What near death experiences teach us about living more beautiful lives

This week’s show is with the wonderful and knowledgable Dr. Bruce Greyson and it truly is one of our favourite episodes. In this light hearted yet deep conversation, Dr. Greyson and Lian Brook-Tyler explored what NDEs teach us about life. They talked about experiences people have, the research that shows what might be creating these experiences, and what happens to people afterwards. They also explore why understanding NDE could benefit us all, a key take away being ~ We don’t have to have a NDE personally in order to benefit from them, simply learning about NDE and what they suggest about our universe, can in itself bring a deeper sense of peace and security.

Dr. Bruce Greyson is Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. He was a co-founder and President of the International Association for Near-Death Studies, and Editor of the Journal of Near-Death Studies.

Dr. Greyson has published more than a hundred scholarly articles about near-death experiences in peer-reviewed medical journals and three academic books. He has addressed more than a hundred national and international professional conferences.

His research for the past four decades has focused on near-death experiences and particularly their after-effects and implications. His book, After: A Doctor Explores What Near- Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond, is his first trade book bringing his scientific research to a popular audience.

[michaeldecarli]

I watch all of Dr. Greysons interviews. I lost my sister Jaclyn in 2004. She was 13, I was 11. Losing her spun me into a nightmare of depression and survivors guilt. I felt guilty for every enjoyable moment in my life because to me it was just a moment she didn’t get.

I was introduced to Near Death Experiences in 2014 and even went to an IANDS conference in California but it just seemed to me like wishful thinking so I never went again and just accepted that I’d always kind of suffer through life.

However, all that changed in August 2020. My healthy 58 year old father fell extremely ill with COVID-19. He was placed on a ventilator and remained there with little chance of survival for nearly a month.

Somehow, he defeated the odds and survived. I am in the military and was not able to get home to Indiana until my father was well enough to go home so I was always on FaceTime with my mom to talk about my dads prognosis.

One day, after my dad was off the ventilator, my mom told me on FaceTime that my dad said he had seen Jaclyn. I brushed it off.

Finally when I was able to get home to Indiana I asked my dad how it was to be on the ventilator because I was worried he suffered.

My dad wasted no time and told me he didn’t remember much, didn’t even know he was sick, until at one point he left his body. He said he suddenly found himself standing on top of a small grassy hill on a cool bright sunny day. At the bottom of the hill was a small white fence. Coming through the fence was my deceased sister Jaclyn to greet my dad. My dad said she was healthy and wearing a white and blue dress. He said he was filled with a wonderful feeling of love, peace, and reassurance. He realized he was going to die but was happy about it.

Behind Jaclyn was my dads deceased sister Johanna, my dads deceased parents, and my moms deceased grandparents. My dad described every detail of their clothing and a small country church in the background.

Then, before my sister could approach my dad, Johanna put her arm around Jaclyn holding her back. It became known to my dad that he wasn’t to go with them yet but that they would be there later. With that the experience was over and he survived.

When my dad told me this I was dumbfounded. My dad was incredibly unemotional and scientifically minded. He was a career federal agent and had no spiritual inclinations. Yet here he was telling me this incredible experience.

I immediately asked him if it was a dream or a hallucination. He quickly told me it definitely wasn’t. He said it was more real than the conversation we were currently having. He also said when he was in the ICU he had hallucinations that made no sense. He saw weird Mickey Mouse faces, life size gears in his hospital room etc. but they felt odd and not real like his encounter with his deceased loved ones.

The changes in his life are profound. He knows without a doubt that Jaclyn is okay and looks forward to death in a way. He felt so confident in his experience that he called my uncle (Johanna’s husband) to tell him he saw Johanna. When he was describing the minute details of this church my dad experienced my uncle bill stopped my dad and said he was describing in perfect detail the church that him and Johanna had married in in New Hampshire in the 1980’s. My dad had been unable to attend the wedding and there were no photos of the outside of the church. It was in a word, profound.

In the weeks after my dad told me of this I really started researching NDE’s. While researching, I had a conversation with my cousin Ragan. She was born with cloacal extrophy and suffered many life or death situations as a young girl. When she was seven she developed ulcers in her intestines and was not expected to survive. Before a surgery, her doctor told her parents in an adjacent room that she was not expected to survive however she did survive.

During that time my cousin Ragan had an out of body experience. She left her body, saw her doctor tell her parents she was not expected to survive, and saw her body lying on the surgery table. Years later she was able to correctly identify the specific room she had been in in the ICU even though she had been unconscious the entire time. She also correctly identified specifics about the conversation between her doctor and her parents.

My life has completely changed. I finally have hope that my sister really is okay. I like to watch Dr. Greysons interviews because they seem to really reinforce my hope and my dads knowledge, about the fact that Jaclyn really is okay and I can see her again.

[anniewelch]

This show is such a special interview. Thank you both as it has made me review and look again into my varied spiritual experiences and helped me understand why I had them. It's so important I feel that more people speak about these subjects so more people can open up and know that they are not alone and life is so very much bigger than we can know as humans. I am in hospital presently and have spoken with some staff here who are very much more aware and open about this area of study and it seems to be much more accepted. Wonderful. thank you again.

[guitarjam]

my uncle, mama experienced near death. My uncle was shot by his two enemies. He then went out on his body floating, and he could still hear the two guy talking while he was in the air. Eventually, he was sucked into his body and been able to back on his body. Later, he found out he was at the hospital he was taken by standers at hospital. He survived and told us his story.

My mom, likewise, had her near death when she was gave birth to my sister. She also went out on his body, and saw her body laying on bed at hospital. She was at the ceiling floating. She went through at the ceiling wandering in space. She then realized she was dead and she said to God " I am not ready i had a children to be taken cared of" when she said that she suddenly sucked into her body. She survived.