Evidence for Life after Death

In the Near Death Experience, many have reported amazing experiences between the time they were medically declared dead and the time that they were revived.  Despite the high level of complexity of the experience (visiting with dead relatives, seeing a bright light, a life review, etc), and the positive impact of the life change it induces, the most common argument from skeptics on the experience is that this is all just a hallucination, all from oxygen deprivation of the brain. Another argument from skeptics is that no brainscan was done during the Near Death Experience to prove that there was no brain activity.  This latter argument is no longer true: there was an NDE of a neuroscientist, during which time there was a brainscan recorded which showed no activity in the brain (see previous blog entries on the Near Death Experience). In a materialistic society, scientists cannot accept any reality that they cannot see or measure. The evidence of "dark matter" - matter that we know that is there, but cannot see since it does not interact with light or electromagnetic radiation - may perhaps start to change this viewpoint.

There is one point that skeptics of the NDE experience continually ignore that shows that there is life after death, a soul that exists independently of our visible material body.  This evidence occurs during the stage when one's consciousness or soul is hovering above the body: for at that time one can observe what is going on in the operating room, and at times outside of the operating room.  This is what I call the "clairvoyant" stage.  There is no scientific explanation for how one can obtain knowledge of things that were completely beyond the person's sensory perception.  I was aware of this for some time from books that I have read, but I found an interesting testimony from a cardiac surgeon who describes the story of a patient they had declared dead, but somehow spontaneously revived. And that patient was aware of things that he could not have possibly known. See the following interview with Dr. Lloyd Rudy:

So whatever happened, it certainly has this cardiac surgeon convinced: life continues after death.

WHAT SHOULD WE KNOW ABOUT THE NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE?

So what do people who have come back from the dead tell us?  They say there is one overriding principle in life, which is very important, and that is love. Knowing how to love others to the best of our ability, in whatever station of life we are, is what is important. Everything that we do, and what we are thinking while we are doing it, is recorded for a full life review. Every action we take has a ripple effect and influences people around us. And what is amazing, is that the God of the universe has a direct personal relationship which each living being: for the more we love, the more He lives inside of us.

This message of love which those who have had an NDE is consistent with the Biblical revelation of what is the greatest commandment:

Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"
Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'
On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." (Matt. 22:36-40)

If one examines the 10 commandments, the first 4 relate to love of the Lord, and the other six relate to love of the neighbor. Anyone who lives by this, will do well. In the life review, the light tends to ask one question of us: What have you done with your life?  For this life is the ultimate gift of the Divine, the one who created us. And that is why He created us: for as God is love itself, God seeks to love someone outside of Himself. And that is the reason for creation. That is the reason why we are here.