Tuesday, March 17, 2009

The White Light

I suppose death is a fairly popular topic considering the fact that a multitude of people on this blog have already written about it. I am not going to analyze whether or not heaven or hell are real or about the interpretation of our creation. These are all very broad topics that I feel can never be proven until maybe we actually die ourselves.
But this poses the question for those who have had near death experiences, and how much of what they experience is real or a figment of their imagination. The one thing that you will hear most everyone say when they come out of that 10 year coma or those who have been revived, they all say "we saw the white light at the end of a tunnel".
I don't know if I can honestly believe that there really is a light in a tunnel that we are supposed to follow in order to go to heaven. There is obviously many psychological and scientific factors that can play a role in these images. Some could say that the trauma to the body caused a multitude of minor shocks or electrical currents that overstimulize the brain that can cause extreme flashes of brightness (kind of like when you look into a light and look away and you still see the light flashing behind your eyelids). And there could also be the fact that since so many have said to have seen the light that maybe our subconcious part of our brain automatically starts pushing that image into the forfront of our minds during cases of trauma.
I would like to hear what others have to say about the conundrum of the "white light"

5 comments:

Lynn said...

When my husband flat-lined he did not see a white light, he only saw his mom. She was just standing next to him and that made him feel like things would be alright.

Derek Ellis said...

After having worked in the hospital, Sacred Heart, for almost 3 years now I have met a few who have flat-lined and then came back. They all had slightly varying experiences, but for the most part the same. They were all of similar faith. Which personally for me explains why they were similar. I personally believe that the after life, if it exists, is based upon one's own view of it. We make it what we want.

Tyler said...

Going off what Lynn and Derek said, I agree that in the cases of people coming back people will see what they wanted to see, what will help them get through the trauma of what they are going through.

Robin said...

There have been studies done on the near death experience. It has be estimated that about 8 million people have experienced it. All said they felt total peace. Some said their whole life was spread out before them. Very few said they went to hell. Most said that they suddenly felt connected to everything or knew everything. Some saw small strands connecting them to their bodies and knew that if the stands broke that they would die. Some heard bells and others music. All said that after their experience that they do not fear death but look forward to it. Most after the experience decided that they were not happy with there life as it was and made significant changes to it more along the lines of Humanitarian jobs and volunteer work.

Pat said...

The light at the end of the tunnel is your brain shutting down because when a person dies brain function ceases on the outside of the brain and works its way inward, adn this causes them to see a white light.