Researchers on NDE have gathered a lot of information over the past 35 years or so. Putting them all together and reading between the lines, we can gain a lot of insight into life. Gradually, we turn to be holistic and understand the sacredness of life.
PMH Atwater, a seasoned researcher on NDE, has done some good analysis on the many reports from the NDE people. The following conclusions are from her publication ‘The Complete Idiot’s Guide to NDEs’. Also included are statements of Jean Ritchie, another author on NDE.
The NDE people, almost to a person, say that the consciousness during the discarnate period induces a feeling of cosmic unity. The individualisation in our usual psychology is largely responsible for the sad state of humanity. On the other hand, the NDE people see that the Divine energy and intelligence permeate everything even while we are on earth; unfortunately, the conditioned mind produces the ego and we part company with the source psychologically. Remembering this helps us find our way back to the source. This is what happens during the NDE because, tentatively, the ego becomes defunct. The following statements form some salient aftermath issues of NDE:
1. The transpersonal perspective on life, gained on the other side, helps one look at failures and losses in a very different way from the conventional reactions to them. They are seen as an integral part of a vast cosmic flow.
2. Just to be alive becomes so meaningful. No asking for a purpose of life and struggling to approximate to it. There is a feeling of life being ‘lovable per se’. Strangely, the NDE people love also the fact that life will end but they know that such ending is only a transfer to more beautiful realms.
3. The NDE makes one feel better about oneself and feel closer to other people than one did before the experience.
4. The NDE convinces the experiencers that there can be no escape through the mindless approach of committing suicide. This has been emphatically stated by people who had the NDE following an attempted suicide.
5. Life’s psychological problems do not bother them as much as they did before their NDE. Their laid-back attitude helps them dissolve the problems rather than solve them.
6. Some NDE people change to vegetarian food after the experience. Compassion towards all living beings dominates their psychology.
7. Narrow minded sectarian religious practices end. The inward movement of true and universal religiosity takes over. The difference between system oriented religious practices and pure spirituality is understood.
The NDE people develop such tender feeling towards everything that they no longer indulge in any arguments or quarrelling but find alternate ways of dealing with them.
More on NDEs is dealt with in the website http://spirituality.yolasite.com . If the reader has had a NDE, he or she may contact the author for contributing to the research in this field.
The Author: Gopalakrishnan TC was born in Madras (now Chennai), India, in 1941. He received his doctoral degree in Coastal Engineering from the North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA in 1978. He served on the research and teaching faculty of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India, the North Carolina State University and the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Kuwait. Aside from his professional involvements, he was interested in the philosophic issues of life for the last forty years or so. This led him to the messages of Ramana Maharishi, Lao Tzu, J Krishnamurthy, UG Krishnamurthy, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Eckhart Tolle, Marcus Aurelius and similar Masters. His book entitled “In Quest of the Deeper Self” is the outcome of his reflections on those and his wish to share the outcome with others.
Gopalakrishnan is a member of the International Association for Near Death Studies, Durham, NC, USA. He presented a paper at the 2011 conference of the Association on the theme "The Spiritual Content of Near Death Experiences". Functions as a freelance counselor for mental relaxation. Lives in Kodaikanal, a hill town in south India, with his family. Now he and his wife are both retired and currently involved in developing a fruit farm at a village 20 km from their residence.
Blog: http://nde-thedeeperself.blogspot.com