Following On

There are two separate explanations for why people near death experience the sensation of living on.  Science writer Benjamin Taur believes that the body is producing “increased serotonin levels that are responsible for the vivid visual hallucinations …” And that people are entering “a state of mental dissociation, [which allows them to focus on] internally oriented fantasies [that help] cope with … life-threatening situations.”

The second explanation is that life after death experiences are, in fact, life after death experiences, and that even though the body dies the spirit lives on.  So which explanation is right?  Is there any real proof for life after death? 

There are several proofs and the first is that those returning to life can sometimes describe what was happening in the hospital room while they were non-responsive.   One case is reported by Dutch Dr. Pim van Lommel.  He writes that, “During the night shift an ambulance brought a 44-year-old cyanotic, comatose man into the coronary care unit.  He had no heartbeat, his skin was blue, his eyes were fixed and dilated, and the EEG showed no brainwave activity.  Nonetheless, doctors applied the defibrillator paddles.  At the same time the nurse removed the man’s dentures in order to give him oxygen.  After 1 ½ hours they were able to discern a heartbeat in the patient. 

Later that week, the man regained consciousness but was missing his dentures.  When Dr. van Lommel and his nurse checked in with the man, he immediately pointed to the nurse and said, “You know where my dentures are.  I saw you remove my dentures and put them into a drawer at the bottom of the crash cart.”  The patient was exactly right; the nurse had taken his dentures.  However, she had done that while the patient was comatose and brain-dead.  There was no way he could have seen her take them.

The man then explained that he had seen her while floating above his body and therefore could look down into the operating room.  He told them where to find the dentures, and when they looked, sure enough they were there. 

If there is no life after death how could the man have known?   There are many stories exactly like this one and therefore we are forced to say, “Something real is happening during a near death experience.”  We may not know exactly what, but something is happening.