P.M.H.Atwater, L.H.D., Ph.D. (Hon.) P. O. Box 7691 Charlottesville, VA 22906-7691
© 1998 P.M.H.Atwater, L.H.D., Ph.D. (Hon.)
The so-called "classical model" of the near-death experience is said
to consist of an out-of-body experience, passing through a tunnel toward a
bright light, being met in heaven by loved ones, and then learning it isn't
your time and you have to go back.
Yet, the number one complaint voiced by experiencers who attend meet-
ings of near-death support groups throughout the United States and Canada,
is, "My experience doesn't match the classical model." Individuals have
even admitted to making up the tunnel component to their episode just so
they could feel like they had "the real thing."
The truth is. . . the popular model is really a composite created by
the media to sensationalize Moody's first book. It is "classical" only in
myth and legend. The tunnel component, for instance, is but a minor ele-
ment reported by less than a third of those who experience the phenomenon.
George Gallup, in the first national poll ever taken on the subject back in
1982, found less than nine percent claimed to have encountered any type of
tunnel.
Because the classical model isn't classical, health-care givers are at
a loss in how to recognize if one of their patients might have had a near-
death experience, not to mention the general public. Bruce Greyson, M.D.,
editor of the peer-reviewed Journal of Near-Death Studies, is now involved
in trying to come up with a solution - a simple definition that will satis-
fy all comers. So far, no agreement has been reached.
What I submitted for review is the following, taken from over twenty
years of study and with a research base in excess of 3,200 near-death ex-
periencers:
I. Context of experience: either A or B must be met
A. Symptoms or signs suggesting serious medical illness or injury,
or physiological crisis/accident of some kind; or,
B. Experiencer's expectation or sense of imminent death.
II. Content of experience: an intense awareness, sense, or experience
of "otherworldiness" - whether pleasant or unpleasant, strange or
ecstatic. Episode can be brief and consist of only one or two ele-
ments, or can be more involved, even lengthy, and consist of multiple
elements. Elements commonly experienced are:
* Visualizing or experiencing being apart from the physical
body, perhaps with the ability to change locations.
* Greatly enhanced cognition (thoughts very clear, rapid, and
hyper-lucid).
* A darkness or light that is perceived as alive and intelli-
gent and powerful.
* Sensation of movement and/or a sense of presence (hyper
alert faculties).
* Sudden overwhelming floods of emotion or feelings.
* Encounter with an identified deceased person or animal, or
an encounter with an apparently nonphysical entity.
* Life review (like a movie or in segments, or a reliving).
* Information can be imparted, perhaps dialogue.
III. Typical to the experience:
A. Near-death states can occur to anyone at any age, including new
borns and infants, and remain vivid and coherent lifelong (un-
less societal or family pressure weakens memory clusters - re-
pression more common with child experiencers than with teen
agers or adults).
B. Children's episodes are usually brief and encompass few elements.
The closer the child is to puberty, the greater the possibility
of longer, more complicated scenarios.
C. The pattern of psychological and physiological aftereffects seems
more dependent on the intensity of the experience, than on any
particular imagery or length of exposure to darkness or light.
D. Attitudes and feelings significant others display after the ex-
periencer revives directly influence how readily he or she can
integrate the experience. Episode content is secondary to that
initial climate of interest or disinterest.
I would also hasten to add that no matter how long the individual is
without vital signs, especially pulse or breath, there is little or no
brain damage afterward - rather - brain and faculty enhancement. It is not
unusual for experiencers to revive in the morgue hours later. (Average
time without vital signs in my research base - between five to twenty min-
utes.) It is possible to have a near-death experience and not be near
death. What causes near-death-like experiences is presently unknown.
Research on the near-death experience has been ongoing ever since Ray
mond Moody, Jr., M.D., came out with his initial book "LIFE AFTER LIFE" in
1975. Although much is now known about the phenomenon, perhaps what is
most striking is how far we have yet to go and how much more we need to
learn.
____________________________________________________________
P.M.H.Atwater, L.H.D., Ph.D. (Hon.) , has distinguished herself as one of the best
researchers in the field of near-death studies.
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