LIFE AFTER DEATH

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080041-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 5, 1998
• Sequence Number: 41
• Publication Date: July 12, 1976
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

Approved For Rel 2001/03/26 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080041-9
to c( temporary American images of
death On the contrary, he asserts that
"the 1,icture of the events of dying which
Life After Death? have lost limbs-and the experience of enx?rges from these accounts corre-
being greeted by previously deceased sponds in a striking way with that paint-
The experience is a familiar one to loved ones. As it result of such experi- eel in cry ancient and esoteric writings
many emergency-room medics. A pa- ences, she says, "many of them resented totalIv unfamiliar to my subjects." In
tient who has been pronounced dead and our desperate attempts to bring them parti+ ia lar, Moody finds that the experi-
unexpectedly recovers later describes back to lift:. Death is the feeling of peace cute:; =>f floating out ofthe body, meeting
what happened to him during those mo- and hope. Not one of them has ever been spiritual companions and encountering it
meats-sometimes hours-when his afraid to (lie again." being of light are remarkably analagous
body exhibited no signs of life. Accord- In it series of in-depth interviews to iui.oges found in the Tibetan Book of
ing to one repeated account, the patient conducted independently of Kubler- the I )4 -ad.
feels himself rushing through it long, Ross's research, another physician has As art of vet another effort to track
dark tunnel while noise rings in his cars. discovered extraordinary similarities down clues "that would suggest an after-
Suddenly, he finds himself outside his among 50 near-death experiences result- life," psychologist Karlis Osis of the
own body, looking down with cirri- mcrican Society for Psychical lie-
ousdetachmentatamedicalteam's ?.earch in New York City has tabu-
efforts to resuscitate him. Ile hears l:tted by computer interviews with
what is said, notes what is happen- '177 physicians who have reported
ing but cannot communicate with , ~-- deathbed visions by their patients.
anyone. Soon, his attention is Most of them involve dying pa-
drawn to other presences in the tints who sec benign apparitions
room-spirits of' dead relatives or oining firr their souls. Osis has
friends-who communicate with etennined, at least to his own
him nonverbally. Gradually, he is atisfaction, that patients whose
drawn to a vague "being of light." Eiains were impaired by high f(vcr
't'his being invites him to evaluate 4, disease reported fewer visions
his lift' and shows him highlights of 'ban those who were hilly alert at
his past in panoramic vision. The eath. Moreover, he asserts, pow-
patient longs to stay with the being rhil drugs such as mnorphiuc anti
of light but is reluctantly drawn I )cmerol actually decrease the co-
back into his physical body and terenee of such visions. "l'he sick-
recovers. Irrain hypotheses we considered
Clues: Once dismissed as noth- hr not explain the visions," Osis
ing more than hallucinations, _ nncludes, "and so far it looks as i1'
these "near death" experiences ;patterns are emerging consistent
are now being seriously examined ith survival after death.'
by several psychiatrists and psy- Waiting for Data: (,ritic'sof!ufterlifie
chologists for po-.sible clues to ,'search have held their in-(- until
what happens at the moment of they can see the' data that Kuhlcr-
death. One such researcher, Dr. !loss publishes. Still, says ti.s) cila-
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, an interna- istCharles l),tlilbcrgofNew You il
tionally respected expert on the u i nivcrsity, "I dont see how, Vol]
ypsychiatric dimensions of dying, all set up the control group n((c]-
now claims that she has proof that 1 to ex amine this sub? ci scic ntifi-
"the re is life after death" on the The afterlife is a matter of
basis of hundreds of such stories. aith." Father Eugene Kennedy, it
Although other psychologists bcc- Roman Catholic priest and profcs-
lieve that Dr. Kubler-Ross ]ends orofpsychology atChicago s Loy--
too touch credence to tales told by i; ",?"' A1( hive -Ia University, finds Kublcr-Ross's
the dying, her outspoken views Fifteenth-century woodcut of soul leaving body hew focus "a falling-off front her
have recently heightened scholar- u-evious work which related death
ly interest in near-death phenomena. ing from accidents, illness and sudden to IIt whole of human life." Kennedy,
What most impresses Kubler-Ross cardiac arrest. According to Dr. Hay- for one, believes that "intimations of,
;about the cases she has assembled over mood A. Moody Jr., who holds a doctor- itnntoriality don't come from vaporous
the last eight years is the evidence of'out- ate in philosophy as well as it medical expert: Tees at life's end bolt front the
of-body consciousness-that is, the at)- degree, many subjects experienced ern- love ,dod creativity we exercise to over-
parent ability of people who exhibit no hanced intellectual capabilities and, coin( ! he tragedies of life."
respiration, heartbeat or brain-wave ac- upon recovery, amazed doctors by their I':yrn if' Kublcr-Ross has not proved
tivity to describe events taking place unusually technical knowledge of resns- her It. out, she has laid out phenomena
around them. She is currently checking citation procedures. that iti,odern science has not yet a(](,-
out each case against medical records for Unlike Kubler-Ross, Moody (foes not ctu;ui'I explained. "I don't at all agree
ii book she plans to publish next year. "If claim scientific proof' of an afterlife. But with t lisabeth when she says that the
you have it woman who has been dc- he does believe that most near-death exp(- -noes she and I have both [[it(]
dared dead in it hospital and she can tall experience's cannot be readily explained working with the (lying absolutely guar-
yon exactly how many people walked away as delusions induced by pain- antes Pile after death," says I)r. Charles
into the room and worked on her, this killing drugs: the narratives, he says, arc Can-fit id of' the (ricer Research I nsti-
cannot be hallucination," she, argues. too clear and too similar to one another. tote tilt University of California. "I
Although details ofnear-death accounts In his popular paperback "Life, After also G'ai't take the extreme scientific-
vary somewhat, Kublcr-Ross says that all Life,"* Moody also dismisses cultural mates P (list position that these are thy'
her subjects report certain coinnon ex- conditioning as an explanation because iitt'rnuces of deranged persons. I don't
pericnces: a pervasive sense of calm the reported experiences do not conform real I' ?.now what is happening, and I .urn
well-being, a feeling of personal who](- - williis* to tolerate the ambiguity."
ne~s___(1y(rAaPVtbV~de' e6V'tR' d1t ?e 20'Oi/fl`'26. "I C1A,-RDP96-00787R000`OOBM4 t 9 Wit" ?"eaL~ ?por
Newsweek, July 12, 1976 411