Subject: UFOs and NDEs - the whole truth

Date: 9 Jun 94 19:40:22 GMT

Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)

NDEs and UFOs --THE WHOLE TRUTH

by N. Pacheco, Ph.D.

Excerpted from the book "Unmasking the Enemy: Visions

and Deception in the End Times," 2nd ed., by N. Pacheco

and T. Blann, pub. by Bendan Press, POB 16085,

Arlington, VA 22215-1085..

Copyright (C) 1994 by the authors.

This file may be copied and freely distributed, but must be

copied in its entirety.

e-mail may be sent to the authors at:

npacheco@delphi.com or 71564.3204@compuserve.com

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Beginning with the work of Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-

Ross in the 1960s and the publication of "Life After Life" in

1975 by Dr. Raymond Moody, a new branch of thanatology

(the study of the death process) has evolved, known as the

New Death Experience (NDE). Although not the main

subject of our book, some researchers are now making a

connection between NDEs and the UFO abduction

experience. In his book "The Omega Project" (with

foreword by popular horror novelist and UFO abductee

Whitley Streiber), Dr. Kenneth Ring collects information on

the experiences of both UFO abductees and NDE

percipients, and claims that they may be "in effect _alternate

pathways_ (Dr. Ring's emphasis) to the same type of

psychospiritual transformation." This is a strong statement,

no doubt suggested by the similarity between the UFO and

NDE percipient's altered state of consciousness during the

experience, their alleged contact with non-human entities,

and the experience's after-effects. Dr. Ring further

describes the "psychospiritual transformation" that both

abductees and NDE-ers go through as being "one that

expresses itself in greater awareness of the inter-

connectedness and sacredness of all life and necessarily

fosters a heightened ecological concern for the welfare of the

planet." Since this has the makings for a new social and

spiritual movement, it is important to understand the nature

of an NDE -- not just what is reported, but the whole truth.

What is an NDE? Although the particular experience

may vary, an NDE can be defined as the vivid and detailed

report given by an individual who has been close to death

(or has even been declared clinically dead), but has survived

either through good fortune or through modern medical

resuscitation efforts. Several decades ago, individuals who

were declared clinically dead could seldom be resuscitated.

Over the last several decades, however, medical resuscitory

technology has advanced to such a level that many patients

who are clinically dead in the sense of having flatline EKGs

and no discernible brain activity for several minutes have

been brought back to life. Surprisingly, reports began to

surface from these individuals that were very similar in

content, suggesting that their consciousness and personality

had continued (and even been enhanced) into the period after

clinical death.

At first such reports were simply ignored by

attending physicians and nurses, who were properly

concerned with the patient's physical rather than spiritual

condition (they still are in many cases). When the reports

began to be noticed by the medical community, they were

assumed to be the result of delirium brought on by lack of

oxygen to the brain, by administration of pain-killing

narcotics, by endorphins released in the brain, by erratic

temporal lobe activity, and other medical factors. However,

further investigation by pioneers such as Drs. Raymond

Moody, Melvin Morse, and others have made a strong case

that such NDEs represent a real rather than hallucinatory

experience. For example, measurements of brain oxygen

levels in dying patients has shown that many of those who

report an NDE were at a normal oxygen level. Others, such

as Dannion Brinkley (author of "Saved by the Light"), who

"died" at home from a lightning strike while holding a

telephone, had no drugs administered. Endorphin and

temporal lobe-related hallucinations replicated in other

settings do not repeat the same sequences as in an NDE.

Most fantastically, some NDE-ers verified details of their

own resuscitation and even the layout and activities of their

relatives in other rooms while they were clinically dead.

One such woman well known to the authors, Lynn

(not her real name), "died" in 1973 and returned with a

fascinating story. Although others have tried to investigate

and relate the story of this honest and credible woman, she

has never before given permission because of its personal

nature and its religious significance. Even well-known UFO

abduction researcher Budd Hopkins tried to have her agree

to a hypnosis session with him, which she refused. Because

of her trust in our desire to present the entire account, she

has agreed to the release of her story.

LynnUs story begins in 1973 in Texas, where she

was seven months pregnant and began complaining of

severe abdominal pain and discomfort. Her husband Ted

(not his real name) rushed her to a local clinic through a

driving rainstorm, where she was diagnosed as having an

infection due to possible appendicitis. Treatment of her

deteriorating condition, combined with her pregnancy, was

beyond the capabilities of the local clinic. She was instead

rushed immediately in an ambulance to the emergency room

of a major hospital. Her husband drove his car behind the

ambulance, and when he arrived at the hospital he called

several relatives and family friends to tell them about the

situation. At the hospital it was found that her appendix was

in fact close to bursting, and she was quickly prepared for

surgery. Lynn remembers having her arms strapped to

boards alongside the bed and having an IV started in a vein

before she lost consciousness. Her pregnancy and

weakened state made the operation particularly difficult.

During the operation her condition deteriorated and her heart

arrested, which made the doctors call a RCode Blue.S

Lynn suddenly found herself still in the operating

room, but this time floating above her body. From her

position, she could see and hear the doctors and nurses

giving commands and then bringing paddles to jolt her now

still heart. However, Lynn did not feel any pain or sense of

panic. Instead she felt warm and protected, more of a

spectator than a participant. She found that she could move

about freely, and proceeded to float through the wall and into

the adjacent waiting room while the physicians feverishly

worked on her now lifeless body.

When she reached the waiting room, she saw her

mother, two aunts, and a friend looking very worried, but

her husband was not there. Unbeknownst to her, Ted had

rushed from the waiting room into the hospital chapel when

he heard the doctors yelling "Code Blue," and began praying

for his wife's recovery. Lynn floated out of the waiting

room into the corridor, and saw Ted leaving the chapel and

running into two family friends who were just arriving:

James (a professional TV cameraman) and Alan (an

Episcopal priest).

In spite of the commotion around her, Lynn was

very much at peace in her rather bizarre state, and felt that

she was being called to proceed to another plane of

existence. However, she could sense that her husband

needed her, and his prayers were somehow holding her in

this world. Although none of her family or friends seemed

able to see her, she instinctively "yelled" the words "Ted,

let me go!" but realized that Ted could not hear her.

However, Alan did seem to hear her, because he suddenly

looked "spooked" and stared at her position, although it was

clear from his look that he could not see her. She again

yelled "Ted, let me go!" two more times, and the third time

Ted also heard her and thought he was being paged. Ted ran

to the reception desk and said that he had just been paged.

The receptionist told him that he had not, and in fact was not

even possible at the time because the thunderstorms had

knocked out their commercial power (which powered their

paging system) and they were on emergency power.

At that point Lynn saw what appeared to be a tunnel

and was drawn to it, moving rapidly through it towards a

distant point of light. While she was going through the

tunnel, still totally at peace, she was fascinated by the many

beautiful colors that she could see going past her. As Lynn

approached the light it became intensely bright but did not in

any way hurt her "eyes." In fact, she felt very much loved

and accepted by this being of light, and when she

approached him, she recognized him as Jesus Christ--not

through a physical resemblance but rather through some kind

of direct knowledge. Christ took Lynn to a beautiful place

full of love and light which she knew was heaven. While

there, she saw her deceased father, her deceased great

grandmother, and a long-time friend since the first grade

who had been killed in a car accident in 1971.

Lynn saw earth-like features in heaven, but much

more beautiful. For example, the flowers seemed to glow

brilliantly with multiple beautiful colors. Although she very

much wanted to remain there, she looked at Christ and felt

Him lovingly telling her that it was now time to go back.

Like a little girl, she looked to her father to ask him why she

had to go, because she felt so happy there. Her father told

her that it was not her time, and then she heard Christ

explain that her work was not yet finished on earth, and she

had to return.

Lynn hesitatingly agreed to return, and found herself

back in the hospital room where she saw that the doctors

were still trying to resuscitate her. She came back into her

body, and immediately felt excruciating pain while the

doctors kept up their resuscitation efforts. After a difficult

and lengthy resuscitation effort Lynn was brought back and

recovered.

Three days later, Lynn delivered a healthy baby boy

through natural childbirth and recovered fully. After the

baby was delivered, their priest friend Alan came to visit her

and told her somewhat nervously that there was something

he wanted to talk to her about. Lynn sensed what he wanted

to talk about and said, "Alan, the tie, handkerchief, and

yellow shirt you were wearing when I died did not match

your maroon coat." This was precisely what he had been

wearing when he "heard" Lynn's voice in the corridor

outside of the hospital chapel while she was having her

NDE -- which left Alan dumbfounded.

Although the individuals in this account are still

alive, known to the authors, and of incontrovertible character

and honesty, all such accounts nevertheless remain anecdotal

until we all discover for ourselves if they are objectively

true. Lynn's account contains many of the themes which are

now recognized as being normative in an NDE. According

to Dr. Moody, nine such themes have emerged from NDE

experiences: (1) a sense of having died, (2) feelings of

peace, (3) an out-of-body experience, (4) going through a

tunnel, (5) seeing beings of light, (6) being greeted by a

particular being of light, (7) having an instant review of

their life, (8) returning in spite of a desire to not return, and

(9) having a psychospiritual transformation after they return.

Not all who experience an NDE report all of the

characteristics now recognized as being common in such

episodes (Lynn, for example, only experienced seven of the

nine). Nevertheless, it has been found by Dr. Moody and

others that every NDE percipient reported at least one of the

nine themes, and some reported many (a few all nine).

The life review (which Lynn did not experience) is

said to consist of vivid scenes from their life, which pass

instantaneously and yet can be reviewed in detail -- as if the

individual no longer exists in time. They see both the good

and the bad. While they observe these scenes from their

own lives, NDE-ers can feel not only what their own

emotions were at that time, but also the consequences of

their acts on others whom they had either hurt or been hurt

by, or to whom they had performed acts of love and

kindness. Some of these NDE percipients claim to receive

knowledge of spiritual and scientific mysteries while they are

in this state, although most of them forget this knowledge

once they return. They are usually given a choice to either

remain there or to return, and as is obvious from the fact

that they came back to life, they all chose to return --

usually not for themselves, but for the sake of some loved

one for whom they cared.

Of particular importance to this book is the nature of

the "being of light" towards which NDE percipients are

drawn and their life review. Although the percipients

themselves say they felt either self-judgmental or happy as

each of these events flash before them, the being of light is

said to be non-judgmental and to express unconditional love,

regardless of the moral quality of the scene being viewed by

the percipient (even in the case of homicide). We will return

to this thought.

The comparisons drawn between the UFO abduction

experience and NDEs by Dr. Ring and others may at first

appear tenuous. However, there are at least three

similarities: the percipients enter an altered state of

consciousness, they claim to communicate with

metaphysical entities, and they return with a newly found

sense of mission. In particular, many of the abductees and

the NDE-ers return with a mission to help the environment

and proclaim a "gospel" of universal love, peace, and

brotherhood.

A recent Gallup poll estimates that as many as eleven

million Americans may have experienced an NDE.

Combined with the (arguably high) estimate of five million

that have reported incidents that may be related to UFO

abductions, we may now have a critical mass of individuals

ready to proclaim a new religion based not on faith but on

personal experience.

NDE-er Dannion Brinkley mentions such a religion

in his book "Saved by the Light." (with foreword by Dr.

Moody). He claims that in 1975, while he was clinically

dead, thirteen wise "beings of light" showed him a number

of future earth events stretching through the end of the 20th

century and into the beginning of the next century. Unlike

typical NDE percipients, Brinkley was able to return with

this knowledge and even claims to have been given the

power to read minds. Among the events he was shown

were the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, the oil crisis, the

Chernobyl disaster, and the Gulf War. According to

Brinkley, he was also told that there would be a series of

environmental disasters which would usher in a new

environmental religion. Interestingly, one of Brinkley's

prophecies is of a major nuclear disaster that will occur in a

badly polluted northern sea in a part of the world that has

fjords that reminded him of Norway. This accident is to

occur in 1995 and "could spread radiation everywhere and

affect all humankind." In his foreword to Brinkley's book,

Dr. Moody states confirms that Brinkley told him about

these events when he interviewed him in 1976. He

dismissed the prophesies at the time, until he saw them

coming true.

With fantastic tales such as these, many in the UFO

and NDE communities appear to be joining hands,

preaching a gospel of knowledge, of loving "space

brothers" coming in UFOs to save mankind, or

unconditionally loving "beings of light" that warn us about

coming disasters and greet us in the afterlife. It is claimed

that those who come back from an NDE have a deeper

spirituality, but broaden their perspective to encompass all

religions rather than the one they may have espoused before

the NDE. Spiritual centers are beginning to be set up by

NDE researchers such as Dr. Moody. Together with

Dannion Brinkley, who is now his associate, Dr. Moody has

established an "Aesculapian Temple" at his retirement home

near Anniston, Alabama, dedicated to psychic healing,

necromancy, past-lives regression, and other such things.

Dr. Moody and other researchers are said to be attempting to

produce near death-like experiences while they are still alive,

through stimulated out-of-body episodes.

In his recent book "To Hell and Back," Dr. Maurice

Rawlings states that Dr. Moody gives seminars on a method

of Rthought travelS which he calls RscryingS with a process

using mirrors and crystals. In Faber, Virginia, out-of-body-

experience (OOBE) researcher Robert Monroe has

established the Monroe Institute, which teaches techniques

for OOBEs to thousands. His RWeekend GatewayS program

is a tailored Rsystem of exercises and technologyS which is

said to have Raided more than 10,000 participants.S For

those who can not attend the institute, Monroe even provides

home study courses which include video and audio tapes.

NDE pioneer Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, who according to

Dr. Rawlings now claims to channel several spirits, used

MonroeUs machinery and techniques to have her own OOBE.

Monroe is said to have experimented with a mesmerizing

Rtime machineS known as the M-5000 that allowed subjects

to travel astrally from his Virginia home to Stanford

University, Berkeley, or UC Davis, where notable

parapsychologists such as Dr. Charles Tart assembled and

verified through telephone calls that the astral traveler could

accurately describe what they had seen. It should be noted,

however, that Dr. Tart and others claimed similar success

with Uri Geller and a method they called Rremote viewingS

in the 1970s, claims which were later shown by the National

Research Council to be unsubstantiated.

This is all very fascinating -- but is it credible?

Given the deception and manipulation of UFO abduction

victims that we have uncovered elsewhere in this book, is it

possible that there might also be deception and manipulation

brewing behind NDE percipients?

First, let us state that regardless of the objective

reality of UFO abductions and NDEs, it is clear that most

percipients are themselves credible and believe that

something phenomenal has happened to them. Furthermore,

a great number of NDEs, perhaps most, are very positive

experiences that provide hope for the resuscitated as well as

for their loved ones. Most NDEs have a spiritual context

that is consistent with the personal beliefs of the percipient

(with the possible exception of atheists, who are faced with

a bit of a contradiction). As in the example of Lynn,

Christians have identified the "being of light" as Jesus

Christ, and some have even reported seeing the crucifixion

wounds on His body. Those of other religions have

reported the "being of light" as being a religious personage

or angel revered within their own faith. However, there is

one bothersome question: since almost every religion in the

world teaches that there is not only a RheavenS but also a

"hell" (MoslemUs Jahanna, HebrewUs Gehenna, Tibetan

BuddhismUs eight cold hells, HinduismUs 21 hells to burn

away bad karma, etc.), why do all of the NDE researchers

seem to only report positive experiences an no negative

ones? Is it because there are no negative experiences? Or

because percipients of a negative experience do not return?

Or is there something more sinister going on -- perhaps

some deception? Before addressing these interesting

questions, let us return for the "rest of the story" in the

Lynn case described above, which will shed some light on

this issue.

As related earlier, as soon as Lynn returned to her

body she found herself in the hospital bed in excruciating

pain. Amazingly, this made her leave her body once again,

this time by a sheer force of her will! After all, Lynn had

tasted the happiness of heaven, so why should she remain in

her miserable state? This time, however, as she floated

above her body she did not see any heavenly sights but just

the opposite. She saw darkness and heard deep howling and

roaring noises, like the screaming of wild animals in a zoo.

Instead of feelings of warmth and protection, she felt cold

and lifeless. She then looked at her body and saw the

doctors and nurses removing tubes from it. She realized

that this time she was not going to see her father in heaven,

but would go in the opposite direction. This frightened her

terribly, and she began to plead with God to let her go back

to heaven and away from her pain. She could still see the

tunnel faintly, but the light seemed very much further away

than the first time. After her pleadings, she still did not go to

the light but instead the light seemed to come towards her.

As the light got closer, she found herself going back into her

body and coming back to life. The doctors noticed signs of

life and immediately resumed their efforts, which led to a full

recovery. Three days later she went into labor and gave

birth to a healthy baby boy.

Here we have a negative NDE, perhaps prompted by

Lynn's wanting to be in charge of her own ultimate destiny

instead of accepting that it was not yet her time to leave.

This particular episode also has parallels with accounts of

frightening entities reported by UFO abductees. If incidents

like these are not reported in the NDE literature, one

wonders how many more negative cases might be.

In his 1993 book "To Hell and Back," Dr. Rawlings

claims not only that there are many negative experiences,

but that such data may have been held back by some

otherwise reputable researchers. Dr. Rawlings is in a very

credible position to state his case -- he is a widely known

and respected heart specialist who specialized in teaching

methods for the retrieval of patients from sudden death. In

fact, he was General Eisenhower's personal physician

before he became President. Dr. Rawlings has himself

brought many patients back from clinical death, and was

present at the moment of clinical death and at the moment

when they returned. In his experience, he has heard

negative as well as positive accounts.

According to Dr. Rawlings, there are two reasons

why negative NDE's have not been reported by researchers.

The first reason is that such negative accounts are usually

suppressed over time by the normal human tendency to

forget the negative and recall the positive. Since most NDE

researchers are not there at the moment that the patient is

resuscitated, they do not hear the negative experiences. The

second reason is of vastly more concern -- the nature of the

"being of light." Dr. Rawlings hypothesizes (from a

Christian perspective) that the "being of light" seen in some

positive NDEs might not be God or a holy personage, but

instead Lucifer (whose very name means "light-bearer)

masquerading as an "angel of light." If so, what would be

his purpose? Perhaps to deceive percipients into accepting

the false belief that death is always a positive experience,

regardless of the kind of life the person has lived, with no

need for repentance and salvation. In the end everyone will

go to heaven and be accepted with unconditional love,

regardless of what they have done or believed in this life. In

particular, this philosophy runs counter to traditional

religious belief that salvation comes through some type of

atonement -- from Christ's sacrifice on the Cross to

HinduismUs teaching that salvation is not automatic, but

relies on the accumulation of enough good "karma" to reach

"Nirvana." But now we seem to be witnessing the creation

of a Rcheap graceS religion in which heaven is guaranteed.

Those proclaiming the advent of a this new religion

often rely on claims such as Brinkley's prophesies to bolster

their claims. However, while we have no proof that

Brinkley has purposely deceived anyone (nor do we have

proof of his claims), it is impossible to ignore the fact that

Brinkley's book is published in 1994, when he obviously

had knowledge of the events that he claimed to have received

as prophesies from the beings of light. What about the 1995

nuclear disaster prediction, whose truth or falsity we will

soon find out? It does not take a lot of research into the

environmental literature to realize that this is a fairly safe bet.

The Barents Sea and the Kara Sea off Russia's northern

coast (shared with Norway) are atomic disasters waiting to

happen because of the dumping of nuclear waste by the

Russians over the years. In fact, on April 7, 1989, the

nuclear submarine Komsomoletz sank a mile deep in the

Barents Sea after a fire and explosions. The Komsomoletz

carries a nuclear reactor and two nuclear torpedoes armed

with plutonium that might leak into the ocean and thus get

into the food chain. Although the likelihood of that

happening has been debated heatedly, Alexey V. Yablokov,

environmental adviser to Russian Federation President Boris

Yeltsin, stated that he considers the Komsomoletz as the

most threatening potential source of nuclear contamination.

Based on examination of the wreck by submersibles in 1991

and 1992, a commission headed by Yablokov reported in

March 1993 that the plutonium could begin leaking by 1995.

Brinkley was certainly in a position to have read these

reports and extrapolate from them. Regardless of the

seriousness of any leakage, Brinkley is in a position to claim

success. As far as Dr. Moody's having received these

prophecies as long ago as 1976, the burden of proof is on

him.

Let us not, however, become distracted by these

accounts and lose sight of the larger issue - the impact on

society of these new beliefs. As Dr. Ring admits, many

NDE'ers and UFO abductees return with a psychospiritual

transformation that causes them to proselytize in the name of

ecology and universal love. Although both of these are

important and noble concepts (as the Komsomoletz case

illustrates), there is a subtle underlying assumption that is

not often noted. This is the assumption that traditional

belief systems are bankrupt and that mankind's salvation will

come from "space brothers" and "beings of light" that come

in the name of ecology and universal brotherhood -- even if

some of their methods are repulsive (e.g. UFO abductions

and negative NDEs) or free of moral concerns (such as the

unconditionally loving beings of light). Accounts such as

Lynn's, in which her psychospiritual transformation led to a

confirmation of her Christian beliefs and a deeper and more

devout Christianity, are not given the same weight when

models of such experiences are constructed. In this sense,

perhaps not only is there a similarity between NDE's and

UFO abductions, but between an element of manipulation

and deceit behind both types of experience. And the

consequences on society may be far deeper than we realize.