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Since the 1960s, with the improvements in medical technology and
emergency medicine, an eye-opening phenomenon began to surface and
just would not go away. More people were being brought back to
life whose monitored vital signs had flatlined. In other words
their condition during these moments, such as surgery or in-hospital
care, briefly indicated they had died, but through these means of
intervention they were revived. On a regular basis, some of
these folks came back with what they insisted were memories of
another, even 'realer than real' reality. Most were people who
were observed and known to be quite sane and normal. One such
person was Dr. George
Ritchie, a psychiatrist and professor at the
University of Virginia, who courageously revealed his memory of such
an experience to some of his medical students in the 1960s. His
story made a profound impression on one of his students, Raymond A.
Moody, who eventually gave us a name for these events -- near-death
experiences / NDEs.
What really got the attention of medical personnel was that NDErs also
sometimes came back with distinct memories of what was going on
physically within the setting of their medical crises, when they were
monitored as "dead." This could be ignored only so
long, and the short of it is, near-death experience has become a
nearly household word. Subsequently publicized research and
experiencers' stories have fascinated many of us ever
since.
As this phenomenon became more openly acknowledged through the annals
of science and medicine and the subject of much research, brave
Experiencers began to share their stories with a most receptive
public. I believe this has contributed to a pervasive
receptivity to the implications of such experiences and to an
increased if subtle spiritualization in many countries that was not
present before this began to surface.
In any case, this new open-mindedness grew to include other types of
unusual, paranormal, meta-physical, spiritual experiences, leading to
more research and even government experimentation [particularly with
out-of-body experiences and remote viewing] at least as early as the
1970s. The way this developed in the broadest sense, whether
they were researchers or people who shared such interests, including
Experiencers, people usually gravitated to a particular kind of
experience. For example, Robert A. Monroe focused on out-of-body
experiences. Religious scholars and contemporary mystics like
David Spangler naturally put their energies into mystical
experiences.
But
there's more ...
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