Fingerprints of God_ The Search for the Science of Spirituality - Barbara Bradley Hagerty [149]
9 S. J. Blackmore, “A Psychological Theory of the Out-of-Body Experience,” Journal of Parapsychology 48 (1984): 201-18.
10 K. Ring and S. Cooper, “Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences in the Blind: A Study of Apparent Eyeless Vision,” Journal of Near-Death Studies 16 (1997): 101-47.
11 Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures (Boston: Christian Science Publishing Society, 1875), p. 486.
12 Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception (New York: Perennial Classics, 2004; originally published 1954), p. 24.
CHAPTER 10. ARE WE DEAD YET?
1 Raymond Moody, Life After Life: An Investigation of a Phenomenon—Survival of Bodily Death (New York: HarperCollins, 2001; originally published 1975).
2 In general, researchers say, the average near-death experience will pass through five fairly universal stages.
Stage one: Peace. Your heart stops, and while the emergency staff is thumping your chest and yelling orders, you are overwhelmed by peace, calm, contentment, no pain, no fear. Researchers figure between 60 and 85 percent of people who nearly die and return with some memory recall this profound peace. B. Greyson, “Incidence and Correlates of Near-Death Experiences in a Cardiac Care Unit,” General Hospital Psychiatry 25 (2003): 269-76.
Stage two: Body separation, or out-of-body experience. You detach, float over your body, remember conversations verbatim; blind people have been reported to see the events that transpire. Sometimes you see outside the room, get a glimpse of the book your mother is reading in the waiting room, but generally you regard with detached puzzlement the train wreck that is your body. Estimates of how many people have out-of-body experiences varies widely, from 25 to 70 percent. Greyson, “Incidence and Correlates.”
Stage three: Entering darkness. While a “tunnel” has become the popular symbol of the near-death experience, relatively few actually go through the tunnel. Between a quarter and a third say they enter darkness and then move toward a light. The first time, they break all speed limits, including the speed of light, but if they happen to be on their second near-death journey—as psychologist and researcher Scott Taylor told the audience at the Houston near-death conference—“they saunter. ‘I’ve been here before, I know what’s happening, I’m taking my time.’ ” When he said this, a number of people nodded their heads knowingly.
Stage four: Seeing the light. The light is always bright but never hurts the eyes. It comforts, and for the religious it is the physical manifestation of God. Between 16 and 70 percent of people see the light, depending on the study.
Stage five: Entering the light. This is a very busy time. Some people talk with a being, or beings, of light, ask them questions, and receive perfect answers. Others are greeted by dead friends and relatives (some of whom they have never met before). Some walk through meadows or a heavenly landscape. Others review their lives, generally with a “being” to guide them through the process. Many see a border—a fence, a door, a window, a bridge, a line in the sand, a river—and sense that if they cross over, they will never come back.
Finally they return: Sometimes they choose to return, drawn by unfinished business, such as children to raise, or a spouse to comfort. Others return kicking and screaming, like Pam Reynolds, who claimed she was pushed back into her body by her uncle. And always, the instant they return, so does the pain.
The percentages of each of these stages vary wildly, but meeting with the light and with dead relatives are the most common. Many near-death experiencers found