In his moving tribute to the late Richard John Neuhaus, David Brooks recounts the priest's near-death experience:
Much later, Neuhaus endured his own near-death experience. An undiagnosed tumor led to a ruptured intestine and a series of operations. He recovered slowly, first in intensive care, and then in a regular hospital room, where something strange happened."I was sitting up staring intently into the darkness, although in fact I knew my body was lying flat," he later wrote in an essay called "Born Toward Dying" in his magazine, First Things. "What I was staring at was a color like blue and purple, and vaguely in the form of hanging drapery. By the drapery were two 'presences.' I saw them and yet did not see them, and I cannot explain that ... .
"And then the presences -- one or both of them, I do not know -- spoke. This I heard clearly. Not in an ordinary way, for I cannot remember anything about the voice. But the message was beyond mistaking: 'Everything is ready now.' "
That was the end of Neuhaus's vision, but not his experience. "I pinched myself hard, and ran through the multiplication tables, and recalled the birth dates of my seven brothers and sisters, and my wits were vibrantly about me. The whole thing had lasted three or four minutes, maybe less. I resolved at that moment that I would never, never let anything dissuade me from the reality of what had happened. Knowing myself, I expected I would later be inclined to doubt it. It was an experience as real, as powerfully confirmed by the senses, as anything I have ever known."
Most scientists today would say that Neuhaus's vision was the product of him confusing an inner voice for an outer voice. He was suffering the sort of mental illusion that sometimes befalls epileptics before a seizure.
Neuhaus took it the other way. While most people might use the science of life to demystify death, Neuhaus used death to mystify life.
Anybody reading this had a near-death experience? If so, what was it like?
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I was in the hospital recovering from a total hip replacement. One night, I 'woke' up and sat up, much like Fr. Neuhaus. The difference for me was that I began to slowly rise up from the bed. I remember thinking that this was impossible, so I lifted my arm, and saw what only can be described as an aura of light in the shape of my arm. I then turned my head and looked out the door (physically impossible for me because my spine is fused) and saw nurses walking by going about their work. I realized that I totally aware of myself and experienced my surroundings exactly as I do now. It was just at this point that I realized that I was or might be in fact dying or dead. I immediately panicked and thought/said, "I am not ready to die!". There was an immediate rush, sort of like the sound of water or wind, and I was physically pulled down. I came to with my eyes wide open and my heart pounding. Ever since that night I have not been afraid of the experience of death. I like Fr. Neuhaus understand the experience to be a particular grace that allowed me to briefly see that death really is just a passing through a thin veil.
To be serious: There are a couple books out now by a guy named Don Piper called 90 Minutes in Heaven, and Heaven is Real. He claims that he died, not just had a NDE. I.e., he was in a car accident (in Texas) and was clinically dead (confirmed by EMTs at the scene, I believe) and then revived, miraculously, perhaps due to the prayers of a person who came upon the accident. He says heaven is just like the Bible describes it, with literal streets of gold, etc. I.e., it's a Baptist's death experience. He says his experience was totally unlike NDEs - no tunnel of light, no body of light, etc.
So, what does that mean - that NDE's are an illusion? A lesser experience? A Near-Death Experience, but quantitatively and qualitatively different from a Death Experience?
I remember going to see/hear a man named Richard Eby (a doctor of osteopathy, I believe) who also supposedly had a death (not NDE) experience - he fell of a balcony and his head broke open and all his blood came out, his brain was exposed, etc. He wrote a book about it, Caught Up Into Paradise, as well as about the time God took him to/showed him Hell. IIRC, his death experience was also quite different from NDEs. You can read the excerpt about his death experience (wrongly referred to as a NDE) here:
http://www.near-death.com/forum/nde/000/91.html
I'm not sure we have medical attestation to his death, though. (But we could see the scar, plus the nerves to his salivary glands remained damaged, so he always had to be taking sips of water, IIRC.)
I once had a Near Life Experience. Turned out it was a delusion. Since then I don't believe in life after birth.
If you're interested in this type of thing, read "Life after Life" by Dr. Raymond Moody.
LOL, Roland! I sometimes find myself falling into that delusion, as well. ; )
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