Death is a part of natural existence a living being can’t avoid. Medically, when our heart stops beating and our brain stops functioning, we die. But spiritually, many believe we “die” when our soul moves on. We typically don’t think about death or mostly think of it as something far away toward the ends of our life as we get older. However, death is all around us, and it happens more often than when we think about it. Many people around the world have come face to face with death, including those who die medically for a few minutes or seconds before coming back to life, and those who came close to dying but did not die. These events are referred to as near-death experience (NDE). There are many unexplainable things that happen during these
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Since death still remains a great mystery in today’s secular world, near-death experiences hold the key to better understanding of our consciousness and death as we progress to the last chapter of life.
In order to understand how near-death experience help lead to a peaceful death, it is essential to first understand the term “good death”. The understanding of death varies from time to culture to people. Nevertheless, the art of dying well has existed for a long time and the term “good death” is nothing new. For example, the cultural phenomena surrounding death during the crisis of war was to die an honorable death by becoming soldiers or military nurses, and doctors (Talbot). However good death can mean different thing for different people, as stated by a sociologist, Dr. Tony Walter, “the good death is now the death that we choose” (qtd. in Talbot). For instance, Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, archbishop of the Catholic Church of Chicago and a cancer patient, died from terminal cancer. He believed the he should surrender to his medical circumstance but it wasn’t easy. To Cardinal Bernardin, cancer has brought a feeling of …show more content…
In a NDEs event, one may experiences powerful images and emotions, vivid perceptions of light, out-of-body experience, encounters with deceased loved ones, a life review, or sometimes a sense of overpowering knowledge and purpose (IANDS). Near-death experiences usually occur during clinical death or cardiac arrest, a medical condition where the blood circulation, the heart, and the brain stop functioning. In short, it is an event where one dies. But scientifically, we believe that consciousness and thought processes are products of brain function, since the evidence that the mind has an influence on the brain is unquestionable, given that the brain and its functions can change in response to experiences in the mind (Lommel 217). Although there are not enough evidence to prove where consciousness is originate from the brain, it should still be impossible to experience anything during the circumstance where your brain is not functioning. Nevertheless there have been experiences where a patient is able to explain the events that occur during the time where they went into a cardiac arrest. To illustrate a NDEs during cardiac arrest we can look at the documentary film, “The Day I Die”, which depicted Pam Reynolds experience during cardiac arrest along with insight from many scientists, researchers, and doctors. Reynolds, an American singer and songwriter, suffer from a large aneurysm in her
Since death still remains a great mystery in today’s secular world, near-death experiences hold the key to better understanding of our consciousness and death as we progress to the last chapter of life.
In order to understand how near-death experience help lead to a peaceful death, it is essential to first understand the term “good death”. The understanding of death varies from time to culture to people. Nevertheless, the art of dying well has existed for a long time and the term “good death” is nothing new. For example, the cultural phenomena surrounding death during the crisis of war was to die an honorable death by becoming soldiers or military nurses, and doctors (Talbot). However good death can mean different thing for different people, as stated by a sociologist, Dr. Tony Walter, “the good death is now the death that we choose” (qtd. in Talbot). For instance, Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, archbishop of the Catholic Church of Chicago and a cancer patient, died from terminal cancer. He believed the he should surrender to his medical circumstance but it wasn’t easy. To Cardinal Bernardin, cancer has brought a feeling of …show more content…
In a NDEs event, one may experiences powerful images and emotions, vivid perceptions of light, out-of-body experience, encounters with deceased loved ones, a life review, or sometimes a sense of overpowering knowledge and purpose (IANDS). Near-death experiences usually occur during clinical death or cardiac arrest, a medical condition where the blood circulation, the heart, and the brain stop functioning. In short, it is an event where one dies. But scientifically, we believe that consciousness and thought processes are products of brain function, since the evidence that the mind has an influence on the brain is unquestionable, given that the brain and its functions can change in response to experiences in the mind (Lommel 217). Although there are not enough evidence to prove where consciousness is originate from the brain, it should still be impossible to experience anything during the circumstance where your brain is not functioning. Nevertheless there have been experiences where a patient is able to explain the events that occur during the time where they went into a cardiac arrest. To illustrate a NDEs during cardiac arrest we can look at the documentary film, “The Day I Die”, which depicted Pam Reynolds experience during cardiac arrest along with insight from many scientists, researchers, and doctors. Reynolds, an American singer and songwriter, suffer from a large aneurysm in her