Is there ‘consciousness’?

Today I am posting an excerpt from an article sent to me by a reader. This is about our consciousness, which apparently does not die when we ‘die’.

A few days before my mum died, she told me tht her parents (which had passed away  many decades ago) came to her room and visited her. She told me that they sat on her bed and chatted with her about her childhood things, things that she had not remembered for quite a long time.

My mum was undergoing dialysis as a result of kidney failure for many years already then. She was weaker by the day, but was still able to walk and do her own chores despite over 80 years old. She was clear minded when she told me about the above but, surprisingly she did not think that the visit was something odd or strange. She mentioned it in a matter-of-fact way.

Three days later, she passed awy during a dialysis session , peacefully. The nurse thought she had gone to sleep.

I had seen deaths so many times, but this death was personal, and this was the first time I took notice of the fact that a person near to dying might be able to  see things that we could not. I had heard many fo this stories, but I had never paid much attention to them…   All these things might  just be hallucinations. But clearly my mother was lucid and not hallucinating. How can we explain that?I cannot.

Is there really such things as ‘soul’? or what we termed as ‘consciousness’? Many western experts are now researching into near-death experiences.

The article sent to me is about a Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. This was her experience :

She personally sat with one thousand people facing their deaths, and collected 20,000 cases of near-death experiences from all over the world. What she can affirm is that there is no death because consciousness does not die. She uses the image of a butterfly emerging from its cocoon as a metaphor for the dying process: the butterfly is the consciousness and the cocoon is the body. She is also certain that nobody dies alone, including astronauts who die in outer space or those who die in the deserts. The consciousness of those we love or who love us will be there to receive us at the moment of death. These could be dead relatives, or spiritual beings like Jesus, Saint Mary, Amitabha Buddha, or guardian angels. Dr. Kubler-Ross made these conclusions from her interactions with many seriously ill or wounded people she had accompanied.

Once, she was with a seriously wounded child whose entire family was involved in a fatal car accident. The mother had already died, and the brother was in another hospital. Before he died, the child became very calm and peaceful. Dr. Kubler-Ross was very familiar with the dying process, and asked the child how he was feeling. He replied: “Everything is fine. Mom and Peter (the brother) are already here waiting.” He did not know that his mother had died, and even Dr. Kubler-Ross did not know that his brother had died 10 minutes ago. In many near-death experiences, many people see dead relatives. Young children might see a grandfather they did not know, and after they have been resuscitated to life, they would recognize the person from a photo. Children may also see siblings who have not been born yet. ne young girl said that she saw her younger brother. At that time, she was the youngest in the family, and her mother was unable to conceive any more. Surprisingly, a few years later, her mother did give birth to a younger brother. Dr. Kubler-Ross discovered that the dying process comprises three stages. The first stage is when the consciousness leaves the body. At this time, no brain waves can be detected, and ECG shows a flat line. The second stage then begins, where only the mind exists. Blind people can recover their sight, handicaps see that they are whole, the deaf can hear, and the mute can speak. Some patients who had multiple sclerosis told her after their near-death experiences: “I could dance again”. Dr. Kubler-Ross once focused on blind people (those who had been blind for over 10 years) as her research participants, and found that when they experienced their consciousness leaving their bodies, they could clearly see the clothes or necktie colours of people around them. This second stage does not have time or space, and one can use one’s mind to go immediately to any place. A soldier may have died in Asia, but his consciousness could get to New York immediately by thinking about his mother. Some people had experiences where they first saw a loved one living far away suddenly appear in front of them, and then later received a phone call or telegraph that the loved one had passed away. The third stage relates to a review of one’s life. This review transcends time and space. The life review may take only a few seconds or minutes on Earth, but the person re-experiences every word, action or thought he has made during his life, and also experiences its impact on others. During this review, one feels the interconnectedness between consciousness. Some people may discover that their priority in life has been wrong—for example, pursuing materialistic needs and being over-competitive. Instead, they may feel that the most important thing in life is to leave more love on earth.

For the full article, go to this link: http://www.kasih-hospice.org/