Eyewitness accounts of life after life. What people remember after clinical death Who survived clinical death the day before yesterday
How do images and sounds and related thoughts appear in our inner world? Is all this the result of the work of brain cells? Is consciousness really born in the brain?
The mechanistic approach that the brain is the center of human consciousness is questioned by many modern scientists. The reason for this is ongoing clinical death research. Their results suggest that consciousness can exist outside of the body.
Important! These studies were based on the stories of people who experienced clinical death. And this experience, although somewhat frightening, but,
Dutch scientist Pim van Lommel in the annotation to his scientific article “Consciousness without a place. A concept based on a scientific study of people after near-death experiences, released in 2013 wrote:
According to my research, at present, the materialistic view of the location of consciousness in the brain, which is held by most doctors, philosophers and psychologists, is too limited for a correct understanding of this subject.
There are good reasons to believe that our consciousness is not limited to the physical brain.
A person can think and be aware of the world even when his brain is dead.
Incredible, isn't it?
I learned about these studies of Pim Van Lommel recently, and I was really struck by what he came up with.
Consciousness is not equal to the brain. The thinking consciousness exists outside the brain.
How the scientist came to such conclusions, I will tell in this article.
It all started with a question:
What did people who survived clinical death see?
It has long been known what exactly people who have experienced clinical death see. We've all heard about the light at the end of the tunnel, the dark hallway, and the meeting with dead relatives.
According to research, most often people talk about leaving their body and how they see themselves from the outside.
“I barely glanced at the crowded operating room, the sirens called for my doctor to rush to me, I saw her looking at my body and talking to him (to me) while I hovered above - happy, healthy and overwhelmed with emotions.”
“I remember how they took me on a stretcher along a long corridor, they put a type of mask with a nasty smell on my face and said “breathe deeply, like in physical education,” I breathed a couple of times and don’t remember anything. Then the memories came very clear - I leave the body (from under the ribs, solar plexus?) and head along the trajectory to the left corner of the ceiling.
I see myself in the form of a pink cloud, not quite round, but slightly squashed above and below. It is alive and moves a little, and the shape also changes a little, but the dimensions are the same. Ease, close to bliss, is difficult to describe. With earthly sensations, it can only be compared to how to swim under water and there is not enough air, and you swim with the last of your strength and when you emerge, you swallow the air with a full chest. How can you convey these feelings? Only there they are different, lighter, as if they were in their own world. From such pleasure, I was not even surprised at my condition, there was a feeling that I had already been in it once, or, in any case, it should be so. No fear, no pain - complete "comfort". Below, I saw the operating table and my body.
Two doctors stood over my body and one next to my head. All of them were women. "Oh, am I there?" I thought indifferently, “what are they doing to me?”
I immediately became uninterested. I was much more interested in what I can see through the walls - the ambulance drove up, this is also not interesting.
“Wow, but the house is made of logs!” I exclaimed to myself. I was very struck by this, although it was plastered on both sides.
Then I looked in the other direction and through the walls I saw the wards - there was nothing interesting there, I saw a man sitting in the corridor - he grabbed his head with his hands, his elbows on his knees. Then I remembered my parents, I thought that they might worry about me.
But, I didn’t feel any longing or craving for them. There was no love that I loved them on earth. I was also overcome by indifference - I enjoyed my condition. Suddenly there was a clear, well-placed voice "It's time to go back!". I even thought that as a radio announcer, but I realized that this concerns me.
“No, no, I don’t want to, I feel so good here! I got so worked up there! I don't want!"
Both of these women went out of their bodies and continued to "think". People who had no brain activity tell about similar experiences!
They were in a state of clinical death for several minutes.
Consciousness after death
It is this phenomenon of going out of the body during clinical death that is being studied by the Dutch cardiologist Dr. Pim van Lommel.
He observed near-death states from a scientific point of view. Colleagues around the world criticized his work.
“I wondered how these people could remain conscious during cardiac arrest. Prior to this, there were only retrospective studies conducted on individual patients. Based on this, scientists concluded that such a phenomenon could be caused by a lack of oxygen in the brain, fear, hallucinations, and side effects of drugs. However, no real prospective scientific studies have been conducted.
And in 1988 we started such a prospective study in ten Dutch hospitals. We studied 44 cases where patients survived cardiac arrest.”
These data confirmed that consciousness can exist outside the body..
“Consciousness was thought to be a function of the brain. This hypothesis has never been proven. And we must return to discussing it, because people who experience near-death experience, according to the study, lose consciousness within a few seconds. There are no reflexes in the cerebral cortex and in its stem part. Clinical studies have recorded dilated pupils, the absence of breathing, for which the respiratory center in the medulla oblongata is responsible.
When trying to measure the electrical activity of the brain on an electroencephalogram, we see a straight line after 15 seconds, and in the case of all patients, it takes at least 20 seconds, and often much more, before they are resuscitated.
Near-death survivors, according to our study, retained cognitive ability (vision, memory, etc.), the ability to think clearly, and the ability to experience emotions, even though their brains were not functioning.
That is, it seems to me that the results of our study are sufficient grounds to return to the question that consciousness can exist outside the body.
I believe that the brain is not the focus of consciousness».
Thanks to everyone who read to the end. Write, in the comments to this article, your opinion on the question: can we now assume that consciousness exists by itself? And if you are interested in my personal experience, how I use the power of consciousness,
psychology: Where do you get such a keen interest in the other world? Maybe you were born and raised in a religious family?
Raymond Moody: Not at all. I was born in a small town in Georgia, in the southeastern United States, in June 1944, the same day my father boarded a warship, serving in the Navy as a corpsman during World War II. When he returned, he completed his medical studies and became a surgeon. My father is a born doctor and loved his profession very much. He was a committed atheist and we never talked about religion with him. He perceived death only as the cessation of life and the extinction of consciousness. Unfortunately, he was harsh and implacable when he stood up for his beliefs, so I was always afraid of him. I must say, I was an inquisitive child, so my parents sent me to a private school for gifted children. I was very fond of space and astronomy. At the age of 14, I was already proud of the fact that I twice had the opportunity to meet and talk at length with NASA employee Wernher von Braun, a well-known specialist in the field of rocket science. Later at the university, I enrolled in a course in astronomy. As you can see, I had a rather scientific, materialistic mindset.
What changed the direction of your thoughts?
R. M.: I once read Plato's Republic*. His philosophy literally captured me! And I was struck by the curious story that concludes the first part of this book, the myth of Era, the Greek soldier whose body was found on the battlefield ... and then he suddenly came back to life and told about the wanderings of his soul in the realm of the dead. Later, in 1965, our philosophy teacher told us about the journey to the next world of George Ritchie, a psychiatrist who was declared clinically dead from pneumonia. Upon waking up, Richie spoke of his experiences, the details of which strangely echoed Er's narrative, in particular in the description of the "unspeakable light". Driven by curiosity, I met this friendly and sincere man, and he told me about his adventure in great detail. A few years later, when I was already teaching philosophy at the university, where I gave a lecture on the legend told by Plato, a student approached me and shared his own experience, which was similar to that experienced by Er and Richie. And again he mentioned this light, which defies description. Coincidence or not? I decided to test this by regularly mentioning these stories in my lectures. As a result, my home soon became a gathering place for students who wanted to talk about these experiences! Then other people began to bring their testimonies to me.
And it was these stories that inspired you to become a doctor?
R. M.: I naturally wanted to know more about life, about death, and about consciousness. I started studying medicine at the age of 28. In Georgia, many doctors heard about my research, and, oddly enough, I did not meet with any attacks from teachers and researchers. Everything happened as if the way before me opened by itself: they treated me very kindly and even offered me to give lectures. I became the most famous medical student in Georgia! Over the years I have collected dozens of stories of what I have called NDEs (Near Death Experiences). Then I wrote a book, Life After Life, in which I tried, refraining from trying to metaphysically interpret this evidence, and simply carefully presented it in order to ask important questions: were these people really dead? What is really going on with the brain? Why are all the stories so strangely similar? And, of course, the most important: is it possible to conclude that the spirit continues to live after death?
MANY DETAILS OF THESE STORIES MATCH: PEOPLE HEAR A DISORDER ROOM, LEAVE THE BODY, SEE A TUNNEL AND AN INCREDIBLE LIGHT, MEET THEIR LOVED FAMILY
What do those who have traveled beyond life and returned to it describe?
R. M.: During clinical death, they hear a strange hum, then exit their body and fall into a dark tunnel. They realize that they now have a “different body”, see an indescribable light, meet their deceased loved ones who are waiting for them, or a “light being” who guides them. In a few moments, their whole life passes in front of them, and, finally, they return to their body ... We have identified about fifteen stages that make up the “ideal” near-death experience: I must say, not all survivors go through all these stages. But their descriptions are identical, regardless of the person's age, country, culture, or creed. There are even cases where people blind from birth have experienced the same experience with the same visual images. And one more very important consequence, which is observed in everyone: "near-death experience" always causes a positive (sometimes radical) transformation of the personality. This "returning of the self" brings about deep, lasting complex changes. By the way, this aspect is of interest to psychologists and psychotherapists who work with this topic.
Was it easy for you to get recognition for your research?
R. M.: I wouldn't say it's difficult. In the US, my work was immediately well received in medical circles, because I never tried to prove the existence of an afterlife. I focused only on what happens to the human psyche when we are in a state close to death. After all, the definition of clinical death is still rather vague ... The research that I started was continued all over the world. And I got into other aspects of this topic, in particular, such as the "negative" near-death experience, which is reported by people who have experienced terrifying experiences. I am especially interested in "shared" near-death experiences: sometimes relatives or a nurse caring for a person empathically experience this experience with the dying person. This phenomenon is not as rare as it seems, and I have described it in detail**. We have also found that some people can experience a NDE, or at least some of its stages, spontaneously without being near-death.
And in this case, the person is still internally changing?
R. M.: Yes, that's why I began to be interested in the therapeutic potential of this phenomenon and to explore related areas. To better understand the near-death experience, one must consider it not as a unique phenomenon, but in the context of other phenomena that have an equally healing effect on the soul. For example, very common in the US methods of psychotherapy aimed at past lives. In the late 1980s, I discovered that we have the ability to "greet" deceased loved ones in a special, altered state of consciousness. I relied here on the ancient Greek tradition of the so-called psychomanteums - the oracles of the dead (they are described by Homer and Herodotus), special places where people came to talk with the souls of the dead.
Are you not afraid to get a reputation as a mystic in the scientific world with such a subject of research?
R. M.: My experiments with the so-called psychomanteum, which I continue to this day, brought me trouble ... only from my father! The fact is that I suffer from a rare disease, myxedema. This is an underactive thyroid gland. She played a fatal role in my life, causing me to make terrible mistakes. For example, because of her, I entrusted the management of my finances to a man who ruined me, I got divorced and even went as far as attempting suicide. My father, being sure that my experiments were the fruit of a sick imagination, made me hospitalize in a psychiatric hospital ... Fortunately, my friends came to my aid. In the end, I was treated and everything went back to normal. Now that everything is behind me, I can say that this illness has done me good: it has developed my capacity for empathy and helped me better understand people who face difficult trials at the end of their lives.
You talk about NDEs as a given. But many still deny its existence...
R. M.: This experience has long been officially considered a real psychic phenomenon. Those who deny it are simply ignorant... It is clear that the approach of death and the transition to the afterlife can cause atavistic fear in some people. To calm down, they just need to look at the many doctors, neurophysiologists or scientists who work in this field or even agree to talk about their experiences. All attempts to interpret the near-death experience as a hallucination, a fantasy, a reaction to a lack of oxygen, or the release of endorphins are recognized as unfounded. Read Dutch cardiologist Pim van Lommel, who conducted the largest scientific study of the near-death experience in history.
But after all, you yourself have said for a very long time that you are skeptical about all this?
R. M.: I believe that we do not yet have "scientific" evidence for life after death, because the methods of modern science do not allow us to explore this human experience. I would even say that we need a new definition of near-death experience, because, as I suggested, it should not be considered as an autonomous psychic phenomenon, but as one of the exclusive experiences associated with death, along with reincarnation, the appearance of ghosts, mediumship ... We know that consciousness is not only a product of the activity of the brain and our neural connections. Today I think that the spirit, the soul continues to live after life. We can say that we have approached the doors of paradise, but we still do not know what is hidden behind them ...
Based on the materials of the newspaper "AiF"
There is life after death. And there are thousands of testimonials to that. Until now, fundamental science has brushed aside such stories. However, as Natalya Bekhtereva, a famous scientist who has studied the activity of the brain all her life, said, our consciousness is such matter that it seems that the keys to the secret door have already been picked up. But ten more are revealed behind it ... What is still behind the door of life?
She sees through everything...
Galina Lagoda was returning with her husband in a Zhiguli from a country trip. Trying to disperse on a narrow highway with an oncoming truck, my husband swerved sharply to the right ... The car was crushed against a tree standing by the road.
intravision
Galina was brought to the Kaliningrad regional hospital with severe brain damage, ruptures of the kidneys, lungs, spleen and liver, and many fractures. The heart stopped, the pressure was at zero.
“Flying through the black space, I found myself in a shining, light-filled space,” Galina Semyonovna tells me twenty years later. Standing in front of me was a huge man dressed in dazzling white. I couldn't see his face because of the beam of light directed at me. "Why did you come here?" he asked sternly. "I'm very tired, let me rest a little." "Rest and come back - you still have a lot to do."
Having regained consciousness after two weeks, during which she was balancing between life and death, the patient told the head of the resuscitation department, Yevgeny Zatovka, how the operations were carried out, which of the doctors stood where and what they did, what equipment they brought, from which cabinets what they got.
After another operation on a shattered arm, Galina asked an orthopedic doctor during a morning medical round: “Well, how is your stomach?” From amazement, he did not know what to answer - indeed, the doctor was tormented by pain in his stomach.
Now Galina Semyonovna lives in harmony with herself, believes in God and is not at all afraid of death.
"Flying like a cloud"
Yuri Burkov, a reserve major, does not like to reminisce about the past. His wife Lyudmila told his story:
- Yura fell from a great height, broke his spine and received a head injury, lost consciousness. After cardiac arrest, he lay in a coma for a long time.
I was under terrible stress. During one of her visits to the hospital, she lost her keys. And the husband, finally regaining consciousness, first of all asked: “Did you find the keys?” I shook my head in fear. “They are under the stairs,” he said.
Only many years later, he confessed to me: while he was in a coma, he saw my every step and heard every word - and no matter how far I was from him. He flew in the form of a cloud, including where his dead parents and brother live. The mother persuaded her son to return, and the brother explained that they were all alive, only they no longer had bodies.
Years later, sitting at the bedside of his seriously ill son, he reassured his wife: “Lyudochka, don’t cry, I know for sure that now he will not leave. Another year will be with us." And a year later, at the commemoration of his dead son, he admonished his wife: “He did not die, but only before you and I moved to another world. Trust me, I've been there."
Savely KASHNITSKY, Kaliningrad - Moscow
Childbirth under the ceiling
“While the doctors were trying to pump me out, I observed an interesting thing: a bright white light (there is nothing like it on Earth!) and a long corridor. And now I seem to be waiting to enter this corridor. But then the doctors revived me. During this time, I felt that THERE is very cool. I didn’t even want to leave!”
These are the memories of 19-year-old Anna R., who survived clinical death. Such stories can be found in abundance on Internet forums where the topic of "life after death" is discussed.
light in the tunnel
The light at the end of the tunnel, pictures of life flashing before our eyes, a feeling of love and peace, meetings with deceased relatives and a certain luminous being - patients who returned from the other world tell about this. True, not all, but only 10-15% of them. The rest did not see and did not remember anything at all. The dying brain does not have enough oxygen, so it is "buggy" - skeptics say.
Disagreements among scientists have reached the point that a new experiment was recently announced. For three years, American and British doctors will study the testimony of patients whose hearts have stopped or whose brains have been switched off. Among other things, the researchers are going to lay out various pictures on the shelves in intensive care units. You can see them only by soaring up to the very ceiling. If patients who have experienced clinical death retell their content, then the consciousness is really able to leave the body.
One of the first who tried to explain the phenomenon of near-death experience was Academician Vladimir Negovsky. He founded the world's first Institute of General Resuscitation. Negovsky believed (and since then the scientific view has not changed) that the "light at the end of the tunnel" is due to the so-called tubular vision. The cortex of the occipital lobes of the brain dies off gradually, the field of view narrows to a narrow band, giving the impression of a tunnel.
In a similar way, doctors explain the vision of pictures of a past life flashing before the eyes of a dying person. The structures of the brain fade away, and then are restored unevenly. Therefore, a person manages to remember the most vivid events that have been deposited in memory. And the illusion of leaving the body, according to doctors, is the result of a malfunction of nerve signals. However, skeptics are at an impasse when it comes to answering more tricky questions. Why do people who are blind from birth see and then describe in detail what is happening in the operating room around them at the moment of clinical death? And there is such evidence.
Leaving the body - a defensive reaction
It is curious, but many scientists do not see anything mystical in the fact that consciousness can leave the body. The only question is what conclusion to draw from this. Dmitry Spivak, a leading researcher at the Institute of the Human Brain of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who is a member of the International Association for the Study of Near-Death Experiences, assures that clinical death is just one of the options for an altered state of consciousness. “There are a lot of them: these are dreams, and a drug experience, and a stressful situation, and a consequence of illnesses,” he says. “According to statistics, up to 30% of people at least once in their lives felt out of the body and watched themselves from the side.”
Dmitry Spivak himself investigated the mental state of women in labor and found out that about 9% of women experience “leaving the body” during childbirth! Here is the testimony of 33-year-old S.: “During childbirth, I had a lot of blood loss. Suddenly, I began to see myself from under the ceiling. Pain disappeared. And about a minute later, she also unexpectedly returned to her place in the ward and again began to experience severe pain. It turns out that "out of the body" is a normal phenomenon during childbirth. Some kind of mechanism embedded in the psyche, a program that works in extreme situations.
Undoubtedly, childbirth is an extreme situation. But what could be more extreme than death itself?! It is possible that "flight in the tunnel" is also a protective program, which turns on at a fatal moment for a person. But what will happen to his consciousness (soul) next?
“I asked one dying woman: if there really is something THERE, try to give me a sign,” recalls Andrey Gnezdilov, MD, who works at the St. Petersburg Hospice. “And on the 40th day after her death, I saw her in a dream. The woman said, "This is not death." Long years of work in the hospice convinced me and my colleagues that death is not the end, not the destruction of everything. The soul continues to live.
Dmitry PISARENKO
Cup and polka dot dress
This story was told by Andrey Gnezdilov, MD: “During the operation, the patient's heart stopped. The doctors were able to start him, and when the woman was transferred to intensive care, I visited her. She lamented that she was not operated on by the surgeon who promised. But she could not see a doctor, being all the time in an unconscious state. The patient said that during the operation, some kind of force pushed her out of the body. She calmly looked at the doctors, but then she was seized with horror: what if I die without having time to say goodbye to my mother and daughter? And her consciousness instantly moved home. She saw that her mother was sitting, knitting, and her daughter was playing with a doll. Then a neighbor came in and brought a polka-dot dress for her daughter. The girl rushed to her, but touched the cup - it fell and broke. The neighbor said: “Well, this is good. Apparently, Yulia will be discharged soon.” And then the patient was again at the operating table and heard: "Everything is in order, she is saved." Consciousness returned to the body.
I went to visit the relatives of this woman. And it turned out that during the operation ... a neighbor with a polka-dot dress for a girl looked in on them and a cup was broken.
This is not the only mysterious case in the practice of Gnezdilov and other workers of the St. Petersburg hospice. They are not surprised when a doctor dreams about his patient and thanks him for his care, for his touching attitude. And in the morning, having arrived at work, the doctor finds out: the patient died at night ...
Church opinion
Priest Vladimir Vigilyansky, head of the press service of the Moscow Patriarchate:
Orthodox people believe in an afterlife and immortality. In the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments there are many confirmations and testimonies to this. We consider the very concept of death only in connection with the coming resurrection, and this mystery ceases to be such if we live with Christ and for the sake of Christ. “Whoever lives and believes in Me will never die,” says the Lord (John 11:26).
According to legend, the soul of the deceased in the first days walks in those places where she worked the truth, and on the third day ascends to heaven to the throne of God, where until the ninth day she is shown the abodes of the saints and the beauty of paradise. On the ninth day, the soul again comes to God, and it is sent to hell, where ungodly sinners reside and where the soul goes through thirty-day ordeals (tests). On the fortieth day, the soul again comes to the Throne of God, where it appears naked before the court of its own conscience: did it pass these tests or not? And even in the case when some trials convict the soul of its sins, we hope for the mercy of God, in whom all deeds of sacrificial love and compassion will not remain in vain.
Survivors of clinical death say that they saw the light at the end of the tunnel, said goodbye to relatives, looked at their body from the side and experienced the feeling of flying. Scientists cannot understand this, because the brain almost completely stops its work in this state shortly after the heart stops. It follows that in a state of clinical death, a person, in principle, cannot feel or experience anything. But people feel. Collected stories of people who survived clinical death. Names have been changed.
Novel
A few years ago I was diagnosed with hypertension and admitted to the hospital. The treatment was murky and consisted of injections, systems and various tests, but there was not much to do in the afternoon. There were two of us in a four-bed ward, doctors say that in summer there are usually fewer patients. I met a colleague in misfortune, and it turned out that we have a lot in common: we are almost the same age, both love to pick electronics, I am a manager, and he is a supplier - in general, there was something to talk about.
The trouble came suddenly. As he later told me: “You spoke, then fell silent, your eyes were glassy, took 3-4 steps and fell.” I woke up three days later in intensive care. What do I remember? Never mind! Nothing at all! I woke up, very surprised: pipes everywhere, beeping something. I was told that I was lucky that everything was in the hospital, my heart did not beat for about three minutes. I recovered quickly - in a month. I live a normal life and take care of my health. But I saw no angels, no tunnel, no light. Nothing at all. My personal conclusion: it's all lies. He died and there is nothing more.
Anna
- My clinical death occurred during pregnancy on January 8, 1989. Around 10:00 pm, I began to bleed profusely. There was no pain, only severe weakness and chills. I realized that I was dying.
In the operating room, various devices were connected to me, and the anesthesiologist began to read their testimony aloud. Soon I began to suffocate, and I heard the words of the doctor: “I am losing contact with the patient, I don’t feel her pulse, I need to save the child.” The voices of those around him began to fade, their faces blurred, then darkness fell.
I found myself back in the operating room. But now I feel good, easy. Doctors fussed around the body lying on the table. Approached him. It was me lying. My split shocked me. She could even float in the air. I swam to the window. It was dark outside, and suddenly panic seized me, I felt that I must certainly attract the attention of doctors. I began to scream that I had already recovered and that there was nothing more to be done with me - with that one. But they didn't see or hear me. I was tired from the tension and, having risen higher, hung in the air.
A shining white beam appeared under the ceiling. He descended to me, not blind and not burning. I realized that the ray was calling to itself, promising liberation from isolation. Without thinking, she walked towards him.
I moved along the beam, as if to the top of an invisible mountain, feeling completely safe. Having reached the top, I saw a wonderful country, a harmony of bright and at the same time almost transparent colors that sparkled around. It cannot be described in words. I looked around with all my eyes, and everything that was around filled me with such admiration that I shouted: “God, what a beauty! I have to write all of this." I was seized with a burning desire to return to my former reality and display in the pictures everything that I saw here.
Thinking about it, I found myself back in the operating room. But this time she looked at her as if from the side, as if at the screen of a cinema. And the movie looked black and white. The contrast with the colorful landscapes of the wonderful country was striking, and I decided to go there again. The feeling of charm and admiration did not pass. And every now and then the question arose in my head: “So am I alive or not?” And I also feared that if I went too far into this unknown world, there would be no return. And at the same time, I really did not want to part with such a miracle.
We were approaching a huge cloud of pink mist, I wanted to be inside it. But the Spirit stopped me. "Don't fly there, it's dangerous!" he warned. I suddenly became anxious, I felt some kind of threat and decided to return to my body. And found myself in a long dark tunnel. She flew over it alone, the Most Luminous Spirit was no longer around.
I opened my eyes. I saw doctors, a room with beds. I was on one of them. There were four people dressed in white around me. Raising my head, I asked, “Where am I? And where is that beautiful country?
The doctors looked at each other, one smiled and stroked my head. I felt ashamed for my question, because they probably thought that I was not all right with my head.
So I survived clinical death and being out of my own body. Now I know that those who have gone through this are not mentally ill, but normal people. Without standing out from the rest, they returned "from there", knowing such feelings and experiences that do not fit into generally accepted concepts and ideas. And I also know that during that journey I acquired more knowledge, comprehended and understood more than in my entire previous life.
Artem
- I did not see my body from the side at the time of death. And I'm very sorry about that.
At first there was just a sharp refracting light, after seconds it disappeared. It was impossible to breathe, I panicked. I realized that I was dead. There was no appeasement. Only panic. Then the need to breathe seemed to disappear, and this panic began to pass. After that, some strange memories began of what seemed to be before, but slightly modified. Something like feeling like it was, but not quite with you. It was like I was flying down some space and watching slides. All this caused a deja vu effect.
In the end, the feeling of being unable to breathe returned again, something was squeezing my throat. Then I started to feel like I was expanding. After he opened his eyes, something was inserted into his mouth, resuscitators fussed. I was very sick, my head hurt. The sensation of revival was extremely unpleasant. In a state of clinical death was about 6 minutes 14 seconds. It seems that he didn’t become an idiot, he didn’t discover any additional abilities, but on the contrary, he temporarily lost walking and normal breathing, as well as the ability to ride a bem, then he restored all this for a long time.
Alexander
- I experienced a state of clinical death when I studied at the Ryazan Airborne School. My platoon participated in reconnaissance group competitions. This is a 3-day marathon for survival with exorbitant physical exertion, which ends with a 10-kilometer march in full gear. I approached this last stage not in the best shape: on the eve I cut my foot with some kind of snag while crossing the river, we were constantly on the move, my leg hurt a lot, the bandage flew off, the bleeding resumed, I was in a fever. But I ran almost all 10 km, and I still don’t understand how I did it, and I don’t remember it well. A few hundred meters before the finish line, I passed out, and my comrades brought me there in their arms (by the way, participation in the competition was credited to me).
The doctor diagnosed "acute heart failure" and began to revive me. I have the following memories of the period when I was in a state of clinical death: I not only heard what others were saying, but also watched what was happening from the sidelines. I saw how something was injected into my heart, I saw how a defibrillator was used to revive me. And in my mind, the picture was like this: my body and doctors are on the stadium field, and my relatives are sitting in the stands and watching what is happening. In addition, it seemed to me that I could control the resuscitation process. There was a moment when I got tired of lying around, and I immediately heard the doctor say that I had a pulse. Then I thought: now there will be a general formation, everyone will tense up, but I deceived everyone and I can lie down - and the doctor shouted that my heart had stopped again. Finally I decided to return. I will add that I did not feel fear when I watched how I was revived, and in general, I did not treat this situation as a matter of life and death. It seemed to me that everything is in order, life goes on as usual.
Willie
During the fighting in Afghanistan, Willy Melnikov's platoon came under mortar fire. He was one of thirty who survived, but was seriously shell-shocked. He was unconscious for 25 minutes, his heart did not work for about eight minutes. What worlds did he visit? What did you feel? Willy Melnikov did not see any angels and devils. Everything was so fantastic that it is difficult to describe.
Willy Melnikov: “I moved in the depths of some bottomless-endless essence, matter, comparable to Stanislav Lem's Solaris. And inside this Solaris I moved, keeping myself as such, but at the same time I felt myself a part of it all. And I heard some languages that I had never heard before. Not that they were heard, came from there - they lived there, and I had the opportunity to breathe them.
He continued his journey and reached a mound of unimaginable height. Behind it stretched a space of indescribable depth. There was a great temptation to break down, but Willy resisted. Here he met strange creatures that constantly changed.
“It was a kind of symbiosis of plant, animal, architectural and, perhaps, some other field life form. And benevolence, and friendliness, such a kind invitation that came from these creatures.
Like many other people who found themselves in a state of clinical death, Willy Melnikov did not want to return. However, upon returning, the 23-year-old boy realized that he had become a different person.
Willy Melnikov today speaks 140 languages, including those that have disappeared. Before he experienced clinical death, he knew seven. He did not become a polyglot overnight. He admits that he always liked to study foreign speech. But he was very surprised when, in the first post-war years, he inexplicably remembered five dead languages.
“It is amazing that rather exotic languages of the native inhabitants of the Philippines and the Indians of the Americas “came” to me. But there are two more that I still haven't identified. I can speak, write, think in them, but what they are and where they come from, I still don’t know.”
Clinical death - how many scientific conclusions and mystical judgments exist on this topic! But a single, confirmed point of view about what a person feels at this moment has not been developed. LADY met with girls who had experienced clinical death and discussed with them what the phrase "I almost died" really means.
Maria Andreeva, Gestalt psychotherapist
I consider the circumstances in connection with which I almost died rather shameful: in principle, this is a story that I was unable to take care of myself and save myself. And most importantly, I could not ask for help when I needed to do it.
The situation was this: on Thursday I had a very bad stomach ache and the classic symptoms of appendicitis appeared. Having “successfully” diagnosed myself with a rotavirus infection, I began to self-medicate. There were no positive developments. But, according to my feelings, the stomach ached no longer so badly that I needed to seek help. When they talk about appendicitis and the risk of organ perforation, they predict some absolutely unbearable pain. It seemed to me that I did not experience such pain.
It got worse and worse, but I ignored my feelings. By Tuesday, I began to go blind, my blood pressure began to drop. Despite my resistance, my mother arrived and took me to the clinic. Consciousness was already losing its sharpness. I was examined by an infectious disease specialist and said that most likely it was peritonitis. The appendix ruptured a long time ago, and all the contents spilled into the abdominal cavity. The doctor told my mother: your daughter has practically no chance of surviving, get ready for the worst. Then they called an ambulance.
Memories, in spite of everything, I have some soft and bright. Maybe that's how psychological defense works. In that state there is no despair, no sharp struggle, anger and irritation. I felt only gratitude for the attention to me and care.
I remember how I was going to the hospital, looking out the window, and there the sky was unusually beautiful - it somehow calmed me. And in general, I didn’t think then about the need to somehow overcome it all, overcome it and everything will be fine. In my opinion, everything was so good. And that's an amazing observation.
When people now talk about being afraid of death, I understand that there is nothing terrible in the very experience of its immediate proximity. At least my near-death experience says so. Gracious acceptance of what is happening, peace, calm ... Fears, rather, are taken from the thought of one's finiteness and from uncertainty.
I was taken to the hospital and they took x-rays. I took a swallow of the tube, and that's the last thing I remember before I woke up. In fact, during the operation I had to be resuscitated and clinical death was registered. But I don't know anything about it. Periodically, people ask me if I saw any tunnels, light. No, I didn't see anything. Well, my experience is this. There was nothing mystical, esoteric or divine about it. I just fell asleep in one body, and woke up in a completely different one. Although, of course, I am curious about what happened to my consciousness then, but I will not romanticize.
I was operated on on August 21st, and I came to my senses probably on the 23rd. I remember how I realized myself in an unfamiliar environment. I tried to be scared, but I couldn't. Now I understand that this is the action of tranquilizers. And the next memory is this: a nurse comes up, greets me and is like: “And they pulled you out of the other world, you almost died.” I didn't even believe it.
I remember trying to figure out what date it is today. Probably three times I asked, forgot and remembered. I had to spend enormous forces so that the thought would not go anywhere, it went away anyway, and it was as if I reinvented it anew.
I lost a lot of weight, I quickly developed bedsores. The body was already preparing to die. In addition, I could only speak in a whisper - my voice was gone. At that moment, I began to realize how important he is in our lives. Literally: neither call nor answer. A lot of energy is spent on communication.
Maybe that's when the real fight began. I wanted to go back to my life "before" at all costs. I was sad because I missed two weeks of training, because I haven’t been tweeting for a long time. Yes, those are the simple things that crossed my mind. And I missed my family very much. It was then that I first crystallized the value of my family as something unshakable. Despite quarrels, claims and the bitterness of some memories, these are the only people who are by default nearby.
I spent ten days in intensive care, and I can say that during this time my arrogance has diminished. When I talk about it, I always use this expression. I may still seem a little arrogant now, but I used to be a much more arrogant person, very caustic and very defensive. But when you stay in a situation of powerlessness for a long time, there is more humanity and simplicity.
After 10 days of resuscitation, perhaps the happiest day of my life came in terms of depth, sincerity and severity of feelings. I still rate him that way. That was the day I was transferred to the general ward. A whole new phase of my daily life has begun. I had to get angry and annoyed a lot because absolutely simple things that are done by all people on the machine simply do not work out for me. I could not swallow normally, read for a long time, spoke in a whisper. And this is how my days should have gone. I was engaged in auto-training: “Masha, we are getting together, recovering, working.”
In this period, it is significant how difficult the meetings with some relatives and friends were. Most came to me with a kind of horror on their faces, with a kind of fussy care and great sympathy. And it didn't resonate with me at all. I had the impression that it was I who should take care of them now. Naturally, I didn't have the strength to do so. I myself felt normal and was glad that I survived. And at that moment I needed resilient people who would support me in my endurance.
Some time later I was discharged. And I got hungry. I was literally hungry, I wanted to eat everything. I remember walking into a store, seeing an onion, and salivating violently. I imagine how I would take an onion and bite off a piece straight. And I felt so delicious from these thoughts! But I was unable to do this, because I could not even swallow properly.
What gave me the proximity of death? I realized that life is somehow easier than I thought. Many decisions and many actions are much easier for me now. I can now stand up and walk through an open door, metaphorically speaking. And before, I invented some kind of labyrinths for myself, I didn’t see this door, I tried to invent it, or find it where it didn’t exist. And there was a bunch of imaginary obstacles, doubts, fears.
I became much bolder, but this impudence is not arrogantly narcissistic, but naively spontaneous. It doesn't cost me anything to leave the lecture if I'm not interested. I became less dependent on other people's criticism and other people's opinions, because the truth became available to me: if you undertake to do something, then this will inevitably entail some kind of aggression, some kind of depreciation - this is just the natural course of things.
I did an exercise recently. Its essence is as follows: a person plunges into the situation “what would he do if he had a year left to live”. And then this period of life is reduced - and if only six months, a month. I was surprised to find that I wouldn't change a thing. This does not mean that I live at the limit of my abilities, but I do feel some kind of simplicity of life and basic satisfaction. I can afford to be lazy and fall into childhood, and in this I accept myself, live it safely and move on. I think this is directly related to the fact that I was faced with dying, with the fact that everything is finite. And the only point is to do what you want. Only in this, there is simply no other meaning.
As for the negative side of the near-death experience, I developed hypochondria. It did not take any destructive forms, but nevertheless I felt anxiety, and if I found some kind of ailment in my body, I could not be distracted and think about something else. So great was the fear that the situation could repeat itself.
I also had one specific sensation. I discussed it with my friend, who also experienced clinical death - and it responded to him. The feeling is as follows: as if I have learned something, but I cannot put it into words. As if I know some secret, but this is a secret from myself. It haunted me for 4 years before I discussed it with my friend. He said yes, I have the same. And I felt a little better.
Over the past two years, I have accepted this experience of mine - not without regret that it was. But I have a clear inner conviction that this could not have happened in my life.
Tatiana Vorobieva, parapsychologist:
- I experienced clinical death when I had surgery on my spine. A normal dose of anesthesia was introduced, and I had to endure this state well. But something went wrong - it turned out that I had an individual intolerance to anesthesia ...
I woke up from the cry of the doctors: “Breathe, breathe, just breathe!”. I didn't understand how it happened, but it felt like I was being "pulled" back into my physical body. I didn’t dwell on this state then, because that day I was told that I would not be able to walk - it was full of other emotions.
I was in a state of clinical death for several seconds, but for 3-4 days after the incident, I fell into a strong trance state. My brain did not turn off, my heart rhythms were normal. But it felt like I was going out of my body - and I couldn't stop it.
It even seemed to me that I was at a consultation of doctors, where my case was being analyzed: they were discussing how to restore my ability to walk. Like, the operation did not go as planned. And I heard one phrase: clinical death lasted 40 seconds. I was very interested in this fact, and I began to think: how long does it take for the brain to die? ..
The next day I discussed what happened with the doctor. He treated me with great confidence, assured me that nothing catastrophic for the body had happened, and joked, they say, “you will be a psychic - you know such stories when unusual abilities were revealed after clinical death.”
When I fell asleep, I had the feeling that I was literally being sucked into sleep. Of course, our brain creates different images. I saw a very bright light, insanely white. He doesn't hit the eyes. You can look at him endlessly. You look at it - and you see the continuation. It's like there's something behind the light.
If you describe the physical changes that occurred to me after clinical death, then my level of vision began to fall. Now I have severe myopia. Also, thanks to NDEs, my sensitivity became really extremely strong. It seems that I understood the essence of all things - from the branch outside the window, to the bed in the room.
Having survived stressful conditions, I clearly understand: the brain began to work differently. Including as a neuropsychophysiologist, I can clearly explain that during any stressful effect on the body, a huge amount of free energy is released. Resentments, feelings, memories come out. A person does not discover something ingenious. It's just that the brain becomes clear and perceives information in a new way.
Everything happens for a reason. And you need to ask not “why did this happen to me?”, But “why do I need this?”.
Natalya Yakovenko, psychologist, psychoanalyst, head of the PsychoAnalitik.by Center for Psychology and Psychoanalysis:
“To touch death is like touching a hot frying pan. This is a very strong feeling. A person suddenly realizes something important - the finiteness of his own life. Because we don't really believe in our own death. This is how our psyche works.
When we come into contact with the reality of death in one way or another, we experience shock. It is valuable in that we have the opportunity to reconsider our lives and somehow distribute resources, realizing that we are not eternal and that it is impossible to live indefinitely with an unloved person or engage in an unloved business. We understand that we have a certain amount of time, and, accordingly, this time increases in value. Because people quickly rethink many things, they are ready for change much more than others. At the same time, it cannot be said that all people who have experienced such states have changed their lives. This only works if the person is able to interpret events and draw conclusions.
In a state of shock, a large amount of adrenaline enters the body. And since we are biological beings and our main task is to survive, the body reacts to danger in a certain way: it turns on all its resources to the maximum, and the brain, among other things, uses additional reserves. There is a very interesting phenomenon - dissociation, a kind of exit from the body. A person, being in a situation of acute trauma, which he is unable to survive without being destroyed, separates from his body and observes what is happening from the side. This saves him from destruction - "what is happening now is not happening to him." Dissociation is a psychological defense mechanism. What our psyche uses in a stressful situation in order to save itself.
