“Even Near-Death Experiencers (NDErs) who were upset by the event speak of deep changes in their psychological orientations, with substantially altered values and life goals. The changes are lifelong, with the effects growing stronger over time.”
~ Kenneth Ring, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, University of Connecticut, founder of IANDs, and author, Lessons From the Light and Heading to Omega.
According to the significantly expanding NDE research, it’s common for NDE experiencers — and experiencers of other types of potently or ‘epically’ transformative experiences — to experience specific ‘aftereffects’ of their NDE or EpTE (Near-Death Experience – Epically Life-Altering Transformative Experience).
NDE and ‘NDE-like’ researcher and IANDs co-founder Kenneth Ring includes a summary of these common aftereffects in his (highly recommended) book, Lessons From the Light, based on several decades of research and work with NDEers.
Other NDE and NDE-like research — and NDEr/EPEr’s own experiences (including my own), and that shared by Paul Perry, Raymond Moody, Gopi Krishna, and others — syncs with Ring’s research on the aftereffects of more potent transformative experiences.
The common aftereffects that many NDEers experience after the NDE — where the way of being and life are changed significantly and often permanently — include:
▪ A Greater Appreciation for Life — An appreciation for the simple things and beauties of life are enhanced following the NDE transformative experience. An increased sense of wonder and awe.
▪ Self-Acceptance — Ring writes, “NDErs come to have greater feelings of self-worth and self-acceptance … feelings of personal insecurity, shyness, and exaggerated needs to please or defer to others are often replaced by a self-confidence and outgoingness that may astonish those who knew them before their NDE.” While not all NDE-EPErs may experience this exactly, what is common is that sense of change in the needs to conform to others expectations if they’re not healthy, authentic, etc.
▪ Concern for Others — An increase of compassion, empathy, and concern for all beings … not just human beings.
▪ A Reverence for Life — An extension of the compassion and empathy for all beings, for Nature, and “a heightened sensitivity to the ecological health of the planet.”
▪ Radically Reduced ‘Materialism’ and interest in the Rat Race — Many or most NDErs experience a radical decrease in materialism, or materialistic values, acquisition for its own sake … which now seem unmotivating, or even “empty and pointless.”
▪ Reduction in Competitiveness — Ring writes, “Many NDErs comment that afterward, they can no longer follow the common, socially approved pathways that require one to compete with others for material rewards or success in life.” The motivations to ‘be someone’ according to the material culture’s norms decrease or vanish altogether.
▪ An increase in Spirituality — Many NDErs feel less aligned with religious structures and feel an increase of Spirituality … Spiritual, not Religious.
▪ Quest for Knowledge — Ring writes that many NDErs have an increased quest of knowledge, particularly in service to “live in accordance with what they learned in the Light” and also to “recapture some of the knowledge they believe was implanted in them during their experience.” Many NDErs also find that their ability to innately understand things or ‘just know’ things has increased beyond what it was before their experience.
▪ Sense of Purpose — “That life is meaningful and that there is a sacred purpose to everyone’s life become deep-rooted convictions for NDErs. Many come to feel that the task of their post-NDE life is to discover their own spiritual raison d’etre and thus fulfill their mission in life.”
▪ Fear of Death Diminishes — Many NDErs find that their fear of death decreases or vanishes, though they still may have fears of what leads to death.
▪ Belief That Consciousness Survives Death — Many NDErs have an increased sense that there is Life After Death.
▪ Belief in the Divine — Because of their NDE experience, many NDErs, including those who were Atheists or Agnostic before their NDE, have a very strong knowing and sense that there is a ‘Divine’.
NDErs also experience what Ring summarizes as “changes in consciousness and paranormal functioning.”
▪ Expanded mental awareness — Ring writes that, “Many NDErs … experience states of expanded mental awareness in which they are flooded with information, often at such a rate that they cannot begin to absorb it all … through sources they usually feel quite certain are external to their egoic selves.”
▪ Beyond ‘Normal’ Sensitivities — Some NDErs experience marked heightened sensitivity, including empathic sensitivity, and “an accelerated … range of psychic sensitivities.”
NDErs also say that they experience an increase in other transformative or mystic experiences, such as OBEs, perceptions, seeing energy fields, etc.
Many NDErs also experience a marked sensitivity to electronics, electromagnetic fields, etc. (this is called hyperasthesia – see below).
▪ Enhanced or Awakened Healing Gifts — Some NDErs experience an increase in or the activation of healing gifts, such as energy healing, psychic healing, etc.
Of these physiological and neurological changes, Ring mentions the following:
▪ Hyperasthesia — Ring writes, “Many NDErs afterward tell us that they find they have become unusually sensitive to light, sound, humidity, and a variety of other environmental stimuli or conditions.”
They may also experience other types of heightened sensory sensitivities, including taste, smell, etc. Ring says that “particularly noteworthy … is a marked increase in electrical sensitivity—NDErs begin to have many “strange encounters of the electrical kind.”
These include digital (or battery operated) wristwatches cease working, other types of electronics flicker or cease to work, etc.
▪ States of Physiological Hypo (or hyper) arousal — Some NDErs experience physiological changes, including reduced body temperature, blood pressure, metabolic rate (hypoarousal). Others may have times of hyper-arousal, including…
▪ Energetic Shifts and Kundalini Activation — Many NDErs find that they have heightened energetic experiences or even norms after the NDE. Some find they need less sleep and yet have more energy.
Others may experience kundalini energy related phenomenon and energy, which, Ring writes, “has the effect of stimulating the development of higher consciousness and what is called “higher sense perception.”
▪ Neurological and Brain changes — Ring writes that in his previous Omega Project research, over 50 percent of the NDErs “indicated that their nervous systems were functioning differently than they had previously.
Research continues to build on IANDs’, Moody’s and Perry’s (etc) foundation, but more recent research of how “God Changes the Brain,” as Andrew Newberg, M.D.s work summarizes, that such experiences do in fact have neurological effects that are demonstrable and long-lasting.
Additional sources and links
• Return to Sophia’s Children “Awakening & Transformative Experiences” main page
• Dr. Kenneth Ring’s web site and books, including Lessons From the Light
• International Association of Near-Death Studies, or IANDs (and Kenneth Ring)
• IANDs Recommended NDE / EpTE Reading (including above-mentioned trail-blazers’ books)
• Gopi Krishna’s writings and experiences on Kundalini Awakening
• BeyondMed’s “We Are All Shamans in Training” article by Paul Levy
• BeyondMed’s Spiritual Emergency portal – plenty of links (including the Levy article)
Questions?
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