The near-death experience is an impressive, extraordinary, life-changing event that usually happens during unconsciousness. Well-known features of the NDE are the out-of-body experience, the tunnel, and the light. In the quest to find answers about the cause of the NDE, the mainstream scientific community has so far come up with two explanations.
The first one considers the NDE as a neurological phenomenon. Features such as the life review, the sense of being out of the body, seeing a tunnel/a light, and seeing strange things, are caused, from this perspective, by electric stimuli, stress, a lack of oxygen, medication, hallucinations , etc. This explanation identifies the brain as producing the features of the NDE and of consciousness.
The second explanation considers the NDE as supernatural (defined in this case as an unknown world/reality outside of our known world/reality). In this theory, the brain is an interface. It is considered to be receiving a presumably large and endless cosmic consciousness. When people experience a NDE, they are therefore connected with that special cosmic consciousness. This supernatural theory also explains such features as the life review, the experience of being out of one’s own body, and the experience of speed.
However, both theories fail to consider that there is a link between (the severity of the) trauma/sickness and the onset of a NDE and its typical characteristics. Moreover: they don’t accept the idea that the NDE becomes more profound and more complete as the trauma/sickness grows more life-threatening. Such a statement is not – grosso modo – in accordance with the opinion of NDE-experts Dr. M. Morse, R.A. Moody et al. Furthermore, neither theory takes into consideration that the NDE has successive phases. This is not in accordance with the opinion of, for instance, NDE-experts D.Fontana, J.Miner Holden, and K.Ring. Above all, neither theory explains all features of the NDE as we know it.
Because of the above and challenged to discover and develop a new, coherent, all-inclusive theory, I analyzed hundreds of NDE’s (only NDE’s). And after more than ten years of study, I am convinced that there is a third possible explanation, which connects severe trauma/sickness to the appearance of a NDE and which includes all known features.
Prior comments:
1: In general, NDE-people do not remember or experience all features and all phases.
2: Some features appear at the same time.
3: This is a summary. It does not describe all features, nor the negative NDE, nor the after-effects.
The Five Phase Theory:
As we approach the end of life, our sensorial observation decreases, our normal consciousness fades and deep down in our physical body, at the (sub)atomic level, a fundamental process starts which releases a considerable amount of ‘exotic energy’ (i.e., light-energy/photons). I believe this special exotic energy is the foundation of another, new, pure and perfect body, as well as another kind of consciousness/awareness. With this new body (of exotic photons) we can travel through the barrier of space and time, as those who experience a NDE often report.
The NDE is without a doubt a real voyage.
Successive phases of a complete theoretical NDE:
1) Separation from the physical body
2) A journey through a tunnel (to a heavenly light)
3) Being in the presence of the light, near a border
4) The return (through a tunnel) to the physical body
5) Unification with the physical body
Phase 1: The Separation
Summary of concrete experiences:
When people are severely traumatized (e.g., due to an accident or sickness) they lose their normal consciousness. They also hear strange noises and feel vibrations and countless small explosions deep in their physical bodies. Almost instantly, NDE-people experience another kind of consciousness and a different body, often seeing their own physical bodies while, for example, standing next to it (=autoscopy). This is the beginning of the out-of-body experience and the NDE. NDE-people realize that they have a ‘ghostly’ body of (light)energy, which seems to be a copy of their physical body, but they don’t notice any change in their personality. Sometimes they see other beings of light. These are their guides to ‘heaven’. NDE-people don’t feel the pain of their physical body anymore. They are happy, peaceful. They can hear and see, in a different way, but they cannot communicate with family/friends or doctors/nurses who are giving medical care. Sometimes NDE-people hear doctors pronounce a declaration of death.
Scientific/theoretical ground:
To explain these first experiences, I refer to (the school of) the scientific research of biologist and medical scientist A. Gurwitsch (≈1925) and Nobel-prize winner and biophysicist F.A. Popp (≈1975). They determined that unstable atoms (c.q. dying cells) in our physical body release a great amount of exotic light-energy in the form of photons. Mathematician J.W. Nienhuys, among others, confirmed this, and he also ascertained that dying cells release countless photons.
Photons are lightkwanta, related to the relativity of space/time by Nimtz and Stahlhofen (physicists), and to (the transfer of) information by prof.dr. Howell.
Besides this, the assumption is that photons are related to consciousness (Popp) and to the creation of the universe (prof.dr.B.Cox, physicist, CERN, Switzerland) and that photons can travel through blackholes without being destroyed (prof.dr.S.Hawking, (astro)physicist, mathematician).
The release of light energy from a traumatized body can also be affirmed, indirectly, by the scientific research of intensive care doctor L.Chawla, among others. These researchers established that in/near the physical body of traumatized/dying people, the electromagnetic values (those related to light) change.
The above reasons help explain why NDE-people feel vibrations, waves of energy going through their physical bodies, and have a sense of leaving their physical bodies with another kind of body and consciousness.
In this context, family members and friends occasionally have seen mist/fog/light leaving the body of their dying loved ones, which forms another new body. This new body is, more or less, a copy of the physical body. Perhaps this occurs due to the fact that photons are related to the transfer of information, in this case about the shape , etc., of the physical body from where they came. In 1967, R.Croockall, a geologist and well-respected investigator of out-of-body experiences (OBE’s), reported observations of mist.
I confirmed this phenomenon in 2011 and 2013 by interviewing family members of NDE-people and of dead people.
Perhaps life after life is just another representation of light-energy. Quantum physicist David Bohm was convinced that all matter in this universe (which includes our physical body) is also light, but in a condensed frozen state.
A Cautious Conclusion:
If one’s body is severely traumatized, an out-of-body experience will occur (where that body is formed by exotic photons) and we will have an autoscopy. This is the beginning of life after life as beings of exotic light-energy formed by exotic photons. At such transitional moments, our daily consciousness, connected to the brain under normal circumstances, transforms into a broader, transcendent consciousness. Because it is probable that the photons that form our new body are indestructible and can travel in space/time, the next life can be ‘eternal’. Finally, these photons are capable of carrying information about who we were and are. Thus our new exotic photon body can be roughly the same as our physical body (N.B.: hindoe-teacher Krishna has said the same thing: our life after life body is a copy of our physical body).
Phase 2: The Journey through a Tunnel
Summary of concrete experiences:
As a trauma grows more severe, NDE-people (as beings of pure exotic light) travel further from their physical bodies. They see, for example, the roof of the hospital from above. After a while they are surrounded by a dark space and they sometimes see grey/dark beings. Almost concurrently, they see the earth, moon, stars, and the Milky Way as astronauts do (i.e., relativity of space). But they also realize that (as bodies of light) they are becoming as small as grains of sand. A tunnel opens, and NDE-people travel through this tunnel at or faster than the speed of light due to the attraction of a huge ‘magnet’, a beautiful heavenly light that grows larger and larger. All the while, they experience sounds and colors. Again, these descriptions are drawn from the research.
Scientific/theoretical ground:
The first scientific statement which might explain these events is that magnetism and light are two aspects of the same substance (physicist J.Maxwell). Another fact is that light can be influenced by attraction and gravity (physicist B.Cox), whereby the effect of a gravitational collapse is to contract a substance. The assumption is that these phenomena exist on a physical and astrophysical scale.
On the astrophysical scale, stars explode at the end of their lives and release a certain quantity of stardust/energy/matter. After that, roughly three things can happen: 1) If a star has little mass, the dust and energy form a nebula; 2) If a star has more mass, the dust and energy form a compact/round nebula; 3) If a star has a very great mass, the dust and energy ultimately collapse and form a black hole. In other words, the strong contraction of a substance can lead to a black hole—a real hole in the fabric of space which can also be part of a wormhole.
A wormhole is a tunnel through space, in which time can becomes relative (physicists P. Davies and R. Mallett). And physicists G.Nimtz and A.Stahlhofen have concluded that photons can travel faster than the speed of light, through a photontunnel. Tunneling particles can cross space instantaneous.
Besides this, photons can probably travel through black holes without being destroyed and without losing information (Hawking) and through wormholes as well (team Kleihaus, University Oldenburg, Germany). Scientists at CERN acknowledge the possibility that tiny black holes and tiny wormholes exist (prof.De Rújula; Cox).
A Cautious Conclusion:
As one gets closer to the end of their life (due to trauma/sickness), the unstable or dying atoms/cells of their declining physical body release an increasing number of photons. The more photons that are released, the more compact the new/other body becomes (due to magnetism, kwantumgravity and in the end: gravity collapse). The more compact it becomes, the more complete and profound the NDE.
I suggest that three things can gradually happen after the release of different amounts of exotic photons (depending on the progress and severity of the trauma): 1) the creation of a ghostly body (i.e., a nebula) when a small amount of photons are released; 2) the creation of a ‘body’ in the form of a ball/a dot/a grain of sand (i.e., a compact nebula) if the release of photons increases due to a more severe trauma and more unstable atoms/dying cells; 3) the creation and opening of a blackhole (i.e., the opening of a tunnel, the spinning into it, and traveling through this tunnel) when a great mass of photons is released, due to an accelerated pace of unstable atoms/dying cells and the approach of the end of the physical life.
A small blackhole opens and a tiny wormhole comes into existence. NDE-people speak about “tunnels’ and ‘endless strings of very elastic energy’. Such a string/tunnel forms a connection between the dying physical body and the new body of exotic light. As the trauma gets more life-threatening, one gains more distance from his/her physical body and our blue planet and begins to see the moon and stars as astronauts do. They travel (as dots of lights) further and further, faster and faster, through this unique tunnel (a tiny intra-universe wormhole) and, in the end, faster than the speed of light (relativity of space-time). After a while, and somewhere near the edge of our universe, they reach that most beautiful light—the magnet—at the end.
(N.B.: again: hindoe-teacher Krishna has revealed the same thing: I now travel faster than the speed of light, from planet to planet.)
Phase 3: Final Destination (for now): The Light
Summary of concrete experiences:
NDE-people report slowing down as they reach the beautiful light at the edge of a ‘heavenly world’. However, they also experience a border that they realize cannot be crossed. Only the truly ‘dead’ cross that border and enter the eternal world of light. It reflects the divine.
Near the light there is no clear distinction between the past, present and future. NDE-people will have a life review and sometimes a life prospect (how their future might unfold). They will meet other beings of light (in most cases their ‘deceased’ family members) and a higher, spiritual being of light. Communication is instant. There is also a moment of judgment, but that moment is full of grace and love. According to NDE-people, light = love = knowledge/information. In addition, NDE-people report an experience of receiving answers to all the questions of humankind.
Moreover, NDE-people see two huge tornadoes appearing as an immense ‘hourglass’: the upper tornado is spinning clockwise and outward, the lower tornado is spinning counter-clockwise and inward. One seems also to be a lot bigger than the other. In the heart of the ‘hourglass’ is all energy of the cosmos.
Scientific/theoretical ground:
The astrophysical aspect of my NDE-theory requires a phenomenon in the universe where photons can stay for a while. As described by the science writer K.Ferguson, this is possible near an event-horizon. An event-horizon is the beginning or the border of a black hole. A black hole is far from black, however: it is surrounded by light—much light (astrophysical and planetary scientist A.Hamilton).
The assumption is that this black hole forms the beginning of an ‘inter-universe wormhole’—a wormhole between universes. This can relate to the theory that there is more than one universe (according to cosmologist and physicist A.Guth, cosmologist M.Tegmark, theoretical physicists N.Turok and P.Steinhardt, et al.. Remarkably, according to Stephen Hawking, one theoretical astrophysical model of two adjacent universes is an ‘hourglass’. Such an ‘hourglass-model’ has an upper tornado and a lower tornado; the upper tornado is spinning clockwise and outward, the lower tornado is spinning in the opposite direction.
The universes can be part of a continuum.
A Cautious Conclusion:
During a NDE, people travel in space-time through a small private tunnel (i.e., intra-universe wormhole) to the edge of our universe. This tiny tunnel (in diameter) is connected to the traumatized/dying physical body and is held open in part by one’s own energy. Perhaps this is why (near the event horizon and the wormhole to another universe) NDE-people are – so it seems – no longer dots of energy but, more likely, ghostly copies of their physical body.
The image one sees of an ‘hourglass’ is formed by two tornadoes, which spin in opposite directions. The supposition is that these are two different universes; one of them is our own and the other is an astral universe whose essence is a variety of subtle vibrations of light.
The heavenly universe is huge and mainly lightweight, warm, immaterial and light. Our universe – as the opponent – is small and mainly heavy, cold, immaterial and dark.
Superstring theory allows for two (or more) universes of differing sizes.
(N.B.: Krishna has said: There are two universes. Ours is small and material; the opponent is huge, immaterial, and made of vibrations of light energy).
In the center, at the edges where both universes meet, there is another wormhole (formed by a black hole and white hole) that is different from our private black hole and tunnel through space-time; it is the beginning of a big inter-universe wormhole or ‘door’ to another astral universe (an entrance very likely not private but common).
On the event-horizon at the border of the inter-universe wormhole, NDE-people are stopped; they don’t cross the border and enter the (common) inter-universe wormhole to ‘heaven’. They are still stuck to their physical body by an endless string of very elastic energy, as NDE-people report (as I speculated earlier, this is probably a tiny intra-universe wormhole through space-time). The event-horizon of the big inter-universe wormhole is surrounded by light, a genuine/concrete magnetic force. One meets the ‘ghostly reflection’ of deceased loved ones, likely also composed of indestructible photon bodies.
The communication is almost immediate and seems to be telepathic as informed (non-local) photons are exchanged. The life-review (or life-prospect) is made possible by the relationship between photons and the information they carry and holographic phenomena. And the fact that light = information may explain why one becomes aware of the answers to all questions of humankind. All information is available here, likely including the information about everything that disappears behind the mist/fog/stardust/light near the blackhole and wormhole to this other heavenly universe.
Phase 4: The Return
Summary of concrete experiences:
NDE-people report seeing a blue/green or red/pink beam of light that they can (sometimes) choose between. They know that the blue/green beam means continuing their life on earth; the red/pink beam means the end of life on earth, but the beginning of eternal life behind ‘the door to heaven’. Their thoughts seem to be rather crucial to this choosing process. NDE-people return, of course, sometimes against their will, through a still-open private tunnel back into their physical bodies. And for the second time they see stars and planets during their return.
Scientific/theoretical ground:
The beams of light are probably due to the Doppler-effect (Doppler was a mathematician and physicist), a phenomenon in the universe where blue/green light is created when stars/matter/stardust approach us and red/pink light is created when stars/matter/stardust recede from us.
Cautious Conclusion:
The red/pink and blue/green colors are most likely explained by the Doppler-effect. When NDE-people approach that beautiful lovely light (that whirlpool of energy and matter, the everlasting ‘big bang’ where two universes meet) they see that matter is coming toward them out of the causal source that creates everything we know in this universe. Therefore, this energy/matter looks blue/green. They also see the color red/pink, created by matter (and so on) moving away from them and toward the black hole ‘door’ to that other universe, traveling farther and farther away from the galaxy/earth and the physical body.
These beams of light, in combination with our thoughts (and/or the thoughts of a higher spiritual being of light), seem to determine our destiny. Thoughts are crucial, not only during the life review but also in (re)setting one’s goal (destiny/life-prospect).
Finally, one travels back as a ‘dot’ (due to gravity collapse in combination with the assumption that the energy of our exotic body comes together with the energy which has held our private tunnel open) through their tunnel/intra-universe wormhole through space-time.
Phase 5: Unification
Summary of concrete experiences:
NDE-people approach/re-enter the physical body as a ball/dot and then experience a sensation of expansion while regaining full connection. They again feel a kind of vibration during the process of reconnection as well as the pain of the physical body. They have usually forgotten the wisdom they received when they were near the heavenly light. This feature of forgetting also applies to those who don’t recall any kind of out-of-body experience or journey during a NDE. Some NDE-people wish to return to the heavenly light.
Scientific/theoretical ground:
Nowhere is gravity exactly the same: neither on earth nor throughout the universe. Therefore the attraction between objects/stars/stardust and so on is not always the same. Due to (the absence of) gravity, objects/stars/stardust can cluster (or not). Gravity exists on an astrophysical scale (concerning the universe) and on a physical scale (concerning particles/kwanta)(Cox).
Cautious Conclusion:
When NDE-people return to earth, they return with a compact body. This is maintained during their journey through the tunnel/wormhole (due to the fact that the force of gravity is very extreme in a blackhole and wormhole). They ‘unfold’ into their physical body due to the reduction of the force of gravity.
All the light-energy flows back into the atoms/cells of the physical body and connect with it. Electromagnetic values probably change again. As the trauma stabilizes or decreases, one regains daily consciousness.
All features of the near-death experience can be explained by a coherent consistent (astro)physical theory, whereby the border between the material world and the immaterial world, our physical and our light-body is gradual.
Moreover: the NDE is a journey through the barrier of space and time, in five phases (concerning a theoretical complete NDE).
It appears due to severe trauma/sickness whereby deep down in our physical body, at the (sub)atomic level, a fundamental process starts, which releases a great amount of exotic light-energy which forms our new afterlife body and our new broader consciousness.
The NDE becomes more profound and more complete (with all features) as the trauma/sickness grows more life-threatening.
The total (astro)physical event causes progressively more distance from the earth (and one’s physical body).The first three phases of the NDE form the first part of ‘eternal life’. Life after life is – in general – the same for everyone, all over the world, regardless one’s view of life, culture, race, sex, social class, etc.
