- 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;
- coming to some border or boundary that seems to be some "point of no return" between life and death;
- 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.
In my previous post "Four Near-Death Experiences of the Nineteenth Century," I described four near-death experiences that had been written before the year 1900. I discovered another case of this type by reading Michael Prescott's blog, which often discusses topics relating to life after death. You can read the original nineteeth century account by using the link here, which takes you to page 180 of Volume 8 of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, published in 1892.
The account by a Dr. Wiltse describes his experience after being inflicted with a severe case of typhoid fever that brought him to the brink of death. The account begins as follows:
After a period of unconsciousness, Dr. Wiltse describes waking up in some new state of consciousness:
"I came again into a state of conscious existence and discovered that I was still in the body, but the body and I had no longer any interests in common. I looked in astonishment and joy for the first time upon myself—the me, the real Ego, while the not me closed it upon all sides like a sepulchre of clay. With all the interest of a physician, I beheld the wonders of my bodily anatomy, intimately interwoven with which, even tissue for tissue, was I, the living soul of that dead body. I learned that the epidermis was the outside boundary of tlus ultimate tissues, so to speak, of the soul. I realised my condition and reasoned calmly thus. I have died, as men term death, and yet I am as much a man as ever. I am about to get out of the body. I watched the interesting process of the separation of soul and body."
Wiltse described a weird experience that sounds like an account of his soul or spirit passing through his head. He stated, "As I emerged from the head I floated up and down and laterally like a soap-bubble attached to the bowl of a pipe until I at last broke loose from the body and fell lightly to the floor, where I slowly rose and expanded into the full stature of a man." He then describes something that reminds me of some scene from the popular movie Ghost:
"As I turned, my left elbow came in contact with the arm of one of two gentlemen, who were standing in the door. To my surprise, his arm passed through mine without apparent resistance, the severed parts closing again without pain, as air reunites. I looked quickly up at his face to see if he had noticed the contact, but he gave me no sign, —only stood and gazed toward the couch I had just left. I directed my gaze in the direction of his, and saw my own dead body. It was lying just as I had taken so much pains to place it, partially upon the right side, the feet close together and the hands clasped across the breast. I was surprised at the paleness of the face. I had not looked in a glass for some days and had imagined that I was not as pale as most very sick people are."
Wiltse then describes trying to get people to notice him, without success:
"I now attempted to gain the attention of the people with the object of comforting them as well as assuring them of their own immortality. I bowed to them playfully and saluted with my right hand. I passed about among them also, but found that they gave me no heed. Then the situation struck me as humorous and I laughed outright."
Wiltse then reports going out on the street. He states this:
"I crossed the porch, descended the steps, walked down the path and into the street. There I stopped and looked about me. I never saw that street more distinctly than I saw it then. I took note of the redness of the soil and of the washes the rain had made."
The "I never saw that street more distinctly" part reminds us of frequent statements made by more recent people having near-death experiences, who often report enhanced vision or perception during an out-of-body experience.
Wiltse reports being sure he has died:
" ' How well I feel,' I thought. ' Ouly a few minutes ago I was horribly sick and distressed. Then came that change, called death, which I have so much dreaded. It is past now, and here am I still a man, alive and thinking, yes, thinking as clearly as ever, and how well I feel, I shall never be sick again. I have no more to die.' "
Wiltse then gives a strange report of being brought to a kind of decision place, rather like a fork in a road:
"I had walked but a few steps when I again lost my consciousness, and when I again awoke found myself in the air, where I was upheld by a pair of hands, which I could feel pressing lightly against my sides. The owner of the hands, if they had one, was behind me, and was shoving me through the air at a swift but a pleasant rate of speed. By the time I fairly realised the situation I was pitched away and floated easily down a few feet, alighting gently upon the beginning of a narrow, but well built roadway."
Skipping over various details, I can tell that Wiltse eventually describes encountering some mysterious intelligence:
"The cloud became concave on the under surface like a great tent and began slowly to revolve upon its perpendicular axis. When it had turned three times, I was aware of a presence, which I could not see, but which I knew was entering into the cloud from the southern side. The presence did not seem, to my mind, as a form, because it filled the cloud like some vast intelligence."
Wiltse describes being offered a choice, which he quotes without recalling the exact words:
"The following is as near as I can render it : — . 'This is the road to the eternal world. Yonder rocks are the boundary between the two worlds and the two lives. Once you pass them, you can no more return into the body. If your work was to write the things that have been taught you, waiting for mere chance to publish them, if your work was to talk to private individuals in the privacy of friendship—if this was all, it is done, and you may pass beyond the rocks. If, however, upon consideration you conclude that it shall be to publish as well as to write what you are taught, if it shall be to call together the multitudes and teach them, it is not done and you can return into the body.' "
Wiltse reports making what he thinks is an indication that he wants to move on to the Great Beyond. But he reports that such an indication did not work as he expected:
"It seemed like taking a good deal of responsibility, but I determined to do it, and advanced the left foot across the line. As I did so, a small, densely black cloud appeared in front of me and advanced toward my face. I knew that I was to be stopped. I felt the power to move or to think leaving me. My hands fell powerless at my side, my shoulders and head dropped forward, the cloud touched my face and I knew no more. Without previous thought and without apparent effort on my part, my eyes opened. I looked at my hands and then at the little white cot upon which I was lying, and realising that I was in the body, in astonishment and disappointment, I exclaimed : What in the world has happened to me ? Must I die again ? I was extremely weak, but strong enough to relate the above experience despite all injunctions to quiet."
Using the link above, you can find that a writer at the Society for Psychical Research gathered statements from various people present during the severe illness of Wiltse, who corroborated the fact that he was incredibly sick, and also that after gaining consciousness he said that he had a remarkable story that he must tell.
It is rather common in reports of near-death experiences for someone to say that he or she came to some kind of border or bridge, with the understanding that crossing this border or bridge would be the difference between this earthly life and the next life. Such a border or "point of no return" is one of the 33 items on the Greyson Scale listing common elements of near-death experiences, and according to one survey is reported by something like a quarter of those who have near-death experiences. My wife says that she had a friend who had a near-death experience that involved coming to a bridge, with the understanding that if she crossed the bridge she could not come back to this earthly life.
Another nineteenth century account of a near-death experience can be found on page 71 of Volume 2 of the Annals of Psychical Science (1906). Here is the account by a Professor Pastore, originally published in 1887:
"I have been through a very severe illness. At the crisis, when I had entirely lost consciousness of physical pain, the power of my imagination was increased by an extraordinary degree, and I saw clearly in a most distinct confusion (two words which do not accord, but which, to this caae, are the only ones which will express the idea) -- I saw myself as a little boy, a youth, a man, at various periods of my life; a dream, but a most powerful, intense, living dream. In that immense, blue, luminous space my mother met me-my mother who had died four years previously. It was an indescribable sensation."
Here we have three different elements of a near-death experience: the "life review," the meeting with a deceased relative, and the impression of increased mentality or consciousness.
The 1866 book The Night Side of Nature reported a case of a near-death life review occurring in 1733. The book states the following on page 133:
"In the year 1733, Johaim Schwerzeger fell into a
similar state of trance, after an illness, but revived.
He said he had seen his whole life, and every sin he had
committed, even those he had quite forgotten — every-
thing had been as present to him as when it happened.
He also lamented being recalled from the happiness he
was about to enter into; but said that he had only two
days to spend in this valley of tears, during which time
he wished everybody that would, should come and
listen to what he had to tell them. His before sunken
eyes now looked bright, his face had the bloom of
youth, and he discoursed so eloquently that the minister
said they had exchanged offices, and the sick man had
become his teacher. He died at the time he had foretold."
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