My paternal grandfather, "Pop" had an NDE in 1972, which he told me about in terms entirely consistent with those in the article.
The context was that he was in the hospital after a heart attack, and he had another heart attack and was revived. I was about 20 when this happened. (I won't try to recreate his Swedish/Finnish accent; he was speaking to me in English.) He said something like, "Johnny, and then I died. My soul left my body and a flew up to the ceiling. And I was looking down on them pounding away on my body. Do you think they give you love taps? No! They're pounding on you like jackhammers! But I didn't feel a thing. I was at peace, looking down at that poor body they were beating up, with all the tubes up his nose and in his arms. And then the ceiling started to collapse all around me, and I looked, and there was light, and the Holy Ghost was flying there with me, in the form of a white bird. Then all at once I collapsed back into my body and was in great pain again and knew I was alive. But now I know where I'm going." So yes, he put a religious interpretation on his experience. I was raised Catholic. My father's mother was from Ireland and very Catholic. My mother had been raised Catholic in Scotland and came to the USA after WW2, partly to escape from the anti-Catholic sentiment in Scotland. My father was raised Catholic. But his father, Pop, was not religious through most of his life. On Sunday mornings when my parents & grandmother & my six brothers & sisters went off to Mass, Pop stayed home. He was politely atheistic. But something happened, I don't know what, after he retired (he was an deisel mechanic) and he converted to Catholicism. He was a working man and didn't read much beyond the newspapers & Life magazine. I really doubt that he had heard of anybody else's Near Death Experience. In other words I don't believe his experience was shaped by preconceptions. He died when I was in Africa in 1974. I have a story to tell about a quasi-mystical experience related to that, but I don't have time to tell it now. jrs On Apr 4, 2014, at 9:23 AM, Deepa Mohan wrote: > I found this quite intriguing, as so far I have been sceptical (because of > lack of independent verification). > > http://www.salon.com/2012/04/21/near_death_explained/ > > Has anyone on this list had any experience of this kind? > > Deepa.
