NEW YORK BOSTON |#Popular: Irish Celebrity Gossip Irish in US Politics Irish Festivals Irish Roots Irish Entertainment Offbeat Irish

Home Page > Blogs > News blogs > Periscope > A glimpse at the afterlife? What dying patients see and feel ---New Irish study gives fascinating insights into the last moments

Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

A glimpse at the afterlife? What dying patients see and feel ---New Irish study gives fascinating insights into the last moments

Posted on Wednesday, March 23, 2011 at 07:05 PM

Larger Text

E-mail

56 Comments

RSS

Archives

What happens when you die? A fascinating new insight was given in a new study highlighted in the Irish Times called “Capturing the Invisible: Exploring Deathbed Experiences in Irish Palliative Care,” by researchers Una MacConville and Regina McQuilla.

The results were described as ‘startling’ Death bed experiences or DBE’s are very common and are often very similar the researchers report.

One nurse who responded to the study summarized it by saying “I have often heard patients refer to seeing someone in their room or at the end of their bed, often relatives, and also it is not a distressing event for them. Family are usually shocked by hearing it and want to know the significance of it.”

The survey found that in case after case the dying person spoke of “seeing deceased relatives or religious figures, or of experiencing a radiant white light in the room.”

31 per cent of caregivers mentioned another phenomenon just before death -- the person emerging from a coma and communicating with family and friends.

“In one incident the patient, who had been in a coma, opened his eyes and smiled at his three daughters and wife. Profound calmness and peace filled the room. It was special to be part of that experience,” said one caregiver In another incident the patient said he saw a light, a bright light; he died shortly afterwards.”

In several cases , the dying person had vivid dreams that helped them resolve unfinished business in their lives.

Others report a “sudden and unexplained smell of roses, “or claim to see angels appearing in their room.

Researcher MacConville says that deathbed phenomena can be frightening for families: “Family members may become distressed because they realise that death is imminent, and the dying person may be disturbed by the visions because they don’t understand them.”

One anonymous palliative care nurse stated that such visions “do not often have a rational explanation”. Nonetheless, “I don’t believe people’s experiences can be discounted or disputed. It is individual, intense and real for many patients and families.”

Being able to put a name to these experiences, and to talk about them openly, is key.

The Times notes that Una MacConville would like to hear from healthcare professionals and members of the public about such experiences as this research is continuing. E-mail her at U.macconville@bath.ac.uk

E-mail

56 comments

Next Page 1 of 4 pages

redhand32 | Apr 13, 2011, 11:36 AM EDT

In 2007 I was told I had "died" briefly in the ICU shortly after unsuccessful brain surgery after this pesky tumor. I do remember seeing a vision of all my major creditors including the strapping bartender from my local shouting hysterically , "Pay up. you worthless lay about!" It was then that I awoke terrified beyond the beyond.

Report abuse

warrenpoint00 | Apr 11, 2011, 08:42 PM EDT

My father told me that when my grandfather died six fat rats came out from the hay barn into the front yard,they stood up on their back legs and crossed their front legs as if in prayer.My dad was not sure if they were giving thanks that he had gone on or praying for the repose of his soul.

Report abuse

irishpjk | Apr 10, 2011, 12:44 AM EDT

I have not told this story to many people, and don’t really know how to explain it. In April 2002 I had chest pains, went to the emergency room. I was admitted and they said I was after having a heart attack. I was taken for an angina-gram and they put in three stents, I was recovering in cardiac ICU and was half asleep when I saw my deceased father and his brother come in the room. My uncle said is he dead and my dad picked up the sheet at the foot of the bed looked at my feet and said his toes are not tied. In Ireland in the old days as soon as you died they tied your big toes together, it looked like my dad was thinking of doing that and I was thinking they were sent to get me. I was wide awake in a hurry and was all alone in the room. Did I dream it, or was it the medicine? Or could it be something that was part of dying and it just was not my time.

Report abuse

bkindred | Apr 08, 2011, 03:31 PM EDT

My mother in law recently passed. The evening of her passing she ask who the lady was that was sitting in the corner chair. We didn't know how to respond to this. I also had a cousin that was speaking to an unseen person and told them she was coming but wanted to see her mother first. After her mother arrived she passed.

Report abuse

eddies1st | Apr 05, 2011, 07:28 PM EDT

When my daughter was on her death bed in 2006, she was looking at the end of the sofa and smiling. When I asked her what she was smiling about and she said that her Godfather John came to visit. John had himself passed away a few years before.

Report abuse

patriot | Apr 05, 2011, 01:41 PM EDT

God bless all here. And all not here, too.

Report abuse

sirpeter | Apr 03, 2011, 12:49 PM EDT

Hallucinations can be very real when the body and mind is experiencing near death or death.Profound calmness and peace is very common too. Don't get to excited.It just means your brain is not getting the oxygen it needs.

Report abuse

pacifist | Mar 30, 2011, 04:01 PM EDT

Hallucinations presented as evidence? Only God can raise the dead. Jesus Christ the Son of God raised the dead and He Himself was raised by God the Father. The biblical accounts of the dead being raised are not confined to the New Testament. There are narritives in the Old Testament of the prophets praying to God for the dead being raised to life and it happened. God the Father used more than Jesus to accomplish these extraorinary events. In the Book of Acts there is a description of the apostle Peter doing just that. But the medical profession have never managed it and those in it never will.

Report abuse

maloney | Mar 30, 2011, 01:56 PM EDT

jacers...I like and agree with most of your posts. Your comments or attack on Pittsburghkid were uncalled for. I challenge you and say you have no right to, 1st, attack the kid over the name he has chosen to use, attempting to make him feel bad. 2nd, to tell him what he can and cannot say. 3rd, accuse him of trying to scare people on IC. 4th, not knowing all doctors do not treat the sick, some never see a sick person unless passing one on the street. and last, preaching, attempting to scare him with religion and what may happen to you if you don't do as you say. This tactic is not much different than muslims wanting to cut your head off because your not one of them. Save your preaching for the church. I'll worry about my own soul, you worry about yours. My soul is none of your business.

Report abuse

Dublinjas | Mar 28, 2011, 11:06 PM EDT

Great story jacersagain' About your wife seeing her dead father in Larne port, have heard similar over the years, there is no accounting for what makes things like this happen, but I believe they do happen, there are many things we don't know about or can explain,

Report abuse

Dublinjas | Mar 28, 2011, 10:51 PM EDT

Belief in Jesus sacrifice is not enough to be saved, the Devil himself believes in Jesus...He knows him well, When Jesus was asked by his Apostles, "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law" he answered them, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." "This is the first and greatest commandment" And he who loves God keeps his Commandments, and keeps Gods Sabbath on the Seventh day as commanded not the First.

Report abuse

jacersagain | Mar 27, 2011, 03:11 AM EDT

< more.. > When God calls all of us back to His Dominion - His homes for all - belief in His Son’s sacrifice eases death’s pain like no earthly pain-killer can. No wonder so many die with a smile on their faces, being welcomed by a fore-gone relative or whatever or whomever. I pray you, Pittsburghkid, do too eventually, in less than three seconds of God’s time. Ask yourself: how long is one second in God’s measure of time, never mind that of the French ‘doctor’ you mention. (He couldn’t have been a doctor, given his probing of electrical nerves of dead bodies. Real Doctors heal; don’t prod.) Everybody knows that electricity exists; we have known it since before commercial enterprises made commercial profits out of it. Ask yourself if you believe in Christ and want His death’s pain relief. If you choose to reject Christ’s injection of Life ever-lasting, then you must know that you have everything to be frightened of. Pitts’ frightening practices has no whit or wig of a comparison to what those who reject Christ’s injection of eternally rewarding spiritual life could ‘enjoy’, facing God’s own revealed "alternative".

Report abuse

jacersagain | Mar 27, 2011, 02:11 AM EDT

@ Pittsburghkid and comments re French ‘Doctor’ - Erm, say... er, hear a bit, you the Kid from the borough founded and named after a wealthy British Whig man (Pitt) who frightened many into servitude... I challenge you and say you have no right to frighten people like you have with that last comment of yours here on ICental. One hopes that you never face death (which will surely come to you as it does and will to me and everyone else) over three days, or more, as many people, including soldiers from Pittsburgh who have died during the wars that they fought in safeguarding you, your family, your community, your State and your USA federal country’s constitutionally-given liberty to write as you have and posted on IrishCentral. > More >

Report abuse

Pittsburghkid | Mar 25, 2011, 11:07 PM EDT

People assume that death is a quick process, but it takes three day for the brain to die. A French Doctor trying to disclaim that cutting a persons head off produced instant death, found that death took three days. The Docter took a freshly cut head, and poke it with needles. The face would twitch for up to three days after having it's head cut off.

Report abuse

frederic | Mar 25, 2011, 10:42 PM EDT

Just before my Dad died he too came out of a coma and looking at the end of his bed smiled and said "Ernie"He was was referring to his younger brotherwho had beenkilled in the war

Report abuse

Next Page 1 of 4 pages