- a sensation of floating out of the body, which may include seeming to view the body from above;
- feelings of peace, joy or tranquility;
- a life-review in which previous life events are reviewed or relived in some sped-up manner;
- a passage through a tunnel;
- an encounter with a very bright light or a “being of light” or a light that is somehow sensed to be numinous or a source of thought or feeling;
- an experience of seeing some heavenly or supernatural realm;
- an experience of seeming to see one or more deceased relatives;
- an experience of being told that you must “go back” and continue to live your regular life;
- an experience of having heightened consciousness, mentality or perception.
Could it be that such experiences are just a kind of modern myth that arose about 45 years ago, and that people continue to have such experiences because they are kind of “following a cultural script”? One way to test that idea is to see whether there are any accounts of such experiences very long before the publication of Life After Life.
As it happens, a few nineteenth century books contain accounts that have some of the characteristics listed above. One such book is the 1873 book Biography of Mrs J.H. Conant the World's Medium of the Nineteenth Century by Allen Putnam. The book can be read in full here. On page 36 of the book we are told Mrs. Conant received a bad overdose that caused a doctor to declare that “she must die.” Mrs. Conant then fell into a “deathly stupor.” She then experienced a near-death experience described below:
“Nature rallied, and she rapidly recovered. When she regained full consciousness, she remembered that she seemed to have been in some beautiful place, she thought was heaven. Here she met the mother who left her in earlier years, and when she wept and begged to be allowed to stay with her, her parent gently but firmly told her that she must return to earth life — that she had yet a mission to perform — and her poor tempest-tossed bark was again obliged to put to sea from out the haven of peace where it hoped to rest; but blessed were the assurances she received, that in due time she should again and finally cast anchor amid the golden sand that sparkles in the river of Paradise.”
So
we have in this 1873 account three of the common characteristics of a
near-death experience: a trip to a heaven-like place, a meeting with
a dead relative, and a communication that the person must return to
earthly life because the time was not right.
Another account of a near-death experience can be found in
the 1847 book "Autobiographical memoir of Sir John Barrow, Bart., late of the admirality." On page 398 of that book we have (from a letter by Beaufort) an account of an Admiral Beaufort who almost drowned at sea. The account is repeated on pages 176 to 179 of the 1863 book From
Matter to Spirit:
The Result of Ten Years of Experience in Spirit Manifestations,
Intended as a Guide to Enquirers
by Sophia Elizabeth de Morgan and Augustus de Morgan, as you can see by using this link (and also reported in an 1886 book you can read here). Beaufort states the following (I quote from the 1847 book):
"Many years ago, when I was a youngster on board one of his Majesty’s ships, in Portsmouth harbour, after sculling about in a very small boat, I was endeavouring to fasten her alongside the ship to one of the scuttlerings; in foolish eagerness I stepped upon the gunwale, the boat of course upset, and I fell into the water, and not knowing how to swim, all my efforts to lay hold either of the boat or of the floating sculls were fruitless....
With the violent but vain attempts to make myself heard I had swallowed much water; I was soon exhausted by my struggles, and before any relief reached me I had sunk below the surface—all hope had fled-— all exertion ceased—and I felt that I was drowning.
So far, these facts were either partially remembered after my recovery or supplied by those who had latterly witnessed the scene; for during an interval of such agitation a drowning person is too much occupied in catching at every passing straw, or too much absorbed by alternate hope and despair, to mark the succession of events very accurately. Not so, however, with the facts which immediately ensued; my mind had then undergone the sudden revolution which appeared to you so remarkable—and all the circumstances of which are now as vividly fresh in my memory as if they had occurred but yesterday.
From the moment that all exertion had ceased— which I imagine was the immediate consequence of complete suffocation—a calm feeling of the most perfect tranquillity superseded the previous tumultuous sensations—it might be called apathy, certainly not resignation, for drowning no longer appeared to be an evil—I no longer thought of being rescued, nor was I in any bodily pain. On the contrary, my sensations were now of rather a pleasurable cast, partaking of that dull but contented sort of feeling which precedes the sleep produced by fatigue. Though the senses were thus deadened, not so the mind; its activity seemed to be invigorated, in a ratio which defies all description—for thought rose after thought with a rapidity of succession that is not only indescribable, but probably inconceivable, by any one who has not himself been in a similar situation. The course of those thoughts I can even now in a great measure retrace—the event which had just taken place—the awkwardness that had produced it—the bustle it must have occasioned (for I had observed two persons jump from the chains)—the effect it would have on a most affectionate father—the manner in which he would disclose it to the rest of the family —and a thousand other circumstances minutely associated with home, were the first series of reflections that occurred. They took then a wider range—our last cruise—a former voyage, and shipwreck —my school—the progress I had made there, and the time I had misspent—and even all my boyish pursuits and adventures. Thus travelling backwards, every past incident of my life seemed to glance across my recollection in retrograde succession; not, however, in mere outline, as here stated, but the picture filled up with every minute and collateral feature; in short, the whole period of my existence seemed to be placed before me in a kind of panoramic review, and each act of it seemed to be accompanied by a consciousness of right or wrong, or by some reflection on its cause or its consequences ; indeed, many trifling events which had been long forgotten then crowded into my imagination, and with the character of recent familiarity.
May not all this be some indication of the almost infinite power of memory with which we may awaken in another world, and thus be compelled to contemplate our past lives? Or might it not in some degree warrant the inference that death is only a change or modification of our existence, in which there is no real pause or interruption? But, however that may be, one circumstance was highly remarkable ; that the innumerable ideas which flashed into my mind were all retrospective-—yet I had been religiously brought up—my hopes and fears of the next world had lost nothing of their early strength, and at any other period intense interest and awful anxiety would have been excited by the mere probability that I was floating on the threshold of eternity: yet at that inexplicable moment, when I had a full conviction that I had already crossed that. threshold, not a single thought wandered into the future—I was wrapt entirely in the past.
The length of time that was occupied by this deluge of ideas, or rather the shortness of time into which they were condensed, I cannot now state with precision, yet certainly two minutes could not have elapsed from the moment of suffocation to that of my being hauled up.
The strength of the flood tide made it expedient to pull the boat at once to another ship, where I underwent the usual vulgar process of emptying the water by letting my head hang downwards, then bleeding, chafing, and even administering gin; but my submersion had been really so brief, that, according to the account of the lookers on, I was very quickly restored to animation.
My feelings while life was returning were the reverse in every point of those which have been described above. One single but confused idea—a miserable belief that I was drowning —dwelt upon my mind, instead of the multitude of clear and definite ideas which had recently rushed through it—a helpless anxiety—a kind of continuous nightmare seemed to press heavily on every sense, and to prevent the formation of any one distinct thought—and it was with difficulty that I became convinced that I was really alive. Again, instead of being absolutely free from all bodily pain, as in my drowning state, I was now tortured by pain all over me; and though I have been since wounded in several places, and have often submitted to severe surgical discipline, yet my sufferings were at that time far greater; at least, in general distress."
This
astonishing account matches closely the “life review” accounts
told in modern near-death experiences. There is also a very strong
element of heightened mentality, heightened memory and heightened
consciousness that matches accounts of heightened mentality often
told in near-death experiences. Similarly, in 1892 Albert Heim described what it felt like to fall from a high height while mountain climbing. His account included a feeling of tranquility and a life review:
"Then I saw my whole past life take place in many images, as though on a stage at some distance from me. I saw myself as the chief character in the performance. Everything was transfigured as though by a heavenly light and everything was beautiful without grief, without anxiety and without pain. The memory of very tragic experiences I had had was clear but not saddening. I felt no conflict or strife; conflict had been transmuted into love. Elevated and harmonious thoughts dominated and united the individual images, and like magnificent music a divine calm swept through my soul. I became ever more surrounded by a splendid blue heaven with delicate roseate and violet cloudlets. I swept into it painlessly and softly and I saw that now I was falling freely through the air and that under me a snowfield lay waiting. Objective observations, thoughts, and subjective feelings were simultaneous. Then I heard a dull thud and my fall was over."
According to this book (page 108), Heim later published a book about the experiences of other people who had survived falls from heights. He said that almost 95% of such people reported a common set of characteristics. There was:
"rather calm seriousness, profound acceptance, and a dominant mental quickness and sense of surety. Mental activity became enormous, rising to a hundredfold velocity or intensity....Time became greatly expanded....In many cases there followed a sudden review of the individual's entire past."
"In
a few moments, my head fell to one side, my heart having ceased to
vibrate; then the whole involuntary machinery made one last effort
for breath, but in vain. In a moment my entire nervous system gave
one shake and all was still; all was quiet. I heard the doctors say,
“that is the last; he will not move again; he is dead.” Yes, I
heard all, but I did not see with my eyes. At this time it seemed to
me, that I was moving slowly through a warm atmosphere; and in the
distance I began to perceive a lighter or whiter spot in the
darkness. As this light gradually increased in size, it came nearer
to me, till finally it filled the room, and all outside. It was not
like the light of our sun—it was more white, more still. It
appeared to carry with it a life principle. At this moment I found
myself lying horizontally above my body and about two feet from it.
With no effort on my part I moved off from over my body and stood
upon my feet, about five feet from it. I knew that I had left my
body. I could see it on the bed..."
It is rather clear from these three accounts that the typical near-death experience described by Moody is not at all some cultural creation of recent decades, but is instead something matching experiences people had more than a century before Moody's book was written. Collectively these accounts have every one of the main characteristics of a near-death experience except for the “traveling through a tunnel” characteristic that only occurs in a minority of such experiences. I may note that each of the books I have cited are little-known books of very low readership, and their accounts have been almost never reported. We cannot at all suppose that accounts in recent decades were derived from these nineteenth century accounts that were so little known.
"1.A sailor who had been snatched from the waves, after lying for some time insensible on the deck of the vessel, proclaimed on his recovery that he had been in Heaven, and complained bitterly of his being restored to life as a great hardship. The man had been regarded as a worthless fellow; but from the time of the accident having occurred, his moral character was altered, and he became one of the best conducted sailors in the ship" (The Works of Sir Benjamin Brodie, vol. i. p. 184.)
2. I was once told by a near relative of mine — says De Quincey — that having in her childhood fallen into a river, and being on the very verge of death but for the assistance which reached her at the last critical moment, she saw in a moment her whole life, clothed in its forgotten incidents, arrayed before her as in a mirror, not successively, but simultaneously ; and she had a faculty developed as suddenly for comprehending the whole and every part. The heroine of this remarkable case, continues De Quincey, was a gid about nine years old, and there can be little doubt that she looked down as far within the crater of death — that awful volcano — as any human being ever can have done that has lived to draw back and to report her experience."
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