Another Look at Beings Encountered During the Near Death Experience
by Jody

Reprint requests may be sent to Jody A. Long, J.D. at blueheron78@yahoo.com

INTRODUCTION

Studies done in the late 70's and early 80's provide much of the foundation for today's understandings of the near death experience (NDE).  One of the distinguishing factors unique to NDEs is the reports of beings, deceased relatives, and the implications resulting from these contacts. 

Michael B. Sabom took great care to document his studies in his book, Recollections of Death, published in 1982 (Sabom, 1982). He showed that what NDErs saw and heard while they were dead, had a factual basis.  These people could accurately recall events happening around them.  The Dutch NDE study in 2001, headed by Pim van Lommel, replicated the phenomena and described a patient's veridical perception out-of-body experience (van Lommel, 2001).  Although there are scientists, such as Russell Noyes, who initially set out to prove that imminent death produced hallucinations of the mystical category with "intense visual imagery" representing "a more complete withdrawal from extreme circumstances (Noyes, 1984)," this cannot explain why NDErs can see, hear and accurately recall happenings in the same or other rooms.    

Just as this out of body component is considered a core and real component unique to NDEs, so is the component of meeting beings during the experience.  As noted by Charles Flynn, an early NDE researcher, he quoted the words of sociologist William I. Thomas, "If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences" (Flynn, 1984, p. 279).  The sentiments were echoed by Kenneth Ring by saying, "Such experiences . . . tend to exert a powerful effect on a person's motivations, values, and conduct. . . However one chooses to interpret near-death phenomena, they are unquestionably real in their effects" (p. 279).

Kenneth Ring noted in his study, that the presence of beings could be sensed and sometimes communicated with at the stage after a person leaves their body.  (Ring, 1984) This may or may not be part of the tunnel phase.  Further, twenty percent of the persons who had experienced a presence at this stage in their NDE, reported drastic changes in their lives based upon the contact with the deceased individual.  He also noted that one-tenth of the NDErs went to the final stage he termed as "entering the light."  Beings are more commonly seen during this stage.  He commented on several persons who reported seeing deceased relatives (p. 34).

According to the Greyson NDE Scale, the transcendental component has the highest correlation with the other three components. (Greyson, 1984).  This transcendental component is defined by Ken Ring, as a transpersonal experience.  (Ring, 1984, p. 36).  The NDE is a transpersonal state of consciousness in “which an individual transcends the usual ego boundaries as well as the dimensions of time and space” (p. 36).  Therefore, based on Greyson’s scale, beings play a crucial part in the transcendental nature of the NDE.

Interestingly, on Greyson’s preliminary questionnaire, 26% saw beings.  On the final NDE scale, the question reads "Did you see deceased spirits or religious figures?" and correlated the question as part of the transcendent component unique to the near death experience (Greyson, p. 53).  Van Lommel noted that of 62 patients reporting a NDE, 32% met with deceased persons.  (van Lommel, 2001). 

Since beings represent a unique and transcendental part of the near death experience, this paper will explore what beings people encounter when they go to the other side.  This paper represents the second part of a six part study to find out about Soulmates.  The first study discussed the background of the Soulmate study as viewed through the lens of consciousness studies.  This second paper will focus on relationships between the NDEr, the living, and those on the other side.  I will also add to the knowledge of what categories of deceased beings or religious figures are most commonly reported.

METHODOLOGY

This study is a retrospective review of data received from an Internet survey on the Near Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF) website www.nderf.org (Long, 2002).[1]  Out of a total of 626 experiences submitted to the website, 302 of these experiences met the research definition of NDE as defined as, "A lucid experience associated with perceived consciousness apart from the body occurring at the time of actual or threatened imminent death"  (Long).  It was then determined which of the 302 NDEs answered "Yes" to the question "Did you meet or see any other beings?" and "If yes or uncertain, describe.  Where were they? Did you know them? What was communicated?"  Earth beings seen during the veridical perception phase of the NDE were excluded. 

Dr. Long developed an Excel based chi-square calculation engine based on over 2,000 data points.  Calculations are automatically updated when new data is added.

Out of the 302 NDEs, 212 (70.1%) reported encountering beings.  The beings were divided into familiar and unfamiliar categories based upon whether they described beings or not.  Out of the 212 who reported encountering beings, only 166 (78%) described the beings they encountered.  Each account was counted only once.  Beings counted were those beings that were seen, sensed, and part of the universal consciousness. 

In the familiar category, there were divisions for religious beings, blood relatives, relatives, and other.  In the unfamiliar category, divisions were for male, female, genderless, and others.  Although many people reported seeing more than one being during their experience, the count is one NDE and one being.  For example, while Jesus may have been seen in the same experience as Grandma was seen, Jesus also appeared in 21 other different experiences.  Grandma was tabulated once and Jesus was tabulated once for this one experience. 

Analysis was also performed on the two categories: 1) all beings; and 2) only familiar beings.  Each group was then compared in terms of age of the experiencer at the time of the NDE and whether they saw multiple, one or two beings.  Multiple NDEs and those that an age was not given could not be used. 

RESULTS

Of the 302 people who responded to the survey, 29% (88) saw familiar beings and 25.8% (78) saw unfamiliar beings.  Of the 166 people who saw beings, 53% saw familiar beings, while 47% saw unfamiliar beings.  For those experiences who saw multiple beings, they may have been counted in several categories of familiar and unfamiliar beings.  However, for each being that was seen, there was only one experience counted.  For instance, in one account, a person may have seen Jesus and non-specific angels.  Jesus would have been tabulated once under familiar religious figures, and there would be a tabulation mark for unfamiliar religious figures.  Out of 166 experiencers who saw beings, this one experience would count only once as seeing Jesus.  Also, of 166 experiencers who saw beings, this one experience would count only once as seeing non-specific angels.  Therefore, it is valid to say that a total of 38 experiencers saw Jesus or a total of 9 experiencers saw angels.  However, it would be incorrect to cross-compare those experiences seeing multiple beings by using all of the tabulated experiences below such as n=226.  The break down of familiar and unfamiliar beings is as follows: