Deathbed Visions

jerbear_13

We behold what we are, and we are what we behold
Member
Hello all,

Not sure if this is the right category for this discussion but I’ve recently come across something that I find fascinating. There has been a rather large uptick in discussions within the Hospice community around nurses and their patients having deathbed visions. I’ve listened to a few talks, books and interviews on the subject and have personally chalked up these visits from loved ones as hallucinations. Now however, I feel differently. Nurses in hospice have described in great detail why these experiences are so much more than hallucinations. Ultimately, they classify hallucinations as strange, confusing and fear provoking. They describe visitors from dead loved ones as visions. One well versed in the materialistic view could see how this could easily be dismissed but when you listen to the stories and documented accounts, it leaves you wondering. Often, these visions come when the patient is very lucid and aware (they do also come when the invidividual is not). Nurses have even begun to use these visions as a measurement of time on someone’s life. Visions and “visits” from passed on loved ones begin to indicate that the person is within days of dying. Anyways, I wanted to get your guys’ take on all of this. Is anyone familiar with what I’m talkig about? Not quite NDE’s but in the same ballpark. I can post links if needed.
 
Hello all,

Not sure if this is the right category for this discussion but I’ve recently come across something that I find fascinating. There has been a rather large uptick in discussions within the Hospice community around nurses and their patients having deathbed visions. I’ve listened to a few talks, books and interviews on the subject and have personally chalked up these visits from loved ones as hallucinations. Now however, I feel differently. Nurses in hospice have described in great detail why these experiences are so much more than hallucinations. Ultimately, they classify hallucinations as strange, confusing and fear provoking. They describe visitors from dead loved ones as visions. One well versed in the materialistic view could see how this could easily be dismissed but when you listen to the stories and documented accounts, it leaves you wondering. Often, these visions come when the patient is very lucid and aware (they do also come when the invidividual is not). Nurses have even begun to use these visions as a measurement of time on someone’s life. Visions and “visits” from passed on loved ones begin to indicate that the person is within days of dying. Anyways, I wanted to get your guys’ take on all of this. Is anyone familiar with what I’m talkig about? Not quite NDE’s but in the same ballpark. I can post links if needed.

I don’t think for a moment that these are hallucinations. They match NDEs in many ways, and they very often see dead loved ones, not living loved ones, dead loved ones. Not the 57 Chevy that they love more than life. Dead relatives. That tells me a lot right there. Like NDEs, these visions are too profound, clear, meaningful; and consistent to be mere hallucinations. This only fits the materialistic view if you are a pre-notioned materialist. The people who research NDEs and deathbed visions etc and actually TALK to the people, as you said, end up believers generally. It’s the “armchair” researchers who never meet or talk with these people who exclaim “hallucination!” The people who take care of these people, have the experiences themselves, and talk to these people personally, tend to know the truth. Much of the time the caretakers experience things themselves during these episodes.
 
Dr. Christopher Kerr, at the Buffalo Hospice in New York, has documented some 1400 dreams or visions of the dying:

https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2019/02/25/hospice-buffalo-death-dreams-study/

(Thanks to tim at Psience Quest.)

Doug
For those of you who hadn't heard yet, Doug (Trancestate) passed away on May 28 2019. He was a wealth of knowledge in regards to the topics covered at Skeptiko and was a part of the forum as far back as I can remember. He was also a very kind man and a good friend. I'll really miss him.
 
For those of you who hadn't heard yet, Doug (Trancestate) passed away on May 28 2019. He was a wealth of knowledge in regards to the topics covered at Skeptiko and was a part of the forum as far back as I can remember. He was also a very kind man and a good friend. I'll really miss him.

I'm very sorry to hear that, too.....I hope he's now in a better place than this world. R.I.P.

Edit - just looked at his posts on his page here at Skeptiko, and his very last one happened to be the one in this thread!
I actually "liked" just it a minute ago, before reaching the post by K9! telling us about his death.Screenshot 2019-06-12 at 06.56.23.pngScreenshot 2019-06-12 at 06.56.23.png
 
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For those of you who hadn't heard yet, Doug (Trancestate) passed away on May 28 2019. He was a wealth of knowledge in regards to the topics covered at Skeptiko and was a part of the forum as far back as I can remember. He was also a very kind man and a good friend. I'll really miss him.

Genuinely sad to hear this. I was wondering why we hadn't heard from him recently. Tell me, how did you find out about his passing? Do you know what happened? I hope it was peaceful and that he is now in a good place.
 
Hello all,

Not sure if this is the right category for this discussion but I’ve recently come across something that I find fascinating. There has been a rather large uptick in discussions within the Hospice community around nurses and their patients having deathbed visions. I’ve listened to a few talks, books and interviews on the subject and have personally chalked up these visits from loved ones as hallucinations. Now however, I feel differently. Nurses in hospice have described in great detail why these experiences are so much more than hallucinations. Ultimately, they classify hallucinations as strange, confusing and fear provoking. They describe visitors from dead loved ones as visions. One well versed in the materialistic view could see how this could easily be dismissed but when you listen to the stories and documented accounts, it leaves you wondering. Often, these visions come when the patient is very lucid and aware (they do also come when the invidividual is not). Nurses have even begun to use these visions as a measurement of time on someone’s life. Visions and “visits” from passed on loved ones begin to indicate that the person is within days of dying. Anyways, I wanted to get your guys’ take on all of this. Is anyone familiar with what I’m talkig about? Not quite NDE’s but in the same ballpark. I can post links if needed.
Hi jerbear
I know very little about the transition period from Life to Death, but am very fascinated. The conjunction of the two mightiest issues we humans face! And the paradox that it is something so intangible, and that the information resides in the hands of those with a most menial status in medicine.

That 'things happen' is as far as we seem to have got. My shallow dip in combining these phenomena with a sense of what is happening when we leave the physical body, is that there may be a psychological release by the dying, a 'fragmentation of matter' which makes more possible perceptions usually outside our mostly strongly attached material view.

I was once with two sisters when they heard of their brother's sudden death. It was as if we'd all dropped some pure and instant LSD. Time, our movements, sound, everything went into a 'different' state.

I think there's a wealth of info in this subject, currently mostly ignored.
Alice
 
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