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NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCES |
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From time to time there are programmes on television and articles in the papers about this phenomenon. Those that are very close to death appear to feel that they are looking up a long tunnel. At the end there is a light, which appears kindly and welcoming. Others see a stairway with Jesus at the top, or angels of light. Sonia felt a sensation of moving upwards or being drawn up. For those who are by the bed and hear these things, there is comfort. They feel they know where their loved one is going. Others see their mother or a brother or sister coming to meet them, and call out to them. Hilda had this experience and her son interpreted it as the great kindness of heaven to allow those who had died in earlier years to come back to earth to lead his dear mother home.
Although these are called near-death experiences, people who have experienced them feel sure that they are witnessing what happens after death itself. Family members too can gain great comfort from these things. Brian who wrote to us sometime ago about Hilda’s experience just before she died. He had received great comfort from the fact that his mother had seen past relatives standing in the doorway of her bedroom. He told us how, when she saw them, she called out to them by name in greeting. He had later been able to verify these relatives from parish records. Minutes afterwards she had died in peace. This had given him great peace at the funeral and afterwards.
It is important to remember that to be ‘near death’ is to be still alive. To be at death’s door is still to be alive. This is when these recorded events take place. It has been shown that, as death approaches, certain chemical changes take place in the body, and these can cause very realistic hallucinations and sensations, such as lifting out of your body and looking down at the hospital bed. While one is still alive there are still mental processes going on, involving memories, dreams, and thoughts.
The only way we know these things is because people who have been alive when it has happened have been able to say something to those near them or have recounted what they had seen when they recovered. We must be absolutely clear that the Bible speaks of there being no memory in death, no knowledge, no love, and no praise for God. If God has said these things so many times in His Word, then we need to question what we have heard, and realise that these episodes are not from the other side of the grave, but have happened while the person is still alive with us here, even though on the brink of death. Medically these happenings are due to the changes in the body and brain, which house the mind. It may be due to shortage of oxygen, and other chemical reactions from toxins building up in the body as death approaches.
There are records of those who have seen what they thought were the fires of hell at the end of a tunnel, and have screamed out that they were lost! Lost! Lost! Such last words as these are deeply distressing and are not often recounted, but the memories live on to torture relatives remaining.
Not everyone has visual hallucinations. Others hear voices of the past. Still others change totally in personality as the end of life approaches. This can be very disturbing to family and friends. We heard of one older lady, Mary, who had been the pillar of the local chapel and the Mothers’ Union. |
| During the last day of her life, she started to swear and curse as if she had used the words all her life. Her brother, Harold, was deeply distressed for many months afterwards, as this was his last memory of his sister. It was explained to him that sometimes these things happen from the chemical changes affecting the brain and it does not mean that all the kindness and sweetness of her Christian life was only a sham and this was her real self coming to the surface. As you can see, not all ‘near-death’ experiences are reassuring. |
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