Hellish and Frightening Near-Death Experiences
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Wonderful 722 (64.3 percent) Mixed 360 (32.1) Frightening 40 (3.6)
Near-death experiences (NDEs) with hellish content have been reported, although they are rare. The overwhelming majority of NDEs are not hellish. I would estimate that less than 2% of all NDEs shared with NDERF are hellish. Although they are rare, they are real NDEs.
One such example of a hellish NDE comes from Cathleen C, who was given a soft drink laced with the deadly poison strychnine. This account was previously published in my book God and the Afterlife.1 Cathleen’s experience is especially revealing as she describes a visit to hell, is rescued by angels, and meets God. When she meets God she asks why evil exists and receives insights into free will.
Suddenly everything became clear to me. I was dead. I had been created by God. God was a reality, but I wasn’t with Him. He was with me, but I didn’t know that yet. I began to hear extremely distressing and eventually unbearable noise.
I realized that the noise was countless voices of many souls, saying nothing, only weeping and wailing. It was the most anguished, pathetic sound I had ever heard. The sound of their voices and grew until I imagined their numbers were in the millions. It was unbearable. I had to get out of this place. But how? I had no body and no voice. Then deep down in my spirit I screamed as hard as I could. I heard my own voice echoing on and on, “God, help me!” Then a gigantic hand came down, moved under me, and lifted me out of that abyss.
I was then taken up and up. The anguished voices faded, and everything was quiet as I realized I was passing up away from the earth. In moments I had arrived at a certain destination and felt confused. I was concerned about what had happened to my body. I was facing a group of people I felt I knew somehow, and they told me not to worry about my body, my former self. I was there with them and that was all that mattered.
They told me I had to talk to a man who was off in the distance. Then I was immediately in His presence, and we talked at length. I couldn’t hear His voice, but His thoughts instantly transferred to my consciousness and mine to His.
I asked Him how I came to in that place, and he told me that it was His desire for me to be there with Him-that he had created me. I told Him that I hadn’t done anything in my life to deserve being in that beautiful place with Him. He made me understand that He knew everything about me, that I was who I was because He had created me to be exactly who I was, and whatever I was, I was still his creation, His child, and He loved me so very much.
I knew that He had the answers to all questions, so I asked Him, “Why is there evil?” And he replied, “Because there is good.” Then I asked Him, “When we, your children, come into existence, do we live just one time, or do we live over and over?” He took me to the entrance of a long hall that had millions and millions of doorways leading off this hall. He made me aware that many choices were available to me, and that that choice was the answer to the question I had asked. The choice was up to me. He made me understand that I could choose to stay with Him or I could choose to walk down the hall and pick a door. He made me aware that picking a door would be my exit out of heaven, and I would be born again out of the womb of a woman on earth. I asked Him, “But how do I know which door to pick?” He replied merely that the door that I picked is my choice.
I asked Him, “Do we have to pick another door and live over and over?” That would be hell to me, because what I had experienced in life had largely been sad and distressful. He told me some people choose to go back again and again, but He doesn’t want them to. He wants them to stay with Him, but He understood my feelings. He explained that when we choose to leave Him, He removes all memories of previous lives because He doesn’t want us to be distressed. He means for life to be good for all of us. He then reiterated all my choices and again infused me with His love.
He then asked, “Why would you want to leave me?” I don’t remember responding. Then He asked, “How do you feel about being dead?” I said that it didn’t bother me that much; my only regret was that I hadn’t been able to say good-bye to my parents.
The next thing I became aware of-amazingly, remarkably, astoundingly-was that I was in my body without realizing I had made my choice. I chose to leave my all-loving, all-accepting heavenly Father in order to come back and say good-bye to my parents. My God, what had I given up? I became depressed beyond words. But here I was again back in this world. I chose the life I mapped out for myself.
Cathleen’s hellish near-death experience that included an encounter with hell and then a rescue is seen in other hellish NDEs. While these types of hellish NDEs are obviously frightening, there can be a constructive message. These types of NDEs may allow the most positive transformations of all, since a person can see the extremes of the worst evil and the greatest good. Also, encountering God and learning about free will are important messages that can inform all of humanity.
Relatively little research has been done on these types of near-death experiences, mainly because they are rare. What little research has been done has raised as many questions as answers.
A 1992 study found three different types of distressing near-death experiences:2
1. Typical NDEs that the NDEr interpreted as frightening.
2. NDEs with a sense of nonexistence or a frightening void.
3. NDEs with graphic hellish imagery.
An example of the first would be an NDE in which the person feels fear after being separated from their physical body at the beginning of the experience. Another example would be an NDE in which what is experienced is usually perceived by other NDErs as positive or neutral—such as a typical tunnel experience or the presence of angels—yet the NDEr interprets them as frightening.
In the second type, NDErs encountering a “void” usually describe this as feeling pleasant or neutral. However, some NDErs interpret the void as frightening because of a sense of feeling disconnected or alone. The third category, hellish NDEs with graphic hellish images or experiences that are emotionally frightening or distressing, is the least common type of frightening NDEs.
Most frightening near-death experiences are not frightening throughout the NDEs, but have both frightening and pleasant parts. When NDEs have both components, the frightening part usually occurs first. The earlier, distressing stage then transitions into the later, more pleasant stage of the NDE. The pleasant stage of the NDE is generally significantly longer in duration than the frightening part of the NDE.
Encountering frightening moments during a near-death experience is not unusual. The older version of the NDERF survey asked, “During your experience, did you consider the contents of your experience (NOT the possible life-threatening event that led up to the experience) to be wonderful, mixed, or frightening?” The 1122 responses to this question were divided as follows:
Those with frightening NDEs were more likely to have a lower level of consciousness and alertness during their NDE than those describing their NDE content as “wonderful.” This could be part of the reason their NDEs were considered frightening.
Hellish NDEs may describe landscapes, entities, or sensations that are unworldly, frightening, and suggestive of classical concepts of hell. This hellish content goes beyond subjective feelings of fear and is objectively frightening. Hellish NDEs are a relatively small percentage of all frightening NDEs. I estimate that less than two percent of all NDEs shared with NDERF have hellish content. Although this is a low percentage, so many thousands of NDEs have been shared with NDERF over the years that we have more hellish NDEs available for research than was ever possible before.
Hellish near-death experiences are challenging to study. NDEs were first described in 1975, and it was several years later that the very existence of hellish NDEs became widely known. People often interpret hellish NDEs based on their preexisting beliefs, often with a component of fear of how hellish NDEs may threaten themselves personally and their loved ones with a possible hellish afterlife. As we shall see, these fears are unfounded when hellish NDEs are better understood.
Prior studies of hellish NDEs have established that it is wrong to believe that “good people” have pleasant NDEs and “bad people” have hellish NDEs. This stereotype contributes to those experiencing hellish NDEs being understandably hesitant to share their NDEs with others. This erroneous stereotype about NDErs that had hellish NDEs persists despite these prior studies.
Near-death experiencers often find it difficult to find the words that adequately describe their pleasant experiences. Understandably, NDErs experiencing hellish NDEs may find it even more difficult to find the right words that describe what they experienced. NDErs experiencing hellish NDEs would understand their risk of negative judgments from others. Thus it is not surprising that those experiencing hellish NDEs may be more comfortable sharing their experiences on a website, such as NDERF.
I investigated 26 NDEs with at least some hellish content shared with NDERF since its inception over 20 years ago. This study found various elements in the hellish content, including frightening beings, hellish landscapes, and communications containing taunts or malevolence. These are consistent with the content of hellish NDEs described by other researchers. These brief examples of the content of hellish NDEs do not do justice to the full range of frightening content or profound emotional terror that is often present.
To help understand frightening and hellish near-death experiences, it is crucial to know that the significant majority of experiences with hellish content that have been shared publicly are not actual NDEs. My physician background helps me distinguish NDE from non-NDE experiences that occur during a health crisis. In general, experiences with unexpected alterations of consciousness that are not NDEs are much more likely to be frightening than actual NDEs. These experiences may include intensive-care unit (ICU) delirium, drug experiences, and so on. Many individuals who had a frightening experience are very reassured when they understand that what they experienced was an unreal product of altered brain function, and not a real NDE.
The great majority of frightening NDEs are frightening for reasons other than hellish content. Some insight into frightening near-death experiences is available from the largest prior study of frightening NDEs, done by Barbara Rommer, M.D.3 This was an investigation of dozens of frightening NDEs. Rommer believed frightening NDEs occur for three reasons:
1. They motivate the NDEr to reconsider prior choices, thoughts, and beliefs.
2. They result from the presence of a less than loving mindset immediately before the NDE.
3. They result from negative programming during childhood.
From my review of scores of frightening and hellish NDEs on NDERF, I offer my speculation about the cause of frightening NDEs. I agree with the first cause of frightening NDEs suggested by Rommer, but I am less sure about the last two.
Following near-death experiences, there are typical changes seen in the NDErs lives called aftereffects. These changes are generally substantial and very positively life-changing. Consistent with the aftereffects of the much more common pleasant NDEs, Rommer found that frightening NDEs also lead to substantial positive life changes, often including a significantly reduced fear of death. Some who experience a frightening NDE may view it as a gift, perhaps even their most important life experience. As with the aftereffects of pleasant NDEs, changes following frightening NDEs often require many years to be fully manifested. I have reviewed scores of frightening NDEs, and am in substantial agreement with Rommer’s conclusions about the aftereffects of frightening NDEs.
Many prior near-death experience studies use the term “negative” to describe frightening or hellish NDEs. The consensus of scholarly NDE researchers is to use a term other than “negative” for these types of NDEs, such as “distressing” or simply “frightening.”
Hellish experiences are not new. Over the centuries, past saints and holy men and women have described their descent into hell. This close brush with evil often gave them the grist for a deeper spirituality and movement to greater spiritual wholeness. That is why I don’t label hellish NDEs as negative. They are frightening experiences that offer the same level of great positive transformation as pleasant NDEs.
This discussion of frightening and hellish near-death experiences is significantly speculative. There are not enough credible hellish NDEs available to be certain about their meaning.
My speculation on hellish realms described in near-death experiences is that beings likely enter hell as a product of their personal very poor choices; likely multiple sequential poor choices. I personally believe that the poor souls in hell have the free will to make good choices, and return to the heavenly realms which seems to be our real homes. With this perspective, hellish NDEs seem to be evidence that our ability to make free-will choices extends beyond earth and into the afterlife. It seems that we have the freedom to choose freely both in our earthly existence and in the afterlife. We seem to be able to make free-will choices to do evil in our earthly life, and some choose to do so. As on earth, some souls seem to choose evil in the afterlife. The ability to make free-will choices both in our earthly lives and in the afterlife is entirely consistent, and probably necessary, in a universe that is ruled by love.
An important point is that I never read an NDE describing God casting the NDEr into an irredeemable hellish realm. It is notable that when NDEs describe hell, it is generally a place fully separated from, and distinctly apart, from heaven. When NDErs say that a hellish realm cannot exist in the heavenly realm they encountered, they are thus completely correct. I do not believe that the profound love consistently described in the afterlife is consistent with a permanent and involuntary hell. Thus, hellish NDEs should not be considered a threat in any way to everyone that reads this.
Many have wondered what justice there might be in the afterlife for the irredeemably evil in our earthly existence, such as Hitler. I offer the following possible explanation. If you believe in our eternal existence, as I do from extensive evidence from near-death experiences, then Hitler and all other profoundly malevolent people spend eternity fully aware of the evil choices they made during their earthly lives. I would expect that God and all other beings around them to be aware of their evil choices. I would think that an eternity of awareness of the devastating harm they caused to others in their earthly life is a form of hell. Perhaps evil beings choose to separate themselves from heaven and exist in hell to avoid being known for who they really are.
Hellish realms can be upsetting to read and think about. The good news is throughout the NDEs posted on NDERF you can easily see that the evidence consistently points to a blissful heavenly realm and a God that loves us all profoundly and completely. That is, in my opinion, the most real and important message in NDEs.
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References:
1 Long J, Perry P. God and the Afterlife: The Groundbreaking New Evidence for God and Near-Death Experience. New York: HarperCollins; 2016;158-161. See also: www.nderf.org/Experiences/1cathleen_c_nde.html. Cathleen C NDE 3735.
2 Greyson B, Bush N. Distressing Near-Death Experiences. Psychiatry. 55(1) (February 1992): 95−110.
3 Rommer B. Blessing in Disguise: Another Side of the Near-Death Experience. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications; 2000.