NDEs: A brush with the hereafter<\/p>\n
By Maria Kegel<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): For some of us, near-death experiences (NDEs)
\nare something too mysterious, too unfathomable and, yes,
\ndownright scary to think about.<\/p>\n
For others, they are a confirmation of their faith that life
\ngoes on after our physical being dies.<\/p>\n
Last July, a British scientist's research on heart attack
\npatients with NDEs was presented to his peers at the California
\nInstitute of Technology, suggesting that consciousness may
\ncontinue after a person is clinically dead and the brain stops
\nfunctioning.<\/p>\n
This extensive research on NDEs has resulted in the formation
\nof a foundation to further collect data and fund research to
\npursue studies of whether there is life after death and if a
\nhuman soul exists.<\/p>\n
A neurologist at Gatot Soebroto Army Hospital in Central
\nJakarta, Dr. Hardhi Pranata, said NDES were usually experienced
\nby near-drowning victims and heart attack patients, and he had
\nheard many such stories from patients who shared some or all of
\nthe signs of what researchers define as NDEs.<\/p>\n
\"Some people say they have an out-of-body experience, others
\nmeet dead relatives, and some say they enter a tunnel and see a
\nbeautiful garden and meet very polite people. Obviously, this
\nexperience differs with everyone,\" he said.<\/p>\n
NDEs cross all cultures, races, ages and religions, with many
\npatients worldwide also reporting with amazing similarity
\nfeelings of peace and joy, seeing a bright light or a menacing
\ndarkness, entering another realm and having conversations with
\ndead relatives or other entities.<\/p>\n
Others have reported losing awareness of their bodies, time
\nspeeding up or slowing down and heightened senses.<\/p>\n
Most survivors who have had an NDE report that the experience
\nis incredibly powerful and it changes their lives. Although most
\nhave had happy experiences, there are some who report terrifying
\nor unpleasant NDEs.<\/p>\n
Even though the experiences Hardhi has heard from patients has
\nopened his mind to what may exist beyond this world, he offered a
\nmedical explanation as to what might cause them.<\/p>\n
\"A lack of oxygen, for example, in near-drowning victims,
\nresults from inadequate breathing or hypoxia and that can cause a
\nlack of oxygen in the blood, with the end result being cerebral
\nhypoxia.<\/p>\n
\"While a heart attack causes a lack of blood circulation and
\none of the complications of that is cerebral hypoxemia.<\/p>\n
\"When a patient suffers cerebral hypoxia or hypoxemia, he or
\nshe can have temporary or irreversible brain dysfunction. Both
\nhypoxemia and hypoxia cause a person to become disoriented and
\nprone to hallucinations.\"<\/p>\n
At the same time, however, Hardhi said he could not explain
\nthe details patients could recall during their out-of-body
\nexperiences, such as doctors' appearances and conversations, even
\nthough the patient's brain had stopped functioning.<\/p>\n
\"Some patients have said they knew what I was doing to them,
\nlike CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation), and they describe my
\nactions -- that I cannot explain medically.\"<\/p>\n
Predeath vision<\/p>\n
Equally mysterious as NDEs are predeath visions, a term
\nresearchers have given to real experiences a dying patient has
\nwhile he or she is still conscious, and in which reality is not
\ndistorted or altered.<\/p>\n
Case studies of these visions say that dying patients often
\nsee God, angels, dead relatives or visions of heaven superimposed
\nupon reality or present at the deathbed.<\/p>\n
Some health professionals, as well as grieving family members,
\nhave reported that not only do these visions help those facing
\ndeath to find peace and comfort, but they are emotionally healing
\nto those who hear them, especially the patient's loved ones.<\/p>\n
Dr. Triatmo Budijuwono, a cardiologist at the RSPAD Gatot
\nSoebroto Hospital, recounted a predeath vision from a female
\nheart patient who was dying from heart failure.<\/p>\n
In her case, she was not told she was dying, yet in the hour
\nof her death she said she saw her father and mother coming to her
\non a horse and carriage, asking her to go with them, he said.<\/p>\n
Dr. Adil Pasaribu, a surgeon specializing in digestive
\nsurgical cancer at Dharmais hospital, said he often attends to
\ndying patients in their last hours.<\/p>\n
One such patient was in her final stages of untreatable cancer
\nseveral months ago. She was extremely weak and her abdomen was
\nterribly swollen because of her tumor, yet she refused sedation,
\nand was conscious until she passed away.<\/p>\n
Her sister told Adil that from midnight the patient had a
\nrecurring vision, and the vision came again the morning he was
\npresent, minutes before she took her last breath.<\/p>\n
She announced that there were angels, many of them,
\nsurrounding her at her bedside, while at the same time she could
\nstill see us, he said. Her face assumed an expression of peace
\nafter she said a prayer and she died peacefully.<\/p>\n
\"I wasn't sure she knew what angels were as she hadn't been
\nbrought up believing in them, she had never gone to church or
\nread the Bible, yet she was seeing them at her death bed,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Adil said most terminally ill patients were afraid of dying,
\nbut there were others who, even though they were in the last
\nstages of cancer, which would have been excruciating, with
\nincredible pain that even painkillers could not stop, were able
\nto face their last hours with peace.<\/p>\n
\"Why, when their level of pain must be so extreme, can they be
\npeaceful and not scream for drugs or grimace in pain,\" he said.<\/p>\n
These patients, he said, were unique in that they could accept
\nthe incredible pain with peace and it taught him to listen and
\nlearn from them.<\/p>\n
\"I've learned lessons from these patients, and the one thing I
\nhave learned is that when we are dying, we are in God's hands,
\nand it's a peaceful experience. By knowing this, you can fully
\naccept death,\" Adil said.<\/p>",
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