NDE General Information by Dr. Bill
Lansing
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I. Common Experiences
A. Hearing the News
B. Feeling of peace and quiet
C. The noise
D. The dark tunnel
E. Out-of-body experience
F. Meetings others
G. The Being of Light
H. the Review
I. The border or limit
J. Coming back
II. Four Types of Near-Death Experiences (according to P.M.H. Atwater in Beyond the Light)
A. Initial Experience A. Initial Experience--(non-experience)--involves elements such as a loving nothingness--usually experienced by those who seem to need the least amount of evidence for proof of survival. It often becomes a seed experience or an introduction to other ways of perceiving reality
B. Unpleasant and/or Hell-like Experience B. Unpleasant and/or Hell-like Experience (inner cleansing and self- confrontation)--an encounter with a threatening void or stark limbo or hellish purgatory, sometimes hauntings from one's past. Usually experienced by those who seem to have deeply suppressed or repressed guilts, fears, and angers. Many seem to expect punishment after death.
C. Pleasant and/or Heaven-like Experience (reassurance and self- validation)--a heaven-like scenario of loving family reunions, reassuring religious figures, figures or light beings.--seems to be a validation that life counts, it is affirmative toward life after death. Usually experienced by those who most need to know how loved they are and how important life is.
D. Transcendent Experience (expansive revelations, alternate realities)--an exposure to otherworldly dimensions and scenes beyond the individual's frame of reference--seldom personal in content. Usually experienced by those who are ready for a mind-stretching challenge.
| Heaven-Like Cases Heaven-Like Cases | Hell-Like Cases |
| Friendly beings | Lifeless or threatening apparitions |
| Beautiful, lovely environments | Barren or ugly expanse |
| Conversations and dialogue | Threats, screams, silence |
| Total acceptance and an overwhelming sensation of love | Danger and the possibility of violence and/or torture |
| A feeling of warmth and a sense of heaven | A feeling of cold (or of
temperature extremes), and a sense of hell
|
III. The Psychological Aftereffects of the Near-Death Experiences:
A. The inability to personalize love and a sense of belonging. Survivors came to love and accept others without the usual attachments and conditions society expects. Their desire seems to be that of a conduit of universal love--God's love. Family members see this reaction as being threatening, aloof, uncaring, and unresponsive.
B. The inability to recognize and comprehend boundaries, rules, limits. The survivor has a basis of comparison unknown before. They have such open acceptance that they can take on a childlike naivete.
C. Difficulty in understanding time sense or references either to the future or the past. Survivors tend to have a sense of timelessness--some even reject wearing watches and ignore schedules. They seem to want to flow with the events.
D. Sensitivities enhance and expand, the intuitive opens up to the psychic. To many survivors, it seems that ESP becomes normal and ordinary.
E. A changed view of physical reality, with a noticeable reduction in worries and fears. To some, life paradoxes begin to make sense and a sense of purpose and meaning develop.
F. A different feeling of physical self, knowing we live in and wear our bodies. Many will come to regard themselves as an immortal soul currently residing in a mortal form.
G. Difficulty with communications and relationships, finding it hard to say what is meant or to understand the words of others. What was once foreign becomes familiar, what was once familiar becomes foreign.
IV. Role Reversals as a Result of an NDE:
A. Females generally become more assertive and outspoken afterward; men more thoughtful, caring, and emotionally expressive.
B. Men were less willing than women to view an unpleasant and/or hell-like scenario in a positive fashion and take steps to make constructive changes in their lives because of it.
C. More men reported lengthy and complex transcendent experiences than women, yet that fact is not representative of the aftereffects nor what the individual did about what had happened to him or her.
V. The Most Common Negative Reactions From Near-Death Experiences:
A. Anger--for having been revived and forced to leave wherever they were.
B. Guilt-ridden--for not missing or even being concerned about their loved ones.
C. Disappointed--at discovering they are once again encased in their physical bodies and they will have to breathe, eat, etc.
D. Horrified--if their experience was frightening or hellish or unpleasant.
E. Dumbfounded--if they want to talk but can't or are afraid to.
F. Depressed--at realizing they must now resume their former lives, that they must find a way to go on with regular living regardless of what happened to them.
VI. The Most Common Positive Reactions From Near-Death Experiences:
A. Ecstatic--at the wonder and beauty and glory of it all.
B. Thrilled--because they feel so privileged to have experienced such a miracle.
C. Grateful--that anything so incredible could have happened to them.
D. In Awe--possibly unable to speak or find words.
E. Evangelistic--immediately desirous of telling others the good news about death and God and the power of love.
F. Humbled--by the magnitude of the incident and what it may portend.
VII. Objections To NDEs
A. Drugs
1. LSD
2. Morphine
3. Recreational drugs--pot, PCP
4. Ketamine
B. Psychological
1. Transient Depersonalization
2. Memories of Birth
3. Autoscopic Hallucinations
C. Physiological
1. Endorphins