At death’s doorstep

Stacy J. Willis

Wednesday, Oct. 6, 1999 | 11:19 a.m.

Lecture by Dr. Michael Sabom on "Death and Dying," first in a series.

Tonight at 7.

UNLV's Flora Dungan Humanities Building

Free.

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, a leader in research into death and dying, on Oct. 24.

It begins in Sunrise Hospital, where a man is having a massive heart attack.

Physicians and nurses do their best but they cannot revive him. The hospital chaplain consoles the man's wife.

But just as the medical team eases away from the body, a nurse notices a faint heartbeat on the monitor. The physicians leap back into action; the man lives.

Later the man tells the chaplain that during the episode -- when he was believed to be dead -- he remembers leaving his body and being pulled toward a bright light. Instead of entering the light, he stayed and watched the doctors try to revive his body.

"He even saw the clock on the emergency room wall -- he said it was 2:17 p.m.," said the Rev. Jerry Blankinship, Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center chaplain. "So later I checked the records, and it was 2:17 that it happened."

Down the road at UNLV, near-death experiences researcher Dr. Raymond Moody is teaching a course called "Philosophy and the Afterlife." He tells his students about the similarities among the scores of near-death experience stories on record -- some of them from Las Vegans.

His research shows that many people who have gotten close to dying have experienced the out-of-body feeling, seen a tunnel and had a sense of peace and painlessness.

Two-thousand miles away Atlanta cardiologist Dr. Michael Sabom takes near-death experience studies out of the hospital and the classroom and puts it in the church. In his new book "Light and Death," he says that the near-death stories parallel Biblical teachings about the soul leaving the body.

"I see the near-death experience as the bridge between science and religion," said Sabom, a Christian. "To me it all flows together."

Tonight the theories converge as UNLV launches a series of lectures on "Death and Dying" with a presentation by Sabom, who has studied near-death experiences for more than 20 years.

The quandary about post-death matters has long fascinated scientists, philosophers and theologians. Today Americans have a renewed interest in it, according to Moody, because of demographics: Baby boomers are at an age of spiritual re-evaluation.

"The baby boomer generation is developing a new mindset. As their parents die they are having a spiritual awakening," said Moody, head of the Bigelow Chair of Consciousness Studies program, which is sponsoring the series. "People are showing renewed interest in near-death experiences as they look for answers in their spiritual quest."

Although neither Moody nor Sabom claims to know "The Answers," they have both spent a lifetime investigating the questions: Is there life after death? Or nothingness? Is there a Heaven or Hell? Does the soul exist independently from the body? Do the experiences of those near death prove that there is something after death?

"I would say that our research at least suggests existence beyond the time of death," said Sabom. "Science tells us death is nothingness. Science doesn't have a soul."

Sabom conducted a survey of 50 individuals who had near-death experiences in his 1994 Atlanta study, producing a collection of accounts from patients who felt present outside their bodies in the operating rooms. In addition to "Light and Death," he has published "Recollections of Death: A Medical Investigation" on the subject.

Moody has published extensively on near-death experiences, beginning with the best-selling "Life After Life" in 1975.

There are two groups of scientists who discredit near-death research, Sabom said. One camp says that the near-death sensations are caused by temporal lobe seizures or endorphins released by the body at the time of death. The other disputes the claims of those who have had near-death experiences, arguing either that they made up their stories or were told about events surrounding their death (such as the time on Sunrise's clock) by other sources.

"There are clearly some folks who just don't believe it," said the Rev. David Devereaux of University United Methodist Church, which recently hosted a talk by Moody.

"But within the Christian message we have always believed death isn't the end, and (Dr. Moody's) work describes a step toward something else. It offers information where we have only tradition," said Devereaux.

Still, some Christians reject Moody's and Sabom's work based not on scientific differences but on theological differences.

"Some folks believe that the notion of judgment is missing from Moody's work," said Devereaux. Christians believe that after death, one is judged for the way in which he conducted his earthly life.

And Sabom said some Christians believe that there is something "evil or Satanic" about his work.

Chaplain Blankinship has heard the testimonies of more than two dozen Las Vegas patients who have had near-death experiences.

"I don't know what to make of it really. I guess it is a part of how the spiritual nature works," said Blankinship. "There is clearly a difference between body and soul, I am convinced of that."

For Moody, discussion of the issues is an end in itself. "If you're looking for a conclusion rationally, I don't think it can be drawn," said Moody. "I think most people do realize that. But it gives hope, and that's what they want."