Evidence of the Afterlife

by Jeffrey Long

  People who had near-death experiences were often impressed that their life review contained real details of their life that they had long forgotten. For example, this man was sleeping in the backseat of a car when the driver slammed into the back of a truck. He went from sleeping to traveling up to meet a cluster of beings. The way he describes it,

  The sensation was of a piece of a metal being swept into a magnet. The emotion was overwhelming, with incredible love associated with the magnetic effect. I sensed I always knew them [the beings], but when I came upon one being, I wasn’t sure who it was. I left and returned to my body, which seemed as if I were putting on soiled clothes.

  He was then treated to a life review in which

  [e]verything in my life, including long-forgotten details, made sense.

  Lisa said about her life review:

  The being of light knew everything about me. It knew all I had ever thought, said, or done, and it showed me my whole life in a flash of an instant. I was shown all of the details in my life, the one I’d already lived, and all that was to come if I returned to earth. It was all there at the same time, all the details of all the cause-and-effect relations in my life, all that was good or negative, all of the effects my life on earth had had on others, and all of the effects the lives of others that had touched me had had on me.

  The NDERF study makes it clear that the events seen in the NDEr’s life review are real. Our finding that NDEs contain consistently realistic life reviews are further strong evidence for the reality of near-death experiences.

  SKEPTICS: DEFENSE MECHANISM OR SHORT CIRCUIT

  Skeptics have proposed alternative explanations for the life reviews. The two main alternative explanations are

  1. the life review is a psychological defense mechanism, and

  2. the life review results from the dying brain producing electrical discharges in the part of the brain responsible for memories.

  Neither of these alternative explanations stands up well under scrutiny.

  Dr. Susan Blackmore, a leading NDE skeptic, attributed the life review to a psychological defense mechanism at the time of a life-threatening event that involves a retreat into a timeless moment of pleasant, prior memories.3 The explanation seems plausible until one begins encountering NDE memories that are not pleasant. Such content would not be expected if the life review were simply a pleasurable psychological escape from unpleasant circumstances.

  Many NDEs have been reported in which the life-threatening event was sudden, unexpected, and occurred with immediate unconsciousness, such as an unanticipated car crash. The NDEs would have unconsciousness occur so rapidly that a psychological defense mechanism would not have time to develop.

  And then there are NDEs and subsequent life reviews that take place under general anesthesia. No theory can explain NDEs that occur under general anesthesia because the NDErs should perceive nothing.

  The second suggestion from skeptics is that the life review is only a product of a dying brain, one that is producing electrical discharges in the brain’s memory centers. Writing in the magazine Skeptical Inquirer, Blackmore wrote: “The experience of seeing excerpts from your life flash before you is not really as mysterious as it first seems. It has long been known that stimulation of cells in the temporal lobe of the brain can produce instant experiences that seem like the reliving of memories. Also, temporal-lobe epilepsy can produce similar experiences, and such seizures can involve other limbic structures in the brain, such as the amygdala and hippocampus, which are also associated with memory.”4

  Is this really true? Let’s first look at the claim that stimulation of the brain can produce prior memories similar to life reviews in NDEs or any other element of near-death experiences. “Stimulation” of the brain refers to electrical stimulation of the brain, which may be done as part of a specialized neurosurgical procedure. The brain has no sensory pain nerves in it, so the procedure is generally painless. The brain electrical stimulation studies of neurosurgeon Dr. Wilder Penfield are often quoted by skeptics as reproducing many of the elements of near-death experiences, including life reviews. Noted NDE researcher Dr. Emily Williams Kelly and her coresearchers, Bruce Greyson, MD, and Edward F. Kelly, PhD, reviewed Dr. Penfield’s published reports of electrical brain stimulation and found the following:

  Most of the experiences Penfield reported in fact bore little resemblance to actual NDEs. They consisted of hearing bits of music or singing, seeing isolated and repetitive scenes that seemed familiar and may [emphasis added] have been fragmentary memories, hearing voices, experiencing fear or other negative emotions, or seeing bizarre imagery that was often described as dream-like.5

  There have been others who reported the experiences of their patients undergoing procedures similar to those used by Dr. Penfield, including electrical stimulation of the brain’s temporal lobes. Drs. Kelly, Greyson, and Kelly, commenting on these further studies of electrical brain stimulation, continue:

  Subsequent studies have found similar experimental phenomena, especially fear or anxiety and fragmented, distorted experiences quite unlike NDE phenomenology.6

  More recent studies by Dr. Olaf Blanke and associates suggest that they were able to produce OBE-type experiences with electrical brain stimulation.7, 8 The first patient they reported described a purported OBE that involved seeing herself from above, but only her lower trunk and legs. She reported visual distortions, which included seeing her legs getting shorter and moving toward her face. This type of OBE with partial body visualization and hallucinatory features is essentially never reported in out-of-body experiences occurring during near-death experiences. I coauthored a paper that documented other discrepancies between the Blanke account and true OBEs.9

  Blackmore and other skeptics have claimed that seizures, especially those associated with temporal-lobe epilepsy, can produce experiences similar to life reviews or other NDE elements. However, the evidence indicates this is not true. As neurologist Dr. Ernst Rodin stated,

  In spite of having seen hundreds of patients with temporal lobe seizures during three decades of professional life, I have never come across that symptomatology [of NDEs] as part of a seizure.10

  Other researchers have documented that the experiences produced by electrical brain stimulation or seizures are almost always unlike any element of near-death experiences.11 At NDERF we have case reports from epileptics who had frequent seizures but no near-death experience until an exceptionally severe seizure became a life-threatening event.

  The best evidence points to the conclusion that electrical brain stimulation and seizures do not consistently reproduce any elements of NDE. The skeptical argument that NDEs are somehow related to electrical brain stimulation or seizures needs to be relegated to the status of urban legend.

  Accurate and transformative life reviews are a hallmark of NDEs, and they point to a reality beyond what we know from our earthly existence. They provide important evidence for the reality of an afterlife.

  8

  PROOF #6: FAMILY REUNION

  Every parting is a form of death, as every reunion is a type of heaven.

  —Tryon Edwards

  Many near-death experiencers describe dramatic and joyous reunions with people known to them who died long before their near-death experience took place.

  “COME HERE; HERE IS GOOD TO BE”

  One such story came from a Finnish woman named Anitta, who had a heart attack. Anitta found herself zooming up a tunnel toward a bright light. “Someone” took her by the arm and made her feel peaceful. Anitta’s life came back to her “like a film.” As Anitta recounted on the NDERF site:

  Then I saw my father, just like he was when he lived, and he said to me, “Come here; here is good to be.” I wanted to run to him, but I could not because there was a border between us. I cannot describe the border. It was like a wall that I could see through. Then I heard a dark voice that seemed to be everywhere, asking, “Who?” They meant my identity. And then [came] the words: “n
ot yet.”

  …Then I was obliged to turn back, which I did not want, because I had such a good feeling there. Again I was in the tunnel, coming back very fast, and at the same time the pain in my body came back. I had cried, “No, no,” when I was coming back to consciousness. For many days afterward I had a strange feeling, [like,] where am I? And I missed my father a lot, whom I had seen.

  WHY SEEING IS BELIEVING

  This NDEr, Anitta, had an experience that is representative of those in the NDERF study who encountered deceased relatives or friends during their near-death experience.

  Why should seeing deceased friends or relatives be evidence of life after death? Because if NDEs were only a product of brain function, then one would expect that beings encountered during the NDE would be those most recently familiar to the NDEr. In other words, one would expect NDErs would most likely see people recalled from recent memory, such as the emergency personnel who helped them or the bank teller they had made a transaction with right before being hit by a car. Instead, they see friends and relatives who have died, in many cases people they haven’t thought about in years or even decades.

  The percentage of deceased individuals seen during NDEs, especially deceased blood relatives, is so high that I believe that encounters with deceased loved ones are not the random products of a frightened, confused, or dying brain but instead are a strong line of evidence for the reality of near-death experiences.

  A study that best illustrates this was conducted in 2001 by Emily Williams Kelly, PhD, of the department of psychiatric medicine at the University of Virginia.1 She compared 74 NDErs who had encounters with the deceased during their NDE with 200 NDErs who did not have awareness of deceased individuals.

  The Kelly study found that 95 percent of the deceased individuals encountered were relatives, while only 5 percent were friends or acquaintances. Only 4 percent of the NDErs in the study met beings who were alive at the time of the NDE. Other studies have shown that in dreams or hallucinations, the beings encountered are much more likely to be people who are still living.

  As part of the NDERF study, I reviewed NDEs that described meeting individuals known to the NDErs from their earthly life. For this part of the study, I reviewed the same group of 617 NDEs that we discussed in chapters 4 and 7. This review excluded living people seen by the NDErs only during out-of-body observations of earthly events, and familiar beings seen only during life reviews.

  In our study group, 97 NDEs, or 16 percent, described meeting one or more beings familiar to them from their earthly life. Of these 97 NDEs, 13 were excluded from further analysis because the beings who were met were not described as being either alive or deceased at the time of the NDEs. Most of these excluded NDEs described grandparents and, less commonly, parents. With this information, and from the context of the NDE narratives, it is likely that the great majority, and possibly all, of the beings encountered in these 13 NDEs were deceased at the time of the NDEs. There were 84 NDEs where the beings encountered were described as being either alive or deceased at the time of the NDEs. Of these 84 NDEs, there were only 3 (4 percent) where the beings encountered were definitely alive at the time of the NDEs. In all 3 of these NDEs, only one being known to the NDErs from their earthly life was present. Two of these beings were their fathers, and one was a doctor. This remarkably low percentage of living beings encountered during the NDE is consistent with the findings of the Kelly study and is additional strong evidence for the reality of NDEs and the existence of an afterlife.

  In the study group of 617 NDEs, there were 91 NDEs that described meeting beings familiar to them from their earthly life that also indicated whether these beings were direct family relatives or friends. Of these 91 NDEs, 74 (81 percent) encountered only relatives and 7 (8 percent) encountered both relatives and friends. The finding of a preponderance of deceased relatives during NDEs is similar to what Kelly found in her study.

  “TALKING IN TELEPATHY”

  One of the more remarkable NDEs shared with NDERF involving encounters with deceased relatives came from Brian, who was born totally deaf. At the age of thirteen he nearly drowned. Here is Brian’s description of meeting his deceased family members.

  I approached the boundary. No explanation was necessary for me to understand, at the age of ten, that once I cross[ed] the boundary, I could never come back—period. I was more than thrilled to cross. I intended to cross, but my ancestors over another boundary caught my attention. They were talking in telepathy, which caught my attention. I was born profoundly deaf and had all hearing family members, all of which knew sign language! I could read or communicate with about twenty ancestors of mine and others through telepathic methods. It overwhelmed me. I could not believe how many people I could telepathize with simultaneously.

  Brian had been born totally deaf, so communication could take place only through sign language, lip-reading, or other visual forms of communication. Brian’s amazing NDE involved communication unlike any he had encountered—telepathy. It is this type of communication, by the way, that takes place during almost all near-death experiences in which communication is described. To the best of my knowledge, Brian’s NDE is the first ever reported from an individual born totally deaf.

  Here are several more examples of those who encountered the deceased during their NDEs. I am including these other examples to show this element’s remarkable consistency.

  Christine was receiving chemotherapy for leukemia and was in her apartment. As a rare side effect, one of the chemotherapy drugs caused her heartbeat to become dangerously erratic. As it did, she had the following experience:

  The first scene I remember was that I was in my apartment bedroom (where my body lay). My ceiling light was on, and my body lay near the right side of my bed. I was on the left side of my bed, not up in the air yet not on the ground either. I saw several people kneeling down around my body, so I couldn’t really even see myself. The people wore dark clothing, so I’m assuming they were police. I think I saw one person with a white shirt (EMT?). While I was watching the “event” I was with two of my deceased relatives: my grandfather’s cousin, Aunt Kate (who was more like a grandmother to me), and my uncle Harry. In life, these were really the only two members of my family (besides my mother) that I was close to. I loved them very, very much. I don’t remember any strong emotion at all during the NDE. In fact, I felt almost emotionally detached from what was going on. I was not elated, I was not frightened or angry, etc. Just peaceful, calm, and…accepting. But I “knew” why Kate and Harry were there. I knew that they were going to take me somewhere.

  Peter was six years old when he cut himself so severely that he “bled to death.”

  Then I looked to my left and saw my grandmother who had passed away when I was nine months old. I also saw all of my deceased relatives with her, thousands of them. They were in translucent spirit form.

  Bob fell out of a building and landed three stories below. He suffered multiple injuries, including a brain injury. During his NDE he met many deceased relatives:

  My relatives (all deceased) were there, all at their prime in life. They were dressed, I would say, 1940s style, which would have been prime years for most. Relatives I knew of, such as my grandfathers, but never knew in life were there, as well as uncles/aunts who passed before I knew them.

  At times NDErs encounter beings that they believe to be alive at the time of their NDE, only to find that they were actually deceased. Here’s an example of what I am talking about. Douglas’s heart stopped, and he had to be defibrillated twelve times. Here’s his story:

  Now while all this was happening, two hundred miles away my grandfather had a heart attack at the same time. We were both kept alive through the night, but the next morning we both had heart attacks again. At that time I had my NDE. There was no tunnel of light that I hear so much about; it was just an expanse of white light.

  Off in the distance to my right was what appeared to be the shadow of a large oak tree with a large group o
f people standing under it. As I got closer to this group I recognized the people standing in the front of the group as my grandmother, my great-uncle Glenn, my great-aunt Lala, my great-aunt Wanda, her husband, Lee, a woman that was like a grandmother to my sister and me, and then a group of people that I thought I knew but at that time I couldn’t put names to their faces. I tried to speak to them, but all they would say to me is “We’re not waiting for you; go home.”

  Then the last thing I remember from that side was my grandfather’s voice. I did not see him; I just heard his voice say, “You’re the luckiest boy I know.”

  Then three days later I awoke in the hospital with my mother and sister standing over my bed. My mother says that my first question was about the play I was working on at the time, and my second question was about my grandfather…. My grandfather [had] died at the same time two hundred miles away.

  For another example, when a child we will call Sandra was five years old, she contracted encephalitis and lost consciousness. It was then that she encountered her neighbor. Here is a paraphrase of her story, which she shared with the NDERF site:

  As I was unconscious, an elderly family friend appeared to me and said, “Go home right now.” I didn’t really know what he meant. I was out of my body when he appeared, and I immediately went back into my body. Before long I opened my eyes, and my family was there smiling in their great relief that I had returned from unconsciousness. When I told them that I had seen our friend and that he insisted I go home, they looked at me with great concern. The day after I went into the hospital, our friend had died of a heart attack. I did not know he had died until after I shared my experience with my parents.