Is There Life After Death?
Near-death experiences may be physiological. Or they may be peepholes into a world beyond
On the talk-show circuit and the bestseller list, the tales are legion. After being struck by lightning, a man meets a "Being of Light" who grants forgiveness for a lifetime of violence. In full cardiac arrest on the operating table, a grade-school teacher travels down a long tunnel to "a place filled up with love, and a beautiful bright white light." And Elvis Presley takes her gently by the hand.
As sophisticated medical technology has permitted more and more people to journey back from the brink of death, such seemingly mystical reports have become almost commonplace. Of the nearly 18 percent of Americans who claimed in a recent U.S. News poll to have been on the verge of dying, many researchers estimate that a third have had unusual experiences while straddling the line between life and death--perhaps as many as 15 million Americans. A small percentage recall vivid images of an afterlife--including tunnels of light, peaceful meadows, and angelic figures clad in white.
No matter what the nature of the experience, it alters some lives. Alcoholics find themselves unable to imbibe. Hardened criminals opt for a life of helping others. Atheists embrace the existence of a deity, while dogmatic members of a particular religion report "feeling welcome in any church or temple or mosque."
Such dramatic changes have piqued the imagination of those searching for evidence of the mystical. Bruce Greyson, 50, is a psychiatrist at the University of Virginia Medical School who has spent much of his professional life investigating these events as possible "peepholes" into a world beyond. Greyson says that those who have such experiences "become enamored with the spiritual part of life, and less so with possessions, power, and prestige." Nancy Evans Bush, president emeritus of the International Association for Near-Death Studies, says the experience is revelatory. "Most near-death survivors say they don't think there is a God," she says. "They know."
Stories about strange events in the borderland between life and death are hardly new. Over two millenniums ago, in the Republic, Plato recounted a gravely wounded soldier's journey toward "a straight light like a pillar, most nearly resembling a rainbow, but brighter and purer." Near-death experiences aren't fresh to popular literature, either. Thirteenth-century monks wrote of a farmer who returned from the edge with tales of "corridors of fire" and "icy" paths to the afterlife.
Heavenly cars. And tales from the realm between life and death aren't limited to the West. In Micronesia, "experiencers" have reported that heaven resembles a bustling American city with skyscrapers and plenty of automobiles. In India, the afterlife has frequently been described as a giant bureaucracy, in which survivors are sent back to life because of "clerical error." "There's a lot of cultural overlay," says Greyson, who also edits the Journal of Near-Death Studies. It publishes articles on topics ranging from the scholarly ("Near-death Experiences: A Neurophysiological Explanatory Model") to the suspect ("Death and Renewal in The Velveteen Rabbit"). "Many people describe it as an ineffable experience, so it's no surprise that they come up with models based on their background," Greyson recounts. Almost all reports from around the world bear similarities to familiar daytime TV fare--the out-of-body feeling, the life review, the presence of deceased relatives on "the other side."
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