Letter 1.8 - Near Death Experience
Dear Benoit,​
Knowing your mother, I am sure she would tell you to stay away from any 'Near Death Experience' or anything of this kind. This is voodoo! It would pollute the mind of her defenseless little child! I thought you would be interested.
Let me tell you of my first contact with a Near Death Experience. I was even more puzzled than Lloyd Rudy, this heart surgeon, when he encountered an NDE for the first time!
It was at the Civic Center. About 50 people, all ages, men and women, dressed like you and I, nothing religious or political about them. There was a speaker who told us about what happened after he fell from a tree, trying to cut a dead branch. He got badly hurt and was sent to hospital for immediate surgery. That was something totally unexpected in his life. He was a mechanic dentist, making dentures (like the one I have). He thought his life was well organized and perfectly predictable.
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He told us that during the operation his heart stopped beating. He had no blood pressure and was not breathing for more than 30 minutes. He was clinically dead. A doctor could have signed his death certificate and send him to the morgue. Since the 1980s the surgeons have found ways to reanimate dead bodies and bring them back to life. I always thought that death was a one-way street. Apparently, body and soul can be taken apart and put back together again. I watched him carefully. He looked perfectly normal. He was not promoting a book or introducing a new faith. I tried to see if there was some mercantile motivation hidden behind all that. I did not find any.
When the surgeon paid him a visit in the hospital a couple of days later, he was told:
“At one time during the operation you said “We are losing him!” I was above the operating table, against the ceiling. At first, I did not realize that it was my body that you were working on. I felt great. No more pain.
I could hear and understand everything people were saying in the operating room. You got impatient with your assistant - Didn’t you? Not only could I hear what everybody was saying but I knew what they wanted to say even before I heard their voice. I could guess what they were thinking. I could also move in the room. I only had to think of a certain place to be transported there instantly. That may sound ungrateful but after a while I got tired of watching you. I decided to explore other rooms in the hospital. It was easy. Without a body there is nothing to prevent you from getting across a wall and have a look at what is on the other side….”
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As you can imagine the first patients coming back from an operation with such stories in the 1980s were sent to the psychiatrist. An appraisal was made of the differences between the patient and a “normal” person. Medications were prescribed to make the patient behave in a more ‘normal’ way. Most of the time, it worked! The patient understood that medications could become the main part of his diet. The only way to avoid this predicament was to say: “I got confused because of the stress of the operation. I am feeling better now. Forget what I said.”
Our speaker decided to go through life keeping his secret. I was told that today we have about 2% or 3% of the population who went through an NDE - Maybe more. There are millions of people around with similar stories. We don't send them to psychiatrists anymore. They have their international organizations such as IANDS - NDERF - ADCRF - OBERF with their web sites on the internet.
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There was an intermission. It was even more interesting. People from the audience were talking about their life after the NDE. They kept some of the abilities they had during their NDE trip. Some of them can guess what others are thinking. If you ever go to one of their meetings and see a big nose, try very hard to think ”What beautiful hair”! People around you can "see" your thoughts like you see their nose.
Some people of the audience were talking about meeting somebody for the first time and having a very strong impression. They thought that they already knew that person. A woman saw a girl singing on TV in a foreign language and had the feeling that it was her sister who was singing. I asked her how often that can happen. She said about once a year. Nobody could explain it. Maybe they meet in a previous life time. Maybe this is related to what we call ‘love at first sight’.
After the intermission the speaker told us about being in a tunnel and being attracted by a white light. At one time he had to choose between being really dead or coming back to his body. This was more than I could absorb in one setting. I needed to sleep on it.
I thought of the people who go on a cure to lose weight. The first thing they have to do is to change the image they have of themselves. That takes 21 days. I may have to sleep 21 times on my first contact with NDE.
This meeting gave me the feeling that I was going through life like we walk in the fog. We are only conscious of what is needed to survive on earth. We live like the child who is not aware that someday puberty is going to change his life.
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The speaker said that his life changed overnight. He bought a piano and started learning music and going to concerts and museums. He distanced himself from some of his acquaintances and made new friends. His NDE transformed his life. It opened a door for him.
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For me that door was still closed. This first contact with NDE got me interested but suspicious. I needed a good old scientific proof. Something that could be accepted in a court of law. Back home I searched NDE on YouTube. There are hundreds of testimonies similar to the one I heard at the Civic Center. When tourists visit a foreign country, they come back with different stories but all of them are talking about the same country.
I wanted scientific proofs… and I found some. I one instance, during the operation, the patient looked under the operating table and saw a plaque with the name of the manufacturer. A couple of days later the surgeon said that he had used this operating table for 15 years but never looked underneath. He went back to the operating room and confirmed that the name of the manufacturer was correct. It would have been impossible that a patient under anesthesia, the chest opened, could get up, have a look under the table and get back on without anybody noticing.
I will never forget this first contact with NDE. Could it be our way out of Plato's cave? I was intrigued.
Let's keep that between us Benoit. No need to scare your mother. She could think that I have a bad influence on you. Her little boy is in danger and needs protection! Just keep in mind that we may have a lot more to learn about our life.
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Big Hug
Pepe
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