Death and Dying – What Happens After Death

A well-documented phenomenon, the Near Death Experience (NDE), offers new insight about the age-old question, What happens after death? This brief article will examine what we can learn from NDEs about the nature of life and death.Researchers have documented the following common aspects of the NDE:1. A great sense of peace2. A feeling of separation from the body3. Entering a dark tunnel4. Seeing the light5. A life review6. Encountering spirit guides7. A conscious decision to return to the bodySome people say they experienced all seven elements, whereas others may report only a few. Additional elements have been reported, as well.Numerous people have had transcendental encounters or feel as though they have met a spiritual being who provided them with an enlightened view of life during their NDEs. They may return from their incredible journey to the other side with a clear purpose for their lives, and possibly new information on how they can live their lives with greater success.My NDE occurred in 2003, and was certainly a many-faceted life-altering experience — one which I will never forget. I felt not only a great sense of peace but an overwhelming sense of fearlessness, which allowed me to begin living my life with a newfound courage. I wrote an eBook about my experiences, along with a new vision of relationships which came from my NDE. Also, I shared my NDE with my clients, and developed new strategies and techniques for living fearlessly from it.My personal encounter with death offered me a new way to understand how we should live our lives while on planet earth, rather than educate me about the realities of life after death.Yet my experience, like other NDEs, suggested that consciousness does survive bodily death. And my NDE was extremely stimulating in a spiritual sense.After my recovery, I gave a great deal of thought to the question of how I wanted to live the rest of my life, and how this experience would help me to transform the way I dealt with relationships and practiced my profession.Many people who have a NDE undergo a quickening of their spiritual lives, which may include increased compassion, love and insight, and an acceleration of inner consciousness and intuitive capacity. Sensitivities are raised to a new level.Does a NDE prove the existence of life after death?No, because we cannot assume that near death is the same as actual death. It is possible that actual death entails different phenomena, and may be a different kind of experience.Yet many researchers believe the NDE is similar to death, and provides us with an accurate glimpse of a complex and fascinating psychological process . . . while suggesting a powerful spiritual context for our lives.Many people who have had a NDE hold a strong belief that there is nothing to fear in death, and they have a whole new way of thinking about death and dying. Perhaps there is much we can learn from that conviction.