Deathbed Visions
Introduction
William James said, “If you wish to upset the law that all crows are black, you mustn’t seek to show that no crows are; it is enough if you prove one single crow to be white.” Bordogna (2008). Today, I will follow James idea and present not one but several white crows by way of an introduction to the literature. Each section contains a set of references that also serves as a bibliography for your future studies.
Peak In Darien
Peak In Darien Cases are deathbed visions in which a dying person sees a person who is not known to have died (Greyson 2010). These are some of the best evidence that supports the idea that something survives death.
Barrett(1926) reports that Dr. Florence Barrett (his wife) was an attending obstetrics physician for Mrs. B. The patient was dying of serious heart failure following the birth of her child in the previous weeks. Her husband and mother were sent for.
The following is a quote from Dr. Barrett:
“Suddenly she looked eagerly towards one part of the room, a radiant illuminating her whole countenance. ‘Oh, lovely, lovely’ she said. ‘What is lovely?’ ‘What I see, she replied in low intense tones’ ‘What do you see?’ ‘Lovely brightness, wonderful beings.’ It is difficult to describe the sense of reality conveyed by her intense absorption in the vision.”
The woman died 24 hours later. There was an additional report by the Matron of the Hospital. Prior to her death the woman pushed her husband aside and said, “Don’t hide it from me; it is so beautiful.” Turning away from him to the other side of the bed Mrs. B said, “Oh, why there’s Vida.” Her sister, Vida, had died three weeks previously and Mrs. B had not been told. They had carefully kept this information from Mrs owing to her serious illness.
A physician reported the following case as quoted from Barrett’s (1926) book. Two little girls, Jennie and Edith, about eight years old, were school mates and friends. In June 1889 both were taken ill with diphtheria. At noon on Wednesday Jennie died. Her parents and others carefully kept this information from Edith. They feared the effect of knowing this information on her condition. On Saturday, just before she became unconscious. Edith selected two of her photographs to be sent to Jennie and told her attendants to bid her goodbye.
Edith died at 6:30 PM on Saturday. She roused and bid her friends goodbye and was talking of dying. She seemed to have no fear and appeared to see one and another of her friends she knew were dead. So far it appeared to be similar to other cases. But suddenly and with every appearance of surprise, she turned to her father and exclaimed, “Why, Papa, I am going to take Jennie with me! You did not tell me Jennie was here. Oh, Jennie, I’m so glad you are here.”
A minister reported the following case to the SPR “On Nov 3, 1870, I lost my two eldest boys, David and Harry from Scarlet fever. They were three and four years old respectively. Harry died on Nov 2 about 14 miles from the vicarage. David died the following day at Aspey. About one hour before his death David sat up in his bed, and pointing at the bottom of the bed, said distinctly, “There is little Harry calling to me.” The family had taken special care to ensure that David did not know of Harry’s death.
Deathbed Confessions in Court Cases.
“A deathbed confession can be admissible evidence in court under the right circumstances. If someone confesses knowledge of a crime and then dies or their condition worsens, the law does not consider the statement to be hearsay. It can be used in a criminal trial. ” (Wikipedia.com: Deathbed confessions). The key concept is that the “confession” must be freely given by a lucid person.)
The cases listed above would be accepted in a court of law. However, there are some problems stated by critics. Perhaps in these cases, the information had unknowingly been passed to the dying person. Perhaps the dying person used their intuition. Obviously, there was not much discussion of Vida’s death and her current status was avoided in discussions. Thus, Mrs. B might have figured out that her sister was dead. The next case voids these arguments.
Adamina Lazaro on her deathbed said to her father that she saw several dead relatives, including her brother. The father attributed this to hallucinations. He knew his son was alive, in perfect health, and living about 250 miles away in another city. The father had received news from his son a few days prior. The father received a telegram stating that his son had died a few hours before his daughter’s death. In this case, no one at the deathbed knew of the son’s death (Barrett, 1926, pg 29)
Morse’s Case Report.
Dr. Melvin (1993) reports a near-death experience in which a nine-year-old boy with meningitis saw several dead relatives, including his sister, who told him that she had to stay while he had to return to his body. The boy told his father about the experience. The father became upset because he knew his daughter was at college in another state and in perfect health. The father returned home and attempted to contact his daughter only to learn that she had been killed in an automobile accident the previous evening.
There are many more cases reported in Greyson (2010), several in the last few years.
Prevalence of Deathbed Visions
Osis (1961) found that deathbed visions tended to be independent of factors known to cause hallucinations, enhance their occurrence, or influence their content. Medical factors did not increase the frequency of after-life related experiences. At times medical factors seemed to suppress survival-related phenomena. Socioeconomic factors such as sex, age, education, socioeconomic status, and religious affiliation had no effect. Unlike other hallucinations, deathbed visions are primarily visual.
Terminal patients reported apparitions of the deceased three times more often. Of all apparitions reported 90% were of close relatives.
A follow-up cross-cultural study of 442 People in the United States and 435 people in India as reported by physicians and nurses (Osis and Haraldsson, 1977) found that 80% of the reports were survival related. Three out of four apparitions were take-away related to which 72% consented. More people (41%) responded with serenity, peace, and elation than with negative emotions (29%). Deathbed visions were found to be unrelated to medical and cultural factors.
There are many more studies of deathbed visions reported in the literature (Kelly et al, 2007, Mishlove, 1997, Willis-Brandon, 2000). The cases presented here are among the best and are difficult to refute.
Greyson on Regaining Consciousness.
Brains do not create consciousness. The brain is like a television set. It receives information. In extreme circumstances, consciousness can function quite well without a brain. There are four kinds of evidence
1. Recovery of lost consciousness in days or moments that precede death among people who have had periods of prolonged loss.
There are cases over the last 250 years of people with serious disorders such as brain abscesses, tumors, strokes, meningitis, Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia all of whom had lost the ability to think or communicate. In some of these cases, brain scans have shown deterioration. And yet in these more than 83 cases retrieved by the U of Virginia Division of Perceptual Studies, they have returned to mental clarity in a period before death. In the United Kingdom, 70% of caregivers in nursing homes observed patients suffering from dementia and confusion becoming completely lucid in the last hours before death. There is no known way to explain the phenomena. It would appear the damaged brain prevents the person from communicating but just prior to death consciousness is released
2. Complex processes among people with limited brain tissue.
In a case from 2007, a high school honor student who had been accepted to Smith College underwent surgery following an accident in which she was knocked unconscious. An X-ray of her head before surgery revealed that she had no cerebral cortex! She had a brain stem but that was all that was found after her skull was opened. This college student should not have been able to form a thought let alone function at a high intellectual level. There are other similar cases in which people with hydrocephalus have less than 5% of the cerebral cortex and yet many have a normal intellectual function.
3. Complex processes in near-death experiences are discussed in the next section
4. Memories among children (and others) accurately recalling past lives often accompanied by physical marks are discussed in the third section
References
Barrett, William F. (1926). Death-Bed Visions. London: Methuen Press.
Bordogna, F. (2008). William James at the Boundaries: Philosophy, Science, and the Geography of Knowledge. University Of Chicago Press. p. 127. ISBN 978-0226066523
Braude, S. (2003). Immortal Remains: The Evidence for Life After Death. Lanham, MD.: Rowman Littlefield, Pub.
Greyson, B. (2010) Seeing Dead People Not Known To Have Died: “Peak In Darien Cases.” Anthropology and Humanism, 35 (2) 159 – 171.
Kelly, E. F., Kelly, E. M., Crabtree, A, Gauld, A., Grosso, M., Greyson, B. (2007) Irreducible Min: Towards A Psychology For The 21st Century. NY: Rowman & Littlefield Pub. Inc.
Kelly, E et al (2007) Introductory Annotated Bibliography of Psychical Research. https://med.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/wp-content/uploads/sites/360/2017/09/IM-annotated-bibliography-2.pdf
Mishlove, J. (1997). The Roots of Consciousness. Boston: DaCapo Press.
Morse, M. And Perry, P. (1993). Parting Visions:Uses and Meanings of Pre-Death, Psychic, and Spiritual Experiences. NY: Random House.
Osis, K. (1961) Deathbed Observations by Physicians and Nurses. London: Parapsychological Association.
Osis, K. (1977) Deathbed Observations by Physicians and Nurses: A cross-cultural survey. NY: Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 71 (July), 1977.
Osis, K. and Haraldsson, E. (1977). At the Hour of Death. New York: Avon.
Willis-Brandon, C.
Tucker, J. (2005). Life Before Life: Children’s Memories of Previous Lives. NY: St Martin’s Press.
Willis- Brandon, C. (2000). One Last Hug Before I Go: The Mystery and Meaning of Deathbed Visions. Deerfield Beach, Fl.: Health Communications Press.