Rowen was heading to his girlfriend's house when his car skidded along the icy road and smashed into a pole. Almost suddenly he felt his spirit leave his body and climb up into the heavens. When he looked down, he could see himself slumped over the wheel. Slowly, he drifted toward a white light and as he got closer he felt a tremendous sense of peace. "It would be nice to stay here forever," he thought. But a voice warned him that it wasn't time just yet for him to stay; he needed to go back. He was given a life review and when he awoke, soon after, paramedics were pulling him out of his car.
Individuals who bite the dust and then come back to life to talk about are said to have had a Near Death Experience (NDE). During this time, the spirit momentarily leaves the body, and this usually happens after a major trauma has occurred due to an accident, illness, problems in surgery, cardiac arrest, etc.
According to a Gallup Poll, approximately eight million Americans claim to have had a near-death experience. More often than not it is life-changing. Surprisingly, these folk feel that their lives are now infused with a wonderful sense of "aliveness."
Skeptics, of course, dismiss these accounts. They believe that the experience associated with near death is simply a biological reaction. They argue that great physical strain provokes the brain to shut down to a very basic level of consciousness, resembling a dream-like state, but at a higher degree of intensity so to better cope with (perhaps even completely escape from) the physical distress.
NDE'ers, meanwhile, whole-heartedly believe in the authenticity of their experience. After all, how is it that they are able to describe in full detail what was happening to them unless they were truly out of their body at the time?
Visit The Near Death Experience Research Foundation and you can access hundreds of accounts of NDE's from people worldwide. What's amazing is that many of the stories share common elements. For example, there is frequent talk of the infamous tunnel, or an indescribable light. And often NDE'rs encounter deceased loved ones or entities likened to a Higher Power.
Many hear, or are made to understand that, 'it is not their time yet' and that they still have things to do on the earthly plane. They are shown a review of their life and it is often at this point that people feel reluctant to return to their bodies. And yet when they do return they all possess:
1) A reduced fear of death
2) A sense of relative imperviousness
3) A feeling of special importance or destiny
Many people who experience an NDE tend to see it as a verification of the existence of an afterlife. This can be extraordinarily comforting to many. Death-related visions can give faith and confidence to survivors to trust their own spiritual intuitions and reaffirm their religious faith (Morse, 1991; Morse & Perry, 1992).
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