Near-Death Experiences

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numbersix

Lifer
Jul 27, 2012
5,449
53
I thought I'd stir the pot a little and post another "out there" topic, namely NDEs or Near-Death Experiences. :puffy:
I had one (though not technically near death) when I was 7 years old. Of course skeptics will tell you these experiences are all "in the head". However, for many experiencers, these instances go beyond just imaginary dreams. They affect others around them too in the physical world.
Here are some videos to consider. It is interesting that though some experiences are similar, many are very different and unique.
This one is TV and film director Jeremy Kagan's NDE (Kagan was an atheist prior to the experience):
http://ndestories.org/jeremy-kagan/
This video is from a BBC documentary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNbdUEqDB-k

BBC
This final one is from Tony Woody, a flight engineer who's story is long, but well worth the view. His story is quite unique and for some I am sure, hard to believe, but he is IMO, credible:
http://ndeaccounts.com/spiritually-transformative-experiences/tony-woodys-spiritually-transformative-experience/
There are lots more to consider here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkMhHJniwJzW3DjUxozPnQA

 

woodsroad

Lifer
Oct 10, 2013
11,568
15,210
SE PA USA
In August of 1966 I drowned. I was discovered on the bottom of a lake by a swimmer. Nobody knows how long I was there. I had the whole life-after-death experience, at age 3. The swimmer pulled me from the bottom of the lake, threw me over his shoulder to get the water out and started something that was fairly new at the time: CPR. I was resuscitated, much to my chagrin. The death experience was wonderful, I have no fears going forward.

 

derfargin

Lifer
Mar 3, 2014
2,028
28
Kennesaw, GA
Bloody Hell Dan...
Reading your posts here about things you have done, or are currently doing. That coupled with actually have met you in person, and you telling me about your profession. I'd have to say, as far is interesting people go that I have met, you are up there. Ironically, you've already checked dying off your bucket list. Seems you're giving "the most interesting man in the world" a run for his money.
There is another colleague I've worked with for a while (oddly enough also named Dan) that is one of those guys, that has something to add to most any topic discussed. Due to him either knowing someone that is an expert of said topic, or have had 1st hand experience of it on his own.
I'd like to be as traveled and as experienced as you guys in my life.

 
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woodsroad

Lifer
Oct 10, 2013
11,568
15,210
SE PA USA
Well, thanks, but I'm pretty sane and boring as things go. Interesting quick story: I had always thought of my father as a very low key, under-the-radar type. When he was dying, I began to work on his obit. Before I knew it, I had pieced together a wonderful story. If you take the time to listen, you will get an amazing story out of just about anyone. Here's my Dad's obit.

 

bentmike

Lifer
Jan 25, 2012
2,422
37
My ex-wife works in a hospital often in critical care. Over the years she's told many stories of patient's experiences. I don't doubt.

 

tbradsim1

Lifer
Jan 14, 2012
9,092
11,008
Southwest Louisiana
I was very close to my Grandfather, I married in Dec 11, 1965, a week later he had a stroke. Our vigil at the hospital was somber, late in the night we went home to get some rest. That night at 3:00 in the morning I was told he had died, no one said it I just knew, went in the kitchen started making coffee , Father comes in and says what are you doing? I told him Granpaw is dead. We called the hospital and finally they told us he had passed away at 2:55, how did I know that. It has puzzled me my whole life.

 

conlejm

Lifer
Mar 22, 2014
1,433
8
Dan your Dad was a very great man. I would have loved to sit with him and hear what he had to say. Thanks for sharing that.
Many years ago my employer (HR, actually) decided a good exercise for senior management would be for us to write our own obituaries. The intent was to get us to focus on what is really important in life; i.e. "How do you want to be remembered?". At the time we all thought it a silly exercise, but in retrospect I find myself thinking about it quite a bit. It helps me to focus on what really matters in life, an channel my energies into important things, rather than things that are merely meant to "keep up appearances".

 

woodsroad

Lifer
Oct 10, 2013
11,568
15,210
SE PA USA
Thanks everyone. To be fair, that obit was written by my good friend and former co-worker Walter Naedel.
Walter could not, however add in some of the finer details, like how it was a gay bar that he tended in Havana, or about his job testing the hookers for STD's at Ft. Benning, or about smuggling bales of pot back from Mexico in Army trucks during WWII. That, and his barracks loan sharking business, made him enough cash that he only had to work weekends while he earned his bachelor's and masters.
Damn, my life is sedate.

 

brian64

Lifer
Jan 31, 2011
9,602
14,666
Great post Tom. Personally, I have no doubt whatsoever that this 3D space/time matrix we're in amounts to but a blip on the radar of the greater reality that exists...and even if someone lives to be 120 it will amount to the blink of an eye in the end.
I'll say it: I think it's all in your head.
Many are of that opinion, and I'm well aware that no amount of evidence will likely change it. But, imo, just the information contained in the OP video of Pam's experience, between 3:22 and 4:05, makes it pretty hard to argue that it's "all in the head".

 

dragonslayer

Lifer
Dec 28, 2012
1,026
7
Pittsburgh
Well two of them, but no divine interactions. Sorry for long post :puffy:
1979- Passenger in a car, high speed head on collision. The engine came through the floor board and crushed me from the chest down. My friend in the back was in a coma for 6 months and has brain damage, the driver was only banged up a little. The four people in the other car, a complete family, all pronounced dead. It took an hour for them to free me from the car then five hours of surgery. I was given last rites and wasn't expected to survive. I woke two days later hanging in a pelvic sling with casts everywhere. I have no memory of anything, even three days before the accident. Imagine waking up in a hospital bed like that when the last thing you remember was eating dinner five days before.
1982- Quick run to the bank on my full dress Yamaha 850 in shorts, shoes and a helmet. A bitch ran through a stop sign hit me head on and throwing me over the top of the car 50'. My fibula and tibia were sticking out of my calf that hit the roof. One arm and shoulder were broken along with ribs that punctured my lung. I was dragging myself back towards the car screaming the ways I was going to kill them. People and cops were trying to grab and hold me down. I had half my helmet by the strap and kept dragging myself towards the car smacking anyone with the helmet who tried to stop me. I had made it about half way then everything started going black. I remember bits of what happened after. I'd lost a lot of blood, my lungs had filled with blood. In the ambulance my heart stopped twice and was shocked back and they drained my lungs to get me breathing again. I'd like to say I saw things during the minutes I was dead(?) but nothing but waking up in shock.
Total of 28 compound fractures including a broken back and crushed pelvis in eight places and a lot of titanium. Spleen and gall bladder gone. Then it was found in 1989 I contracted Hep C from the blood transfusion. I spent four years injecting my stomach three times a week with experimental drugs until they considered it cured. I've had to have four additional surgeries and the last five years quarterly spinal injections. They never thought I'd walk after the first accident, at 54 I can still run up the stairs and cut the grass. I'm on a pain management contract which helps a lot though the weather here is killing me. I will be moving, but the family drama is staggering.
OT- How life can change in a second. In HS I was going to Pitt/CMU twice a week studying computer programming as part of an accelerated program. I had planned on going to CMU, the obvious choice for computer science in the 70's. I got heavily bombarded by the Marine Corp who needed programmers for the new Harrier jets they'd just started buying from the British. I finally agreed to take their test, scored 100% (wasn't hard) and they made me an offer you can't refuse. A modified nine week boot camp, three years at the University of Tennessee for computer science (full scholarship and pay). First lieutenant rank and three years traveling around the world writing code/upgrading the jets software. A re-enlistment option for three more years, $50K and rank of Major. I took the deal, was sworn in BUT decided to postpone boot camp until after the summer. The accident happened nine days before I was to report.
Craig

 

numbersix

Lifer
Jul 27, 2012
5,449
53
The science world has its own political correctness and is not shy to punish those who do not conform, e.g., Pasteur, Freud.
+1
Walter could not, however add in some of the finer details, like how it was a gay bar that he tended in Havana, or about his job testing the hookers for STD's at Ft. Benning, or about smuggling bales of pot back from Mexico in Army trucks during WWII. That, and his barracks loan sharking business, made him enough cash that he only had to work weekends while he earned his bachelor's and masters.
Dan, your father lived some life! Thanks for sharing.
I told him Granpaw is dead. We called the hospital and finally they told us he had passed away at 2:55, how did I know that. It has puzzled me my whole life.
Thanks for sharing Bradley - very interesting.

Great post Tom. Personally, I have no doubt whatsoever that this 3D space/time matrix we're in amounts to but a blip on the radar of the greater reality that exists...and even if someone lives to be 120 it will amount to the blink of an eye in the end.
Thanks Brian - after my own life experiences, I now know for certain that this experience we're having is only one aspect of a much greater one.
Craig - thanks for sharing. You really must have 9 nine lives!

 

wyfbane

Lifer
Apr 26, 2013
5,117
3,517
Tennessee
When I was born, the cord was tightly around my neck 2x. I was blue and unresponsive. Everyone was in a tizzy. A stern older nurse walked in, took charge and had be breathing within 30 seconds. My parents tried in vain to find that nurse afterwords to thank her, but no such woman worked at the hospital.
When I was 16 I was in the back of my buddies datsun pickup and a dumptruck pulled out in front of us. We got wedged in the rear wheels and knocked the thing over. I somehow didn't fly out of the back.
When I was in AF, I missed a rocket attack by 5 minutes that hit the exact tent I had been in and killed 3 Canadians.
When I was 18 my father was working as a maintenence guy in a paper mill. he and a buddy were a crawlspace working on the pump of a 10,000 gallon tank where 180 degree water, caustic chemicals, and wood chips are combined to make pulp that later becomes paper. They were told it was empty. It was full of the 180 degree water. They were literally washed down the crawl space and were soaked in the water. By the time Dad could get his coveralls off his palm was ashy grey and he took the skin down to the meat off his left leg, which was also starting to cook. Doctors said he's be lucky if he was back to work in a year. After a badage change 7 days later when they were going to determine the extent of the skin grafting needed, it was discovered (to the Athiest physician's utter shock) that no grafts were needed. Dad had literally grown a new layer of skin in 7 days (and looked 10 years younger, the old curmudgeon) and was back to work in less than 3 months.
I believe.

 

drwatson

Lifer
Aug 3, 2010
1,721
5
toledo
I can't truly say that i have had one, although when I had my tonsils out i ruptured and had to be rushed into surgery (I was 34 at the time). I had lost so much blood that I was starting lose it. When the rolled me into the operating room, all the staff were glowing and had wings. Was this supernatural, or just loss of blood?? I don't know. But in saying that I believe in an afterlife, ghosts,and demons. I have seen too many strange and odd things in my life to not be a believer.

 

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,621
44,832
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
Are "there more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy"? I a 400 lb robin fat?
I have no personal near death experiences, though I have been in immediate mortal danger on a few occasions in my younger days.
But I have had several experiences which have left me a believer in SOMETHING, though not something defined by any creed of which I am aware.
About 30 years ago, one of my closest friends suddenly died. Jimmy's family asked me to write his eulogy. For several days, I struggled over what to write. Nothing that I put down on paper seemed to capture who he was. On the evening before Jimmy's funeral service, I went to the mortuary to spend some private time with him. His casket was located in a small chapel just off to the side of the main sanctuary. The lid was open. I remember looking at his face as I entered and thinking, "That thing in the box doesn't even look like Jimmy." A torrent of thoughts and emotions were passing through me as I approached Jimmy's coffin, sadness, anger, confusion, etc.

About 4 feet from the coffin I felt like I passed through the boundary of a field of energy. I was startled and stepped back. I stretched my arm out forward and felt that electrical energy travel up my arm as I pushed it pushed past the boundary. Taking a deep breath, I stepped into the field. Instantly I felt the sensation of perfect peace, serenity, and well being. I had the sensation of being intensely loved. My "consciousness" seemed to expand beyond my body. I didn't have an out of body experience so much as the sense that I was becoming connected to the universe, and my awareness was expanding outward, kind of like the "powers of ten". I was an amazing experience. I could reach out a touch a galaxy, or hold it in the palm of my hand. I was connected to the flow. And through all this, I felt that sense of being loved, that sense of well being and peaceful serenity. I can't really describe it any better than this. I lack the words to convey what I experienced. I have no idea how long the experience lasted.

I knew that Jimmy was fine. I also knew exactly what I needed to write. Jimmy's eulogy was dictated to me. I stepped back out of the field of energy, back into the "real" world, went home, and wrote Jimmy's eulogy which I delivered the following morning. Jimmy gave me a gift, a profound gift.
So I believe that there is SOMETHING. Maybe it's all in my head, a fabulous hallucination. It doesn't actually matter. I know what I experienced, and someone's rational explanation is actually beside the point.

 

numbersix

Lifer
Jul 27, 2012
5,449
53
Thanks for the posts guys - I find it fascinating that so many of us on a pipe smoking forum have had these "paranormal/spiritual" experiences.
Sablebursh - thanks for sharing. I found your post very interesting. I too lost my closest friend about 30 years ago. I also had to give the eulogy. I did not however have a transformative experience like yours at the time (though I had several afterwards).
Maybe it's all in my head, a fabulous hallucination.
I think you and I both know that is not the case. :puffy:

 
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