Seeing a shiny gentle or hovering as a spirit over one’s personal physique have turn into cultural tropes to explain near-death experiences.
Dr Jeffrey Lengthy – a cancer knowledgeable who practices in Kentucky – believes they’ve turn into tropes as a result of they’re true – after a long time of learning hundreds of instances.
Dr Lengthy, a former skeptic, argued that years of researching the similarities amongst completely different accounts of people’s brushes with death have upended his personal beliefs a few doable afterlife.
He has thus far collected greater than 5,000 accounts in over 30 languages from individuals of assorted religions and cultural backgrounds.
![Dr Jeffrey Long [pictured] is a radiation oncologist who said that studying over 5,000 accounts of near-death experiences has permanently upended his beliefs about life after death. Over 45 percent have out-of-body experiences and around 75 percent would want to stay in the afterlife](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/08/29/15/74833261-12457093-Dr_Jeffrey_Long_pictured_is_a_radiation_oncologist_who_said_that-a-1_1693320488095.jpg)
Dr Jeffrey Lengthy [pictured] is a radiation oncologist who mentioned that learning over 5,000 accounts of near-death experiences has completely upended his beliefs about life after dying. Over 45 p.c have out-of-body experiences and round 75 p.c would wish to keep within the afterlife
Dr Lengthy established a web based repository for individuals to element their very own brushes with mortality.
They embody many tales, similar to one from an individual who led by a robed determine to a area the place deceased family members have been sitting, whereas one other witnessed an orb of sunshine depart her chest, hover for a second, and zoom out of the room.
Thirty-seven years in the past, an article within the Journal of the American Medical Association piqued Dr Lengthy’s curiosity in what the authors have been calling near-death experiences, one thing they offered with out medical or medical rationalization.
Dr Lengthy told Insider: ‘It stopped me in my tracks. All my medical coaching informed me you have been both alive or lifeless. There was no in-between. However all of a sudden, I used to be studying from a heart specialist describing sufferers who had died after which got here again to life, reporting very distinct, virtually unbelievable experiences.’
He described a near-death expertise as an individual who’s both comatose or clinically lifeless with no heartbeat whereas nonetheless having a lucid expertise during which they really feel feelings, see, and listen to, in addition to work together with different beings.
He has reportedly assessed hundreds of anecdotes, all of that are strikingly related whatever the individual’s perception system, whether or not they’re Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, or atheist.
In 1998, he and his spouse established the Close to-Loss of life Expertise Analysis Basis, whose web site permits individuals from all over the world to doc their very own non secular and out-of-body experiences.
One consumer named Harry mentioned: ‘The bits of sunshine closest to me have been my dad and mom, grand-parent, household who all handed earlier than – and related to them farther away have been shut buddies, and related to them have been individuals who had influenced me and whom I had influenced.’
One other named Star wrote: ‘A pure, good gentle engulfed me and I now not had a bodily physique. However, I nonetheless existed? I had no eyes to see however I checked out all the things round me. I used to be within the middle of an unlimited nothingness, however the nothingness was not empty. It was fully full of the presence of the residing God.
And from Italy, a consumer named Sarah mentioned: ‘These three pure Beings spoke to me in a distinct language. They used my ideas but it surely was completely different than ideas… I already knew that by being by their facet, all the things was coming again to me. They gave me a lot love… I didn’t wish to depart, however I had to return. That’s the way it needed to be.’
By his a long time of analysis, Dr Lengthy has concluded that about 45 p.c of near-death experiences embody an out-of-body expertise during which individuals’s consciousness is separated from their bodily physique.
About three-quarters of those that expertise this reported wanting to remain within the afterlife due to the immense love and pleasure that overtook them. Greater than half report seeing a ‘heavenly’ realm and round 1 / 4 of them are enveloped in gentle or mist.
This additionally means, he added, that just about one hundred pc of those that have a brush with dying now not concern mortality.
His analysis has completely altered the way in which that Dr Lengthy cares for his sufferers. Beforehand, he wouldn’t point out his analysis into this explicit area, but when his sufferers wish to speak about it, he doesn’t maintain again.
Dr Lengthy said: ‘I inform them that based mostly on my analysis, I’m very assured that there’s an exquisite afterlife for all of us and that we’ll be reunited with our deceased family members. And that’s profoundly reassuring to them. To me it’s a blessing to have the ability to share that with them.’
He added that it has helped him to be a greater physician who helps his sufferers tackle life-threatening illnesses with ‘elevated braveness and fervour.’
‘My objective is to assist them have extra wholesome days right here on Earth. However I firmly imagine that if and after they go, they are going to be at peace.’
