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Oct 25, 2006 4:04 pm US/Central
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Delving Into Near Death Experiences
Questions Are A Plenty As Researchers Attempt To Understand Phenomenon
by Maria Arita
(CBS 11 News)
As the spiritual perspectives of people evolve, Near Death Experiences, or NDEs, are an ever-growing topic. In fact, it's become a mainstream idea.
Many scholars and research subjects have been working to bring about a better understanding of the phenomenon.
Some say near death experiences are a portal into a realm many don't yet understand. Jan Holden, a professor and professional counselor at the University of Texas also is the president of The International Association for Near Death Experiences and describes NDEs as "out-of-body experiences and equal opportunity transpersonal experiences."
"The person typically feels themself outside of their body watching the area surrounding their physical body," he explains..
Holden says these experiences can be both pleasurable and unpleasant experiences.
Some doctors say the research is compelling and "seeing is believing."
Dr. Ron Anderson, CEO of Parkland Hospital, says he has been face-to-face with the phenomenon.
"I've seen people who have undergone NDEs a number of times at Parkland and come back and it's profoundly changed their lives."
Still, many others need scientific proof. They say in most cases there is a better, more definitive scientific explanation for the claims people make.
There is plenty of research on the subject; some reports show 30 percent of people who go into cardiac arrest come back and report a near death experience.
Dr. Holden says researchers have arrived at these numbers is by doing as close to controlled studies as possible: by going into a hospital and setting up for months on end. After a patient "codes," or goes into cardiac arrest, they are interviewed.
There have been more than 2,000 such cases documented around the world.
Eva Cordray had a car accident in her teens and had been clinically dead when she claims to have seen and heard everything the medical team was doing,
She shares her story and explains why some experts see hers as a textbook case for why science is looking at this phenomenon so carefully.
Cordray's testimonial echoes what has been said before: "I was like a tape recorder watching my human body and what was happening there in the emergency room."
"I remember talking to one of the nurses and saying 'thank you' for taking glass out of my arm ... and the nurse just said 'what? OK."
Cordray says the experience for her was full of "joyous" light, as if from that day forward she would have nothing in death to fear.
"You watch your human body. You can hear anything or see anything just by thinking it … They could've chopped my legs, off my head off and it wouldn't have made a difference to me. I have absolutely no fear of death."
Holden says just as there is no medical proof that Cordray had a near death experience at all, they also cannot explain how someone who had been fully unconscious and later pronounced dead could recant almost everything that had been done and said in that emergency room.
Cordray says two life-changing questions were asked of her: "What did you learn?" and "How did you learn to love and forgiveness was a very big part of the love component."
"NDEs have a lot to tell us about the nature of consciousness and the experiences have a lot to tell us about what they are convinced is the nature and purpose of life," Holden says.
Cordray says she received a message that everything she were to do to others from that moment forward she would experience herself. "I always have a feeling I'm never supposed to do harm to others."
Holden says research has shown that many people report the same feeling.
"They review and re-experience every moment of their lives and experience actually being on the receiving end of their own actions," she explains.
Even with all the research, there still is little near death validation.
"They'll never prove that consciousness survives physical death because everybody who's ever told us about an NDE has never stayed dead," Holden says.
He quickly adds that because one can't prove that another level of consciousness exists doesn't mean that it doesn't.
In the end many medical professionals, like Anderson, say "it really comes down to what that person feels they experienced and what they believe."
Holden says for her one person's statement resonates beyond the research: " 'Is this light that we're in? Is it God? and the entity said, 'No, this is what happens when God breathes.' I realized I was, she said, standing in the breath of God.' "
What are these alleged experiences trying to tell us, is there a better way to study them and why have the lives of these people been so dramatically transformed as a result? How much can this research tell us about human consciousness and the growing debate over faith and our true purpose? The questions are many.
Participants will attempt to answer the many questions that arise with the topic at the International Association for Near Death Studies in Houston this week.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)