Extracted from The Wisdom Of Near-Death Experiences by Dr Penny Sartori

As a nurse, I’m always cheered when I see a patient who appears to be making a good recovery. That certainly seemed the case with 60-year-old Tom K, who’d been suffering from sepsis after surgery for cancer.

After a couple weeks in the intensive care ward, he was well enough to be moved from his hospital bed to a chair. Moments later, however, he suddenly slumped into unconsciousness.

There was no doubt at all that he was out cold. He responded neither to my urgent questions nor to the painful pressure of my Biro on his fingernails.

Worse still, his skin became clammy, his oxygen levels dropped and his blood pressure plummeted — clear signs that his condition had become critical.

As I quickly gave him extra oxygen, I called out to the other nurses in the intensive care unit. Four of them immediately flocked to Tom’s bedside, and we gently helped return him to his bed as we called for a doctor urgently.

He was still unresponsive when the doctor arrived, followed a few minutes later by a consultant.

Indeed, Tom didn’t regain full consciousness for another three hours.

Yet, during those three lost hours, he had apparently gone on a life-changing journey. His first sensation, he told me afterwards, was of ‘floating upwards to the top of the room. I looked down and I could see my body on the bed. It was lovely, so peaceful — and no pain at all.’

In the next moment, the hospital ward had disappeared and he’d entered a pink room, in which his father was standing next to a man with ‘long black scruffy hair and nice eyes.’ For a time, Tom talked telepathically with his father.

At some point, he became aware that something was touching him. Once again, he was back on the hospital ward ceiling — looking down at me and the doctor.

I was putting a lollipop-shaped instrument into his mouth to clean it, he recalled later.

He could also see a woman beyond the cubicle curtains, who kept twitching them to check on his condition.

Indeed, I can personally verify that everything Tom ‘saw’ while unconscious was 100 per cent accurate — down to the swab I used to moisten his mouth and the names of the consultant and of the physiotherapist lurking behind the curtains.

While all this was going on, Tom heard the man with the scruffy hair say: ‘He’s got to go back.’ This came as a blow: he remembers desperately wanting to stay.

Shortly after that, he told me, ‘I was floating backwards and went back into my body on the bed.’

His pain was excruciating, but he could still vividly recall how peaceful he had felt in that pink room. ‘Pen,’ he told me, ‘if that’s death, it’s wonderful.’

This near-death experience had two significant effects on his life. First, Tom says, it completely removed any fear of dying.

Even more extraordinary is what happened to his right hand, which had been frozen since birth into a claw-like position.

(This had been noted on his hospital admission form, and his sister has since signed a statement confirming it.)

Yet, in front of me, soon after his near-death experience, Tom opened and flexed that same hand. This should not have been physiologically possible, as the tendons had permanently contracted. What had caused this sudden, seemingly spontaneous healing? Even now, science has no answers.

Take, for instance, the case of Fred Williams, a Swansea pensioner in his 70s who was suffering from the final stages of a terminal heart problem.

One night in hospital, he lost consciousness and we feared he was about to die.

But he somehow managed to keep his faltering grip on life. And when he eventually came to, I noticed at once that he looked very happy. My colleagues also remarked on this.

All the time this was happening, I felt fine: full of joy, peaceful, gently floating towards brilliant light.

By the following morning, Fred had recovered sufficiently to see his anxious relatives.

To their astonishment, he told them that he’d been visited — while unconscious — by his mother and grandmother, both of whom were dead, as well as by his (living) sister. They’d just stood by his bedside, keeping vigil. ‘I couldn’t understand why my sister was there as well,’ he remarked.

Unknown to him, his sister had actually died the week before!

But possibly the most extraordinary case I know of personally is that of a Moroccan woman in her late 30s, who ran a clothes business.

In November 2009, Rajaa Benamour had an anaesthetic injection for minor surgery, after which she found herself mentally scrolling through her entire life, right back to her birth. This was followed by what she could only describe as a rapid review of the creation of the universe. After being discharged from hospital, she started trying to find books about what she’d learned during her vision.

Eventually, she realised that she had somehow acquired an in-depth understanding of quantum physics — despite never having previously known anything about the subject.

This motivated her to study the subject at university level.

The professor in charge of her studies was astounded. The knowledge she’d already acquired, he said, could not have come either from studying student textbooks or taking a quick course.

Stranger still, he was puzzled by some of her scientific theories — yet they’ve since been confirmed by papers published in physics journals.

Penny Sartori began her eight-year study as a cynic. But by the time it ended, she was convinced that near-death experiences are a genuine phenomenon

As a staff nurse who’s worked in intensive care at British hospitals for 17 years, I’ve seen thousands of patients die.

Some were heavily drugged or hooked up to numerous machines; many were no longer able to speak.

I began reading about death — and eventually came across the concept of near-death experiences, or NDEs, I decided to embark on a PhD on near-death experiences, while continuing to work in intensive care.

I began my eight-year study as a cynic. But by the time it ended, I was convinced that near-death experiences are a genuine phenomenon.

So what exactly is a near-death experience? At its simplest, it’s a clear and memorable vision that occurs when people are close to death — 

As the person ‘leaves’ his body, he may hear a buzzing, whistling, whirring or humming sound, or a click. Another common component of NDEs is a beautiful garden with lush green grass and vividly coloured flowers. There may be a stream or river in the background. Some people enter the garden, while others reach a gate or barrier — and know that they’ll die if they go through it.

Throughout an NDE, hearing and sight become more acute, and awareness is heightened. Often, the experience has been described to me as ‘realer than real’.

Time ceases to have meaning. In many cases, it feels as if the vision has lasted for hours though the person may have been unconscious for only a few seconds or minutes. Sometimes, it feels as if time speeds up; sometimes it goes slower.

Yet NDEs are not a new phenomenon at all; they’ve been reported throughout history.

They also feature in some of the greatest books in history — including the Bible; The Republic, by the ancient Greek philosopher, Plato; and the Tibetan Book of the Dead, an ancient religious text about the interval between life and rebirth. It’s only in the past few decades, however, that scientists have tried to discover what causes NDEs.

In my own study, for instance, just 17.9 per cent of people who survived a heart attack had been through an NDE.

Indeed, when I analysed my research, I found that pain-killing and sedative drugs, particularly at high levels, seem to make it less likely that a patient will have an NDE.

In other words, well-meaning doctors who over-sedate dying patients may be denying them a natural and comforting final vision.

Some people undoubtedly become more spiritual after experiencing one — 

Others feel that their particular religion no longer adequately supports what was ‘revealed’ or felt during their NDE.

Regardless of what they believe, though, they generally become more considerate of others.

Marie-Claire Hubert, a nurse who had an NDE when she was hospitalised with meningitis, went through a tunnel and emerged to find dead family members, former patients and even long-dead pets.

Now, she says: ‘I know for certain we do meet our loved ones eventually. It’s made me a better person and I try to do at least five kind things a day for other people.’

For some, their experience of what has been described as ‘unconditional love’ makes them re-evaluate what they do with their lives.

Quite a few have actually retrained to become nurses or doctors or started doing voluntary work in a hospice.

Disturbing in a different way were accounts from people who’d developed psychic tendencies after having a near-death experience. One woman told me she could subsequently foresee ‘bad things’ that were going to happen, and even predict when people were going to die.

This has so traumatised her that she now rarely goes out — and then only when wearing headphones so that she can play loud music to distract her from her thoughts.

A colleague of mine who had a NDE at nine years old claims to have similar powers.

She says that ever since her vision, she’s been able to ‘read other people’s minds’ — which distresses her because she feels it’s morally wrong.

Could there be far more to approaching death than scientists have ever acknowledged?

 Source: DailyMail