Exploring the Mystery of Near-Death Experiences

Abstract

r. Graham is dying of cancer. He slips in and out of consciousness. Yet the words his nurse bends to hear are clear and firm: "I spoke with my wife today," he says with a smile. "She's waiting for me." His wife died two years ago. People who are dying or who have returned from clinical death tell amazingly similar stories about the experience. They speak, for example, of their spirit leaving their body, of feeling "separate from the world." They say their spirit met a "guide" who helped them review their earthly deeds in brilliant and beautiful surroundings. They learn that death is a passage, not an end. Then they return to life, feeling transformed. Nurses have contributed to our knowledge of near-death experiences by relating stories of patients who have been on the edge of death and lived to tell them about it. I've spoken with nurses who say that dying patients often see and hold conversations with deceased relatives or friends. These nurses have also heard terminally ill patients in relatively stable condition predict quite calmly, and correctly, that they would soon die. Dying patients, in turn, say they find it comforting to talk with a nurse about near-death experiences. You can reassure them that such experiences, however fleeting, are valid and significant. To help you work with patients who have these remarkable experiences, I've drawn up the following stories from discussions with hundreds of nurses working in hospital, home care, and hospice settings. For many of these nurses, a close encounter with a patient near death changed the way they practice nursing. The first story is from a nurse named Mary.... As a nurse, you deal with