A
more interesting and rare type of NDE is called
the "group near-death experience". This is a
phenomenon where a whole group of people have a
NDE at the same time and location. They see each
other outside of their bodies and have a shared
or similar experience.
P.M.H. Atwater
gives a definition of a "Group NDE":
"These are rare, but
they do occur. With this kind, a whole group of
people simultaneously seems to experience the
same or similar episode. What makes these so
spectacular and challenging is that all or most
of the experiencers see each other actually
leave their bodies as it happens, then dialogue
with each other and share messages and
observations while still experiencing the
near-death state. Their separate reports
afterward either match or nearly so. Reports
like these emerge most often from events of a
harrowing nature that involve a lot of people.
"Shared and group
experiences imply that no matter how sure we are
that near-death states mean this or that, and
are the result of whatever, no single idea,
theory, or pat answer can explain them. Even
clues from the powerful patterning that
researchers like myself have identified, fail to
explain all aspects of the phenomenon."
The
following are two excellent examples of group
near-death experiences.
1.
Group NDE Example #1
Arvin
Gibson is
a retired nuclear engineer and a prominent
near-death experience researcher. His research
culminated in the publication of several major
works on the subject including research on how
near-death
experiences support doctrines of the Mormon
church.
In 1996,
Arvin Gibson
interviewed a fire-fighter named Jake who had a
most unusual near-death experience while working
with other fire-fighters in a forest. What makes
it unique is that it happened at the same time
as several co-workers were also having a
near-death experience. During their near-death
experiences, they actually met each other and
saw each other above their lifeless bodies. All
survived and they verified with each other
afterwards that the experience actually
happened. Jake's near-death experience was so
interesting that
Gibson's local
chapter of IANDS
invited him to tell his story at one of their
meetings. What follows is an excerpt of Jake's
near-death experience from Arvin Gibson's book,
The Fingerprints of
God.
Jake was a member of
an elite fire-fighting group called the
"Hotshots;" a crew whose job it was to be
dropped into particularly troublesome forest
fires and bring them under control.
During a wilderness
fire in 1989 a helicopter dropped Jake, as crew
boss, and two 20 person Hotshot crews onto a
fire at the top of a steep mountain. The fire
was burning below the crews in thick Ponderosa
Pine and Oak brush.
The slope of the hill
the men and women were working on was about 40
degrees. They worked their way down the steep
slope, when, part way down, to their horror, the
wind changed to an upward direction. The trees
in front of the men and women traveling down the
hill erupted into flames with explosive force.
Jake explained how
fire-fighters have a fire-resistant pack that is
carried on their web gear. The pack includes an
aluminum foil-type material which they can throw
over themselves as they crouch to the ground in
an emergency. These foils are only effective if
the people can deploy the shelters after
properly preparing the ground by reaching
mineral soil with no residual flammable organic
materials. The problem in this case was that the
enormous winds caused by the inferno erupted all
around them and the immediacy of the crisis made
the shelters useless.
The panic stricken
crews started to try and go back up the trench
trail they had built. Trees exploded and fire
engulfed the immediate area, and oxygen feeding
the conflagration was sucked from near the
ground where the people struggled to breathe.
One by one the men and women fell to the Earth
suffocating from lack of oxygen. They were
reduced to crawling on their hands and knees
while they attempted to get back up the hill to
a safer area.
Suddenly Jake had the
thought:
"This is
it. I am going to die."
And with that
thought in mind he found himself looking down on
his body which was lying in a trench. The noise,
heat and confusion from the inferno surrounding
them was gone and Jake felt completely at peace.
As he looked around Jake saw other fire-fighters
standing above their bodies in the air. One of
Jake's crew members had a defective foot which
he had been born with. As he came out of his
body Jake looked at him and said:
"Look, Jose, your
foot is straight."
A bright light then
appeared. Jake described the bright light in
this manner:
"The light - the
fantastic light. It was brighter than the sun
shining on a field of snow. Yet I could look at
it and it didn't hurt my eyes."
Standing in the light
was Jake's deceased great-grandfather. His
great-grandfather acted as Jake's guide
throughout his near-death experience. Jake met
with others of his ancestors and had an
extensive experience. (Only the portions
pertinent to this discussion are repeated here.)
His great-grandfather
ultimately communicated by mind thought to Jake
that it was Jake's choice whether or not he
should return to Earth. Not wanting to come back
from the beautiful and peaceful place that he
was in, Jake argued with his great-grandfather.
Explaining that it would be devastating to
return to a horribly burned body, Jake pled with
his great-grandfather to remain. Jake said that
all of this communication was by questions he
would think of and have instantly answered in
his mind.
Jake was informed
that neither he, nor any of his crew who chose
to return, would suffer ill effects from the
fire. This would be done so that:
"God's power over the
elements would be made manifest."
Returning to his body
was one of the more painful events of his life.
When I asked Jake why it was painful he said:
"When I was there,
everything was so perfect, and my spirit body,
it ... it was so free. It felt like everything
was limitless. When I came back, well you know,
there's always something plaguing you, like
arthritis, or sore muscles, or ... but not
there. Getting back into my physical body felt
cramped - held back. For example, when I used to
play football for a few days after a game or
hard practice I was always sore. The same thing
was true after coming back into my physical
body. I hurt and felt constrained, and it was
hard to get used to for some time."
Finding himself again
in his body, Jake looked around and noticed that
some of the metal tools they had used to fight
the fire had melted. Despite this intense heat,
and the fire still raging around him, he was
able to walk up the hill in some sort of
protected bubble. He did not hear nor feel the
turbulence around him. Upon reaching the
relative safety of the hilltop, the noise of the
fire was again evident, and he saw other members
of the crew also gathered there.
The entire happening
was so profound that upon escaping from what
they had supposed would be sure death the group
of saved people knelt in prayer to thank the
Lord for their deliverance. All of the crew
escaped and the only visual evidence on them of
what they had been through was a few singed
hairs.
Jake said that in
comparing reports of their different episodes
the men and women were astonished that they had
each undergone some type of near-death
experience. Throughout the summer as the crew
worked together they continued to discuss the
miraculous adventure which they had lived
through. Others of the crew confirmed, for
example, that they also felt the ill effects of
returning to their physical bodies. They, too,
had met with other members of their deceased
families and were given the choice of remaining
where they were or of returning to Earth.
2.
Group NDE Example #2
The
following group NDE appears in the
International
Association for Near-Death Studies
publication
Vital Signs
(Volume XIX, No. 3, 2000) and is described in a
greater way in Eulitt's book,
Fireweaver,
published by
Xlibris.
May finally made the
transition into spirit on February 19, 2002, due
to complications following a surgical procedure
to repair one of her heart valves. She was 52
years old. The following is her near-death
experience as described to Dr. Stephen Hoyer:
During the fall of
1971, when I was 22 years old, I shared a
near-death experience with my cousin, James, and
his best friend, Rashad, who was from India.
Both young men were on a break from school and
were staying with my family on our farm. One
afternoon the three of us went to the cornfield
to cut fodder. To get to the field we had to go
through a metal gate, and we took turns climbing
down to open and shut it. By late afternoon a
storm started brewing in the west, and we
decided to quit for the day. It was James' turn
to open the gate, and as he did so, he reached
up for my arm to climb back up onto the wagon. I
was leaning the wrong way, and his weight pulled
me toward him. Rashad grabbed my other arm to
steady me, and we were in just this position
when the lightening hit us.
I saw the lightning
sparkle along the top of the gate. The next
thing we knew, we were in a large room or hall
made of dark stone. The ceiling was so high and
the gloom was so thick we couldn't see the top.
There were no furnishings or wall hangings, just
cold, black stone all around. I knew I should be
afraid, but I just felt peaceful, floating along
there in the gloom with my two friends in the
great, dark hall. The stately walls of this
place loomed above us and seemed to radiate both
great power and also great masculinity. I
remember thinking it would have suited King
Arthur. It was at that point that I realized
that the three of us were united in thought and
body. Images of Arthur came to me from James and
Rashad. James saw only a cosmic version of the
king. Rashad seemed to [be] envisioning himself
in the time of Arthur. As we all became
conscious of each other's thoughts, I suddenly
knew James and Rashad better than I have ever
known anyone else.
We realized there was
light coming into the chamber from an archway at
one end. It was more than just light. It was a
golden, embracing warmth. It gave off a feeling
of peace and contentment more intense than
anything we had ever felt. We were drawn toward
it. We weren't talking, but we were
communicating with each other on some other
level, seeing through each other's eyes. As we
came to the archway and passed through, we
entered a beautiful valley.
There were meadows
and tree-lined hills that led to tall mountains
in the distance. Everything glistened with
golden sparks of light.
We saw that the
sparkling lights were tiny, transparent bubbles
that drifted in the air and sparkled on the
grass. We realized that each tiny sparkle was a
soul. To me, the valley appeared to be Heaven,
but at the same time I knew that James and
Rashad were seeing it differently. James saw it
as the Gulf of Souls. Rashad saw it as Nirvana,
and somehow we knew all this without speaking.
The light began gathering at the far end of the
valley, and slowly, out of the mist, a pure
white being began to materialize. I saw an angel
with a strong, bright face, but not like you'd
usually imagine. She was closer to a strong,
Viking Valkyrie. I knew she was the special
angel that watches over the women of my family,
and I perceived her name to be Hellena. James
saw this same being as his late father, a career
Naval officer, in a white dress uniform. Rashad
perceived the being to be the Enlightened One,
or Buddha.
The being spoke first
to Rashad and welcomed him. He said that
Rashad's time on Earth was done. He was worthy
now of Nirvana. Rashad asked why James and I
were there and was told that we were part of the
reason why he was worthy of Nirvana. His two
great friends loved him so much that they had
willingly accompanied him on his last journey.
At the same time, however, James received a
different message. He had been worried about
what his father would think about his anti-war
protest activities, and his father told him he
was proud of him for standing up for what he
believed. He knew he was not a coward because a
coward would not have made this journey with
Rashad. I received yet another message in which
Hellena told me she was glad I had remembered
the example of strength, honesty, wisdom, and
loyalty taught to me by my family.
We spent what seemed
like an eternity in this place as we talked to
our separate, yet joined, entities. They said
they appeared to us in this way because back in
the real world we were physically joined when
the lightning struck us. They said it also
symbolized the joining of all religions and
doctrines. They said I would live to see a new
age of tolerance, that the souls and hearts of
humanity would be joined as the three of us
were.
The guides taught us
that doctrine and creed and race meant nothing.
No matter what we believed we were all children
joined under one God, and that the only rule was
God's true law - do unto others as you would
have them do unto you. We should treat all
people as if they were a part of our soul
because they were. All living things in the
universe were connected to one another. They
said that soon humanity would mature enough to
assume a higher place in the universal scheme of
things, but until then we must learn acceptance
and tolerance and love for each other. They said
there would come a new age when people would not
be able to endure seeing others homeless and
hungry. We would realize that only by helping
each other could we truly help ourselves.
Eventually we were
told that it was time to go. We would not be
allowed to stay longer because it was not yet
time for me or for James, only for Rashad. The
enlightened one told Rashad he would have a
little time before he returned to take care of
his worldly affairs. James' father told him he
would return to this place soon after Rashad,
but the two of them had to go back for now so
that I could. I said I would willing stay here
in this valley with them, but Hellena told me
that I had not fulfilled my destiny; that I had
children yet unborn.
We drifted slowly
toward the archway. The pull became stronger and
we were literally thrown back into the world. We
floated for a while there, hovering above our
bodies. Some of my cousins had been in the next
field and had seen what had happened. We saw
them all come running to where we lay. James and
Rashad's hands were still stuck to my arms. We
saw my cousins pry their fingers loose so they
could turn Rashad over to help him.
When our hands were
pried loose, James and I re-entered our bodies.
We felt as if we were on fire, but it turned out
that we had only minor injuries. Rashad, it
seemed, being on the end, had taken most of the
charge. The doctors said that the lightning had
caused damage to his heart, lungs, and liver. He
remained in the hospital for several weeks.
During that time, tests revealed that James had
a brain tumor that would eventually claim his
life.
As soon as Rashad
could travel, James took him home to India. He
offered to stay, but Rashad told him that he
wished solitude for his final time. Rashad took
on the life of the Ascetic, in the Vedic
tradition. He asked his wife to stay with her
family because he wanted his last days to be
spent in spiritual awakenings. About a year and
a half later, on a cold day in January, Rashad
returned to Nirvana. James and I knew when his
soul left the world without being told.
James lived about
three years after he found out he had the brain
tumor. He gave most of his considerable
inheritance to a charity that educated young
people in India. I, on the other hand, have
survived for another thirty years (so far) with
the knowledge that this experience which I
shared with my closest friends has been a
guiding force in my life. I strive every day to
meet my destiny, whatever it may be, with the
same quiet dignity and resolution they showed
when they met theirs. They have truly been my
pathfinders, and I know that the connection I
shared with them so long ago is the same
connection we all share. We just sometimes fail
to realize it.
3. The
Shared NDE
Another interesting experience is called the "Shared
NDE". This
kind of phenomenon is a NDE that is actually
shared with a person who is not near-death, but
who is in close proximity to the actual NDEr.
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