Near Death Out-of-Body Experiences: How Might a Catholic Doctor React to Them?

Moody Raymond A. Jr. M.D. Life After Life (Atlanta: Mockingbird Books, 1975). This work and the one that followed it, Reflections on Life After Life (Atlanta: Mockingbird Books, 1977), seem to have sparked a wave of interest in the topic and an increase in publication. Later psychological and sociological investigators tend to depreciate Moody's work somewhat because he does not use a statistically inspired methodology. Yet his conceptual framework is more sound than most, perhaps because of his initial background in philosophy and subsequent training in medical school. Anyone's work in this area may become somewhat dated because of the lack of data and flaws in methodology and narrow conceptual frameworks, but Moody's two works are probably still the most readable and stimulating introduction to the topic. Moody became interested in the topic partly through his contact, in 1965. with George Ritchie, a clinical professor of psychiatry in the School of Medicine at the University of Virginia at the time, and one who had had a lengthy out-of-body experience years before. Chapter 5 in Life After Life, “Explanations”, is Moody's account of various attempts to explain away near death out-of-body experiences as something other than what they seem to be. Other accounts of alternative explanations may be found in Karlis Osis and Erlendur Haraldsson, At the Hour of Death (N.Y.: Avon Books, 1977), and in Craig R. Lundahl, A Collection of Near-Death Research Readings (Chicago: Nelson-Hall Publications, 1982) essays 1(11-15), 5(76-87), 8(155-158), 12(214-227).

Gallup George Jr. , & Proctor William Adventures in Immortality (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1982). The statistics are interesting but the book is rather uninspired. The conceptual framework is not very sophisticated and the authors do not seem especially acquainted with the literature in the field.

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross is supposed to have done a good bit of work on near-death experiences and to have extensive files on the subject. (John Audette reports she has studied over one thousand cases. Cf. John R. Audette, “Historical Perspectives on Near-Death Episodes and Experiences”, in Lundahl Craig R. op. cit., pp. 21–43, p. 39, n. 1. She has not, as far as I know, published her material in a systematic way. She has been interviewed on the topic a number of times and has given lectures about it. Some of the interviews are: Linda Witt, “Life After Death: Yes, Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt”, People 4: 21 (1975)66-69; Kenneth L, Woodward, “There is Life After Death”, McCall's (August, 1976) pp.97-139: Nietzke Ann “The Miracle of Kubler-Ross”, Human Behavior 6: 9(1977) 18–27. Unfortunately, as will be indicated later in this essay, Kubler-Ross has been a bit hasty in the philosophical-religious conclusions she has jumped to and has combined her experience with near-death experiences of patients with an interest and involvement in the occult. See E. Kubler-Ross (text), Mal Warchaw (photographs). To Live Until We Say Goodbye (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.,: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1978). On p. 107, in a letter from one Louise, written to Mal Warshaw in May, 1978, we read: “After a visit from Elisabeth one time (last year), she said she would like to give me a gift and invited me to an overnight visit with her friends who joined her in her life-after-death research. I stayed only overnight but what those few hours meant to me! It was there that I had a rare and unique opportunity to get in touch with my own guides and soulmates, Gentry and Cecilia. They permitted me to touch them and then escorted me into a private little room (without the aid of my walker) for a private talk to have any questions answered about life before as well as hereafter, that they could. … it was then I was told that Cecilia is the one who helps me with my painting.” The comments and context indicate that Gentry and Cecilia, to whom Louise was introduced at Elisabeth's house are visitors from the spirit world. One is led to conclude that these spirit visitors are also the “friends who join her (Elisabeth) in her life-after-death research.” Somewhat the same thing happened with Dr. Robert Crookall, an earlier researcher of out-of-body experiences who had done more work in the area than just about anyone now living. It is probably because of his strong theosophical inclinations that present investigators avoid Dr. Crookall's works. One might recall here that Edgar Cayce was led into the occult after years of coming to trust his “gift” as a healer.

Rawlings Maurice M.D. Beyond Death's Door (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Inc., 1978). Dr Rawlings is a cardiologist whose interest in near death experiences dates from his resuscitation of a patient who kept screaming he was in hell. Rawlings's work is important because of his willingness to take the possibilities of heaven and hell seriously, and because of his reporting of near-death accounts of persons descending to a state sounding much like hell. Perhaps even more important is the way in which a couple of his cases suggest a serious methodological flaw in the work of most investigators. This will be considered at the end of this paper.

Sabom Michael B. M.D. , & Sarah S Kreutziger have co-authored a number of essays on near-death experiences: “The Experience of Near-Death”, Death Education I (1977) 195–203; “Near-death Experiences letter”, New England Journal of Medicine 297(1977)1071; “Insight into the Process of Death letter”, Psychology Today 10(1977)7; “Physicians Evaluate the Near-Death Experience”, in Lundahl, op. cit., pp. 148-159. Sabom is a cardiologist and Kreutziger is an assistant professor of social work in psychiatry. They began interviewing survivors in 1976 with the intent, in part, of making physicians more aware of these occurences. Some of the publications of Sabom on his own are; “Near-Death Experiences: A Medical Perspective”, paper presented at Founder's Day, Psychical Research Foundation (May, 1980); “Commentary on ‘The Reality of Death Experiences’ by Ernst Rodin”, J. Nerv. Ment. Dis. 168(1980)266-267; Recollections of Death (New York: Harper and Row, 1982 [or 1981]).

Concerning Schoonmaker, see Audette J. “Denver Cardiologist Discloses Findings After 18 years of Near-Death Research”, Anabiosis 1 (1979) 1–2. and the remarks of Craig Lundahl in “Directions in Near-Death Research”, in Lundahl, op. cit., p.235, and Michael Grosso, “Toward an Explanation of Near-Death Phenomena”, in Lundahl, op. cit., p. 216. Interesting in the report of Shoonmaker's work is the noting of 55 cases “in which resuscitated NDE patients displayed flat electroencephalograms” (Cf. Grosso, op. cit., p.216).

Osis Karlis Deathbed Observations by Physicians and Nurses (N.Y.: Parapsychology Foundation, 1961). Osis and E. Haraldsson, “Deathbed Observations by Physicians and Nurses: A Cross-Cultural Survey”, Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 71(1977)237-259; Osis and Haraldsson, At The Hour of Death (New York: Avon Books, 1977) [their most well known work]; “Correspondence: Reply to Dr. Palmer” Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 72(1978)395-400: “Correspondence: Reply to Dr. McHarg”. Journal of the ASPR 73(1979)126-128. Osis's work was initially inspired by Sir William Barrett, a physicist of the Royal College of Science, Dublin, who presented some cases of death-bed visions in his work Death-Bed Visions (London: Methuen, 1926).

On Erlendur Haraldsson, see n.7. Haraldsson is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Iceland and a younger co-worker of K. Osis.

Ring Kenneth Life at Death: A Scientific Investigation of the Sear-Death Experience (New York: Coward, McCann and Geoghegan, 1980); “Frequency and Stages of the Prototypic Near-Death Experience” in Lundahl, op. cit., pp. 110-147; Ring and Stephen Franklin, “Do Suicide Survivors Report Near-Death Experiences?” in Lundahl, pp. 180-201. Ring is a professor of psychology at the University of Connecticut who, as he indicates (Lundahl, p. 110) was led to undertake his research “as a direct result of reading Dr. R. Moody's first book, Life After Life.”

Ray Kletti is a clinical psychologist in Manitowoc. Wisconsin. See the note on Noyes.

Noyes Russell Jr. M.D. “Dying and Mystical Consciousness”, Journal of Thanatology 1 (1971) 25–41; “The Experience of Dying”, Psychiatry 35(1972)174-184; “Panoramic Memory: A Response to the Threat of Death”, Omega 8(1977)181-194; “Near-Death Experiences: Their Interpretation and Significance”, in Kastenbaum R. ed., Between Life and Death (New York: Springer Publishing Co., 1979); Noyes and Kletti, “Depersonalization in the Face of Life Threatening Danger: A Description”, Psychiatry 39(1976)19-27; Noyes and Kletti. “Depersonalization in the Face of Life Threatening Danger: An Interpretation”, Omega 7(1976)103-114. Noyes and Kletti are among those who do not take the near-death experiences at face value, but characterize them as internal resources for coping with death. In Lundahl's work (op. cit.), they are criticized both by Sabom and Kreutziger (p. 156) and Grosso (pp. 218-219). Noyes is a professor of psychiatry at the University of Iowa.

George G. Ritchie's story is a fascinating one. After being pronounced dead with double lobar pneumonia as a young soldier stationed in Texas, he had an extended out-of-body experience with clear religious components to it. He subsequently went through medical school and then became a psychiatrist. He it was who had a strong influence on Moody. Moody dedicated his Life After Life to Richie and acknowledged a debt to him in Reflections on Life after Life. It is curious to note that there is not one reference to Richie in the bibliographies of Lundahl's work. Richie's story is told in his work Return From Tomorrow (Grand Rapids, MI: Chosen Books, 1978).

For Kreutziger, see n. 5.

Lundahl Craig R. “Mormon Near-Death Experiences”, Free Inquiry in Creative Sociology 7(1979) 101–104. 107; compiler, A Collection of Near-Death Research Readings (Chicago: Nelson-Hall Publishers, 1982). Lundahl is an associate professor of sociology at Western New Mexico University.

Widdison Harold A. “Near-Death Experiences and the Unscientific Scientist”, in Lundahl, op. cit., pp. 3–17. Widdison's essay is a critique of the empiricist assumptions and narrow-mindedness of many scientists when faced with reports of near-death experiences. He is an assistant professor of sociology at Northern Arizona University.

Hart Hornell The Enigma of Survival (Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas Publishers, 1951); “Six Theories about Apparitions”, Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 50(1956)153-239. Hart was at one time director of the International Project for Research on ESP Projection, and a professor at Duke University.

Grosso Michael “Near Death Experience and the Eleusinian Mysteries”, paper presented at Founder's Day, Psychical Research Foundation. April, 1979; “Toward an Explanation of Near-Death Phenomena”, in Lundahl, op. cit., pp. 205-230. Grosso is an assistant professor of philosophy at Jersey City Slate College.

H.H. Price was emertius professor of logic at Oxford University. There is an article of his concerning astral travel (out-of-body experience) in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 53 (1961).

Ducasse C. J. A Critical Examination of the Belief in a Life After Death (Springfield, IL: CC. Thomas Pub., 1961). On page 160 of this work. Ducasse draws attention to the cord connecting the two “bodies” of one who is having an out-of-body experience.

James William Varieties of Religious Experience (New York: American Library, (1958).

Crookall Robert The Study and Practice of Astral Projection (Stockbridge, Mass.: Aquarian Press, 1960); More Astral Projection (Stockbridge, Mass.: Aquarian Press, 1964); Events on the Threshold of the After-Life (Moradabad, India: Darshana, International, 1968). Crookall had a background in botany and geology before becoming involved in near-death experiences. One can learn much from Crookall without necessarily adopting his theosophical viewpoint.

Monroe Robert A. Journeys Out of the Body (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday and Co., Inc., 1973). It is hard to know what to make of Monroe. His very detailed accounts of travels out of his body seem open to, but are not defenses of, the after death states of heaven and hell. His accounts seem also to suggest life either on other planets, or in another dimension (whatever that would mean). Different older practitioners of travels out of the body have been uneasy about teaching others how to do it since they instinctively feel danger associated with the experiences. Monroe seems to have no such hesitation. Monroe's experiences, like those of anyone else, are valuable insofar as they can be correlated with and checked by those of others.

Cf. n. 15.

Cf. n. 3.

Cf. n. 2.

Ryle Gilbert The Concept of Mind (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1949). This work is often regarded as a modern classic. The horse he stalks is Descartes’ dual substance theory which he inclines to read back into ancient and medieval thought. Insofar as Ryle defends a unity of human nature, he tends to behaviorism.

Aquinas Thomas St. On the Truth of the Catholic Faith, Book 2. Creation, trans. by James F. Anderson. Ch. 46-90, esp. Ch. 68-72.

On Lucy of Fatima, see Johnston Francis Fatima: The Great Sign (Rockford, IL: Tan Books and Publishers, Inc., 1980), p. 36. See also the vision of Jacinta, pp. 36-7. These visions, as well as those of Anna-Maria Taigi, are not out-of-body experiences, but visions coming from God to someone in their normal bodily condition.

On Anna-Maria Taigi, see Bessieres Albert Wife, Mother and Mystic, trans. by Rev. Stephen Rigby, ed. by Newton Douglas (Rockford, IL: Tan Books and Publishers, Inc., 1970), p. 184.

Cf. Moody R. A. Jr. “The Experience of Dying” in Lundahl, op. cit., pp. 89–109, pp. 97-98: “Over and over. I have been told that once they became accustomed to their new situation, people undergoing this experience began to think more lucidly and rapidly than in physical existence. Perception in the new body is both like and unlike perception in the physical body. In some ways, the spiritual form is more limited. As we saw, kinesthesia, as such, is absent. In a couple of instances, persons have reported that they had no sensation of temperature, while in most cases feelings of comfortable “warmth” are reported. No one among all of my cases has reported any odors or tastes while out of their physical bodies.” On the other hand, senses which correspond to the physical senses of vision and of hearing are very definitely intact in the spiritual body, and seem actually heightened and more perfect than they are in physical life. One man says that while he was ‘dead’ his vision seemed incredibly more powerful and, in his word, ‘I just can't understand how I could see so far.’ A woman who recalled this experience notes, ‘It seemed as if this spiritual sense had no limitations, as if I could look anywhere and everywhere.’ “‘Hearing’ in the spiritual state can apparently be called so only by analogy, and most say that they do not really hear physical voices or sounds. Rather, they seem to pick up the thoughts of persons around them. … “In this disembodied state, then, a person is cut off from others. He can see other people and understand their thoughts completely, but they are able neither to see nor to hear him. Communication with other human beings is effectively cut off, even through the sense of touch, since his spiritual body lacks solidity.”

See, for example, Ryle op. cit., p. 23.

The late professor, Anton Pegis, was fond of this way of defining being human, in accordance with the mind of St. Thomas.

Thomas, St., Summa theologiae 1, 89.1.c and 3^m. Cf. Pegis A.C. “The Separated Soul and its Nature in St. Thomas” in St. Thomas Aquinas 1274-1974: Commemorative Studies 2v. (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1974), vol. I, pp. 131–158.

Since the loss of a limb hardly affects the functioning of the senses on which we depend to gain knowledge, a more appropriate analogy might be irreparable brain damage which left only the sense of sight intact. The analogy still limps, as do all analogies. It is the seeming removal of the body as the basis of the functioning of all our senses, especially that of touch, which makes death such a great natural evil.

This “body of sorts” is variously referred to as a spiritual body, an astral body, an ethereal body, an electromagnetic body, the spirit (as opposed to the soul), and is sometimes confused with the soul itself as the principle of life.

Carty, Rev. Mortimer Charles Padre Pio the Stigmatist. (Rockford, IL: 1973), p. 69. There are many cases of supernaturally caused out-of-body experiences, There are many eases of apparently naturally occurring out-of-body experiences. Then there are many eases in which one cannot say whether their origin is natural or supernatural. But the philosophical problem of the unity of the person as a conscious being is the same (assuming the soul still vivifies the body) whether the cause is natural or supernatural.

See Into the Unknown (Pleasantville, N.Y.: Reader's Digest, 1981), pp. 272, 274, 276. Dr. R. Crookall often wrote of the cord. It is true, however, that the cord is usually not noticed (or commented on) by those having an out-of-body experience, and most modern researchers seem quite unaware of this possible aspect of the experience.

See Into the Unknown (Pleasantville, N.Y.: Reader's Digest, 1981), p. 283. See n. 6.

See Greenhouse Herbert B. The Astral Journey (New York: Avon Books, 1974), p. 326.

Shouppe, Rev. F. X., S.J., Purgatory: Illustrated by the Lives and Legends of the Saints, 1893 (Rockford, IL: Tan Books, 1973).

Quoted in Bessieres Albert loc. cit.

See Johnston Francis op. cit., p. 36.

See Johnston Francis op. cit., pp. 36–7.

Quoted in Svetozar Ktaljevic O.F.M. The Apparitions of Our Lady At Medjugorje (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1984), p. 122.

See Rawlings op. cit., p. 100.

Martin Ralph A Crisis of Truth: The Attack on Faith, Morality, and Mission in the Catholic Church (Ann Arbor, MI: Servant Books, 1982) p. 157. See also n. 3.

See Moody Raymond A. Jr. “The Experience of Dying”, in Lundahl, op. cit., pp. 89–109. p. 108. For a somewhat opposing view in the same volume, see Charles A. Garfield, “The Dying Patient's Concern With life After Death”, pp. 160-164. especially p. 162.

The most popular work on multiple personalities has been Sybil.

Cf. Ring K. , & Franklin S. “Do Suicide Survivors Report Near-Death Experiences?” in Lundahl, op. cit., pp. 180–200, especially pp. 196-200. The hypothesis of Ring and Franklin, that those attempting suicide are really after an experience of transcendence and cease attempting suicide after such an experience, is both ad hoc and implausible. If one were willing to risk one's life for an experience of transcendence and got a brief pleasant taste of it and then had to return to the same old routine, why would not one head right back for a longer taste? It makes no sense to me unless one has had not only a pleasant experience of sorts but also a clear warning of intimation that to end one's life is wrong and seriously so.

Rawlings op. cit., p. 5.

Rawlings op. cit., p. 95.