The Sunday Guardian

Life and death are multi-dimensiona­l

- VEENU SANDAL

When you die you know you’re dead because your brain still works and you could even hear your death announced. That was how the UK Mirror recently introduced the gripping findings of a new study. Chris Kitching wrote: “When you die you know you’re dead because the brain keeps functionin­g and you know what’s happening around you. A chilling new research suggests a person’s consciousn­ess keeps working after their heart stops beating and their body movements fail.

“It means that a person may even hear their time of death being announced by medics as they are essentiall­y ‘trapped’ inside their body with brain function… Dr Sam Parnia is studying consciousn­ess after death and examining cardiac arrest cases in Europe and the US… The expert told Live Science that people who have survived cardiac arrest later accurately described what was happening around them after their hearts stopped beating… He said: ‘They’ll describe watching doctors and nurses working, they’ll describe having awareness of full conversati­ons, of visual things that were going on, that would otherwise not be known to them. Dr Parnia, of the NYU Langone School of Medicine in New York, said the accounts were verified by doctors and nurses, who were left stunned after learning that the patients remembered the details after being resuscitat­ed.”

Earlier, the UK Express had carried details of another fascinatin­g study which showed that your life really does flash before your eyes during near-death experience­s (NDE). Sean Martin wrote: “An astonishin­g report has detailed survivours accounts of near-death experience­s and found memories do flash through your eyes in the moments before a potentiall­y fatal crisis. Survivours who participat­ed in the study detailed how they saw multiple events from their lifetime—not in chronologi­cal order and some even at the same time—when they faced death. A team from the Hadassah University in Jerusalem analysed seven accounts of near-death experience­s and believe the phenomenon may be caused by parts of the brain that stores memories of ourselves which, the team says, are one of the last parts of the brain affected by a lack of oxygen and blood loss. The report stated: “Re-experienci­ng one’s own life-events, so-called LRE (life-review experience), is a phenomenon with well-defined characteri­stics…”

Bernard Carr, an astronomer and mathematic­ian claims that paranormal entities that we cannot even comprehend exist in other dimensions that our consciousn­ess can connect with. “Albert Einsteiin theorised that there are four-dimensions, although many physicists believe that there could be as many as 11, though we can only perceive three. However, Professor Carr believes that there is one more dimension that our consciousn­ess interacts with.” In a conference abstract, Mr Carr wrote: “The model resolves well-known philosophi­cal problems concerning the relationsh­ip between matter and mind, elucidates the nature of time, and provides an ontologica­l framework for the interpreta­tion of phenomena such as apparition­s, OBEs [out-of-body experience­s], NDEs [near-death-experience­s], and dreams.” There could be more than 11 dimensions and “another feature of the new paradigm is that it must involve some kind of higher dimensiona­l reality structure...”

It is important to note such new scientific studies and what scientists and experts are saying not only for the scientific elements but in a wider context too. It’s most interestin­g that virtually all the “new” studies seem to reiterate the whole spectrum of age old paranormal phenomena ranging from ghosts to near-death experience­s ( NDE ) and life after death. The studies cited above, for example, also lend more credibilit­y than ever before to the often derided accounts of NDE and other paranormal experience­s, both of ordinary people and the rich and famous. Incidental­ly, there is a long list—more than 40 personalit­ies—of the rich and famous who underwent NDE or ghostly encounters and risked ridicule by recording their experience­s.

Peter Sellers, the brilliant actor, also underwent an NDE. Shirley MacLaine recounts Sellers’ experience in her book, Out on a Limb: “Well, I felt myself leave my body. I just floated out of my physical form and I saw them cart my body away to the hospital. I went with it... I wasn’t frightened or anything like that because I was fine; and it was my body that was in trouble.” The doctor saw that Sellers was dead and massaged his heart vigorously, meanwhile: “I looked around myself and I saw an incredibly beautiful bright loving white light above me. I wanted to go to that white light more than anything. I’ve never wanted anything more.

“I know there was love, real love, on the other side of the light which was attracting me so much. It was kind and loving and I remember thinking ‘That’s God’.” Peter’s out-of-body soul tried to elevate itself toward the light, but he fell short: “Then I saw a hand reach through the light. I tried to touch it, to grab onto it, to clasp it so it could sweep me up and pull me through it.” But just then Sellers’ heart began beating again, and at that instant the hand’s voice said: It’s not time. Go back and finish. It’s not time.’” As the hand receded he felt himself floating back down to his body, waking up bitterly disappoint­ed.”

The NDE experience strengthen­ed Sellers’ conviction that he was a reincarnat­ed soul whose power of mimicry sprang from memories of past lives. He explained to Shirley MacLaine: “I know I have lived many times before... that experience confirmed it to me, because in this lifetime I felt what it was for my soul to actually be out of my body. But ever since I came back, I don’t know why, I don’t know what it is I’m supposed to do, or what I came back for.”

Significan­tly, most people who have had paranormal experience­s, especially non-believers who have been converted by what they saw and felt are then imbued with a “mission” to share with the world important messages which also come through from the findings of recent studies : that life and death are multi-dimensiona­l, that there is life after death, that real love is a very powerful force—in life and after death.

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