Mapping the Afterlife What NDEs tell us about the terrain

Transcription

1 Mapping the Afterlife What NDEs tell us about the terrain Rhonda Riachi Quaker Fellowship for Afterlife Studies Conference, April 2012

2 What was lost shall be returned to you

3 David Fontana Author of Is There An Afterlife?: A Comprehensive Overview of the Evidence (2005) Life Beyond Death: What Should We Expect? (2009)

4 Insert picture here Source:

5 Heaven Life Death Birth Judgement Hell

6 Robert Monroe see Mike Pettigrew map_of_afterlife.html Steve Beckow (aka Brother Anonymous) nmh-index1.html

7 Map of the world, 1689 source:

8 Near-Death experiences (NDEs) Out-of-the-Body Experiences (OBEs) Channelled communications and instrumental transcommunication (ITC) Reincarnation memories Hauntings, apparitions Communications received in our sleep from people who have died containing veridical information (i.e. things which could not have been known by the person previously and which are subsequently verified) (Fontana 2005)

9 NDEs provide the clearest evidence for me because they: occur to people of all cultures, races, ages often contain veridical information tend to profoundly change the person (including loss of fear of death) are the subject of many research projects which continue to reproduce the core findings

10 19th Century - e.g. Frances P Cobbe: The Peak in Darien (1882) Raymond Moody: Life After Life (1975) Elisabeth Kuebler-Ross: Death Does Not Exist. CoEvolution Quarterly (1977) Kenneth Ring: Life at Death (1980) Bruce Greyson & Ian Stevenson: Phenomenology of NDEs. American Journal of Psychiatry (1980) Michael Sabom: Recollections of Death (1982) Margot Grey: Return from Death (1985)

11 PMH Atwater: Coming Back to Life (1988) Melvin Morse & Paul Perry: Closer to the Light (1990) Peter & Elizabeth Fenwick: The Truth in The Light (1995) Kenneth Ring & Evelyn Elsaesser Valarino: Lessons from the Light (1998) Pim van Lommel et al: NDE in survivors of cardiac arrest. Lancet (2001) Sam Parnia: What Happens When We Die (2006) Peter & Elizabeth Fenwick: The Art of Dying (2008) Janice M Holden et al: The Handbook of NDEs (2009)

12 Kenneth Ring (1980) outlined the core NDE: Peace and a sense of well-being Separation from the body Entering darkness (tunnel) Seeing the light Entering the light Which might also include: Meeting dead relatives/friends Encountering a border Life review Being given information about the future

13 A S Wiltse (1889) approx 30 minutes (Holden 2009) George Ritchie (1943) nine minutes (Ritchie 1978) Mellen-Thomas Benedict (1982) 90 minutes (Ring 1998, Rankin 2008) Pam Reynolds (1991) 35 minutes under clinicallyinduced death (Holden 2009) See also Anita Moorjani (2006): IANDS: NDERF: Horizon Foundation:

14 Hypoxia, hypercarbia, drug-induced states: all such physical explanations (e.g. by Susan Blackmore) have been refuted as the cause of NDEs by van Lommel (2010), Fenwick (1995) and others. The brain is not functioning in the NDE state (in many cases the person is brain-dead ), yet the near-death experience displays more coherence and meaning than day-to-day consciousness. For a good argument against these pseudoscientific explanations see J Denosky s web page: nde_arguments.html

15 Our bodies die, we do not We influence our own reality We judge our own lives What we do with our lives here has consequences in the afterlife We take our love and knowledge with us Consciousness is even more complex than we think Preparation for death is important

16 Death Heaven states Life Birth Purgatorial states Life Review Hell states

17 Reincarnation why, how and when? Our own role in changing the environs How many places can one be at any one time? God

18 Fenwick P and Fenwick E (1995) The Truth in the Light: an investigation of over 300 NDEs. Fontana D (2005) Is There an Afterlife? Holden JM, Greyson B & James D (Eds) (2009) The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences. van Lommel P (2010) Consciousness Beyond Life. See Rankin M (2008) An Introduction to Religious and Spiritual Experience. Ring K (1980) Life at Death. Ring K & Valarino EE (2006) Lessons from the light: what we can learn from the near-death experience. Ritchie G (1978) Return from Tomorrow.