Journal of Humanitarian Affairs: Premonitions, near death experiences reflect man's common bonds for life

Near death vision in art

Recently a young boy recanted his story about what he had said were near-death visions and therefore made erroneous claims, causing the book written about those visions called The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven to be recalled. But are there universal themes in death and dying that we should learn that might aid us in knowing how to live together peacefully?

The question people ponder, but experts say many reject because of fear, is when they'll die. But many people have premonitions, and some say the costs of health care might be reduced by knowing more about the process of death. In fact experts tell us there are universal features in the process of dying that transcend both religion and culture.

While the health care debate continues in the United States, even after the passage of the bill to create better access to medical care and to reduce costs, some scientists and religious folk believe if we knew more about death and accepted what has been discovered already about it, perhaps the costs of medical care prior to death could be reduced. This is not, however, to suggest death panels but to understand that death is natural and normal and certain processes can be identified and accepted as such. One important factor has to do with premonitions of death and near-death experiences that researchers have found present a universal message about death and dying.

A Tucson, Arizona support group that investigated and provided information for those interested in or who have experienced premonitions announced in April 21, 2010 a significant presentation by a physician who has written a book especially about the issue of premonition about dying and the near death experience as well.

Dr. Allan Hamilton wrote a book called “The Scalpel and the Soul," and his announced presentation was "Experience the Spiritual Side of Surgery." The group offered this as an overview of his Hamilton's presentation
"

Based on thirty years experience as a Harvard-educated brain surgeon, The Scalpel and the Soul: Encounters with Surgery, the Supernatural, and the Healing Power of Hope tells the stories behind remarkable patients and the moral and spiritual lessons they can teach everyone. In this book, Dr. Hamilton shares a rare glimpse of how the spiritual and the supernatural manifest themselves even in the high-tech world of 21st century intensive care units or operating rooms.
The soul often needs more than an Intensive Care Unit can provide.
The Scalpel and the Soul explores how premonition, superstition, hope and faith not only become factors in how patients feel, but can change the outcomes as well."

In a journey across the country several years ago, this journalist encountered a story learned about an old friend who died quite young and seemed to know she would.

She was a lovely girl, filled with life and hope and dreams. She lived in La Grande, Oregon, born 69 years ago, part of the memories that arise when folks revisit friends and find them gone as happened when a journalist returned to the little town after 45 years had past.
Her name was Janice Shenfield. Her name had later changed, but old friend's memories seemed to stay with matters learned in childhood. She could top the class in spelling, vying for the place of recognition by fellow students and the teacher with two other girls who worked hard to be the best in school.

She married young and made her life in her hometown of La Grande, Oregon, where family members yet remain, remember, think and wonder, what her life might have been were she alive today.

Her brother, Richard, spoke with me on the matter of premonition in relationship to his sister. He said she died those 34+ years ago, but for those who knew young Janice far before those years the news was new, the sadness fresh, the loss of something, someone special who represented life in years that were and never are again.

He said, "She always said she wouldn't ever see 40, and she died before that age. She was only 39 but knew. The cancer came and took her. But we miss her still, these many years that pass."

"How did she know?" the question asked, the brother spoke again. "Who knows for sure. She seemed to know. She talked of it from time to time. Your visit brings this back so fresh. We loved her too. She was a special girl and a person of great faith."

But does faith conflict with premonition, with extra-spiritual experience in ways outside of what most people think as normal ways? A talk with Reverend Kathy Muder in Natchitoches, Louisiana several years ago gave insight into what some spiritual advisers, ministers and people of faiths believe. Indeed that belief in God does not preclude, but may include, experiences like an old friend, Janice Shenfield, had.

Muder said this in answer to the question of premonitions and experiences related to death.

"I'm not unconvinced these things don't happen. God can intervene in ways we can't understand. We often don't believe beyond ourselves, but there's a lot that goes on that isn't valued that includes extra communication that goes beyond what we consider normal."

The Reverend told a story not unlike those heard from time to time about messages that come from that somewhere else, someplace some folks disregard and simply think of as strange or even uncomfortable. The story related this, "My sister and I shared a room. We had a built-in desk. While I was out and away, my grandmother would sit at the desk and speak to my sister. My grandmother had died but came and told my sister an aunt had breast cancer. When the aunt eventually died, the grandmother didn't reappear."

"Do you believe it true?" I asked. Muder replied, "I believe premonitions and experiences can happen like my grandmother. If you believe God is active in the world, how can you not believe?" And Muder ended thus, "And Christ did say, 'Let those who have ears let them hear.'

The notion of preconceiving death is one that mystics and religious people write and think about at times. Some folks do not include a faith when talking of these things, but the narrative remains much the same, the experiences related in a fashion about folks who seem to know when they will die or what might happen next. It has been reported in the news from time to time, as it was in the case of Anwar Sadat whose wife declared he had a premonition of his own death. There are blogs and stories on the Internet that maintain the same type of experience happened to people around the world.

And premonitions are universal as explained in this article. In it, Larry Dossey, M.D. tells us, "I used to believe that we must choose between science and reason on one hand spirituality on the other, in how we lead our lives. Now I consider this a false choice. We can recover the sense of sacredness, not just in science, but in perhaps every area of life."

But what does science say? The well-known writer-researcher of near death experience, Dr. Melvin L. Morse, MD, FAAP, maintains it is common to feel intensely or have visions someone you love will die. In a Sudden Death research study it was found by comparing parents with children who had died of SDS with two control groups, 25% of those parents whose children had actually died had distinctly unique perceptions not seen in the control groups. They reported these impressions either in journals or in conversations with physicians. Morse declares, "Recent medical research indicates that we are all born with a "sixth sense", localized in our right temporal lobe, which allows us to perceive spiritual realities."

Morse' work and manuscripts, such as Parting Visions and Transformed by the Light, has been studied by near death and death researchers around the world.

The research of Dr. Morse has included stories of people from many religions who have experienced near death. In fact these experiences are part of the formal theology of Islam, with stories of the Prophet Muhammad's ascent into heaven to be given spiritual guidance before the writing of the Quran. And the Muslims called Sufis, have many fundamental beliefs related to these experiences, as one writer describes: " Concepts found in Sufism can be found in a great many near-death experiences which have been reported. The Sufi masters teach that, after death, a person judges himself thereby bringing about their own heaven or hell. Sufism is known as "the Way of the Heart" and the "Way of the Pure." It is a means by which one can move from the lower level of self to ascend to the Divine Light that penetrates the entire universe. This light concept is common to many other religions as well as the near-death experience. According to Sufi tradition, there are many ways to ascend, but the essence of the path to God is to find yourself. As the Sufi saying states, "Know yourself, know your Lord."

An article written in Mindspring, available on the Internet, discusses some of his summations about the death experience. These include:
* Having visions about death is normal affecting more than 10% of the population who recall having visions about death related to loved ones.
* Most parents who have had children who died had visions of it within a year before the death.
* Happy marriages bring more after-death visions than others and are more common in marriages with children
* Before death many dying patients have visions of deceased family members and of another world. Many of these experiences are shared by more than one person.
* Angels figure into many of these visions, with 50% of children reporting this from near death experiences.

* Morse believes also that having visions of impending death can also be helpful and life-changing. He puts forth the view that 30% to 60% of medical expenses occurring the last few days of life could be saved if folks could view death as a natural and normal part of life and if folks could die peacefully and with dignity.

Morse also intimates that death visions can impact prevention as well, as those experiencing near-death visions usually take better care of their health than others do.

Dr. Peter Fenwick, a neuropsychiatrist, reported on his study of near death and premonitions in his book The Art of Dying. He said this in an interview with skeptics on why the issue of premonitions and death aren't discussed as much as he believes is necessary and important to learn about ourselves. He said,

"We don’t allow ourselves both from a scientific point of view and to some extent in a cultural point of view to look at this. But the phenomenology is just fascinating and it starts, the Dalai Lama says that we know, and this is my current research interest and if any of your listeners have information on this, I’d love to know about it. The Dalai Lama says that two years before you die, you get inclinations that you’re going to die.
So, I would like to know from people if their relatives who have died had inclinations that long before. I don’t mean once you’ve gone to the doctor and found a lump and you know you got cancer, that’s not that. It’s mental inclinations that you know that you’re going to die, probably when you consider yourself to be well before anything happens. So that’s one point.

Fenwick goes on to give specifics about death visions by saying,

About a month about you die, then you’ll start getting visitations from dead family members. We’ve got enough accounts of these to say who comes and it tends to be spouses are the highest on your list. Then brothers or sisters and children quite often see their grandparents."

A sister years ago tells her brother and her family she will die and says it some time before it actually happens. Family folk remember to this day her words and her beliefs. Premonitions might seem fantasy for some, but there are those who say they are real, enough for conscious, careful study and for consolation of those who remember loved ones attuned to listening to messages that some believe, like Dr. Fenwick, allow the soul to transition with advanced knowledge of its course.

Some say that knowledge could reduce those interventions that maintain an artificial life that disregards its quality and that can be expensive and unnecessary, while others believe near-death experiences can bring information about prevention too so that people take better care of their health, thus reducing the overall costs of health care. It is, however, an issue both scientists and those interested in spiritual matters are bringing to the discussion as part of both the health care debate and the need to provide information that can affect how people view death and prepare for it.

And most important, for all of us the knowledge there are common bonds in how we die might help man find better ways to work together and understand one another in life.