NOVEMBER 2013
by Athanasios Komianos
The sentence I heard most often during the presentations I attended at the annual conference of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS), held in Arlington, Virginia, was: “There are no words to describe what I experienced…” More than three hundred experiencers and researchers from all over the world had gathered there. Many of them had come close to death, of course, and many had actually crossed the threshold, been treated as clinically dead, and then returned to tell us what they went through and what they experienced.
The message was clear: Death is nothing other than a passage into another dimension. Nothing ends with biological death. On the contrary, that is when everything begins. In fact, it confirms Plato and the essence of the soul—the truth that it longs for its essence and source.
What was truly impressive was that three of the keynote speakers were credible and distinguished physicians leading the way in breaking down the massive walls of reductive materialist logic. Among them were Harvard neurosurgeon Eben Alexander, orthopedic surgeon Mary Neal, anesthesiologist Dr. Parti, and other doctors who attest that the incarnated soul is an infinitely small fragment of a greater, expansive consciousness. A consciousness that surrounds us and permeates us. Physicists, biologists, clergy, businesspeople and entrepreneurs, university professors, military officers, builders, and sailors all presented their experiences. Nowhere could I find any “psychopathologies” that would squeeze them into the DSM straitjacket. Instead, I was saddened to see how irresponsibly and mockingly some experiencers were treated as their experiences were reduced to drug side effects, anoxia, or hallucinations. And all of this was done by primary healthcare providers—those who run our ministries of health. How shameful!
If our doctors, as part of their training, were to meet face-to-face with people who have crossed to the other side and returned, they would understand how little is taught in universities and how little we truly know about the nature of the world around us. If doctors and nurses knew that patients would heal faster if they sat beside them and listened instead of remaining detached and distant… Or if doctors knew that some patients, while under anesthesia, can hear what is said during surgery and therefore chose their words more carefully… then we would have better outcomes, better cooperation, and higher recovery rates.
In fact, IANDS has produced a film specifically aimed at medical personnel in Intensive Care Units and at physicians in general. It includes testimonies from several doctors who themselves have had this experience, as well as signs physicians should be aware of when dealing with an NDE. By giving them guidelines on how to approach such an experience and how to deal with the specific trauma, I hope medical doctors will become more open to the soul hypothesis. I’m not that optimistic—but this is a major step in the right direction. If conventional doctors change their way of thinking, healing will also accelerate.
What does this mean for us? The findings of our profession share many similarities with what these people discovered during their momentary deaths. Of course, there are many differences as well (such as the acceleration of time or the judgment phase), but the truth is that when it comes to the LBL stage, we have common ground.
At the conference, I also presented a paper entitled “Initiation in the Ancient Mysteries, Near-Death Experiences, and Regression Therapy.” I attempted to show that one does not have to pass through the threshold of death to understand the afterlife. Instead, an initiatory ordeal such as those in the Eleusinian Mysteries of ancient Greece, or a return to the moment of death in a past life—as we regression therapists do today—can be enough for a person to overcome the crippling fear of death.
NDEs must be divided into two categories. As Dr. Sam Parnia notes in his latest book Erasing Death, in some cases the term “near-death” is inaccurate because actual death occurred. When breathing stops, when there is no heartbeat, and when the brain ceases to function, we say a person is dead. But is that true? It seems the real answer is (or should be): not exactly, or it depends. Tissue and cells die at different rates depending on environmental conditions (such as temperature) or on which part of the body they are in. Yet for now, this is the agreed-upon definition of death. So when people who have been officially pronounced dead return—accompanied by data confirming death conditions—this alone indicates the existence of a spiritual reality.
In Norfolk, VA, I met a woman who did not have a true NDE but a near-death–like experience. She was waiting for a liver transplant after her liver failed due to non-alcoholic cirrhosis. Everyone except her had lost hope, as no suitable liver had been found. She believed she would make it—and she did. The doctors knew she could die at any moment, when a miracle happened: during the night, a spiritual surgery took place. The ceiling of her room disappeared, and beings of light—whom she described as angels—surrounded her and began to operate on her. She could feel them, sense them, and even smell them. When the operation ended, an image flashed in her mind: a frame showing a small child. She saw the child’s facial features clearly. Later, she was told that a liver had been found and she would be taken into surgery. When the operation was successfully completed, she told the chief surgeon about the child—and there he was. The description matched perfectly. The donor was a seven-year-old child who had died in the accident she had seen.
The interview lasted more than six hours, and by writing so little about it here, I am doing it a disservice—but you may trust my word.
Miracles happen, and they are far more than real. They are supernatural.
