Final Passages: Research on Near Death and the Experience of Dying Conference

 

Last week I had the most amazing opportunity of presenting a paper at the above conference at the Bioethics Forum inMadison,Wisconsin with many well known researchers in the field of near death, death and dying. It was a true honour to be there and as well as meeting up with old friends I also had the opportunity to make many more friends.

A VERY BIG THANK YOU TO SO MANY PEOPLE WHO MADE THIS EVENT POSSIBLE:

Bill Linton, CEO of Promega for having the vision to hold such important conferences.

A big thank you also to Karin Borgh, PhD, Penny Patterson, Nicole Haselwander, Jamie Richardson, Kathy Kirk at Promega. Also to the BTC Institute staff: Natalie Betz, Barbara Bielec, Ryan Olson and Amy Prevost.   Of course, there are a lot of other people behind the scenes – IS and facilities staff, etc

The whole conference presentations will soon be available to watch on line so watch this space for more information about the link.

The programme for the first day was near-death experiences and the speakers were:

• Dr Pim van Lommel
• Dr Penny Sartori
• Dr Eben Alexander iii
• Dr Raymond Moody
• Professor Eric Weiss

Followed by a panel discussion facilitated by Steve Paulson

The programme for the second day was the experience of death and dying including research into mystical states of consciousness facilitated by entheogens and the speakers were:

• Professor Stanislav Grof
• Dr William Richards
• Dr Jeffrey Guss
• Dr Marilyn Schlitz

Followed by a panel discussion facilitated by Steve Paulson

The conference was closed with a sound meditation from Alexandre Tannous followed by a closing meditation by Peter Russell.

It was a very powerful, paradigm shifting forum. I learned a great deal during the conference and there is so much to say that I will be putting a series of posts on the blog.

Keep following for more posts over the next few days.

New Part-Time Degree: Science, Spirituality and Health

I am really excited because I have just written a module for the part-time Humanities degree. I will be teaching the module at SwanseaUniversity, Dept. of Adult Continuing Education. The preparation course for the degree module will begin on 23^rd April 2012 and the part-time degree module will begin in September 2012. I will also be teaching a ‘Pathways to Learning’ course in September 2012 and another in January 2013.

 

The modules will consider ways in which individuals can be empowered to take responsibility for their own health by embracing both the spiritual and physical aspects of life in conjunction with modern medicine.

 

Alongside my 21 years experience of working as a nurse along with my doctoral research into near-death experiences, learning about and researching these topics has had a very positive effect on my own life and I plan to pass this on to all who attend the course. I intend each session to be fun and inspiring.

 

 

I will be looking at and discussing topics such as:-

•  What is the mind?
•  Ways in which mind can influence health
•   
• Can mind be extended in space?
•  
• The biology of belief and psychoneuroimmunology
•  
• The correlation between acts of kindness and compassion on health
•  
• NDEs, end of life experiences
•  
• Altered states of consciousness
•  
• Afterlife beliefs in the World’s religions
•  
• Meditation and spiritual practice
•  
• Spiritually transformative experiences (STE)
•  
• Positive transformation following NDEs and STEs
•  
• How technology is leading to a greater understanding of consciousness

 

 

 These are just a few of the planned sessions that I hope will inspire everyone who attends to read and learn more about these fascinating topics.

 

 

 For further information check out the link below:

 

 http://www.swansea.ac.uk/media/WEB_BA%20Humanities%202012.pdf

 

 

 The course I will be teaching is on Page 30 of the booklet. If you’re interested in attending the course contact:-

 

 Paul Dicks 01792 295935 / 295499

 

 p.dicks@swansea.ac.uk

 

 

Forthcoming Conference in Madison, Wisconsin, USA – Final Passages: Near-Death and the Experience of Dying

  I am really excited because 26th -27th April I’ll be attending and speaking at the forthcoming conference below. Although I’ve met some of the speakers before there are some who I’ve never met but have read their excellent work in the field.

 The title of the conference is Final Passages: Research on Near-Death and the Experience of Dying. I am very much looking forward to the conference and will post a report of what I have learned from the other speakers when I return.

 The speakers are: Stanislav Grof MD, PhD, Jeffrey Guss MD, Raymond Moody MD, PhD, Steve Paulson, William Richards PhD, Penny Sartori PhD, Marilyn Schlitz PhD, Pim van Lommel MD, Eric Weiss PhD. 

Check out the link for more details:

http://www.btci.org/bioethics/default.html

 

In the News This Week… After Death Communication from Whitney Houston

This week it was reported that Whitney Houston’s daughter Bobbi Kristina spoke to Oprah Winfrey about Whitney’s death because she wanted to tell the world that the ‘spirit’ of Whitney is still at her side.

Bobbi Kristina was quoted as saying ‘I can still laugh with her and talk to her. I can hear her voice telling me keep moving baby I got you. She’s always with me; I can always feel her with me. Her spirit is strong I feel her pass through me all the time.’

Interestingly Bobbi Kristina was also quoted as saying ‘Throughout the house lights turn on and off, and I’m like Mum what are you doing?’

Bobbi Kristina appears to be experiencing after death communication. This has been commonly reported by many people. However, many people are very reluctant to tell others about these communications in case they won’t be believed. I have written about after death communications in my forthcoming book (it’s in the process of being published) and have got some very interesting examples including one from children’s author Shelley E Parker who received many communications from her fiancé after he was tragically killed in a helicopter crash.

I have spoken to many people who have reported similar things to Bobbi Kristina and there are a few very interesting books which describe various other kinds of after death communication. One very interesting read is called Hello from Heaven by Bill and Judy Guggenheim.

One thing that particularly interests me is electrical disturbances around death – many people who have a NDE report disturbances in their electrical field after their NDE. There are also many documented reports of electrical disturbances after people have died. Many people have reported lights flickering, radios unexpectedly turning themselves on, lights being left on even after they have been turned off. It was especially interesting to me to read that Bobbi Kristina had mentioned the house lights turning on and off.

How inspiring that Bobbi Kristina has shared this so publicly with the world. I’m sure it will give comfort to many others who are themselves experiencing the loss of a loved one and it will also reassure others who have experienced some kind of after death communication.

Hallucinations in Intensive Care Patients

On Thursday 8^th March I spoke at The Welsh Intensive Care Society conference. Although my paper was about my research into NDEs, part of my paper discussed the hallucinations that patients reported. This aspect sparked a lot of discussion and it is apparent that many healthcare workers in the audience were aware of many patients who continued to have very vivid and disturbing hallucinations after being discharged home. So I have decided to write a post specifically about hallucinations as opposed to NDEs.

Hallucinations are very common in patients who have been in intensive care. I nursed thousands of patients in intensive care, in the 17 years that I worked there, who reported such hallucinations. My colleagues knew of my interest in hallucinations and death and dying so I was predominantly allocated patients who were dying or hallucinating.

 When I undertook my research, during the first year of data collection I interviewed every patient who survived their admission to ITU. Out of this sample only two people reported a NDE yet I came across 12 patients who had clearly been hallucinating. These patients were entered into the study so that I could compare the hallucinations with the NDE. By the end of the 5 years data collection I came across 15 patients who had a NDE. I then compared the hallucination group with the NDE group.

 The full interviews with the patients who hallucinated and those who reported a NDE are in my first book The Near-Death Experiences of Hospitalized Intensive Care Patients: A Five Year Clinical Study published by The Edwin Mellen Press in 2008.

There were differences between the hallucinating patients and the NDE group. The NDE followed a specific pattern whereas the hallucinations were random and bizarre often with no logical sequence of events. On follow-up after a few months the NDE remained vivid and the patients remained adamant that it was ‘realer than real’ whereas those who had been hallucinating could rationalise that they had been hallucinating. Also Patient 10 had a very deep NDE but had also experienced hallucinations at a different time. He stated that there was a difference between the hallucinations and the NDE and the NDE remains as vivid now as it did when it occurred over 10 years ago whereas the hallucinations have faded and he can’t recall them in as much detail.

When I investigated the hallucination group it became apparent that the patients were predominantly reporting experiences which were actually occurring at the time they were recovering and their sedation had been discontinued. They could hear what was going on around them, they could feel what was being done to them, they could feel the equipment attached to their body and could partially see things in their line of vision as they were regaining consciousness.

For example one patient thought she was on the Swansea to Cork ferry. All patients in intensive care are on pressure relieving air mattresses. If you lie on one it feels as though you are on a boat swaying from side to side – further to this when her sedation had been discontinued she was being cared for by a nurse with a thick Irish accent. 

Even after sedation had been discontinued it appears that it remained in the patient’s body for some days especially if the patient had been in renal failure. The patient’s bizarre behaviour was also clearly observable by the nurses looking after them. Many patients tried to get out of bed or remove the tubes etc connected to their body; some even became aggressive towards the nurses. Many of the patients were later quite embarrassed about their behaviour.

However, it has also become apparent that some patients, especially those who are ventilated and sedated for a prolonged period of weeks and months, have intense hallucinations which can’t always be attributed to background noise etc. Some people report experiences that parallel post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

I frequently get contacted via my website by people who have had very vivid hallucinations that have a very disturbing effect on their lives and interrupt their sleep pattern. In some cases people are even afraid to go to sleep or close their eyes because they fear the hallucinations coming back and being re-experienced. One man was so disturbed by his stay in intensive care that the only way he could get any rest was to try to sleep on the sofa in his living room with all of the lights on and the white noise of the TV buzzing in the background.

This highlights the importance of providing good follow-up care for all intensive care patients who have been sedated and ventilated for a successive number of days. There are follow-up clinics in many intensive care units and there is usually a psychologist involved in extreme cases for patients who continue to experience vivid hallucinations.

In extreme cases, it would also be helpful for any patients who suffer with disturbing hallucinations after discharge from ITU, to return to the intensive care unit where they were a patient and speak to the nurses, doctors and physiotherapists who actually participated in their care. I did this with a patient in my study and it helped the patient immensely. I had actually looked after him while he was sedated and when I explained the various treatments that were given and showed him some of the equipment used he was able to make more sense of what he had been through. Due to the nature of their role, nurses usually spend most time at the patient’s bedside in intensive care and are a very useful resource when patients are trying to make sense of their experiences while in intensive care. Unfortunately, the reality of our current healthcare system with increased and often excessive workloads, nurses and other healthcare workers seldom, if ever, get the luxury of being able to spend time explaining these very important aspects with patients who have been discharged from intensive care. This has a double sided effect because the patient misses out on important support and the healthcare workers miss out on the opportunity to learn from these patients and use what they have learned to benefit future patients.

 

NICE recommends that when you have left the hospital:

“If you needed structured support while you were in hospital, you should have a meeting with a member of your healthcare team who is familiar with your critical care problems and recovery. The meeting will be to discuss any physical, sensory or communication problems, emotional or psychological problems and any social care or equipment needs that you might have.

If you are recovering more slowly than anticipated, or if you have developed any new physical or psychological problems, then you should be offered referral to the relevant rehabilitation or other specialist service.” (NICE CG83)

 

Below are some links which maybe helpful for people who are experiencing hallucinations after being a patient in intensive care:-

http://www.healthtalkonline.org/intensive_care/Intensive_care_Patients_experiences/Topic/1264

 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/09/060925083003.htm

 http://www.healthtalkonline.org/intensive_care/Intensive_care_Patients_experiences/Topic/1369

 

 

Update on Anita Moorjani’s Case

Today I received an email from Regina Khan who is Anita’s assistant. She has directed me to another video clip of a lecture that Anita gave which also includes the testimony of Dr Peter Ko, the doctor who examined all of her medical notes and verified her case.  The video clip is approximately 20 minutes long – again this includes Anita’s very interesting and inspiring information about what she experienced and it also includes a clip of Dr Peter Ko speaking about her remarkable case. To view the clip visit Anita’s website, it’s the clip on the front page:

www.anitamoorjani.com

Anita Moorjani’s NDE on Youtube

This week I was alerted to Lilou Mace’s 47 minute interview with Anita Moorjani on Youtube. If my memory serves me correctly, Anita’s case is referred to in an article written by Dr Larry Dossey and published in Explore journal:

(Dossey, L. (2011). Dying to Heal: A Neglected Aspect of NDEs. Explore, March / April, Vol., 7, No. 2, pp. 59-62.)

On February 2^nd 2006 Anita, who had been suffering with lymphoma cancer for four years, was admitted to Intensive Care in Hong Kong. She was critically ill due to a relapse of her lymphoma. She was not expected to survive and her family were told that she would be lucky to survive another 36 hours. In fact, during the interview, Anita stated that she was actually pronounced dead by the doctor. Not only did Anita regain consciousness but miraculously her lymphoma cancer disappeared too.

Anita has reported a very deep NDE which incorporates many of the components that make up the NDE. There are many interesting points made by Anita including how she didn’t realise that she was in a coma when she was admitted to the hospital because she was still very much aware and could see everything that was going on around her. Also, as is commonly reported, her perception of time was greatly altered and everything seemed to be happening at once. Therefore making sense of the experience and trying to relate it to linear time was quite difficult as is reported by many NDErs.

A prevalent part of her experience was the realisation that we are all interconnected and when she was not in her body she was able to connect with those around her, even the nurses whom she did not know.

What was interesting to me was the fact that she was very much aware of her brother being many miles away and not being present at her bedside. She did not want to die because she did not want him to arrive at the hospital only to see her dead body. The possibility that patient’s have control over the time of their death is one thing I write about in my forthcoming book. As a nurse I have witnessed so many patients die either when their family leave their bedside to have a break or after the arrival of a person or after a particular event such as a family wedding has passed. Anita’s testimony supports the possibility that we have more control over our deaths than we realise.

Maybe the most important message that Anita has to share is how it made her realise that (like many of us, myself included!) she had previously been living her life out of fear of the consequences of her actions. However, her NDE taught her to live her life out of love for herself.

 Anita’ Moorjani’s forthcoming book Dying to be Me is released at the beginning of March.

 Thank you Anita and Lilou for the interview. What a great message Anita has to share with the world. I encourage everyone to watch the interview and listen to and hear what she has to say.

 To watch the interview click the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjLouLHH-_I

Update of this Post

Today I received an email from Regina Khan who is Anita’s assistant. She has directed me to another video clip of a lecture that Anita gave which also includes the testimony of Dr Peter Ko, the doctor who examined all of her medical notes and verified her case.  The video clip is approximately 20 minutes long – again this includes Anita’s very interesting and inspiring information about what she experienced and it also includes a clip of Dr Peter Ko speaking about her remarkable case. To view the clip visit Anita’s website, it’s the clip on the front page:

www.anitamoorjani.com

In The News…

On Wednesday 1^st February The Guardian published an interesting article called the Top Five Regrets of The Dying.

Australian Palliative Care nurse Bronnie Ware recorded her observations of looking after patients who were in the last few weeks of their life and has written a book on the subject. She also has a blog called Inspiration and Chai:

http://www.inspirationandchai.com/Regrets-of-the-Dying.html

When I read the article I couldn’t help but agree with her observations and I too have mentioned some of these things in my forthcoming book.

Undertaking my research had a very profound effect on me and changed me in many ways. In fact because I learned so much from the patients I looked after I too completely re-evaluated my life. It’s almost as if I was faced with my own death through studying the deaths of my patients. It made me realise the importance of seizing the moment and living in the now! So it was no surprise when the number one on the list of regrets was:

I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

On reflecting on their lives many of the patients realised that they had never fulfilled their dreams. Health brings a freedom that few realise until they no longer have it.

Are you fulfilling your dreams?

For the full article click the link below:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/feb/01/top-five-regrets-of-the-dying?INTCMP=SRCH

 

Forthcoming Events

This year has got off to a busy start. I’ve been asked to do several lectures in the space of just two weeks!

On Thursday 2nd February I will be taking part in The Wellcome Trust exhibition in London called Leap of Faith where I will be doing a brief presentation of my NDE research and then participating in a panel discussion. The link to the event is below:

http://www.wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/events/leap-of-faith.aspx

I am also really excited about another talk I’ve been asked to do in April. I have been invited to be a key speaker at the BTC Institute Bioethics Forum in Madison, Wisconsin, USA on April 26th – 27th. The title of the forum is Final Passages: Research on Near-Death and the Experience of Dying.

Other speakers at the event so far include Dr Raymond Moody, Dr Peter Fenwick, Professor Stanislav Grof, Professor Jeffrey Guss, Dr Marilyn Schlitz, Dr William Richards, Dr Pim Van Lommel and Dr Eric Weiss. The conference will be moderated by Steve Paulson of Public Radio International.

I’m really looking forward to participating in this conference and learning from all of the other papers that will be presented. I will post an update of the outcome of the conference.

The link to the conference is:

http://www.btci.org/bioethics/default.html

In The News… Teenager posts video on YouTube which describes his NDE three weeks before his death on Christmas Night

Yesterday The Mail Online reported the story of inspirational teenager Ben Breedlove’s death which happened a few days ago on Christmas night. 18 year old Ben had suffered with a life threatening heart condition for his whole life.

Ben posted a video describing his close brushes with death using flash cards. The video gives some insight into what it must be like to live with the constant threat of death.

A few weeks ago on December 6^th Ben suffered a cardiac arrest. On December 18^th Ben uploaded a video to youtube which described the NDE that he experienced while undergoing the cardiac arrest. Part of the NDE describes an encounter with his favourite rapper Kid Cudi. One of his last comments on the video was ‘I didn’t want to leave that place’.

What a truly inspirational young man. RIP.

To watch Ben’s video click the link below:

http://bcove.me/ygiiepao

 To read the full newspaper report click the link below:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2079098/Ben-Breedlove-Video-sick-teenager-life-1-week-died.html