As a nurse in Southampton’s Accident and Emergency Department, I saw a number of patients who, upon successful resuscitation, reported unusual experiences of the “near-death” phenomenon. While I was still working at the hospital, Dr. Sam Parnia was given ethics committee approval to begin his own research on the phenomenon. Amongst the staff of this large teaching hospital, a legend was born.
Meanwhile, with a long-standing interest in such events myself, I travelled to Varanasi and to the Himalayas, where I engaged in a series of experiments in altered states with sensory deprivation, meditation, light and sound machines, and pharmaceutical-grade ketamine.
While I regard such experiences as neurological rather than religious events, the results were insightful and positively life-changing. Later, before it was banned in the UK, experiments with a concentrated extract of Salvia divinorum provided similar yet different experiences.
To borrow from other people’s vernacular, whilst ketamine gives glimpses into what is beyond this universe, Salvia divinorum takes you into the plumbing of the universe.
Whilst these drug-induced experiences are not the same as, or truly comparable to, the Near-Death Experience (NDE), they can take a person into what lies beyond the known and open up a wide range of perceptions and experiences.
For those wishing to know more about NDEs, here are some useful resources.
- Ketamine as Induction of NDE Using ketamine to induce the near-death experience: mechanisms of action and therapeutic potential.
- Near-Death Experiences and the Afterlife A large resource covering many aspects of the NDE phenomenon.
- Negative Near-Death Experiences – Hell An article discussing distressing or negative NDEs and their interpretation.
- Near-Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF) A large archive of reported NDE accounts curated by Jody and Dr Jeffrey Long.
- International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) An organisation devoted to the study of NDEs and NDE-like experiences.
- Susan Blackmore Author and lecturer; material relating to sceptical perspectives on near-death experiences.
- Skeptic’s Dictionary: Near-Death Experience
- NDE Research at Southampton General Hospital University of Southampton article on Dr Sam Parnia’s research.
- Near-Death Experience (Wikipedia)
- Mellen-Thomas Benedict An artist’s account of his own near-death experience.
- Mellen-Thomas Benedict – YouTube Interview