What happens after we die? The best clues may come from those who have been right on the precipice of death, who have entered a mysterious realm unlike anything here on earth, only to return to the living. What they have gone through, and the stories they have to tell, are known as near-death experiences or NDEs.
Doctor Bruce Greyson has been called the world’s leading expert on near-death experiences and in After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond, Dr. Greyson shares what he has learned. As the book’s intro points out, “the medical world has generally ignored these near-death experiences, dismissing them as ‘tricks of the brain’ or wishful thinking.” But the doctor has a much different perspective.
Dr. Greyson has spoken with thousands of near-death experiencers from around the world. And after decades of study, Greyson has come to a realization: “Dying could be the threshold between one form of consciousness and another, not an ending but a transition.” In other words, our consciousness may continue after the death of our bodies.
What’s amazing about the stories in the book are the similarities. Regardless of age, race, or socio-economic status, the people interviewed often have roughly the same near-death experiences and share the same opinions.
- More than half said what happens in the afterlife is partly dependent on how we lived before death. You are rewarded for your good deeds in this life.
- Two-thirds said that we continue to exist with our own thoughts, feelings and personality traits after death. You continue to learn and grow spiritually.
- Three-quarters of experiencers said that the afterlife is a blissful state of peace and tranquility. There is no pain or suffering.
Reading the many stories in the book, reoccurring NDE themes pop up again and again. I’ve put these themes into 4 categories, using lightly edited quotes found in the book.
Theme 1: The experiencer can look down and see their body.
“I was suddenly not in the bed in the hospital with all the medical paraphernalia. I looked around and could see the entire room. I scrutinized my body from on high.”
“It took me awhile to realize the body on the operating table was mine! My ‘point of consciousness’ was up somewhere near the ceiling. I was watching the nurses and doctors rushing madly around the room, intent on bringing that poor girl (me) back to life.”
Theme 2: They are surrounded by light and love.
“The light was infinitely more beautiful than any light we know.”
“I felt completely surrounded and taken up in an indescribably warm and loving Omnipresence of Light.”
“There was a feeling of love and bliss that extended on to infinity. From this place everything was possible because only love, joy, peace, and creative potential were real.”
Theme 3: They are greeted by relatives or loved ones.
“I felt surrounded by presences, people who knew me and each other, but especially my two grandmothers.”
“I found myself in a lush meadow of wildflowers. There, welcoming me with open arms, were my mama and papa.”
“I recognized, much to my delight, my mother. My mother had died years ago when she was thirty-seven and I was only seven. I’m now in my fifties. She had not aged.”
Theme 4: Almost ninety percent see God—or a divine like being.
“I rose into a higher realm, overflowing with the healing power of an all-loving deity, for whom the term ‘God’ seemed too puny a word.”
“I recall meeting my Creator. Call this Creator what you will: God, Buddha, Krishna, Allah. It does not matter. I will call him God but it is a God separate from any religion.”
“Even the word ‘God’ seems too small to describe the magnificence of that presence.”
But at some point, the experiencer realizes or is told by “God” (or sometimes Jesus), that they need to go back. Many don’t want to; they feel such bliss. But they learn or sometimes intuit that they are needed on earth. They still have a goal to reach, or something left to accomplish. They return to their bodies.
Proof that the mind and consciousness are separate from the brain
While some think of the mind and brain as the same thing, Dr. Greyson believes that “your mind—the part of you that experiences consciousness—is not the same as your brain—the mass of pink-grey matter inside your skull.” Time and time again, he has found that even when the brain is severely impaired due, the perceptions of those experiencing NDEs are clearer than ever. Even when the brain stops working, the mind keeps going, free of the confines of the brain.
One experiencer explained: “here we can only think about one thing at a time …and there you really know everything. You can’t compare it to earth. It is way beyond, superior, bigger than anything a human brain can comprehend, and more wonderful, too.” He added: “But I think it’s like a party. You cannot go until you get invited.”
Ultimately, virtually everyone who has had a near-death experience comes away from it feeling better about themselves and their lives. Dr. Greyson finds they have “a more positive attitude toward death, spirituality, and life, and a sense of meaning or purpose.” They also seem more able to live fully in the present moment. As one experiencer said:
It has made me want to enjoy all the little things around me, to live my life to the fullest … to take time every day to stop, look, and listen, and to see something as if for the first time. I now feel you don’t have to be afraid of death, that death can actually be a beautiful experience.
If you like this story, check out my friend Chris’s near-death experience or my recent story on the experience of Sebastian Junger.
Did you purchase a copy of my recent book Wake Up Call: Daily Insights for the Spiritually Curious? If yes, write a review on Amazon and contact me at tomrapsas@gmail.com. I’ll gift you a free Kindle or hard copy of one of my two previous books, Life Tweets or the spiritual fable Thaddeus Squirrel.
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