Deathbed Visions with Stafford Betty

Stafford Betty, PhD, is professor of religious studies at California State University at Bakersfield. He is author of Heaven and Hell Unveiled, The Afterlife Unveiled, and When Did You Ever Become Less by Dying?

Here he describes two different types of deathbed visions and provides vivid examples of each. He notes that such visions have evidential value when the dying person describes a relative waiting for them (presumably in the afterlife) who was not known to be deceased. He also points out that this is one of about a dozen different lines of evidence pointing toward human survival of consciousness after death.

New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in parapsychology to be awarded by an accredited university (University of California, 1980).

(Recorded on February 13, 2017)

[Molinfelx]

When I was on my deathbed last year I sat and talked to a man for hours apparently.
The same man my mother had spoken to when she was my age and also on her deathbed.
Apparently I had been telling my mom what the man was telling me, and that it was her angel.

I then died and came back, have a full memory of my nde.
I saw everything just as well as I see things in this life.
Don’t fear death my lovely friends, it’s nothing to fear.
It’s the end of all pain.

EDIT: I love all the people in the comments trying to explain my event to me. As if you have any more idea than I do.
That I’m filled with meds or whatever.
Also the people trying to say I was not on my deathbed saying it’s an inaccurate term.
Hears a tip for you: just because it’s not called that in America anymore, does not mean the rest of the world ain’t using the term.
You guys always make things so complicated over there in the US.

I’m also not gonna argue with anyone writing me.
I wish u all peace and love.

[nicholasonciul]

My great grandfather passed away on May 24 1984 from cancer. I wasn't born at the time but I've been told this many times. His father passed away exactly 5 months later on October 24 1984, but days before his death he told his wife excitedly, "George came to visit me last night". This isn't as remarkable as others but it's still quite comforting.

[Robinus]

My grandfather had fallen down a staircase and was in the hospital not doing very well. His daughter in law Sara had died, but he was not told because of his frail condition. One day while my mother was visiting her father he looked into a place where no one was standing and said, "Sara, what are you doing here?"  I told my mother I think grandpa will die within 3 days because he was starting to see into the other dimension. On the 3rd day, my grand father passed over.

[vmossmann]

When my father died in 1993 he had suffered for years from the complications of diabetes.
By the end of his days he was blind, had both legs amputated, underwent hemodialysis, and was completely sclerotic and had not spoken for months.
At lunchtime on a Thursday, my mother and I were at home when he suddenly began to cry and call my name.
Arriving at his bed he said to me: "- They are just calling me to go with them, because this body no longer fits"
So I asked, "Who are they?"
And he said, "My father and my mother!" that is my grandparents who had already died for several decades ...
The next day he died ...

[Sasquatch_]

I watched my father talking to the other side for 3 weeks before his death, he's been told by his grandfather who was dead for decades at that time that he has 60 days. He died on the 60th day since his diagnosis of brain cancer, almost to a minute. Watching him interact and talk to our ancestors and his friends who passed away was the greatest gift of all. I now KNOW he will come and walk me home when my time comes. Just like I was there to walk him home in his last days

[brigetteturner]

That happened to my Brother. He saw my Dad a couple of days before he passed. It was so beautiful. To be with a loved one at their Death is an honor and very beautiful. A gift from God.

[mdouble]

My father passed lateJanuary 2002. During the last days of his life, my mother was at his bedside. I was thousands of miles removed in another country. My mother reported Dad's diminishing condition to me via daily phone contact. On one occasion near the end, she told me about Dad asking if she could see the people standing at the foot of his bed. He was curious if she could identify who those people were. Taken by surprise Mom simply said there was no one standing at the end of his bed. However, Dad was quite insistent the people were there. He was simply concerned that he couldn't identify who the people were. Given how Mom related the story to me she simply didn't know how to respond when Dad told her what he was experiencing. My only advice to her was simply to acknowledge that he could see something she couldn't, but she accepted his experience even so. Shortly after having those death bed visions he died.

[nigelericogden]

My dad despite Morphine had an extensive conversation with his mother, and visions of her leading up to his death. The night before he died he assumed the look of a new born baby, all the suffering he had been through simply fell away. It was a very heartening experience for me.

[makingconnections]

Just days before the passing of my grandmother, my mom had a dream that she was outside and the road in front of her was full of people as far back she could see. In the front of this enormous crowd were family members that already have passed that she recognized and she knew that the others behind them were more family members that she never met in person. The ancestors are ready for my grandmother to come back to the spirit world

[DisappearingBoy]

I was at the bedside of my mother when she passed. At first her eyes were glazed over and then all of a sudden she looked up to the right, laser focused on something. We all looked as well to try to see what she was looking at. Her eyes gradually followed whatever it was down to the foot of her bed, then to her right side, and then she passed. That is a true story, and it wasn't a hallucination. . That is an easy explanation for people that have no experience. For something so sad, it was in a way beautiful and comforting

[northeastbirdsmore]

I've witnessed this with my mother.
My 5 bros. And they're wives also witnessed this as we were all present in the hospital just prior to her passing. She was seeing things and having conversations with things that were not of this world. Occassionally she would drift back into our world but only briefly as she returned to the other side to continue her magnificent journey we were not privileged to see.
We saw it all through her expressions. We know what we think she was experiencing and it was truly out of this world and beyond fascinating. This was on a Saturday evening, she passed that Monday. (3 days)
There are many things in this world that can make you question faith, religion, spirituality or what have you, . I believe that is negative forces trying to steer you from GOD and we all know who is responsible for that...
Think of how messed up we are as a people and the problems the world has, mostly man made...
If we are all there is then that's not saying much.
Without a doubt there is something far greater than us.

[micheldupaul]

We visited my aunt to the hospital. She seemed good. Far from being to die. We where speaking, then she cuts the conversation. She tells us. This evening my brother Robert is going to pick me up. He said it to me this morning. In the evening we received a call to confirm her death.

[Paddyllfixit]

An ex-girlfriend worked in a hospice for several years during the 90s and had many strange experiences which I'd hear about on an almost weekly basis. These phenomena occur much more frequently than many would like to admit.

[rosenelson]

When I used to work in a nursing Home we pretty much knew when someone was about to leave because they would start talking to people that we couldn't see, we knew.

[sweetpea]

My dad had a stroke at 46 yrs old and was in a coma for 1 week, during that time his cousin(like a brother to him)who lived with us died of a massive heart attack at home.before he passed he had signed the get well card that I had got my dad. When my dad woke from the coma he had a trache and was paralyzed on half his body. When I showed him the card kept pointing to "Nick", his cousins name, over n over. He couldn't talk cause the trache so later the nurse gave him a pad and marker, he kept spelling "Nick" over n over. I think Nick came to him while he was in the coma. We all knew not to mention Nicks death so I know he didn't hear it from anyone.
My dad passed away 2 weeks later. I miss him so much!

[missysoaps]

I am a nurse with 30 years of hospice experience. I used to say one foot in and one foot out at the end. Thank u for adding to my experiences.

[rneedham]

I was my mother's caregiver when she was dying of cancer. She would be in and out of consciousness.when she was unconscious she would smile and say oh wow and sometimes she would whisper beautiful.

[rigaflr]

Before passing, my father had vivid dreams of his home town in Sicily. He could recall everyone’s names, the shops and said it was so clear and he could remember everything. Dad was 80 when he passed and hadn’t been back to Sicily since he left at the age of 17. Should of realised this was a sign of his encroaching passing. My sister, his daughter passed 12 months later, and said that dad was at the hospital with her. “He’s here”
I don’t grieve like others do, as I don’t believe it’s the end. They’re in paradise living on and waiting for us. I miss them but am not sad. I celebrate their lives and am happy they are in paradise with tfriends and families members that went before. Death is painless, it’s just a transition through the veil of this world and the spirit world. They aren’t that far away. They watch and listen to us and have all the secrets of the universe that we aren’t privileged to know yet. I often wonder who will come to pick me up and help me cross over when the time is right.

[wkrapek]

It's so sad that the meme has gotten around that you're born alone and you'll die alone. I had a very vivid dream with my Grandma in it after she died. It's obvious we were actually talking in "dream space." But there were trees, too. Thousands and thousands in a forest packed so tight you couldn't see past them. I since found out those are the dead. When we move on, there are going to be untold thousands waiting to meet us. It's going to be a huge party.

[WhattheactuL]

My grandmother and relatives were telling me about my grandad talking to three angels weeks up to his death. As time went on there were just two angels and during his last day in the hospital the nurses were watching him speak and say to one of them that he will see you soon. He told my grandmother there was only on angel left now. Anyhow.. my grandad had told my grandmother that the angel who is at the end of his bed is going to leave soon and he is going with him/her everyone should come and say goodbye. Everyone came to the hospital and within minutes of the last person entering the room he said it's time now. And he left peacefully