For many years I have enjoyed a special interest in those things that surround the spiritual experience invluding near death experiences. I recommend this video:
In June 2017 I attended a spirituality conference in Chapel Hill in North Carolina where physicist and mechanical engineer Dr Alan Hugenot gave a presentation on his Near Death Experiencve when he was 21.
He made a profound impression on me. This may be of no interest to you but it may spark a fresh avenue of enquiry.
A recent Skeptico podcast introduced him in this way:
“For many of us, the Afterlife is a concept associated with religion or psychic phenomena, not with science. But for Physicist Alan Hugenot, a near death experience while still an undergraduate led to a lifelong study of the scientific basis of the afterlife and to his 2012 book "The Death Experience: What is it like when you die". Dr. Hugenot will draw from his extensive knowledge of both Newtonian and Quantum physics and how they foster differing approaches to the Afterlife, his own experiences as an NDE survivor, and data from continuing research as we explore the nature and mysteries of consciousness survival.
Dr. Alan Hugenot holds a Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering, is an active member of IONS and the Foundation for Mind Being Research, is on numerous writing committees, and continues his consciousness research as a Professional Member of the International Association for Near Death Studies.”
For those interested I recommend this YouTube video where he talks about his NDE and about the afterlife from the point of view of his experience, and of physics backed by personal experiences of millions of people from most countries and religions.
It is an inspiring presentation, and one learns a lot also about the scientific side of things. The video lasts 54 minutes, but those who spend the time will feel much helped and enlightened.
Here is a transcript as a sample of the flavour of what he says:
“When I was a young man of 21 I fell ill and was taken to hospital where I was in a coma for 24 hours. I was out of hospital and was in a coma for thirty three days. There are lots of scars all over my body where bones were broken. One of the bones in my leg was in 400 pieces, my wrist was under the skin up by my elbow… I lost all my upper teeth and had sutures in my skull.
My brain began to swell. My soul came out of my body and I had the experience of going to the Light through a tunnel. I very clearly remember coming back into the body into the flesh, and I approached my head and went slam back into the body, and then I felt the pain of my injuries, but the pain of being back in this world. So after my NDE I tried to talk to my physician in the hospital. A psychiatrist wanted to put me in the nuthouse….they took me in a wheelchair and tried to commit me on that day.
The experience began to close down, but right away I seemed more sensitive to light, and I would see something taking place that has a lot of heart in it. I would see something like that and I would tear up. This is Life! And I get very emotional about it I wasn’t who I was before, and I became so empathetic.
I tried to close off a little, and I went to college to study physics, and then I studied naval architecture. All this study in this little corner of the world. But it is a huge universe.
Just a few years ago they began to talk about dark energy, which makes up 95% of the universe….
Reverend Michael Cocks is an 82 year old retired Anglican Minister based in Christchurch and has served ministry terms in the UK.