Questions and Answers on Near-Death Experiences

by Belzebuub

1. What is a near-death experience and what happens during one?
It's an experience where a person dies and their consciousness continues to exist outside their body. It's not a pre-death experience or a post-revival one, but it takes place at the time when the body is actually dead and that means brain dead with no signs of life whatsoever.

2. What experience do you have in the field of near-death experience research?
My experience is in out-of-body experiences and what I have been able to discover through them; they are essentially the same as near-death experiences, but with the body asleep instead of dead.

3. Some near-death experiences involve reports of bright lights, divine visions and seeing real events occurring at the time of death. Are they real or are they just created by the brain as some scientists suggest?
If they were created by the brain they would not take place outside it and in the absence of life in the brain. The fact that people who experience them can recall events taking place in the spot where they died and that these events have taken place at the time their body showed no signs of life, are clear indications that they are real. There are many cases of people seeing things when their body had died, which would have been impossible to have done so had their consciousness not been separated from their bodies. A good example of this is the case of a woman in intensive care who had a NDE: she came out of her body, went to the roof of the hospital and saw a red shoe. Staff went to the roof and retrieved the shoe. It would have been impossible to have seen that shoe from ground level, as due to its positioning, it was only observable from above the roof.

4. If near-death experiences are something real, why would they occur?
With death the body is obviously not suitable for the manifestation of consciousness in the world. A consciousness that exists outside of it would then be moving somewhere else, and it has to move as nothing is static in life - everything is in motion in one way or another.

5. A recent scientific study shows a link between dreams and near-death experiences - how are they linked and what explanation can you give for it?
NDEs are generally clear, lucid experiences; dreams are usually not so. Dreams are a type of out-of-body experience, but they don't usually contain an awareness of one's true surroundings. Instead they contain the projections of the subconscious, which take the place of reality, as thoughts are a kind of matter that crystallises over there. We are then just in those projections, which are like daydreams that have come to life, without much or any self-awareness. But if someone was to become aware that they were dreaming, it would be possible to come out of the illusory scenes of the subconscious and to be aware of being somewhere out of the body, just as a person in a NDE is. Dreams are therefore occurring in the same place as NDEs, but without the lucidity. In out-of-body experiences, I've seen both dreamers and the deceased in that environment.

6. You mention in your book When I Go to Sleep, that a near-death experience is a type of out-of-body experience. Can you elaborate on this?
Yes, near-death experiences are essentially the same as out-of-body experiences, except that in the latter the body hasn't died, but both go to exactly the same place, or dimension. An out-of-body experience can be just as clear and real as a near-death experience can be - you can even meet other people who are having out-of-body experiences there.

7. What are the other ways of having an out-of-body experience?
You can realise that you were dreaming and therefore become aware that you are out of your body as I mentioned before, but another very common way to have an out-of-body experience is by astral projection, where instead of falling asleep and dreaming, the consciousness stays clear and lucid and you become aware of what happens when you sleep, which is that you leave the body, rising out of it and enter another dimension.

8. Is there any danger in trying to leave your body?
It's no more dangerous than sleeping for the stable minded, as it is just being aware of what is happening anyway when we sleep.

9. Is there any scientific proof for out-of-body experiences?
There are well organised groups of scientists, academics and medical practitioners who are trying to look further than the current scientific ways of thinking. This is because they realise that with current means, it is not possible to prove that consciousness exists outside the body. Therefore, it is only provable at an individual level, by having out-of-body experiences.

10. Are there any other ways to prove whether out-of-body and near-death experiences are real?
The best way is to have out-of body experiences yourself. If you really wanted to know what it was like to visit a country, would you be satisfied that you had been there by reading about it or watching TV shows on it? Of course not.

11. What would you say to those sceptical of there being any reality to these experiences?
Because we leave this world behind when we have that kind of experience and bring back no proof other than our accounts, it's easy to be sceptical, even in the light of compelling circumstantial evidence. But I think it is far too important an issue to be sceptical about and to do nothing about it. If a sceptic were to research into the subject by having out-of-body experiences and they did it correctly and thoroughly, their scepticism would soon vanish.

12. Is it possible to find out what happens with death through having an out-of-body experience?
Yes, it is the best way; reading or listening to what someone else says about it is never going to be the same as being in the same place as the deceased, with the deceased.

13. What impact could this have upon people's ideas about life after death?
It would obviously be profound in most cases, since it is a personal experience against which their ideas or beliefs must measure up to. For most it will be a realization that their life exists beyond the death of the body

14. Can any type of out-of-body experience change someone's life and their perspective on it?
Yes, if it's a clear out-of-body experience it's likely to. Imagine what it would feel like to lie down and instead of sleeping, to feel yourself lifting up out of your body, to come out of it and to be in your room, facing the unknown. That kind of experience would cause most people to reassess their lives, and it opens up new questions as to the whys of it all, what's really going on and how do I find out more?

15. Can anyone have an out-of-body experience and if so, how would they do this?
Yes, anyone can have an out-of-body experience; statistically about one in ten people have been aware of having at least one. You can learn to have them regularly from the comfort of your own home, since all you are doing is essentially falling asleep. However, I do recommend that whoever wants to learn goes to a reputable course such as Gnosticweb's online course in Out-of-Body Experiences and Dreams, where you can get advice and discuss your experiences with others,which is a very effective way to learn.

Copyright © 2006 Mark H. Pritchard