Post by auntym on Oct 28, 2012 13:13:28 GMT -6
www.ufodigest.com/article/shining-sphere-end-tunnel-%E2%80%93-eye-floaters-and-near-death-experiences
October 28, 2012
The Shining Sphere at the End of the Tunnel – Eye Floaters and Near-Death Experiences
By Floco Tausin
Persons who were revived after being clinically dead often report unusual and profound perceptions they had in the state of near-death. These experiences defy scientific and religious thinking alike. Some visual elements of near-death experiences (NDE) resemble one particular type of eye floaters, the ‘shining structure floaters’. The thesis of this article is that floaters and other entoptic phenomena are phenomena of consciousness which continue to exist in states of near-death – and possibly even beyond death.
What is a Near-Death Experience?
Stories of individuals near to their death are known from many cultures and times. For Western people of past centuries, near-death phenomena attested to the existence of heaven and hell. At the end of the 19th century, such experiences became the focal point of individual scientists’ research. But it was only in the second half of the 20th century that this phenomenon came across a wider scientific and public interest. After preliminary work by researchers such as Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Russell Noyes and Robert Crookall (cp. Corazza 2008), the philosopher and psychiatrist Raymond Moody published his book Life after life in 1975. It became a best-seller and initiated the popularization of the subjects of death and dying which were strongly tabooed in Western societies at that time. People from all social classes were encouraged to share their encounters with death. This development has led to a steady increase of NDE reports in the past thirty years.
According to different surveys (cp. Schick/Vaughn 2010), 18 to 60 percent of the patients having suffered a severe accident or cardiac arrest experience sensory and cognitive impressions during their “clinical death” – impressions that Moody collectively calls “near-death experiences” (NDE). In the literature, this term is sometimes confined against the “deathbed visions” that are experienced by sick and infirm people in the final stage of the dying process. Moody, after having compared dozens of near-death accounts, describes several elements that NDEs typically consist of:
„A man is dying and, as he reaches the point of greatest physical distress, he hears himself pronounced dead by his doctor. He begins to hear an uncomfortable noise, a loud ringing or buzzing, and at the same time feels himself moving very rapidly through a long dark tunnel. After this, he suddenly finds himself outside of his own physical body, but still in the immediate physical environment, and he sees his own body from a distance, as though he is a spectator. He watches the resuscitation attempt from this unusual vantage point and is in a state of emotional upheaval. After a while, he collects himself and becomes more accustomed to his odd condition. He notices that he still has a ‘body,’ but one of a very different nature and with very different powers from the physical body he has left behind. Soon other things begin to happen. Others come to meet and to help him. He glimpses the spirits of relatives and friends who have already died, and a loving, warm spirit of a kind he has never encountered before – a being of light – appears before him. This being asks him a question, nonverbally, to make him evaluate his life and helps him along by showing him a paannamic, instantaneous playback of the major events of his life. At some point he finds himself approaching some sort of barrier or border, apparently representing the limit between earthly life and the next life. Yet, he finds that he must go back to the earth, that the time for his death has not yet come. At this point he resists, for by now he is taken up with his experiences in the afterlife and does not want to return. He is overwhelmed by intense feelings of joy, love, and peace. Despite his attitude, though, he somehow reunites with his physical body and lives“ (Moody 1975).
This model account – based on a catalog of recurring elements – was soon challenged by other researchers who extended or shortened it (cp. Knoblauch 1999). This fact shows that NDEs are by no means identical, but contain both similarities and differences regarding their content and sequence of elements.
Individuals experience their state of near-death as real and profound. Following an NDE, they often change their views, beliefs and values regarding their environment, fellow human beings, death and the hereafter. They often begin to strive for a more loving and more social way of life than before. In some people, NDEs seem to have enhanced intellectual or psychical abilities or have spontaneously cured diseases. Even some religious or spiritual movements are inspired by the experience of near-death. Negative after-effects are less frequently reported, e.g. the frustration of being confronted with everyday challenges again, or the feelings of loneliness due to the difficulties in sharing the experience with, and being understood by, related parties. And in the case of negative NDEs, individuals’ fear of dying may increase (Corazza 2008; Greyson 2006; Horacek 1997).
CONTINUE READING: www.ufodigest.com/article/shining-sphere-end-tunnel-%E2%80%93-eye-floaters-and-near-death-experiences
October 28, 2012
The Shining Sphere at the End of the Tunnel – Eye Floaters and Near-Death Experiences
By Floco Tausin
Persons who were revived after being clinically dead often report unusual and profound perceptions they had in the state of near-death. These experiences defy scientific and religious thinking alike. Some visual elements of near-death experiences (NDE) resemble one particular type of eye floaters, the ‘shining structure floaters’. The thesis of this article is that floaters and other entoptic phenomena are phenomena of consciousness which continue to exist in states of near-death – and possibly even beyond death.
What is a Near-Death Experience?
Stories of individuals near to their death are known from many cultures and times. For Western people of past centuries, near-death phenomena attested to the existence of heaven and hell. At the end of the 19th century, such experiences became the focal point of individual scientists’ research. But it was only in the second half of the 20th century that this phenomenon came across a wider scientific and public interest. After preliminary work by researchers such as Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Russell Noyes and Robert Crookall (cp. Corazza 2008), the philosopher and psychiatrist Raymond Moody published his book Life after life in 1975. It became a best-seller and initiated the popularization of the subjects of death and dying which were strongly tabooed in Western societies at that time. People from all social classes were encouraged to share their encounters with death. This development has led to a steady increase of NDE reports in the past thirty years.
According to different surveys (cp. Schick/Vaughn 2010), 18 to 60 percent of the patients having suffered a severe accident or cardiac arrest experience sensory and cognitive impressions during their “clinical death” – impressions that Moody collectively calls “near-death experiences” (NDE). In the literature, this term is sometimes confined against the “deathbed visions” that are experienced by sick and infirm people in the final stage of the dying process. Moody, after having compared dozens of near-death accounts, describes several elements that NDEs typically consist of:
„A man is dying and, as he reaches the point of greatest physical distress, he hears himself pronounced dead by his doctor. He begins to hear an uncomfortable noise, a loud ringing or buzzing, and at the same time feels himself moving very rapidly through a long dark tunnel. After this, he suddenly finds himself outside of his own physical body, but still in the immediate physical environment, and he sees his own body from a distance, as though he is a spectator. He watches the resuscitation attempt from this unusual vantage point and is in a state of emotional upheaval. After a while, he collects himself and becomes more accustomed to his odd condition. He notices that he still has a ‘body,’ but one of a very different nature and with very different powers from the physical body he has left behind. Soon other things begin to happen. Others come to meet and to help him. He glimpses the spirits of relatives and friends who have already died, and a loving, warm spirit of a kind he has never encountered before – a being of light – appears before him. This being asks him a question, nonverbally, to make him evaluate his life and helps him along by showing him a paannamic, instantaneous playback of the major events of his life. At some point he finds himself approaching some sort of barrier or border, apparently representing the limit between earthly life and the next life. Yet, he finds that he must go back to the earth, that the time for his death has not yet come. At this point he resists, for by now he is taken up with his experiences in the afterlife and does not want to return. He is overwhelmed by intense feelings of joy, love, and peace. Despite his attitude, though, he somehow reunites with his physical body and lives“ (Moody 1975).
This model account – based on a catalog of recurring elements – was soon challenged by other researchers who extended or shortened it (cp. Knoblauch 1999). This fact shows that NDEs are by no means identical, but contain both similarities and differences regarding their content and sequence of elements.
Individuals experience their state of near-death as real and profound. Following an NDE, they often change their views, beliefs and values regarding their environment, fellow human beings, death and the hereafter. They often begin to strive for a more loving and more social way of life than before. In some people, NDEs seem to have enhanced intellectual or psychical abilities or have spontaneously cured diseases. Even some religious or spiritual movements are inspired by the experience of near-death. Negative after-effects are less frequently reported, e.g. the frustration of being confronted with everyday challenges again, or the feelings of loneliness due to the difficulties in sharing the experience with, and being understood by, related parties. And in the case of negative NDEs, individuals’ fear of dying may increase (Corazza 2008; Greyson 2006; Horacek 1997).
CONTINUE READING: www.ufodigest.com/article/shining-sphere-end-tunnel-%E2%80%93-eye-floaters-and-near-death-experiences