Authored by Maria Han via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Neuropathologist Dr. Peter Cummings was convinced everything about consciousness, including profound near-death experiences (NDEs), could be explained by science and was rooted in the brain—until he had an NDE of his own.
Cummings was a career-oriented man who was doing well in his job as a doctor and as an assistant professor at Boston University School of Medicine Dept of Anatomy and Neurobiology.
“At the time [it] was really enjoyable to live for that kind of stuff in that world,” said Cummings in a video posted on the International Association for Near-Death Studies.
A trip to Costa Rica for his wife’s 50th birthday changed his outlook completely. While there, he decided to go whitewater rafting with his wife and son.
Cummings was always afraid of the water, though not sure why. He often practiced holding his breath because he felt that one day it would come in handy.
“I used to get really bored in school and one of the things I would do is I would hold my breath. See how long I could hold my breath and then try to beat that record. And I always thought someday I’m going to need this,” recalled Cummings.
“I always found excuses to not be in the water, because I just always felt like I was going to drown,” said Cummings.
He came close that day in Costa Rica when the raft he and his family were in flipped. He bounced along in the water for a while, until he was pulled under by the current.
“There was a point where I was drowning. And I knew it,” said Cummings.
He was surprised at how calm he felt in the face of death.
“I thought about the autopsies I’d done on people who had drowned. This is supposed to be a very peaceful way to die. And then I’m thinking well, ‘What the heck is taking so long?’”
At the bottom of the river, Cummings experienced something neuroscience probably would have called a hallucination.
“At that point, everything stopped and I was next to this huge boulder and all the bubbles had stopped. And I moved my hand through the bubbles and they all just sort of moved around my hand in this very weird way. And then there was this bright light,” he said.
Then he felt “an incredible feeling of love.” He heard a voice speak to him.
“I got really emotional not because it’s upsetting but because I’m in that moment of that beauty. And I knew my family was going to be okay. And the voice said “they don’t need you, they’re going to be fine,’” he recalled.
Somehow, he also knew that his wife and son had already been pulled out of the water. They really were alright.
Then his science brain entered the conversation.
“You’re just hypoxic. Hold your breath. You have to beat your record. And at that point, the light just sort of vanished,” he said.
Cummings was pulled out of the water and slowly he told himself to relax so that he could regain his breath. That night at their hotel, Cummings, who has always been vigilant of his heart rate, checked his Apple watch and found that while underwater, his heart had stopped.
“I remember looking at my Apple watch because I’m kind of a health freak and I’m kind of obsessed with my heart rate. I looked at my Apple Watch and I had eight minutes of unrecorded heart rate in that time period,” said Cummings.
Electronic devices are not 100 percent accurate and they record heartbeats at intervals, but Cummings believes that in those eight minutes, there was a period when he had no heartbeat.
After the near-death experience, Cummings found that his intensive academic life was not what he wanted anymore.
“I became very uncomfortable with my career pursuit. Those things weren’t important to me anymore. I say I’ve written a couple of very bad novels. And I couldn’t identify with that any of those things,” said Cummings.
Sensing that he wasn’t suited for his life in Boston anymore, he and his family moved back to Maine, where he grew up.
The experience turned Cummings into a more thoughtful doctor. As a pathologist, he spoke to many family members of the deceased.
“The number one question I’ve always been asked is ‘Did they suffer?’ And as a physician, you always say ‘No, of course not.’ But I always felt like a liar. Because I don’t know,” said Cummings.
And after his near-death experience, he knew what it was like to die.
“I wish I could talk to those people again and say, look, this is beautiful. Even under these horrible circumstances, but horrible circumstance is a second. The process after that is incredible. And there’s nothing to worry about,” shared Cummings.
In medicine, death is the end. But Cummings now felt that death was not something to avoid talking about.
“We’ve made it so sterile and kept behind this curtain. That we don’t get a chance to really experience and celebrate the transformation that is happening,” he said.
After the incident, Cummings shared that it not only changed his perspective on his job, it “really helped me come to grips with who I am as a husband and a father, a human place on the planet.”
Cummings’ change after his near-death experience is not a solitary one.
Dr. Bruce Greyson has done extensive research on near-death experiences (NDEs) and his observations told him that these experiences often change the person who changed them for the better.
“Dr. Greyson has followed up on cases over the course of decades and found that in about 95 percent of the cases, it remains as though the NDE just happened,” Mr. Greyson told The Epoch Times in 2015.
“In one case, a man was an alcoholic and he was abusive toward his wife. After an NDE, he became an all-around good Samaritan. He didn’t drink, he was good to his wife, he helped others. For example, he rushed to New Orleans to join efforts following Hurricane Katrina,” described Dr. Greyson.
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A brief glance into the Champagne Room from the wrong side of the velvet rope. God is all about wake up calls and 2nd chances. Been there. Done that. It’s sad that more people don’t actually believe the whole Creator thing.
Well…who doesn’t like a good surprise, right?
From the article:
” And at that point, the light just sort of vanished,” he said.”
satan communicates through the mind, the Holy Spirit through the heart or spirit.
‘There is a way which SEEMTH right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.’
Proverbs 14:12
‘“Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy [every evil, abusive, injurious speaking, or indignity against sacred things] will be forgiven people, but [b]blasphemy against the [Holy] Spirit will not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit [by attributing the miracles done by Me to Satan] will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.’
Matthew 12 31-23 Jesus speaking
Amplified Version
‘Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.’
John 4:1
Don’t be fooled by putting scripture in a box and being waylaid by trying to figure out if it only applies to a certain crowd.
Have a great day of rest.
A lot of fine thoughts in that post. May you enjoy a peaceful day today yourself!
Open up your heart and mind and listen to the man’s story. Satan has nothing to do with it.
What a great story. Now in my mid-70’s death is a relevant topic. I always loved Bette Davis’s statement about death; it’s the last great adventure. And so it is.
I like Lillian Gish quotes:
“What you get is a living — what you give is a life.”
“You know, when I first went into the movies Lionel Barrymore played my grandfather. Later he played my father and finally he played my husband. If he had lived, I’m sure I would have played his mother.”
“Young man, if God had wanted you to see me that way, he would have put your eyes in your bellybutton.”
“The older I get, the more I believe in what I can’t explain or understand, even more than the things that are explainable and understandable.”
“You can get through life with bad manners, but it’s easier with good manners.”
”I’ve never been in style, so I can never go out of style.”
A Marine I served with briefly in ’66-67 used to toast ‘To Death — the Supreme High’.
Somehow, in our drunken stupor that New Years, that made sense …
THE REVEL
WE MEET ‘neath the sounding rafter,
And the walls around are bare;
As they shout back our peals of laughter
It seems that the dead are there.
Then stand to your glasses, steady!
We drink in our comrades’ eyes:
One cup to the dead already—
Hurrah for the next that dies!
Not here are the goblets glowing,
Not here is the vintage sweet;
‘Tis cold as our hearts are growing,
And dark as the doom we meet.
But stand to your glasses, steady!
And soon shall our pulses rise:
A cup to the dead already—
Hurrah for the next that dies!
There’s many a hand that’s shaking,
And many a cheek that’s sunk;
But soon, though our hearts are breaking,
They’ll burn with the wine we’ve drunk.
Then stand to your glasses, steady!
‘Tis here the revival lies:
Quaff a cup to the dead already—
Hurrah for the next that dies.
Time was when we laughed at others;
We thought we were wiser then;
Ha! Ha! Let them think of their mothers,
Who hope to see them again.
No! stand to your glasses, steady!
The thoughtless is here the wise:
One cup to the dead already—
Hurrah for the next that dies!
Not a sigh for the lot that darkles,
Not a tear for the friends that sink;
We’ll fall, ‘midst the wine-cup’s sparkles,
As mute as the wine we drink.
Come, stand to your glasses, steady!
‘Tis this that the respite buys:
A cup to the dead already—
Hurrah for the next that dies!
There’s a mist on the glass congealing,
‘Tis the hurricane’s sultry breath;
And thus does the warmth of feeling
Turn ice in the grasp of Death.
But stand to your glasses, steady!
For a moment the vapor flies:
Quaff a cup to the dead already—
Hurrah for the next that dies!
Who dreads to the dust returning?
Who shrinks from the sable shore,
Where the high and haughty yearning
Of the soul can sting no more?
No, stand to your glasses, steady!
The world is a world of lies:
A cup to the dead already—
And hurrah for the next that dies!
Cut off from the land that bore us,
Betrayed by the land we find,
When the brightest have gone before us,
And the dullest are most behind—
Stand, stand to your glasses, steady!
‘Tis all we have left to prize:
One cup to the dead already—
Hurrah for the next that dies!
A few years ago I was with my son in law and three of his friends…doing some serious drinking. All four are 40 something professionals living large, in a high end neighborhood. I get along well with them, and this wasn’t our first party.
The woman were in another room chatting and we were all around the bar on our third martini when one of them made a toast! Everyone cheered and took a sip…then another shouted out an exuberant toast and we all followed with a cheer and a slug…then the other two belted out a toast to two slugs and two cheers followed…and last but not least I raised my glass and shouted out:
“Here’s to the Next Man that dies”!
Talk about a turd suddenly floating in the party punch bowl…that toast was it.
For any interested in further exploring this life after death topic , Inspiring Philosophy goes in-depth here:
Part 1 :
Or jump to the meat:
Some good points and a good listen, but all from a science viewpoint. There is also a viewpoint from the Spiritual perspective. This is what I have personally studied for over 40 years. . The Vairagi adepts have been saying Consciousness comes from Soul since the dawn of time. Soul is the divine part of us that God created and is immortal. Meditation takes you to the mental level. Contemplation takes you beyond the mind to experience yourself as Soul. This is called self realization. When you experience yourself as Soul at the higher levels this is called God consciousness. The God conscious person becomes a coworker with God. This is the meaning of Eckankar. The science of the spiritual travelers was given in the book I mentioned below. “The Spiritual Notebook.” It’s full of people who have experienced the higher consciousness. The list is amazing. When you really awaken in the Soul Body you will feel more alive than you have ever been. This s part of the religious experience of being. The tools for having these experiences are prayer, meditation, and contemplation.
The late Dr. Zelenko always talked about God consciousness. That we are about to experience a mass awakening to it.
Unrelated, I know you are into dreams. Our daughter had a nightmare last night that a meteor or something had hit the earth and engulfed it in a ball of fire. She jumped into the ocean to escape the flames and managed to survive. When she resurfaced, she found herself wandering around a few cities, whose houses were miraculously still standing, but nobody was there. She was the last person on earth to survive. She said it was really scary.
That is certainly a heavy dream. I see it as a spiritual blessing. God telling your daughter no matter what you will survive. It may also be future or past lives. I had some dreams a a kid that came true as me moving to Alaska. I like Zelenko, but he was delirious on this topic. Spirituality is always an individual thing. There has never been a mass awakening, and their never will be one, especially at the God Consciousness level. The Book, “The Spiritual Notebook,” gives a history of the spiritual giants that have reached high levels of consciousness. I would guess that it only in the thousands that have reached God Consciousness in the whole history of the planet..
zelenko was also the follower of a rabbi who believed in killing us.
We are spirit, have a soul, which is part of us we take with us when we go, and we live in a body.
No need to experience yourself as ‘soul’. Soul is your mind, will and emotions, as well as memory.
To follow your ‘soul’ without it first being renewed, is just following your ‘fallen’ , carnal earthly thinking self without God. No matter how much one prays, (to whom, what?) meditates, (on what?) and contemplates. (What?) Opening oneself to all kinds of falsehoods and lies (to believe) to achieve a “higher consciousness”. Anyone I’ve ever met that believes as you state has always believed and acted superior to others and pretty rude. They first appear as kind and loving, usually while telling you these things as you did, then their true character shows and it doesn’t take long. Not saying you do or are, but those who I have met are. It’s not about a ‘higher consciousness’, but a relationship.
I like the part where they talk about the difference between the real experience and the hallucination. Is there a video by these people on the different levels of Consciousness?
It is a five part series and even though based in science, it leads to a spiritual conclusion. I should watch it again. Michael Jones is that good.
Yes. It was a nice switch. I have been a long time believer in Consciouness being the last frontier.
Our own NDE occur in our nightly dreams, it is Gods preparation work. How often have you said ‘I just can’t believe the dream I just had’?
“That is no bed, Starbuck. It is a coffin. These are but winding sheets. I do not sleep. I die.” – Capt. Ahab
I have been a dream traveler since I was a child. This is part of the many mansions Jesus talked of, and part of the dying Daily Paul talked of. Reading of the Spiritual works and contemplation of them before sleep is the activator.
: -)
You don’t have to die to have the near death experience. You can do it via Eckankar, the science of Soul Travel. Paul Twitchell writes of his journey into the heart of God in “The Tigers Fang.” He also gives a history of the Spiritual travelers in “The Spiritual Notebook.” Yes many christian saints learned the science as St. Paul, St Francis, and even Padre Pio, a 20th century Catholic Saint.
When I started to ead the article I started to wonder, does this doctor only have one eye? He certainly doesn’t know anything about his creator.
Once I started reading this I couldn’t put it down.
IMAGINE HEAVEN: Near-Death Experiences, God’s Promises, and the Exhilarating Future That Awaits You
“All of us long to know what life after death will be like. Bestselling author John Burke is no exception. In Imagine Heaven, Burke compares over 100 gripping stories of near-death experiences (NDEs) to what Scripture says about our biggest questions of Heaven: Will I be myself? Will I see friends and loved ones? What will Heaven look like? What is God like? What will we do forever? What about children and pets?
For decades, Burke has been studying accounts of survivors brought back from near death who lived to tell of both heavenly and hellish experiences. While not every detail of individual NDEs correlate with Scripture, Burke shows how the common experiences shared by thousands of survivors–including doctors, college professors, bank presidents, people of all ages and cultures, and even blind people–point to the exhilarating picture of Heaven promised in the Bible.
This thrilling journey into the afterlife will make you feel like you’ve been there. It will forever change the way you view the life to come and the way you live your life today. You’ll discover Heaven is even more amazing than you’ve ever imagined”.
Which picture of heaven from the bible is that? There are multiple ones.
How many of those interviewed lived and were raised in a non-abrahamic religious milieu without access to tv, movies, missionaries, western books?
Dude…if interested read the book…you won’t regret it…or the over 13,000 5 star comments, or the free overview in the link, it will all more than answer all your doubting Thomas questions, especially about how many non-Abrahamic religious people are in it and how identical their experiences were to Christians, Atheists, etc.
Even blind people from birth (from different countries) gave almost identical descriptions of their experiences and they were in many ways almost identical to those of sighted people from all sorts of backgrounds.
It is a remarkable read.
And not everyone documented experienced a taste of Heaven…
If I do read the book, and I do regret it, how will you make it up to me?
Fuck the reviews, that’s as meaningless as voting. And what does being blind matter?
There are untold numbers of books promoting the same thing. Even if I had interest, I would have to have a reason to read it over all the others. So if it is that important, summarize it at least. Or answer my questions (there were only two, easily answered). There are books I could tell you to read, but I don’t mention them because I know nothing about where you are coming from or whether they are relevant.
“And not everyone documented experienced a taste of Heaven…”
You’re no better than a faggoty-ass pedo priest if you try to frighten people about hell in that passive-aggressive way.
Go away…chop your own wood…
No one knows what ‘heaven’ is like. Period. Even Paul the Apostle was forbidden to say. And he was actually there.
Never read this book. But read many like it for the last 40 years.. Moody’s book, “lifer After death.” is the classic. I have met several people who have died, and told me in person their story. My one brother had a personal visit from the God of the old testament, Jehovah, during his operation. He was told to get his shit together or his life might be a short one, and he did, more or less.
You’ve done all that work and only met ‘several’?
I’m very leery when I hear stories like this.
1 Timothy 6:13-16 KJB… “I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession; That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.”
There is an immensely evil false light lose in the world.
2 Corinthians 11:14 KJB… “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.”
It’s not beyond him to manifest false “love” to unsuspecting souls.
GCP, isn’t this verse speaking specifically about the radiance and Holiness of the most High?
This does not necessarily preclude that we would not come in contact with spirits of loved ones, angelic beings etc who also have some glow or unfettered feeling of love and peace-especially freed from our physical inhibitors.
You got it 100%. Being free from the shackles of your physical existence is the ultimate proof that we are immortal Soul and God loves us with no limitations.
It’s speaking about the Lord Jesus Christ who, in physical form, is the Most High; the verses reference Him directly.
1 John 5:7 KJB… “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.”
Like I said, I’m leery… I don’t know about seeing loved ones in some spiritual form. I think not, if I had to choose, because the church which is His body has yet to be glorified. I don’t believe we “become” disembodied spirits. Some day for sure our bodies will be like His and that’s a tremendous thing to knowingly hope for!
As for angels, yeah, I do believe people have contact with them. I’ll bet they are luminous. Outside of Gods direct instruction to them as we read about in scripture, this contact is very likely evil.
2 Corinthians 11:14-15 KJB… “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.”
“As” the ministers of righteousness. They are not though they appear to be.
What was Paul talking about when he said I learned to die daily, and I met a man who was caught in the 3rd heaven. He was talking about his spiritual journey’s out of the body. He would say. When I am in Christ. You can only travel out of the body if you have the love of he Holy Spirit. You must be fearless to do this. Remember Paul’s saying. Where there is love there is no fear. Remember, the meek inherit the earth. The bold, courageous, strong, and fearless inherit heaven. This goes with Jesus’s saying. I prepare a place for thee. No one can approach the light of the lord in the physical body. It will blind you as it did Paul. But you can approach it as Soul created in the image of God.
Bologney.
Similar to Dr. Bruce Greyson’s work, John Burke, in his book “Imagine Heaven” interviewed or chronicled nearly 1000 people that clinically died but were eventually resuscitated and had Near Death Experiences.
For almost all of them, it changed the direction of their remaining lives.
You can listen to his interviews on this subject by searching John Burke and “The Aggressive Life Podcast” with Brian Tome.
There is a strong biblical argument that we all ‘sleep’ before the first resurrection. After death there is no time (eternity) so when we awaken it will be to us (and Abraham etc) like it was immediate. No one is favored- we all awaken at once.
The concept is fairly modern taken pretty exclusively from the thief on the cross (which has other interpretations with the rest of the Bible taken into consideration). There are books that lay out the scriptural passages and it’s pretty eye opening.
I think these NDEs are interesting, and that God can use them, but we need to be extremely wary.
The idea of lying in the cold ground is extremely repulsive to us even if we know it’s only our human bodies. There are reasons we are not given explicit explanations and the big one is faith.
I think this idea that it happens right after death is that it will SEEM like it to us. Thus, in affect, it’s “today’. Pastors in comforting people say this and it morphed into the belief this is what the Bible teaches, but it doesn’t seem correct and that there is a sleep, until the end.
Why would Jesus say to the thief on the cross, “Today, thou shalt be with me in paradise”?
Had a few near-life experiences in my time and your experience will vary wildly with each one.
ZFG, out.
P.S. dude should consider himself lucky he wasnt in a complete state of terror the entire time he was under.