Science Behind Near Death Experiences Exposed Featuring Dr. Bruce Greyson

What happens after we die? Is heaven real? what about hell? What does science say about life after death?

Dr. Bruce Greyson, author of a new book, After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond joins Thom Hartmann to discuss a fascinating and occasionally frightening topic


The world's leading expert on near-death experiences reveals his journey toward rethinking the nature of death, life, and the continuity of consciousness.

Cases of remarkable experiences on the threshold of death have been reported since ancient times, and are described today by 10% of people whose hearts stop. The medical world has generally ignored these “near-death experiences,” dismissing them as “tricks of the brain” or wishful thinking. But after his patients started describing events that he could not just sweep under the rug, Dr. Bruce Greyson began to investigate.

As a physician without a religious belief system, he approached near-death experiences from a scientific perspective. In After, he shares the transformative lessons he has learned over four decades of research. Our culture has tended to view dying as the end of our consciousness, the end of our existence―a dreaded prospect that for many people evokes fear and anxiety.

But Dr. Greyson shows how scientific revelations about the dying process can support an alternative theory. Dying could be the threshold between one form of consciousness and another, not an ending but a transition. This new perspective on the nature of death can transform the fear of dying that pervades our culture into a healthy view of it as one more milestone in the course of our lives. After challenges us to open our minds to these experiences and to what they can teach us, and in so doing, expand our understanding of consciousness and of what it means to be human.

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[granudisimo]

Yep, as I always said, the spiritual dimension of existence will be discovered by scientists instead of priests, which is why I'm specially happy that Dr. Greyson admits to not know where our consciousness goes after death, just that it keeps on going and we need additional information.

You can have faith and be realistic on your approach to see if your faith was justified or not, be like Dr. Greyson, walk and chew gum at the same time.

[sheldonbodryn]

I was with my mother as she died many years ago, and she was no longer able to respond to me talking to her, but she gave me the distinct impression with her eye movements (eyes closed) that she was looking into the next world and was not interested in this world anymore.

[RDGray]

When I was about 8 years old I was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia.
I must have gotten a very high fever because I remember the nurses drenching my bed sheets with ice cold water and wrapping me in them.
I also remember seeing them doing all of this from above the bed.
I'm convinced I was dying but the actions of those nurses brought me back.

[dr.zoidberg]

Wanting something to be true means that you must be _much_ more careful, because you want to be convinced.

[uswilkibr]

I was raised religious, became an atheist, then had a strange experience unrelated to the near death experience (I was just fine), but rather someone I'd known. I had seen in the paper that somebody with a familiar name had died in a car accident, my sister had been writing letters back and forth with that person, but I wasn't sure if it really was her, so I hadn't told my sister. Let's just say I had bizarre, timeless encounter with her and was 'physically' stopped while it occurred. I thought I was losing my mind (and was terrified), but I also knew with certainty that she was gone and told my sister. The obituary later released confirmed what I already knew. Since that time I have been agnostic, sometimes leaning atheist, but then I remember...I don't know everything, nobody does.

[honkymonkey]

I took LSD once at 21 yo and experienced a cessation of time. Einstein called time an "illusion."

[alexkalafjr.]

My dad passed 19 yrs ago & was in a catatonic state the last yr of his life because of dementia/Alzheimer's disease. He was unable to communicate, function & pretty much bed ridden. He needed an aid 24/7 in an assisted living facility.
My brother was visiting him one day & incredibly our dad was conscious, lucid & talking like his younger self. He asked by name about many family members & how they were doing at their current jobs, schools etc.
Our dad passed not too long after my brother left to go home. I had to share this after the doctor mentioned this phenomenon in this segment.

[kgs]

Thanks, Thom, for another exciting and uplifting interview. Dr. Greyson is a treasure. He’s scientifically trained, and he was originally skeptical, but has had his mind opened to different possibilities by collecting thousands of stories, and after sharing stories with other trained doctors, and seeing that many of the patients’ stories matched in certain regards, it’s hard not to become a believer, at least on some level. I have also read a number of books on the subject, and find them to be some of the most incredible stories. I find this subject, and field of study to be absolutely fascinating, and I find myself hoping to have an NDE, or for that to be my experience whenever I die. I love that many of the stories are not religious experiences per se, but more spiritual in a non-religious manner, which I would prefer, as I find the ones where people say they spoke to Jesus to be outside my comfort zone, particularly because they often mimic the patient’s personal religious beliefs. I tend to think, as one person once stated in another book I read that perhaps the image of Jesus or another religious figure appearing could just be the “being’s” way of presenting themselves as a way to make the patient more comfortable. Who knows? Perhaps we’ll all find out someday.

[lwells]

My father had the same experience during his own open heart surgery. He rose above his body and observed everything that went on. Amazing you can see without your corporal eyes

[ArmenianBishop]

I've examined this topic for maybe a half century. I glad that our beloved Thom Hartman considers it with an open mind, and with serious interest, because it deserves our sober attention. It surprises me that some religious persuasions view Out of Body Experiences Negatively, and are judgmental about NDEs.

[shaykitty]

I believe when we die we go home, to our real existence. So yes, I believe in life after physical death.

[thebigpicture]

The first couple ND experiences I saw my life flash before my eyes, but not since. It was kind of cool to revisit parts in vivid detail but hectic as it lasted maybe a second. I can confirm there was a lot of emotion and I’m sure a wrinkled brow.

When the ND experiences continued, I no longer had the flashing. Instead I just became serene and enjoyed the moment. For the record, most of these were from multiple different incidences throughout life leaving me disabled with permanent brain injury from axial force. Yes, I have lots of stories but strangers don’t believe them. Friends and family that have watched it happen do.

[geezzerboy]

When I was twelve, in 1959, I regained consciousness lying on the bottom of a lake, in twelve feet of water. I had drowned, but was still alive, so I saved myself. I'm seventy-five now and still don't understand what happened. I had been raised a Catholic, but there was nothing spiritual about the experience. Reading Isaac Asimov helped me become a lifelong atheist. I've had MANY brushes with death since, but nothing like what is commonly called "a near-death experience". I don't believe in the supernatural.

[barbarar]

I had an NDE in 1979 from a car accident. I watched myself from above being wheeled down the hospital corridor on a gurney.

[dkxilef]

Thank you for this taking up this fascinating topic!

[toddfrendell]

Picture yourself in a boat on a river, with tangerine trees, and marmalade skies

[MountainMan]

The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bardo Thodol) chronicles the stages of the pre-mortem death experience. I was crushed to death under a car at age 8, resuscitated in a nearby ER, recall the entire experience vivdly. 10 years later a friend gave me LSD, but told me to read Alpert, Leary & Metzner's "Psychedelic Experience" bsed on the Bardo Thodol, and it blew me away. Described my death experience in detail.

[MarkPetersonRealEstateStGeorge]

In physics we work with time, space, energy and matter in most of the equations used to determine the origin and make up of the universe. Perhaps we need to add consciousness to the mix. We could possibly create universal consciousness variable or constant to the equations that may solve such questions such has how physics breaks down at the quantum level, or was there really a big bang or are there other universes.

[elainegoad]

My sister had a OBE during a colonoscopy. The doctor told her he had some problems with the procedure. My sister was not a "woo woo" person.

[ddolde]

Doesn't matter what you believe. It is what it is