Near Death Experiences: Can They Trigger Awakening?
THE NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE
Many things in life can trigger a spiritual awakening experience. The loss of a loved one, a traumatic occurrence, a sudden diagnosis of an illness, a desire to know truth, kundalini awakening, shamanic initiation, a transcendental experience, a psychic opening, a psychotic break, psychological disturbance, and any other life circumstances that can transform your perception of reality. However, the near-death experience brings a person to the brink of physical death, often relieves them of any fear about dying, and often permanently alters the life of the person having the experience. Many of them change the way they live their life, have a much deeper connection and understanding about God, and yearn to return to Heaven rather than continue life here on earth.
So what is a near death experience? What are the technical definitions? The International Association for Near Death Studies, founded in 1978, defines it by the following terms:
“A near-death experience is a profound psychological event that may occur to a person close to death or, if not near death, in a situation of physical or emotional crisis. Because it includes transcendental and mystical elements, an NDE is a powerful event of consciousness; it is not mental illness.” IANDS website
The medical definition of death is:
"An individual who has sustained either (1) irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions, or (2) irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem is dead. A determination of death must be made in accordance with accepted medical standards." RxList
What’s interesting about the near-death experience is that many of these people are not near death, they are pronounced dead. They fit the medical definition of death, the heart stops beating, and they are technically brain dead. In some cases, people are dead for minutes and in one woman’s experience, Dr. Mary Neal, dying in a kayaking accident, she was dead for as long as a half an hour before returning to life. In medical terms her case is an impossibility, yet she returned and made a full recovery. Some things in life are simply unexplainable. Clearly, it was not her time to leave this plane.
COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF NDE
There are several similar characteristics that most people experience during a near-death experience. Hovering above the body, looking down at the body viewing a chaotic room of people working to resuscitate them, feeling immense love and peace, heightened senses, meeting deceased loved ones, encounters with religious figures, going through a dark tunnel into a brilliant light, travelling into heaven, and being told it is not their time to die are some of the common experiences people have. Most people report the other side seeming much more real than their life in a body in this world, and when they return they know that this world is not what it appears to be. Some individuals recall getting instructions for their life purpose, that there is more for them to learn, and to share with others. The general consensus is that life after death is real, and there are no words to adequately describe what they truly feel. It is beyond language.
Although, the vast majority of people report a wonderful after death experience, there are some who report being alone in a void, feeling incredible darkness, hellish and horrific insights, and some report feeling immense judgment and guilt. These people may struggle to understand why they had such a negative experience when the vast majority of people report a pleasurable blissful type of NDE. They may ask, “Why me?” However, when they devote time to understand what the darkness was teaching them, they come out learning a great deal. Many may change the way they live in the world for the better, they make the necessary adjustments to lead a more meaningful life.
There are also people who experience both the darkness followed by the light as they crossed over into the afterlife. No matter what an individual experiences during a near-death experience, it is clear that no two experiences are exactly the same, and each person experiences what they are meant to see at that time. Whether positive or negative, each is an opportunity to see differently when they return to the body and continue life on earth. Because these experiences are so transformative, they can ignite a spiritual awakening that lasts the rest of the person’s life.
EVIDENCE SUGGESTS
If you read several accounts form different people, from all walks of life, you will eventually conclude that something exists beyond the physical world we are living in. Researchers come to the conclusion that the NDE has merit, and scientists, people who only want physical proof, are a tough crowd to please on this issue. One important point that proves awareness goes on after physical death, is most people report knowing what is going on in the hospital room after they have flatlined and become brain dead. They explain in incredible detail what is happening when they shouldn’t know anything. This gives researchers proof that something profound is occurring. These people should have no conscious awareness of what is happening in a room after they die, yet they do. This fact alone transforms many medical doctors’ opinions on the near-death experience.
The other conclusion that can be drawn from near-death experiences is that consciousness is not in the brain, like we’ve been led to believe. Many people associate their mind as being in the brain. Even the vast majority of medical science believes this to be true. But is that the case? The NDE seems to prove that consciousness indeed goes on after physical death. Since people report detailed experiences, and they are technically dead, consciousness had nothing to do with the brain. The brain is merely our computer interpreting information we receive every second of every day. However, what is the awareness behind the computer? It appears that consciousness of mind is much more expansive, much greater than we can measure in our limited bodies.
These two points, recalling details in the room the patient died in and that consciousness goes on after death, are the only provable things science can measure. The rest is speculation. Since each person is having a different experience after death, these experiences seem to be subjective, not objective truth. People have similar characteristics with completely different experiences. They seem to come to the barrier of God’s kingdom but are told they must return. Because all of these people came back, what truly lies beyond when we actually die is still unknown. It seems consciousness continues on, however, is that the end or is there something beyond consciousness?
A COURSE IN MIRACLES VIEW
A Course in Miracles would say yes, there is more than consciousness. The Course always explains that the real source of error is in our minds, and has absolutely nothing to do with a body. Therefore, the thought of a body dying is not what we think it is. The Course refutes the existence of the universe as a whole, let alone the reality of a body. So from this simple vantage point, the NDE, is not true. Having said that, it doesn’t discount anyone’s personal experience with an experience after death. These experiences, as shown above, can be life altering and awakening moments for people, even pointing them to this very teaching of A Course in Miracles, teaching the body is merely an illusion and is not who we are. The following excerpt defines this beautifully.
“There is nothing outside you. That is what you must ultimately learn, for it is the realization that the Kingdom of Heaven is restored to you. For God created only this, and He did not depart from it nor leave it separate from Himself. The Kingdom of Heaven is the dwelling place of the Son of God, who left not his Father and dwells not apart from Him. Heaven is not a place or a condition. It is merely an awareness of perfect Oneness, and the knowledge that there is nothing else; nothing outside this Oneness, and nothing else within.” (ACIM Text-Ch. 18, VI. 1:1-6)
The Course’s fundamental aim is to point us to the real problem, which is in the mind. The above verse points to this very error. We don’t even need a body to see this. The correction is to choose the Holy Spirit, forgive the entire belief in a world we thought to be true, and return to God, the one and only reality. Physical death does not equal enlightenment, especially if the body is a made-up distraction from the real problem, the decision to choose the ego into a world of consciousness and separation. Although, near-death experiences are fascinating, intriguing, and can offer peace to the person having confronted death, A Course in Miracles focuses on our ability to experience the Holy Instant, or our decision to choose the Holy Spirit as our teacher, at any time in our life. We do not need to experience the death of the body to connect with spirit and remember home.
For those people wishing to have a near-death experience, to get a taste of what life after life might be like, the Course is suggesting it is not necessary to awaken from the illusion. You can awaken at any moment. In physical death you are simply closing a door, and opening a new one in the mind, or imagine you are simply tuning the radio to a new station. As longs as we perceive ourselves separate from reality, or God, there will be a conscious awareness perceiving something, even beyond physical death. Since the error is always in the mind, near-death experiences seem to prove that the mind indeed goes on. A Course in Miracles would say that the mind continues its separation journey on any level we perceive, whether that is here in this world, or in other worlds beyond. All of these levels of mind that are apart from God are merely opportunities, or lessons in the classroom until we truly wake up to our existence as one in God.