| Is Steve Irwin really guiding Bindi from the "other side?" | | | | beautiful over here, I'm alright so don't you worry!" He |
| Paul McCartney believes Linda's spirit lives on! | | | | laughed as he added," Now I don't have to pay for all |
| What happens after we die? This is life's greatest | | | | the furniture your Mum and sister bought." A few |
| mystery. Is there a life after death or is it something | | | | minutes later she received a phone call informing her |
| we have created in order to cope with the inevitable? | | | | that her father had just died of a heart attack and |
| There are those who have died and experienced a | | | | received a letter not long after saying that her Mum |
| Near Death Experience (NDE), have returned and are | | | | and sister had purchased a house full of furniture on |
| now certain that we are so much more than our | | | | the night their Dad died. |
| physical bodies. A NDE is usually described as a lifting | | | | Does life indeed continue to a world beyond? The |
| away from the body and being able to view one's self | | | | closest proof we have are only the recollections of |
| from above accompanied by a euphoric calmness as | | | | NDEs such as Anita M's but there have been |
| the spirit travels down a tunnel with a bright light in the | | | | scientists investigating such phenomenon. As it was |
| center and the certainty that there is another | | | | reported on BBC News in the UK, they say they have |
| dimension once the light is reached. | | | | found evidence to suggest that consciousness can |
| On the "Near Death Experience Research Foundation" | | | | continue after the brain has ceased to function. |
| website there is an account of an NDE recorded by | | | | Neurological experts have challenged these findings. Dr |
| Anita M. a cancer patient from Hong Kong who claims | | | | Sam Parnia of Southampton General Hospital in the |
| such an event took place as she "died" in hospital and | | | | U.K. says the consciousness is independent of the |
| doctors were frantically trying to bring her back. Drifting | | | | brain and no one can fully understand how the brain |
| in and out of consciousness she could feel her spirit | | | | generates thoughts. Under examination the brain |
| leaving her body. As she crossed over she felt this | | | | contains cells like any other who produce chemicals |
| other dimension was actually the real world and felt | | | | but there is no evidence of their capability to create |
| free and powerful connected to something much | | | | the phenomenon of thought that we have. He says |
| greater, "I thought that I knew a lot more than when I | | | | that the brain is needed to manifest the mind similar to |
| was in my body", she says, "I was surrounded by | | | | a how a television set can transmit what are |
| loving beings, people who I seemed to know but I could | | | | essentially waves in the air. |
| not recognize from this lifetime and I was aware that | | | | There is skepticism from sources such as The Skeptic |
| they were around me all the time even when I was in | | | | Society and Dr Chris Freeman a consultant psychiatrist |
| the physical body and I didn't even realize then that | | | | at Royal Edinburgh Hospital in the U.K. Dr Freeman |
| they were looking after me all the time in the three | | | | claims that these experiences possibly occurred during |
| dimensional world." | | | | the recovery or just before cardiac arrest and there is |
| She claims her awareness was so heightened she | | | | very little evidence that they happened when the brain |
| could hear conversations between her family and the | | | | was shut down. |
| medical staff 40 feet away, which she later verified, | | | | Dr John Happs president of "Western Australian |
| "It's not that I could see through walls, it's just that when | | | | Skeptics" claims the following,"NDEs are quite |
| I wanted to know something I could see it straight | | | | commonplace and I have actually experienced them |
| away, the understanding, the visual came to me | | | | myself on at least two occasions. NDEs are very real |
| immediately. There was no such thing as time lag or | | | | and occur when the brain is starved of oxygen. The |
| separation, everything was simultaneously happening | | | | phenomenon has been well and truly explained in |
| at once and it depended on what I wanted to focus. | | | | medical terms. The brain starts to shut down when |
| Unreal as it sounds when I was there; I felt that was | | | | oxygen is limited and peripheral vision slowly fails. That |
| the real world, not the physical. There was | | | | explains why people report a tunnel effect with a |
| understanding and clarity. If only I had known this when | | | | bright light in the center. That is exactly what I |
| I was in my body. I was aware that I had a choice | | | | experienced when, as a competitor in judo |
| whether to go back and return to my body. Knowing | | | | tournaments, I was strangled into unconsciousness. |
| that this was real I also knew that if I was to go back | | | | There have been many reported NDEs, as you might |
| to my sick body that I would be healed immediately, | | | | expect although few individuals would be aware of |
| my body would express what spirit now knows." | | | | what is happening to them from a physiological |
| Anita described her state as one of pure joy and that | | | | perspective so they imagine they are traveling down a |
| she was loved no matter what. She did not have to | | | | tunnel towards a bright light. Add a few singing angels |
| do anything to earn this love and this is something that | | | | and an imaginative link between earth and heaven and |
| stayed with her when she returned, "All I had to do | | | | you have a great story." |
| was be myself. If everybody realized that you don't | | | | John Perkins from "Atheist Society", Melbourne, |
| have to do anything, just the fact that you exist is | | | | Australia says, "I believe the phenomenon exists, but |
| enough, that knowing would alter your vibrations and | | | | not that it represents any evidence for, or experience |
| this can subsequently change your life." | | | | of, an afterlife. Humans have minds, not souls. In death, |
| The Rev. Gino Concetti chief theological commentator | | | | the mind stops working. To believe otherwise is just |
| for the Vatican newspaper "L'Osservatore Romano" | | | | superstition or willful self deception. If souls existed |
| said the Catholic Church is opposed to the raising of | | | | after death, there would be 100 billion of them hanging |
| spirits but claims communication is possible between | | | | out somewhere, for ever. Would you really want to go |
| those who live on earth and those who live in a "state | | | | there?" |
| of eternal repose", and suggested dead loved ones | | | | The one thing that seems apparent is that there is |
| could be responsible for impulses and manifestations | | | | "something" controlling the universe such as nature |
| such as in dreams. John Hooper published the | | | | itself and it is a difficult concept to understand that a |
| reverend's comments in the "London Observer | | | | person's essence can just die. Birth and coincidences |
| Service" in January 1997. | | | | may well be real miracles, although there is scientific |
| Gwen Carden wrote of these three accounts in "The | | | | and rational explanation for both. For most, it is part of |
| National Enquirer" on December 22, 1998: | | | | the purpose of life to continue to question the meaning |
| Her dead grandfather urged a college student to lock | | | | of our existence and to strive for the realization that |
| all the windows in a dream. She did so and discovered | | | | we are lovable just because we exist. It is certainly |
| the next day that a room nearby had been broken into | | | | something worth pondering and who knows? Perhaps |
| the previous night. | | | | if we practice a little more kindness each day our |
| The mother of 9 month old baby awoke one night to | | | | "vibrations" may lift enough for us to perceive some |
| see her dead mother standing by her bed looking | | | | answers. Or at least we would be working towards |
| worried as she led her to the child's bedroom. The | | | | making this world right here a better place. |
| young mum checked on her baby and discovered she | | | | Suggested reading: |
| had been choking on a piece of plastic. | | | | A Soul's Journey Peter Richelieu |
| A woman had a vision of her father who told her, "It is | | | | Life After Life Dr Raymond Moody, Jr., M.D. |