Until Dr. Moody (1975) and a few other intrepid medical experts
(and the Gallup Poll in 1982 about things spiritual and near-death
experiences [NDEs], etc.) began publishing their findings, people just
didn’t dare talk about their visionary and other unusual experiences.
For the most part, this was because their sanity and
creditability would have been seriously questioned.
Secondly, reports of near-death experiences factored into
expression more and more only in tandem with our advances in medical
technology in successful cardiac resuscitation and sustained life
support of the “clinically dead” and those who otherwise would have
“died” much sooner.
There was an interim (late ‘50s into the ‘70s) when
apparently many medical personnel were given firsthand accounts by their
just as amazed patients, and typically the medical response to the
patient was dismissive -- or worse. But
many of these experiences were impossible to shrug off and forget by the
medical staff who heard them, especially NDEs that occurred during
obvious clinical-death situations, of which the “formerly dead”
patient recounted often in exquisite detail what took place in the
resuscitation efforts.
So for a while denial became rampant among the doctors and nurses
who participated in these events.
To their and our good fortune, a few of them began to
speak out about and to publicize or document these momentous accounts
they were hearing, and also academic researchers, starting with Kenneth
Ring, began to take a vested interest as well. Since then (mid ‘70s into early ‘80s) near-death experiences
have continued to be of keen public interest.
One friend who has had a few close calls (AIDS) and was (1996) at
Duke
University
Hospital
, in
North Carolina
, “Doug,” remembers regaining consciousness from a clinical death
episode. Immediately someone
was at his ear and asking
softly, “Did you have a near-death experience?”
For Doug
in that moment it was a sort of in-your-face annoyance.
But it is in a way encouraging and indicative that times are
changing.
This is not to say, however, that there is no more denial and
that all people willingly tell all (and always to an unskeptical
audience) when such occurrences manifest.
In the early ‘90s, one of my biofeedback clients related to me
her near-death experience, which had happened four years before.
Her sharing with me this event was a personal tipping point
regarding my commitment to the broader subject of EHEs as a whole.
She had been a “failed back surgery” patient several times
over, and the doctors had finally told her that problems with scar
tissue precluded any more surgery and that she would have to learn to
live with the pain, which was relentless and difficult.
“JoAnne” is a quiet, very down-to-earth, hub-of-the-family kind
of lady to whom everyone else turns for comfort and support.
Yet the pain was so insidious and severe that, she confided, she
had even contemplated the possibility of suicide.
Fortunately, a doctor prescribed biofeedback training for pain
management, and so one day JoAnne arrived, wheelchair bound, in my office.
She was the model student and patiently learned and practiced
daily what could be offered through this type of treatment.
After several weeks, she gave me an accounting of her insights
and accomplishments. She
surprised both of us with her abilities to become unconscious of the
pain. She had also through
this effort gotten off all her pain medications, which was no small
thing! But with a heavy sigh she said there was this one core
pain—kind of like a water-drip torture--that just wouldn’t go away.
We sat with that for a few moments, and I don’t know what
compelled me—even though such things very much absorbed my time and
interest outside my biofeedback work, I had never thought to bring up such things with my
clients before--but out of the blue I asked her if she had ever had a
near-death experience.
She gave me one of those startled, sudden-memory-rush looks, and
to my astonishment, burst into tears!
She soon shared with me a recounting of her third surgery when
she had “died” briefly and found herself traveling through a tunnel
toward a wondrous light. She
got near the very edge of the Light where she could see into it, into this stunningly resplendent
“country.” She
was soon told that if she went any further she wouldn’t be able to go
back. It was so utterly
consuming—the unconditional love, the conscious freedom from the pain,
the exquisitely beautiful and caring light….
While she was obviously still immersed in this other-worldly
glory, I suddenly leaned forward and asked, “JoAnne, how’s your
pain?” Startled anew, with a sharp intake of breath, she paused, then
said, “It’s gone!” Were we ever thrilled!
We proceeded to develop an audio tape and relaxation exercise in
which, with her coaching, I took her back through
her NDE in elaborate detail. With
this recording, she
began to learn how to consistently leave even this last insidious pain
behind her. Reliving this
transformative event, going back into the light, became her primary tool
to cancel out the pain. During
a check-up call months later, she said that her daily reliving of this
event was her “rod and staff” of comfort and was still very
effective.
Bringing this incident back into the original context concerning
denial and the experiencer’s willingness or lack of willingness to
disclose such events, when JoAnne regained consciousness from that third
surgery, she wanted to tell the whole world about this most affecting
moment by far in her whole life! She
opened her eyes to discover a beloved relative watching over her, and
with the absolute trust and joy of a child she told him what had
happened. But oddly, or it
must have felt that way at the time, his response was not supportive at
all. He leaned close and
almost whispered that it would be wise if she never repeated that to
anyone, because the then very real fear of one’s being perceived as or
even committed to an institution as mentally ill still dominated.
This was about 1992, not so long ago at all!
Alarmed that this man whom she cherished and trusted implicitly
said that, the stunned woman promptly suppressed the NDE
-- so well in fact, she did not think of it again until four
years later when I asked her out of the blue if she had ever had such an
experience. That gloriously
gifting occurrence was in her all that time, and she had through fear or
embarrassment suppressed it that effectively.
We kept in touch for several months, and her use of the memory of
her NDE continued to be quite effective for relieving her of that once life-destroying
pain. Then we lost touch for
a while. But one day, JoAnne
amazed and delighted me when she walked into my office rather spryly
with the assistance of two canes perhaps a year later, looking radiant!
I had never seen a face glow like hers did that day!
Also, I had always seen her in a wheelchair.
Her face showed no trace of the pain that had pressed her even to
the solemn contemplation of suicide, not that unusual with people who
live with severe pain.
The obvious transformative impact of her NDE, now returned to her
awareness, was clearly evident.
Being privileged to be only the second person JoAnne had disclosed her
NDE to, and to observe the incredible and long-term effects of
this single incident on someone's life added a truckload of fuel to the
fire of my commitment toward helping raise the awareness about the importance
and power of these events and has been the light of my life ever since.
Back to The
Breadcrumb Trail ... . .
Home
~ ~ ~ Next
Breadcrumb
.. .
