowledge, though
I heard no words. We did not communicate
in English or in any other language.
This was discourse clearer and easier
than the clumsy medium of language.
It was something like understanding
math or music - nonverbal knowledge,
but knowledge no less profound.
I was learning the answers to the
eternal questions of life - questions
so old we laugh them off as
clichés. "Why
are we here?" To learn. "What's
the purpose of our life?" To
love. I felt as if I was re-remembering
things I had once known but somehow
forgotten, and it seemed incredible
that I had not figured out these
things before now." (Kimberly
Clark Sharp)
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"The
main problem preventing many people from bringing
back some of this higher knowledge attained
during a NDE is that it's difficult to retain
every memory of their NDE, assuming it can be
remembered at all. This general inability of
people being unable to retain every memory from
a NDE is similar to our general inability to
remember every memory of a dream we have after
we wake up. However, this is not to say that
higher knowledge and scientific discoveries
are not attained during NDEs or dreams.
"Some
people have returned from a NDE and have been
able to successfully diagnose and heal people
- even bring back useful scientific information
- due to the after-effects attributed to their
NDEs.
"One example of this
is documented in
Tom Harpur's
documentary,
Life After Death.
Harpur interviews a doctor whose name is
Dr. Yvonne Kason
who was almost killed in a plane crash into
a lake which resulted in a NDE. After she recovered,
she began to have strange visions in her mind
that she couldn't explain. One of these visions
concerned a friend of hers. When Dr. Kason thought
of her friend, she would see a vision in her
mind of a "brain covered with pus." Dr.
Kason knew that this was an excellent symbolic
vision referring to the deadly disease meningitis.
The problem was that her friend was perfectly
healthy at the time, exhibited absolutely no
signs of meningitis, and there was no reason
to suspect she had it. Dr. Kason begged her
friend to get tested for meningitis. After an
amount of reluctance, her friend got tested.
Surprisingly, the test was positive. As a result
of Dr. Kason's NDE, her friend was able to get
treated for meningitis at its early stage before
it had time to become deadly. Dr. Kason continues
to have such visions. She now realizes that,
as a result of her NDE, that is now psychic.
Her story affirms that useful things are indeed
brought back from NDEs.
"Another interesting
case is that of
Edgar Cayce
(pronounced "Kay-see") (1877-1945), a devout
Christian who had regular NDEs and brought back
medical cures and information on future events
that ultimately came true. In 1910, the New
York Times carried two pages of headlines and
pictures in which he was declared the "World's
Most Mysterious Man." In 1954, the University
of Chicago accepted a Ph.D. thesis based on
a study of his life and work. Cayce is also
considered to be the father of holistic medicine
by JAMA, the prestigious medical journal. I
have
a complete list of
the world events which Cayce successfully foretold
before they occurred.
"Cayce
was a wonder to the medical community because
of his ability to diagnose and specify a treatment
for gravely ill people from hundreds of miles
away while out of his body. It is also documented
that while in his out-of-body state, Cayce successful
predicted the 1929 stock-market crash more than
six months before it occurred, the Great Depression,
outbreak of the First and Second World Wars,
Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, the
rise and fall of Adolf Hitler, the independence
of India, the creation of the State of Israel
fifteen years before the event, the deaths of
two American presidents, the existence of an
unknown Jewish sect called the Essenes eleven
years before the Dead Sea Scrolls were found
(which was verified through archeological excavations
after his death.), invention of the laser in
1958, and his own death before his two sons
returned home from overseas. For many decades
now, the
Edgar Cayce Foundation
has been around to research the vast amount
of information he received.
"Edgar Cayce is much
more than just an example of how one can bring
back medical cures, historical facts, and even
bring back information from the future while
outside of their body."
Dr. P.M.H. Atwater
responds to the argument that experiencers do
not bring back anything useful:
DR. P.M.H.
ATWATER:
"Not true! A fellow in, I believe it was Sweden,
went on to copyright over a hundred inventions
that have made a significant difference in society.
Mellen-Thomas Benedict
invented a glasscutter that alleviates much
hand fatigue in accordance to directions he
received in his experience. In fact, Mellen-Thomas
participated in a number of medical research
projects, and because of the information he
gave the researchers, they were able to advance
their work significantly. He is now doing DNA
research and working on instruments that can
help physicians use certain frequencies of light
in healing. These are just a few of many.
"In my
own case, I was told in my third NDE to do the
research I do - my directions were specific
and detailed. Look at what has resulted! Hardly
trivial, I'd say. The reason you seldom hear
of people like me and Mellen-Thomas and the
fellow from Sweden is that we don't make spectacles
of ourselves. We just do our work.
"Also,
please refer to my last three books. All of
them have a section devoted to historical figures
who had a NDE and who went on to make a significant
impact on the world - people like Abraham Lincoln,
Mozart, Einstein, Winston Churchill, Queen Elisabeth
the First, and Edward de Vere the 17th Earl
of Oxford - who may well be the real Shakespeare.
I would invite you to look beyond the so-called
popular books on NDEs, and do some real digging.
You may be surprised at what you find! Please
just read my books. I am specific and give references.
The answers to most of your questions are addressed.
"Since
you mentioned it, I have thought of a number
of experiencers who went on to do great things
afterward:
Donna DeSoto
and her Sav-Baby Organization,
Dannion Brinkley
and his
Compassion In Action
volunteer service for the dying,
Carol Parrish-Harra
and the Sparrow Hawk Village she built and the
Sancta Sophia Seminary she founded,
Nadia McCaffrey
and the Natural Death Centers she is starting
to construct and staff,
George Ritchie
and his
Youth Corps,
and so forth. The line is a long one, no one
knows how long for most experiencers seldom
seek the limelight." (P.M.H.
Atwater)
Responding to the
argument that experiencers do not bring back
anything useful,
Dr. Kenneth Ring
replies:
DR. KENNETH RING: "This
question made me laugh because the questioner
clearly thinks that the light, or whatever the
intelligence is that is behind the NDE, would
truly be helpful to humanity if it gave us practical
answers to the burning questions of our day.
This is like saying, if you are psychic, then
how about telling me the winning lottery number?
In fact, the light gives us very practical answers
- love, especially of the unconditional kind,
is probably the thing that could make the world
a far, far better place. It wouldn't end suffering
- there will always be suffering - but it would
help us enormously to deal with the problems
of living. We have brains to help us solve our
practical problems - what we need and what we
get from the light is something altogether different.
It is dangerous, not to say presumptuous, to
try to tell God (or the light or Whatever) what
we humans could most use. I could probably write
on this question for several pages, if I had
time, but a close reading of the NDE literature
will show what the real value of these experiences
is, and it is not finding a cure to AIDS, etc.
Nevertheless, it is clearly not even true that
no experiencer ever brings back such answers.
I give a few examples in my book, Lessons from
the Light.
"For example, the
case of Ralph Duncan, who brought back a cure
for a certain kind of cancer, and then there
is the case of Mellen-Thomas Benedict who brought
back a great deal of very practical information
about biophotonics and other methods of light-based
healing, and is currently marketing some of
his devices, after millions of dollars have
been invested in his company. So, practical
answers that can definitely benefit humanity
can sometimes be obtained during NDEs, but,
to me, that misses the point."
[Webmaster's
note: I looked up the reference that
Dr. Ring gives from his book, Lessons from the
Light. It does show some very interesting examples
of how NDErs learn and even experience cures
for diseases such as cancer.]
The following are
examples, from Dr. Ring's research, of NDErs
bringing back scientific discoveries:
"One quite remarkable
instance was shared with me by Howard Mikel,
Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at Wichita
State University in Kansas, who investigated
this case very thoroughly and can authenticate
it. The story, in brief, involved a patient
by the name of Ralph Duncan, who in the mid-1970s
was dying of leukemia. He apparently was told
he had only a short time to live and was prepared
to die. But while hospitalized, he had a NDE,
and during it, he encountered a luminous being,
whom he took to be Jesus (though Ralph observed
that it did not look anything like the traditional
images of him), and whose eyes were 'shooting
fire.' In any event, there was then a telepathic
communication from this being in the form of
three shot phrases, which were: 'That's enough,
it's dead, it's gone.' These words, Ralph said,
were still ringing in his ears as he returned
to his body.
"Afterward, puzzling
about all this, he was mystified about the significance
of the phrase, 'that's enough.' But, he continues,
'I do know what he meant when he said, 'It's
dead.' To me it meant that the germ was dead.
I no longer have leukemia." To my mind,
however, the entire set phrases coheres meaningfully
in the context of this healing. For instance,
when the being, his eyes 'shooting fire,' says,
'That's enough,' it means in effect, 'I've zapped
you with enough voltage for this to cure you.'
And then, 'it's dead, it's gone.'
"The last I heard
about this case, in 1989, Ralph was still hale
and living near Boulder, Colorado.
"A somewhat similar
case was described by
Margot Grey.
Five days after abdominal surgery, an English
patient underwent complications and his wife
as told her husband was dying. At that time,
however, he was having a NDE, and during it
he saw:
"...an entity clothed in a colored
cloak [of] indescribably beautiful
colors, and brightness most intense.
This something stood at the right-hand
side of my head, two hands were
lightly placed on my body, slowly
moved down to my feet, and up the
left side, pausing at my head, and
then was gone. I have no recollection
of anything until [the] next day.
From then I made a very rapid recovery
and was soon back with my family."
(Margot
Grey's NDE research)
|
"Again, we seem to
have a healing performed within the general
context of a light-filled scene.
"Not long ago, some
further cases of this kind were shared with
me by my friend, Steve, who you might remember
was himself the recipient of an apparently other-worldly
stabilizing treatment rendered by a female light
being when Steve experienced a respiratory arrest
during surgery (see pp. 37-38 for the full account).
Significantly, Steve recently told me that,
as in the case of Ralph Duncan, this being had
'intense blue eyes that shined like they were
on fire.' And as he felt this energy radiating
into him, she communicated telepathically to
Steve with these thoughts:
"You're not breathing regularly.
There is some concern that your
respiration might stop. I'm here
to stabilize it, and make sure the
problem doesn't go any further.
You are very valuable, and no one
is willing to take any chances with
your life."
|
"In some ways an
even more dramatic case that Steve related to
me involved a diabetic Mexican woman who speaks
no English (Steve is fluent in Spanish) and
who, Steve ascertained, was completely unfamiliar
with NDEs before her own experience. Here is
her story:
Prior
to her experience, she had lost
the ability to see. Diabetes had
taken away her retina, and her heart
wasn't supplying enough circulation
to her brain to allow her to speak.
She was in very poor shape. They
prepared her for surgery.
Open-heart
surgery on a diabetic woman of sixty-seven
is full of risk. The doctors went
outside to discuss their strategy.
While they were conferring, she
saw the wall open up and a brilliant
light pour out. A bearded man in
white stepped up beside her. He
was made of white light.
"You're
not ready to follow me yet ... you're
not prepared. I'm going to give
you back your eyesight. You'll need
it to finish your life. And I'm
going to heal the heart valve, so
you can speak again. You still have
a few more things to do. Your grandchildren
need you to teach them."
|
"According
to the woman's account, he placed his hand on
her chest, and her eyesight returned. [Later]
she sat in a wheel chair, serene, full of confidence,
and smiling. Her legs were gone, but her eyes
were clear, and she was happy in a calm way.
Her cardiologist later told her:
"Something
has happened to change you body.
We don't have an explanation for
it. I personally ascribe it to be
the will of God. You can go home
now. We did nothing." (Ring,
225-226)"
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Dr. Melvin Morse
discusses the NDE of a man who developed over
100 patents in molecular chemistry based on
the information he received from his NDE:
DR. MELVIN
MORSE:
"I recently discussed these issues with theoretical
physicists at the
National Institute
of Discovery Science.
This is a consciousness think tank of national
renown scholars in their individual fields.
They explained to me that science states that
reality is made of tiny nuclear particles, so
tiny that it is unclear if they are actually
matter or simply patterns of energy. All of
the fundamental particles in this universe have
at least two counterparts which have been documented
as being 'real'.
"These particles
last for only a fraction of a second in this
reality, yet they comprise the elemental building
blocks of reality. In theory, there are at least
three possible universes comprised of the three
basic sets of subatomic particles.
"Furthermore, again
in theory, there is one possible universe which
is called the
Omega Point,
in which there is no time or space, and all
possible universes coexist. This is why physicists
such as Niels Bohr said, "Anyone who has
not been shocked by quantum physics has not
understood it.
"Olaf
Swenson
may have seen such a timeless spaceless Omega
Point when he nearly died of a botched tonsillectomy
at age 14. He states:
"Suddenly I rolled into a ball and
smashed into another reality. The
forces that brought me through the
barrier were terrific. I was on
the other side. I realized that
the boundary between life and death
is a strange creation of our own
mind, very real (from the side of
the living), and yet insignificant."
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"Olaf felt he was
floating in a universe with no boundaries.
"I
had total comprehension of everything.
I stood at the annihilation point,
a bright orange light. As I felt
my mind transported back to my body,
I thought, please let me remember
this new theory of relativity."
(Melvin
Morse)
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Dr. Jeffrey Long
of
NDERF.org
states:
DR. JEFFREY
LONG: "Another concern of
NDE skeptics is that experiencers do not return
with information or ideas with immediate widespread
use, such as a cure for cancer or verifiable
new scientific understandings. There have been
anecdotal reports suggesting the contrary, but
in my experience, experiencers generally do
not return with such information. Failure to
receive a specific hoped for gift is not a valid
criticism of NDEs. The gift experiencers do
return with is generally varied and spiritual
in nature, often including the concept of love
and a lack of fear of death. The gift to experiencers
of better understanding love and their purpose
on Earth is a very important gift, suggesting
these understandings are among the most important
things we can accomplish.
"NDE studies provide
a tantalizing glimpse of what this other reality
is, and provides some clues to humankind's deepest
questions of who we really are and our relationship
with a greater reality. It is entirely reasonable
to accept the NDE in the way the experiencers
themselves almost uniformly perceive the experience:
an encounter with another dimension of reality.
"Science demands verifiable
evidence which can be reproduced again and again
under experimental situations.
Dr. Jim Whinnery,
of the Naval Warfare Center, thought he was
simply studying the effects of G forces on fighter
pilots. He had no idea he would revolutionize
the field of consciousness studies by providing
experimental proof that NDEs are real.
"The pilots were placed
in huge
centrifuges
and spun at tremendous speeds. After they lost
consciousness, after they went into seizures,
after they lost all muscle tone, when the blood
stopped flowing in their brains, only then would
they suddenly have a return to conscious awareness.
They had "dreamlets"
as Dr. Whinnery calls them. These dreamlets
are similar to NDEs. They often involved a sense
of separation from the physical body. A typical
dreamlet involved a pilot leaving his physical
body and traveling to a sandy beach, where he
looked directly up at the sun. The pilot remarked
that death is very pleasant." (Jeffery
Long)
KEVIN WILLIAMS,
B.SC.: "In conclusion, experiencers
are given gifts of healing abilities, knowledge
that advances science, but even more important,
information about universal love and life after
death capable of transforming this planet into
a peaceful and loving paradise." (Kevin
Williams)
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