NDEs may complicate what science teaches us about death and consciousness. Dr. Bruce Greyson

[anthonychipoletti]

Is there an afterlife?

Here’s what he saw while he was ‘dead’

What if death isn’t the end? NDEs may complicate what science teaches us about death and consciousness.

Dr. Bruce Greyson

https://bigthink.com/series/great-quest ... afterlife/

https://bigthink.com/people/dr-bruce-greyson/

https://youtu.be/sJs70b2fR3c

BRUCE GREYSON: Most near-death experiencers around the world talk about an increased sense of spirituality after a near-death experience; by which they mean, roughly, a sense of connectedness to other people, to nature, to the Universe, to the Divine. One of the questions that people often ask about near-death experience is whether they provide proof that we survive death. They don't provide proof for other people. They certainly provide proof for the experiencer, but not for the rest of us. But there are some experiences that do provide something that's at least evidence, if not proof. And those are cases in which the experiencer encounters a deceased individual who was not known at the time to have died.

One person that I know, Jack, was hospitalized in his mid-twenties, and he had one nurse who worked with him every day. And one day, she told him that she was going to be taking the long weekend off, and there'd be other nurses substituting for her. And while she was gone, he had another respiratory arrest where he had to be resuscitated. And during that arrest, he had a near-death experience in which he found himself in a beautiful pastoral scene, and there to his surprise was this nurse, Anita, walking towards him and she said, "Jack, you can't stay here with me. You need to go back into your body. And I want you to find my parents, and tell them that I love them and I'm sorry I wrecked the red MGB." He then woke up back in his body in his hospital bed- tried to tell this to the first nurse who walked into his room. She got very upset and left the room in a hurry. It turned out that this nurse of his, Anita, had taken the weekend off to celebrate her birthday, and her parents had surprised her with a gift of a red MGB for her 21st birthday. She got very excited, jumped in the car, took off for a drive, lost control, crashed into a telephone pole, and died just a few hours before Jack's near-death experience. Now, there's no way he could have known or expected that she was going to be dead. And certainly, no way he could have known how she died- and yet he did. And that seems to be evidence that something about this nurse, Anita, still persisted after her death, and was able to communicate accurate information to Jack.

Does that mean we live forever? Not necessarily. It certainly means something about our minds can survive death of the body, at least for a time. Virtually every near-death experiencer that I've talked to has said without any doubt in their minds, that we do continue after death. No matter how they describe their NDE, they describe having existed without their physical bodies. When their physical bodies were essentially dead, and yet they were feeling better than ever. There's got to be more to the world than just the physical realm to explain these events. I think the ultimate question raised by near-death experiences is: What are we as human beings? Are we just physical machines? Are we spiritual beings? Are we some amalgam of both? I don't know the answers, but now I'm much more comfortable with not having the answers. I think the important part of near-death experiences is what they tell us about this life we're in now. That we're all interconnected. That we aren't individual people, but we're part of something greater.

[Giulia]

Thank you, Tony.

Based on this article, Bruce Grayson’s findings about NDEs could be summarized as follows:

- NDEs are common and have been reported by people from all over the world and from all walks of life.
- NDEs share many common features, including a feeling of peace and well-being, a sense of being useparated from the physical body, and a feeling of being in a different realm or dimension.
- NDEs often have a profound impact on the experiencer, leading to changes in their worldview, values, and priorities.
- Some NDEs include experiences that suggest that consciousness may survive death, such as meeting deceased loved ones or seeing a panoramic view of one's life.
- However, there is no scientific consensus on the meaning or significance of NDEs.

Greyson cites the case of Jack, who had an NDE in which he met his deceased nurse, Anita. Anita told Jack that she had died in a car accident and asked him to tell her parents that she loved them. Jack had no way of knowing about Anita's death before his NDE, and her parents confirmed that she had died just hours before. This case, and others like it, suggest that NDEs may provide some evidence for the survival of consciousness after death.

However, Greyson also acknowledges that there are other possible explanations for NDEs. For example, he suggests that they may be caused by changes in brain activity or by hallucinations. He also notes that NDEs are often reported by people who are under extreme stress or who have been using drugs or alcohol.

Ultimately, Greyson says that the meaning of NDEs is a mystery. However, he believes that they can teach us valuable things about ourselves and about the nature of reality. He says that NDEs can help us to see that we are all interconnected and that we are part of something greater than ourselves.