Near-death experiences first started to become well-known around 1975, with the popularity of Raymond Moody's book on the concept (entitled Life After Life). But we have very good reason to believe that such experiences have been a fact of human experience long before Moody's book. The 1973 book Glimpses of the Beyond: The Extraordinary Experiences of People Who Crossed the Brinks of Death and Returned by Jean-Baptiste Delacour preceded by several years the much more famous Life After Life book by Raymond Moody. You can read some of the Delacour book's many accounts of near-death experiences by reading my post "The Evidence for Out-of-Body Experiences," which also cites many accounts of out-of-body experiences collected by Robert Crookall in the 1960's (such accounts typically containing one of the main elements of near-death experiences). 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. In the post here I describe two other near-death experiences of the nineteenth century. Page 476 of the nineteenth century work "Man and His Relations" by Dr. Paul Joire gives another account of a near-death experience.
The pages here and here describe out-of-body experiences of the nineteenth century. The page here lists a nineteenth century near-death experience involving the "life review" so often reported in near-death experiences. On page 385 of the long and very interesting paper here, we read of a gravely ill man who was "conscious of something like a fleecy ball releasing itself from his physical form," with the man reporting he "distinctly saw my dead body lying upon the bed." On page 386 we read this:
"While waiting for the return of his companions, Mr. Bertrand apparently began to freeze to death, such that he was unable to rouse himself. After a brief moment of acute pain, he suddenly found himself 'a ball of air in the air, a captive balloon still attached to earth by a kind of elastic string and going up and always up. How strange! I see better than ever, and I am dead.... Looking down, I was astounded to recognise my own envelope.' "
The passage below was narrated in 1927 and quoted in the 1954 book The Personality of Man by G.N.M. Tyrrell:
"By ten o'clock I had developed all the symptoms of very acute poisoning; intense gastrointestinal pain, diarrhea; pulse and respirations became quite impossible to count, I wanted to ring for assistance, but found I could not, and so quite placidly gave up the attempt...I realised that I could see, not only my body and the bed in which it was, but everything in the whole house and garden, and then I realised that I was seeing, not only 'things' at home but in London and in Scotland, in fact wherever my attention was directed, it seemed to me; and the explanation which I received, from what source I do not know, but which I found myself calling to myself my mentor, was that I was free in a time-dimension of space, wherein 'now' was in some way equivalent to 'here' in the ordinary three-dimensional space of everyday life....I saw 'A' enter my bedroom; I realised she got a terrible shock and I saw her hurry to the telephone. I saw my doctor leave his patients and come very quickly, and heard him say, or saw him think, 'He is nearly gone.' I heard him quite clearly speaking to me on the bed, but I was not in touch with my body and could not answer him. I was really cross when he took a syringe and rapidly injected my body with something which I afterwards learned was camphor. As the heart began to beat more strongly, I was drawn back, and I was intensely annoyed, because I was so interested and just beginning to understand where I was and what I was 'seeing.' I came back into the body really angry at being pulled back, and once I was back, all the clarity of vision of anything and everything disappeared and I was just possessed of a glimmer of consciousness, which was suffused with pain."
We have here some of the main elements typically found in near-death experiences, including (1) an out-of-body experience including seeing the body from above; (2) a sense of heightened cognition and perception; and (3) disappointment at being brought back into the body. The account was taken down in shorthand by a secretary soon after the event.
Another near-death experience of the first half of the twentieth century is found in the interesting book The Imprisoned Splendour. We read the account of a man who was thrown twenty feet after his armored scout car got struck by a German anti-tank shell in 1944. We read this:
"I was conscious of being two persons -- one, lying on the ground in a field where I had fallen from the blast, my clothes, etc., on fire ...The other 'me' was floating up in the air, about twenty feet from my body, from which position I could see not only my other self on the ground, but also the hedge, the road, and the car, which was surrounded by smoke and burning fiercely."
The person reported telling himself to roll to put out the fire, and then once he did, his perception returned to normal. The account originally appeared on page 207 of the March-April 1948 edition of the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, which can be read here.
Andrew Jackson Davis was a famous American visionary and prodigy whose experiences are told in his long 1867 autobiography The Magic Staff. On page 133 of his book Harmonial Philosophy, Davis gives a description of a person's soul or astral body becoming visible at the time of someone's death. A footnote tells us the account is based on observations Davis had of dying people. He states this:
"A human being lies on the bed of death, and is indeed actually dying. It is to be a rapid death. The physical body grows negative and cold, in proportion as the elements of the spiritual body become warm and positive. The feet become cold first. The clairvoyant sees right over the head what may be called a magnetic halo — an ethereal emanation, golden in appearance and throbbing as though conscious. Now the body is cold up to the knees and elbows. The legs are then cold to the hips and the arms to the shoulders. The emanation is more expanded, though it has not risen higher in the room. The death-coldness steals over the breast and around on either side. The emanation has attained a position nearer the ceiling. The person has ceased to breathe, the pulse is still. The emanation is elongated and fashioned in the outline of the human form. It is connected beneath with the brain. The head of the person throbs internally — a slow, deep throb, not painful, but like the beat of the sea. The thinking faculties are rational, while nearly every part of the person is dead. The golden emanation is connected with the brain by a very fine life-thread. On the body of the emanation there appears something white and shining, like a human head ; next comes a faint outline of the face divine ; the fair neck and beautiful shoulders manifest, and then in rapid succession all parts of the new body down to the feet — a bright shining image, somewhat smaller than the physical but a perfect prototype in all except disfigurements. The fine life-thread continues attached to the old brain. The next thing is the withdrawal of this electrical principle. When the thread snaps the spiritual body is free and is prepared to accompany its guardians to the Summer Land."
Andrew Jackson Davis
On page 41 of Muldoon's The Case for Astral Projection, he cites testimony by a Dr. Riblet Brisbane Hout in which he claims to have seen the astral bodies of patients under anesthesia undergoing surgery. He reports seeing spirit bodies of the patients hovering near their physical bodies, connected to the bodies by a silvery shaft of light.
On the next page Muldoon states this:
"In this connection I might mention at this juncture that only a few weeks ago an orthodox Methodist minister of irreproachable character, who has been well known in my neighborhood for years, confided in me that while at the bedside of a dying friend, early this spring, he saw a cloudlike light rise up out of the body of his friend just as the latter expired. The light, he stated, floated up into the air and disappeared."
On page 49 we hear an account by a Dr. Ostby who in 1904 reported finding himself out of his body, looking down on his body in bed. He thought he was dead, but willed himself back into his body.
On page 65 we read this:
"M. Hymans states that his next experience took place in a London hotel. He was suffering with heart-weakness when he awoke in the morning. In a short time he fainted and says: 'To my great surprise I found myself high up in the room from where, to my terror, I saw my body in the bed, eyes closed. I tried to re-enter my body, but without success and concluded that I was dead. I could not leave the room and felt chained to it, immobilized in the corner where I found myself.' "
On page 67 we read of a New Jersey woman who reported an out-of-body experience during an operation. She recalls meeting a deceased grandmother who took her on a little flying tour that ended with the woman returning to her body.
On page 75 Muldoon tells us of an account he received from a woman who reported being out of her body viewing it from above during an operation. On pages 77-78 Muldoon quotes various accounts of out-of-body experiences of the medium Gladys Osborne Leonard.
On page 93 we read an account by Caroline D. Larsen:
"Next thing I knew was that I, I myself, was standing on the floor beside my bed looking down attentively at my own physical body lying in it. I recognized every line in the familiar face, pale and still as in death, the features drawn, the eyes tightly closed and the mouth partly open. The arms and hands rested limp and lifeless beside the body. I gazed at that material form of mine for a few minutes while mingled feelings passed over me. Strangely enough, they were not feelings of great surprise. I experienced no shock at finding myself in this peculiar position. It was chiefly curiosity that possessed my mind. I was perfectly calm and composed as I viewed that mortal form I had just previously inhabited."
On page 95 we read this account by Cromwell Anderson:
"One night I awoke to find myself floating over my body, a few feet from the ceiling and could see my physical body on the bed beneath me. I appeared to be in an utterly cataleptic state, yet my consciousness was greatly intensified. This was not my first projection as I had several times been observed by others, in the astral body, many miles away; but this time I awakened while yet over my body. Panic seized me as I realized what had occurred and I wondered how to get back before anyone discovered my ‘corpse’ and this fear instantly made me recoil into my form with a great shock."
On page 103 we read of a novelist named William Gerhardi who had an out-of-body experience, one in which he seemed to experience the "silver cord" often reported in out-of-body experiences:
"At the back of me was a coil of light, like a luminous garden hose resembling the strong broad ray of dusty light at the back of a dark cinema projecting on the screen in front. To my utter astonishment, that broad cable of light at the back of me illuminated the very face on the pillows I recognized as my own, as if attached to the brow of the sleeper. It was myself, not dead, but breathing peacefully, my mouth slightly open."
On pages 116-117 Muldoon describes his first out-of-body experience:
"Slowly ...I was moving toward the ceiling, all the while lying horizontal and powerless. Naturally I believed that this was my physical body as I had always known it, but that it had mysteriously begun to defy gravity...Involuntarily, at about six feet above the bed, as if the movement had been conducted by an invisible intelligent force, present in the very air, I was uprighted from the horizontal position, to the perpendicular, and placed standing upon the floor of the room... where I remained for two or three minutes, still unable to move of my own accord... I managed to turn around. There were two of me! In the name of common sense — there were two of me! There was another 'me' lying quietly upon the bed. It was difficult to conceive of this being real — but there I was, fully conscious, fully able to reason and know what I saw was actual. The next thing which caught my eye, explained the curious sensation in the back of my head — for my two identical bodies were joined by means of an elastic-like cord, one end of which was fastened to the medulla oblongata region of my phantom counterpart, while the other end centered between the eyes of my physical counterpart. This cord extended across the space of probably six feet which separated us."
We have here a description of an observer existing horizontally above his own body. In one of his works on out-of-body experiences, Robert Crookall noted quite a few observers who reported this:
"A number described their newly released 'doubles' as occupying a remarkable position, namely horizontal, just above the vacated body. They were J. McCormack (who noted 'this rather odd position'), Miss Bazett (about three feet above), Mrs. C. H. Smith (about a foot above), Mulvey (about three feet above), Dennis, Mr. 'H,' Mrs. Boorman, Dr. Gilbert, Mrs. Hibberd, Miss Douglas, Nurse Normanby, Mrs. 'Horam,' Miss Dean, G. Lester, and Mrs. Folson ( when she was a child of five or six years). More than a score of others, who did not describe the horizontal position, did note that their 'doubles' were above their bodies."
On page 138 of the Muldoon book, we read of an Arthur J. Wills who reported to Muldoon in 1929 an out-of-the-body experience:
"Then I saw that it was not my physical body in which I was consciously propped up (by my right arm) ; for, looking downward, I saw my body still sleeping on the seat! For a few moments I enjoyed and admired this new and beautiful body (the astral), which was rosy pink, glowing like a luminous pearl. Something which looked like an ‘arm’ seemed to run down and merge into the brain of the physical body. In a short time I was back in my physical body again."
In the 1907 book The Psychic Riddle by Isaac Kaufmann Funk (the same Funk of the famous Funk and Wagnall's dictionary) the author relays an account given him by a man who he says was well-known and very successful:
"I became conscious of being in a room and looking down on a body propt up in bed, which I recognized as my own. I can not tell what strange feelings came over me. This body, to all intents and purposes, looked to be dead. There was no indication of life about it, and yet here I was apart from the body, with my mind thoroughly clear and alert, and the consciousness of another body to which matter of any kind offered no resistance."
The medium Daniel Dunglas Home was the most noted of all physical mediums, and was successfully tested by the leading scientist Sir William Crookes, who documented many an astounding paranormal event related to Home. In his 1864 biography Incidents in My Life, Daniel Dunglas Home related an out-of-body experience. After hearing a mysterious voice that seemed to be that of his late wife, he had an experience he described below:
"I was at this instant brought to a consciousness of light, by seeing the whole of my nervous system, as it were, composed of thousands of electrical scintillations, which here and there, as in the created nerve, took the form of currents, darting their rayons over the whole body in a manner most marvellous ; still this was but a cold electrical light and besides, it was external. Gradually, however, I saw that the extremities were less luminous, and the finer membranes' surrounding the brain became as it were glowing, and I felt that thought and action were no longer connected with the earthly tenement, but that they were in a spirit-body in every respect similar to the body which I knew to have been mine, and which I now saw lying motionless before me on the bed. The only link which held the two forms together seemed to be a silvery-like light, which proceeded from the brain ; and, as if it were a response to my earlier waking thoughts, the same voice, only that it was now more musical than before, said, 'Death is but a second birth, corresponding in every respect to the natural birth, and should the uniting link now be severed, you could never again enter the body.' "
Again, we have what is reported often in accounts of out-of-body experiences, the idea of a "silver cord" connecting a physical body and a kind of spirit body. In a 1918 book we read an account of just such a thing, and then a female named Beryl Hinton tells of an out-body-experience:
"Years ago, when only seventeen, I was, in Calcutta, put under chloroform to have a number of teeth out. I presently felt I, myself, was in space above my body, round which were the doctors, dentists, and my mother, and I remember wondering why I was not being judged, since I was obviously dead. I had been brought up as a strict Roman Catholic and taught that individual judgment followed death. I had never read any psychical books or experiences. I was afterwards told that my condition caused alarm, as I would not come back to consciousness."
- "The fact that, the newly-released ‘double’, often took up a horizontal position (usually not far above its physical counterpart), was noted in 50 natural and 7 enforced cases (i.e. 23.3 per cent and 18.9 per cent respectively)."
- The percentage of people reporting a "silver cord" or "shining cord" connecting the human body and a spirit body (or something like that) was "43 (20.0 per cent) natural cases, 6 (16.2 per cent) enforced cases."
The similarities in out-of-body experiences are far too great to be explained by any hypothesis of hallucination. We find in accounts of out-of-body experiences:
(1) A huge number of observers reporting observing their body from above, with very many reporting being near the ceiling.
(2) Many observers (at least 57) reporting they were floating in a horizontal position above their bodies.
(3) Many observers (at least 49) reporting that there was a kind of cord or thread or string or arm connecting the physical body and a kind of spiritual or astral body (sometimes called "the double"), with this cord often being described as having a silvery or glowing appearance, and often reported as being elastic, and often reported as being attached to the head or brain.
(4) Very many observers reporting that after viewing their body from above, they had some type of enhanced cognition, and could then perceive scenes in other rooms, other homes, or some place (perhaps heavenly or spiritual) that seemed to be not an earthly location.
The probability of random hallucinations producing so many accounts so similar seems as small as the probability that many people all over the world in many different countries would all report (purely because of coincidentally similar random hallucinations) that they all saw a pink elephant smoking a cigar. In general, hallucinations are not a credible explanation for any very specific and distinctive observational report repeated with great similarity by many witnesses in different places. For example, if many people in different places reported seeing a large green glowing streak in the sky one night, then in all probability they were not hallucinating: because hallucinations (having infinite possible forms) would never produce content so similar to so many people.
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