The dying experience

[John Tat]

There is always plenty of talk about NDE's but I have never seen anything about what we experience as our physical body dies. I had a heart attack and was dying for two days, others can take seconds, minutes, weeks months and even years. I read an article that it takes the physical body approximately three months to die if its goes through a normal process of just being to old to continue on Everything just slowly close's down. Because dying is a physical experience in my opinion we would all experience the dying process of our physical body in a similar manner. Different to NDE's those of us who have survived the dying process of our bodies understand exactly what it is and what happens. Is the physical experience of our bodies dying the real and only accurate NDE there is? Is the rest as science says are the illusions of a dying physical brain?
All I know is the physical experience of your body shutting down is nothing to be scared or worried about

 

[tanguerra]

I've read forum threads in the past where people talk about their elderly relatives dying. They often talk about their minds 'beginning to wander' and recalling early memories from childhood for instance, seeming to be 'somewhere else', talking to people who are not there, and sometimes saying things that sound like they might be past life memories as well.


It's possible that as the body prepares for the death, the mind also goes through some changes, packing away the present life memories, or wandering from one 'life' to the next, as the grip on the present life begins to loosen.

 

[Eowyn]

Is the physical experience of our bodies dying the real and only accurate NDE there is?

Of course not.

Is the rest as science says are the illusions of a dying physical brain?

You should take a look to the work of scientists like Sam Parnia, not all of them say it's all an illusion:

Parnia: And yet, over the last 50 years since the arrival of CPR, literally millions of people have gone beyond the threshold of death and come back. Many of them tell us incredible stories of their experiences. I myself have studied more than 500 people with NDEs (Near Death Experiences).


SPIEGEL: What exactly do they tell you?


Parnia: Typically, they report being very peaceful. Some see a bright light, others feel the presence of a warm, loving, compassionate being. Many describe having a review of their lives, from childhood up to that point. Others tell of encounters with family members who have died. Others report out-of-body experiences. They feel they witnessed the scene of their resuscitation from a position near the ceiling of the room. Some even correctly describe conversations people had, clothes people wore, events that went on 10 or 20 minutes into resuscitation. One of the most fascinating NDE tales was published in 2001 in medical journal The Lancet. A man asked his nurse for his dentures, which he remembered he had put in a cupboard during his cardiac arrest.


SPIEGEL: There's no scientific proof for any of these stories. Do you believe them?


Parnia: These experiences feel very real to those who had them. Why should we doubt the reality of their experience? NDEs occur everywhere, in all cultures, in every country, in religious people and atheists, even in children younger than three years old. It would be wrong to see them as mere fabrications.


SPIEGEL: What's your personal take on them?


Parnia: It looks like people's consciousness does not get annihilated just because they are in the early stages of death. It's a medical paradox.


SPIEGEL: Maybe NDEs are just tricks of the brain due to a lack of oxygen, as other scientists have claimed?


Parnia: I checked that and I don't think that lack of oxygen leads to any of these experiences. I'm the principal investigator in the AWARE study for a number of years now. We have installed shelves with pictures on them near the ceiling in various ER rooms across the US and Europe. We want to find out whether people who claim to be hovering close to the ceiling can really perceive what's going on in the room. We will publish our first set of data in November. But I won't reveal any details yet.


SPIEGEL: You are a reputable researcher. But right now you sound more like a mystic.


Parnia: I'm neutral. I'm just a researcher. For many people, death has to do with religion and philosophy, not science. To me, that makes no sense. I deal with death every day in my life. What we study is very scientific, there's nothing paranormal about it. But of course I get criticized from all sides. Paranormal enthusiasts think we are treading on their territory. Religious people accuse me of blasphemy, skeptical scientists of leaning to the other side. And we also get requests from people who ask us to kill them and get them back for science. This is dangerous territory we're in.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/doctor-sam-parnia-believes-resurrection-is-a-medical-possibility-a-913075-2.html


People who suffer NDE's are out of their bodies, in a different state of consciousness. Their body is not dying, it's dead... or nearly dead, it's hard to tell where the limit is, even for doctors. I think you can't compare NDE's with the normal dying process everyone is going to experience, they are different things.

All I know is the physical experience of your body shutting down is nothing to be scared or worried about

Yes, you're right there.

 

[cloud potato]

i don't know if this is considered a physical aspect of dying but i had an incident growing up where i suffered from a poisoning of sorts that caused me to have multiple seizures. the medical term is called a hypertensive crisis. its my fault i went through this... others call it the cheese effect. an MAOI of high dosage mixed with extremely old cheese i had snacked on in high quanities(brie and other types) the night before resulting in this experience.


my hands and feet were extremely clammy while my head and body was hot in temperature. i had weird pangs and tingles and felt like i constantly had to pee but couldn't.


at one point i remember losing orientation. i would say "ow ow ow" "not again" and, "i've been here before." my roommate was there to relay this to me at a later point. while the crisis was happening i couldn't recognize my roommate who was by my side trying to help me. i became scared of his face. i knew who he was but i didn't know who he was. i started to go into confusion...


i think i hit a certain point of near dying when i started to move away from these extremely uncomfortable physical feelings to a conscious battle within. the voice that i had recognized as me, this personality in my head, was fading in a vision of black. that was tremendously scary, i silently fear the thought of death because of these feelings. eventually that inner voice we all experience became a static noise in darkness around me. i was struggling to hold on to this noise though. i wasn't thinking if i let go that i'm going to die(there was no more sound identifiable "me")...just instinctive feeling to hold on. it was a struggle.


after things worked their way through my body hours later i was back to reality. shaken up i would remember the experience and feel different from it for the next couple of weeks. even now, years later i feel different for having recalled and sharing here.


i don't know if you'd call this a near death experience although a hypertensive crisis can lead to death. and the dosage mixed from both food and MAOI was of a more than normal quantity.


if this is any way related to death than i am scared to die.

 

[John Tat]

Hi Cloud Potato


First of all when you are actually dying, after my experience I prefer to call it as your body is shutting down it is not something that is scary or to worry about. It is my belief it is a physical experience as this happens. Many of us if not the majority of us will be fully aware we are dying. We will be in a hospital bed or our bed at home after and accident, illness or just old age and at some point even if the doctors have us on drugs we will know this is the end. That I can guarantee you after my experience. That may scare you but it is not. If it is possible and there is the time they will allow us to say goodbye to our families You see we only hear about how people meet violent or sudden deaths and if they were young when they died. The majority of us will die the way I have described


I can assure you about two things. When you are actually dyeing you will know it and will be very calm about it. There is nothing to worry about


You will not fight for life as you were doing, because you are at the end of your physical life, and can do nothing about it and you know that

 

[Cryscat]

That would depend on how the death is happening. In one of my past lives, I was strangled/smothered to death and that WAS NOT a peaceful passing. In one or two more, it was illness, and those seemed more peaceful.


For some people, the body shutting down is a scary process, and for others its not. It seems to depend on understanding the process. I suspect that cloudp had a partial shutdown, couldn't figure out what was going on, and this made it scary.

 

[Axes]

I have read somewhere that a violent or sudden death can have after-effects even in the next life.


I was wondering about this. If a person feels that they are somehow in the wrong place, that they should not be alive, or be alive now and here, and/or if they have a very strong longing, or unattainable desires, can that be caused by a sudden death in a previous life?


If anyone has any experiences they wouldn't mind sharing, I'd be very grateful.

 

[Axes]

"Maybe NDEs are just tricks of the brain due to a lack of oxygen, as other scientists have claimed?"


By the way, many scientists assume that the brain is the only source of consciousness. The same goes for dreaming.


I wonder if it is, though.

 

[cloud potato]

although i am interested in things spiritual, spirits, souls, out of body, synchronicity and reincarnation


i am still young and not entirely sure i have a strong belief in the after-life. i don't argue past lives or whether or not there is a soul because i share here by curiosity, things that have lead me here... my communion with universe and nature, dreams and other phenomena unseen. i do believe in these things, but to what degree ? i'm not sure.


you see, the part that scares me is the idea of losing this current personality that i have come to know. losing family, friends and loved ones. and disconnecting from the voice of reason... the voice we all have in our head- reading these words, receiving intuitive thoughts and experiencing idea's... in my previous post, i describe disconnecting from that voice and the feelings of fear and anxiety during the process. it might feel like death when this sound machine, this voice is no longer functioning right. it's no longer the voice in your head but a fading static noise. i struggled to hold on to that noise because that was all i had come to know in this life- and i was losing it in blackness.


i'm not sure how else to describe it. i understand when you say the majority of people will pass from age or illness on a bed. my own grandma told her daughter, "i'm more ready for this than you are" the day before her passing... but i still can't kick this extremely sad and fearful feeling....


i don't think there's a such thing as a "normal death" and have come close to death twice now. i think i technically died once(a different experience not listed above)... but i don't remember a peace or a white light... i was unconscious through out until waking up in the hospital bed the next morning. a couple of my friends have died at a young age too. i never understood how people boast they aren't afraid to die.... i'm certainly not ready.


well. i have to go for now. cheers.

 

[Totoro]

I have read somewhere that a violent or sudden death can have after-effects even in the next life.
I was wondering about this. If a person feels that they are somehow in the wrong place, that they should not be alive, or be alive now and here, and/or if they have a very strong longing, or unattainable desires, can that be caused by a sudden death in a previous life?


If anyone has any experiences they wouldn't mind sharing, I'd be very grateful.

It's been tough for me, I'll say that. I wonder if that isn't half the reason I know about my past lives; as if perhaps it wasn't some sort of help to get me back on track. Because learning about them really helped shed light onto the issues I was having in this life and it proved to be instrumental in helping me get over them.


Long story short, I always thought that I should have been a girl in this life, because I was in my previous life.


But what's interesting to me though, is I know without a doubt that I choose this life and I know between this life and my last I did some sort of spirit guide work.


So it leaves me really curious why, given all the planning and such that went on between lives, that I would show up here and be overwhelmed by these "flash back" feelings, for lack of a better word.


Maybe being incarnate just puts you in more in touch with such low level and deeply ingrained feelings than you would experience in a higher state.

 

[John Tat]

Hi Cloud Potato


It is absolutely normal for you a young person to be fearful of death and not want to die.


Do not worry about it because nature is a wonderful thing


You will live your life and do many things you want to do and not do many things you want to do. You will experience love and hate and compassion and fear and on and on, in other words as the years roll make sure you experience life as best you can. At a point you will begin to get tired. At around 40 years old it will become obvious to you, you cannot do the things you once did


It goes on from there. At around 50 years old your memory will begin to get worse and worse. You will say to yourself things like what's that guys name I should remember and so on.


As you enter old age you will begin to sick of doing all the things that needs to be done every day of your life to maintain yourself and your surroundings


In the end just as your grandma said, most of us get to a point where we are ready to go.


So do not worry yourself about dying. You are young so enjoy your life. Everything will be OK. Nature is a wonderful thing

 

[tanguerra]

"Maybe NDEs are just tricks of the brain due to a lack of oxygen, as other scientists have claimed?"
By the way, many scientists assume that the brain is the only source of consciousness. The same goes for dreaming. I wonder if it is, though.

'Scientists' like to be able to explain things in a 'nuts and bolts' way, but that doesn't mean they are always right about everything, or are seeing the whole picture. Many flatly refuse to believe there is anything outside of material reality and if there is, it's no business of theirs to explore it. Fair enough!


This idea that it is to do with lack of oxygen to the brain is based on studies done on pilots, who have run out of oxygen during a flight and reported an experience of 'tunnel vision'. But this is not like the experiences people describe when they return from NDEs, although they sometimes speak of seeing a 'tunnel'.


I don't think the brain is the source of consciousness, any more than it is the storage receptacle of memories. I think it is an important organ for translating thoughts and ideas into language. It's obviously an important part of the body's physical management system, but it's not the source of consciousness in my view, any more than a TV set is the source of the images it displays.

 

[tanguerra]

....i don't know if you'd call this a near death experience although a hypertensive crisis can lead to death. and the dosage mixed from both food and MAOI was of a more than normal quantity. if this is any way related to death than i am scared to die.

Maybe you just went unconscious? Did the doctors say your heart had stopped or anything? Perhaps this was not a true NDE? There are a lot of books about the experience if you would like to learn more about it. By all accounts, it's nothing to fear and you won't lose your own identity.


You could look up the work of Brian Weiss or 'Life after life' by Raymond Moody. You might find reading more about this comforting?

 

[hydrolad]

Everyone feels that their theory on dying is right, and I feel that an individual opinion is very important for a Forum to have a healthy dialogue and it goes without saying that you are entitled your own reality and opinion and I will defend your right to speak your opinion.


It depends on what you're dying from, massive trauma that renders you instantly unconscious and quickly dying has different aspects from say, organ shutdown over several days where the patient is still conscious and lucid up to the end when some critical organ stops and the patient expires.


One scenario that is often overlooked, especially by lay persons, is that they, the lay public is somewhat to a degree, insulated from knowledge of the severity of their impending demise, whereas the medical professional is acutely aware of what is wrong and what the chances of dying are.


So you might say that "Ignorance is Bliss" and that blinders are in order for everyone, but most people don't want to be caught unawares and wants to be ever vigilant where their Health is concerned.


On one end you have the "Ostrich's Head in the Sand" type of person, often in denial and on the other end of the Spectrum you have a person who is very concerned with their health with a drive that approaches the intensity of a Hypochondriac and somewhere in the middle is the majority of the public.


Perhaps I misinterpreted the true topic of this thread, and I apologize, but I felt like I could provide some valuable input into such a serious process.


Again, the opinions expressed here are entirely mine and not the opinions of the Past Life Forum in any way, shape or form.


Thank you for reading this long post and I aplogise in advance.

 

[hydrolad]

Oh yes, I forgot, this is VERY, VERY important, if you make a statement that is clearly your opinion, then please indicate so, either spelled out or abbreviated by using the common Internet language, as in IMHO.


For those people new to a Forum, here are some common abbreviations used often here and elsewhere on other Forum's (I omitted the naughty ones!) and they are listed in order of popularity, not alphabet wise.


LOL = Laughing out Loud, ROTF = Rolling on the Floor, IMHO = In My Humble Opinion and so forth to quickly name a few and their are lists and lists on the Internet if you are interested.


Feel free to E-Mail any of us if you have any questions.


As you can see from my own post below I failed to follow my own advice!!!

 

[Axes]

Maybe being incarnate just puts you in more in touch with such low level and deeply ingrained feelings than you would experience in a higher state.

Sometimes... I have difficulty with thinking about past lives - for if I have lived past lives, they have had their reasons and purposes, and this life is not for investigating them, but this life is for living -this- life.


So, to me, it would make sense to incorporate the belief in past lives in my world view, and philosophy of life, but it doesn't make so much sense to me why past lives should have such an influence on this life.


I don't mean to derail from the topic, but I think I am anyway.... sorry

 

[cloud potato]

hi hydrolad,


no apologies necessary.

 

[spacecase0]

you might argue that NDEs are just tricks of the brain due to a lack of oxygen,


but you can't argue that about the shared death experiences that people have

 

[Ceridwen]

Hi Cloud Potato
It is absolutely normal for you a young person to be fearful of death and not want to die.


Do not worry about it because nature is a wonderful thing


You will live your life and do many things you want to do and not do many things you want to do. You will experience love and hate and compassion and fear and on and on, in other words as the years roll make sure you experience life as best you can. At a point you will begin to get tired. At around 40 years old it will become obvious to you, you cannot do the things you once did


It goes on from there. At around 50 years old your memory will begin to get worse and worse. You will say to yourself things like what's that guys name I should remember and so on.


As you enter old age you will begin to sick of doing all the things that needs to be done every day of your life to maintain yourself and your surroundings


In the end just as your grandma said, most of us get to a point where we are ready to go.


So do not worry yourself about dying. You are young so enjoy your life. Everything will be OK. Nature is a wonderful thing

I do hope not re the things at "milestone ages" you quote. I'm in my 60s now and, belated New Year resolutions, are again to "get back to normal" (normal energy/normal figure/etc). Starting to lose memory...well the definition of me starting to seriously worry about that is people would wonder why I had permanently red cheeks (ie because a memory blip now often causes me to be so irritated with it that I slap my face hard and tell myself off).


I do tend to think that we are all much more likely to get bored from the "same old same old" as we get older. Having moved (not exactly willingly!) across Britain about a year ago (ie England to Wales) then I can see there is new "learning" going on in some respects. For instance, it literally never occurred to me that there might be a different prevailing mindset someplace else in Britain. I honestly thought a questioning/independent mindset was a pretty standard one that a reasonably high proportion of people around me would also havecover face. It didn't occur to me that the fact of my home city being a university city would tend to mean a higher proportion of people with that mindset...until I moved.


So....a lesson there in not making assumptions about what "everyone is like" even within my own country....


However, notwithstanding any major changes anyone makes in their lives - then most of us will reach a point somewhere along the line with advancing age where there doesn't seem to be anything new left to learn/experience (at least without going up a level or more re our finances) and I can imagine its possible to become bored rigid at that point and that may be the point at which we make the decision "That's enough" and if we see a chance to go we will take it.

 

[Ann]

I have also read about how many aspects of the NDE are just neurological artifacts that aren't well understood. I do believe in reincarnation, but I also think that sometimes many of the "funkier" NDEs could be due to the the person being pumped full of drugs (Suicide attempt, physicians trying to revive them, etc.) or maybe oxygen loss. And by funky, I'm talking about the ones where the person says that they partied with Elvis while riding a dinosaur and the like. But, instead of picking and choosing which are real NDEs and which are mind tricks. Or trying to decide if NDEs are physical or something beyond our experience, I think that we should see how they effect the person who experienced them.


Example- Someone was a jerk. Cruel, mean, uncaring. They die and are revived or come back on their own. During their time "away" they describe being judged in a Christian hell-like experience. After the event, they come back a different person. Better, more thoughtful. Maybe even apologetic about their actions. Whatever anyone thinks is going on, the literature is full of such profound changes in people and they definitely cut across all cultures.


Let me give you my NDE experience so far. You'll see what I mean by "so far".


When I was 13 I was attacked and strangled. What, who, where, why- I'm not going to say right now. Too painful. But, I can say that towards the end, I did see, just for a moment, a bright light that looked so familiar, warm, and inviting. Now, even before this horrific act, I already believed that we keep coming back. As I've posted in other places on this forum, I've just always felt that way. I just had never researched it before. So, I knew nothing of NDEs or tunnels of light and the like.


Long story short, thanks to this event I have permanent swallowing problems. Pains in my neck that can't be cured with surgery and miracle pills. And I also have issues breathing when I sleep. As in I often will wake up choking.


Last year I was sleeping. I found myself surrounded by darkness. Not the kind of darkness you get when you close your eyes. Deeper. But it wasn't scary. I felt like I was floating. Not dizzy or "high"- floating like in water. I didn't have eyes or a body, but I existed and could see. I felt good. Again, not "out of it", but better than I had in years. No aches, no pains. Then I heard something. Like it was below me, far off in the distance. The sound of someone gasping for air. "Who is that?", I thought. Then I thought, "Oh yeah, it's me.", and I laughed. At that moment - - I wake up, taking in a big gulp of air. No fear, no terror.


I have lots of fun medical problems, any one of which will most definitely kill me one day. I'm afraid of lots of things. But, I've never been fearful of death. As in- ever. Not even before the age of 13.


Take of my experiences what you will.

 

[cloud potato]

hi Ann,


i'm sorry you were viciously attacked. i actually wanted to thank you for sharing your post about being in the darkness and being okay with it. i think you must be a very open person. something i'm trying to learn is to be open with these experiences and not to fearful of what happens during(which has proven difficult for me).

 

[Blackbird]

I do hope not re the things at "milestone ages" you quote. I'm in my 60s now and, belated New Year resolutions, are again to "get back to normal" (normal energy/normal figure/etc). Starting to lose memory...well the definition of me starting to seriously worry about that is people would wonder why I had permanently red cheeks (ie because a memory blip now often causes me to be so irritated with it that I slap my face hard and tell myself off).
...


For instance, it literally never occurred to me that there might be a different prevailing mindset someplace else in Britain. I honestly thought a questioning/independent mindset was a pretty standard one that a reasonably high proportion of people around me would also havecover face. It didn't occur to me that the fact of my home city being a university city would tend to mean a higher proportion of people with that mindset...until I moved.


So....a lesson there in not making assumptions about what "everyone is like" even within my own country....

Just a word of agreement & encouragement with Ceridwen... I'm in my late 50's and I find I need to guard myself against general assumptions about the pattern of achievement and purpose over a lifetime. I'm in the arts, and having traveled a round-about often difficult path, it's mighty easy to feel behind the curve!


Yet the truth is I am doing my best work now, I would say by far, and most my own. The recognition is following apace. It defies the bell-curve. I suspect it is the very fact of having so many years' experiences layered into what I do that is making my work call out to people in an apparently unique way. I'd love to have done it at 35, but I don't think I was 'there' yet.


There's a fortifying article on "late bloomers" from the New Yorker that's worth a read:


http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/10/20/late-bloomers-2


I tend to think of this life as a sliver of a continuum that may run in waves -- who can say were it will peak in a given life? My mother, a remarkable painter, died at 76. She conceived an entire new set of paintings on her literal deathbed, three days or so before she went. I believe she will be carrying them with her when she returns. May they propel her forward again. That's the way I hope to go!


As to death, for myself, I often think of it as a long deferred vacation. Ever familiar, perhaps because of an unusual lot of early losses, I don't know. Like a dark bird, ever on my shoulder.

 

[Frerotte]

As to death, for myself, I often think of it as a long deferred vacation. Ever familiar, perhaps because of an unusual lot of early losses, I don't know. Like a dark bird, ever on my shoulder.

A long deferred vacation! Now this is surely a mantra that I as a person crawling through my 50's can carry with me daily!


I have also had many early losses. In fact, having lost my entire immediate family including my children, I consider myself more in line with someone much later in life. I have even lost a high percentage of my dearest friends who died way too young.


As a small child I felt so OLD and aloof from others my age.


I would rather prowl the perimeters of the play area softly singing such morbid tunes as Little Rosewood Casket and Put My Little Shoes Away than join in the rowdy jump rope games going on with my classmates!


I don't even want to begin to tell of the strange role playing funeral games I invented (with close friends and relatives cautiously participating - lol!).


Dark birds on this shoulder too!

 

[argonne1918]

For instance, it literally never occurred to me that there might be a different prevailing mindset someplace else in Britain. I honestly thought a questioning/independent mindset was a pretty standard one that a reasonably high proportion of people around me would also havecover face. It didn't occur to me that the fact of my home city being a university city would tend to mean a higher proportion of people with that mindset...until I moved.
So....a lesson there in not making assumptions about what "everyone is like" even within my own country....

That happens in the U.S. also. Several years ago I had a conversation with a woman who had to move (like you) after retirement from the San Francisco Bay Area to the mountains about 150 miles east of there. She was shocked to discover that she had moved from a very liberal area to a very right-wing conservative area. She said she had to be careful with what she said around the locals. You even have to think twice before putting a bumper sticker on your car. Thank God for the internet, where you can have friends all over the world. Like here. ticonthumbshumbsup

 

[Blackbird]

A long deferred vacation! Now this is surely a mantra that I as a person crawling through my 50's can carry with me daily!
I have also had many early losses. In fact, having lost my entire immediate family including my children, I consider myself more in line with someone much later in life. I have even lost a high percentage of my dearest friends who died way too young.


As a small child I felt so OLD and aloof from others my age.


I would rather prowl the perimeters of the play area softly singing such morbid tunes as Little Rosewood Casket and Put My Little Shoes Away than join in the rowdy jump rope games going on with my classmates!


I don't even want to begin to tell of the strange role playing funeral games I invented (with close friends and relatives cautiously participating - lol!).


Dark birds on this shoulder too!

Ah, so very sorry Frerotte.


But I can surely relate, at least to some degree.


And it sounds like we old children would've played well and strangely together, or perhaps in parallel... My best childhood friend and I put on wee plays for our mothers, like "Vampire Grannies," wherein one Granny after another rose out of a coffin. We also spent a great deal of time roaming the nearby cemetery, sometimes in Granny garb. But a tale for another day!


My best to you, and a cracker for the dark Polly...

 

[lilly]

I've read forum threads in the past where people talk about their elderly relatives dying. They often talk about their minds 'beginning to wander' and recalling early memories from childhood for instance, seeming to be 'somewhere else', talking to people who are not there, and sometimes saying things that sound like they might be past life memories as well.

My great-grandmother was talking a lot about her childhood and family before her death. She had never really touched this topic before. She was 95 at the time and very ill. And indeed her state was rather 'wondering' and her look was.. Oh well, let's say that she seemed very happy. Like she finally reunited with her long lost family.


Talking about dying.. When I was a child & in my early teens, I was not afraid of death. Even despite of being very close to it once - I nearly drowned. And by nearly I mean that I was already under water and if my father would not have grabbed me at the very last moment , I would have been gone. Of course as a child (I was 5-6 yrs old at the time) I didn't realise that my decision to 'rest' a second and going underwater could be fatal. I don't remember what happened after I felt my dad grabbing me. And my parents never brought this topic up.


But after the death of my close family member in my mid-teens, I got scared. Not so much of dying as causing pain to others. I woke up a year ago in panic (for the first and last time) and though that I am going to die in a young age! Oh well, 24 and still going strong LOL

 

[AndreaFrances]

I think the explanation of ''Its just a lack of oxygen'' is a little weird.The times that I have been low on oxygen(hyperventilating during an anxiety attack or passing out) I felt nauseous and then blacked out.Being low on oxygen is a pretty horrible experience.I cannot imagine that somehow becomes what people describe as the NDE of ''floating above their body and seeing themselves.'' In my opinion it is another experience entirely.