FEATURE: Can 'Out of Body Experiences' offer a glimpse into an afterlife? Experiencers from the Peterborough area share their own accounts

For those who’ve had a Near Death Experience (NDE) or Out of Body Experience (OBE) – the shift in their existential beliefs can be profound.

History is littered with accounts of NDEs going back thousands of years, across different cultures – but are they real? And is there a solid scientific explanation for such experiences?

Is consciousness nothing more than the intricate workings of the human brain, as material science asserts, or is the brain merely a filter for a consciousness that exists outside the physical realm?

Reporter Gemma Gadd talks to NDE and OBE experiencers – and explores some of the many theories behind such events.

A sense of ‘disembodiment’

Out of Body Experiences are a phenomenon where a person who is awake or semi-conscious views their surroundings from outside of their physical self, often from above. An apparent separation of the consciousness from the body.

They can occur just before sleep or upon waking, as a result of physical trauma (often as part of an NDE), through the use of psychedelic drugs, or during deep meditation – but they can happen at more unexpected times.

• Paul from Spalding recounts an OBE he experienced while “bored” at work one day.

Reflecting on what happened, he said: “I’m in my 70s now, but in my 20s I had two experiences.” Paul said he was sitting alone at his desk when he felt himself enter a “trance-like state”:

“Next thing I know I am floating away up towards the ceiling, ending up above and behind myself,” he recalls. “I had a white, translucent type chord attached to me. Having realised what was happening I panicked, which sent me shooting straight back.”

He added: “For a long time I felt reassured that a non-physical part of us would survive in some way. Would it go somewhere? Would it be conscious? Would it rejoin something much bigger? I now have terminal, incurable cancer with no treatment left, so no doubt I will find out in the not-too distant future.”

• Ben from south Lincolnshire describes his childhood OBE as “euphoric”.

"I've only ever had one out of body experience and it was when I was a kid, about age 9 or 10,” he explains. “I woke up one morning and for some unknown reason I got out of bed and stood with my back to the wall. Suddenly I could feel myself separate from my body and I started floating up to the ceiling. I could literally see the pattern of the artex ceiling up close as though my eyes were in line with the ceiling height. At this point I slowly descended back down into myself.

"It came with the most amazing, euphoric feeling in the world that I can barely describe. But it never happened again.”

• Sharon Reader from Peterborough feared she had died when she experienced an OBE in 1986: “I was 16 and laying in bed trying to get to sleep and the next minute I was up against the ceiling. I saw myself in bed and at that moment I thought I was dead. I thought if I don't get back in my body I'm going to die. I said “sh*t” – and as soon as I said that I was straight back in my body. For me it was scary.”

• Tracey Ewles from Stamford recalls an OBE 35 years ago during childbirth. “I had been in labour over 26 hours and I was exhausted,” she said. “I’d already had an epidural and was on and off of gas and air. The nurse said if I didn’t have this baby within the next 10 mins I was going into theatre, but I was absolutely exhausted. They rushed me into theatre and the next minute I was looking down on myself and all the team around me. The pain had gone and I felt relaxed and calm. I do remember thinking to myself that I had to be back in my body - and with that, I was. Shortly after my son was born with forceps. I do know this happened, but I didn’t speak of it as most people will just say it was the medication I was on.”

• Hayley Newell from Market Deeping also speak of experiencing an OBE during the traumatic labour for her son.

“I was at a stage where I couldn’t have any stronger pain relief like an epidural and only had a short amount of time to push him out naturally,” she said. “I remember thinking this was serious and I had to focus all my energy. The feeling I had was like I had left my body and I was up on the ceiling looking down at the room. I was aware of voices, but it was all muffled. All I could hear clearly was my voice in my head saying ‘be strong, you have to do this’.”

Tracey and Hayley are certainly not alone – with numerous reports of women all around the world experiencing OBEs during childbirth.

• Matthew Niemc from Peterborough said he had a Near Death Experience when he was involved in a serious road collision, aged 16. Although he did not see a ‘tunnel of light’ – reported by many NDE experiencers – he believes he reconnected with his late mother.

“I was in a bad car crash in the ‘90s and a signpost went through my door and got me,” Matthew explains. “I remember everything going super slow. I felt like my mum was there, even though she had died when I was just four. Afterwards I had this feeling like absolute an knowing that there isn't a death. Only the body dies, it’s not possible for us to actually die. We just move between. Like your soul rests and then decides where to go after. Either to do it all again or to become part of the universe. And it wasn't just an idea. It was in an instant knowing.”

Matthew says that since his NDE he has gained an ability to lucid dream – where the dreamer becomes aware they are in a dream, and can control it. It is a phenomena commonly reported by those who have an OBE or NDE.

Indeed, for many experiencers, the belief that dreams become a kind of ‘gateway’ to the afterlife is common.

A Gateway?

How many of us have dreamt about a loved one or a pet shortly after they have died, and were surprised by how real the dream felt, as though it was more than just a dream?

Some of the experiencers we feature here also talk about being “visited” in their dreams by loved ones who have passed on. Others have reported such experiences during ‘coma dreams’ in hospital. Indeed, one study has shown that 15 per cent of patients in a coma in intensive care have reported experiencing an NDE.

Following her OBE during childbirth, Hayley Newell also reported meeting up with her terminally-ill nan in her dreams, shortly before she passed, and again after her funeral.

“The night before scattering my nan’s ashes she came to me in a dream and it felt so real,” said Hayley. “She was in her kitchen and looked healthy and well. She greeted me like she always did and was so happy to see me. She asked how the children were and I said they are here. She was so happy and cried happy tears. I do take great comfort in these experiences.”

Similarly, Tracey Ewles had what she believes was a visit from her late father in a dream. “My dad also came to me after passing and wrapped his arms around me,” she recalls. “I could smell him and also felt his stubby fingers squeeze me. I 100% believe there is more - I work in a care home and have seen and heard so much over the last 7.5 years.”

Tara Whyte, 42, from Stamford suffered a severe reaction to the flu in 2003 - ending up in a coma in a London hospital for weeks where her heart stopped three times. During this time she says she felt a ‘presence’ watching over her and claims to have seen children playing around her hospital bed.

“I thought it was so real,” she recalls. “When I asked about them I was told it never happened. I just couldn’t believe it. I now wonder if this was a family that had passed away. There were no angels or white light, but a mixture of memories I didn't know I had. I had a sense that someone or something was watching over me, I almost felt a presence. Who or what, I’ve no idea.”

Lee from Market Deeping said he was a staunch skeptic when it came to ghosts or the afterlife - that is until he had an experience himself.

“My nan had an NDE when she was very ill in hospital and told us she saw my granddad appear on the ceiling above her bed telling her it wasn’t her time to die,” he said. “I never really believed any of that to be honest. She recovered from that, but later on when she did pass away from an illness, something really bizarre happened that I cannot explain.”

After a night out, still grieving the loss of his nan, Lee said he had an encounter with a woman he did not know, who told him his nan was trying to push through to speak, and wanted to tell him to “be happy”.

She knew my nan’s name and knew that “be happy” was her favourite saying in life,” Lee explains. “She was always saying it to us. It has changed how I feel about this stuff.”

The Neuroscientific Perspective

For decades, scientists, including those at ARU University in Cambridge, have been studying the impact of OBEs and NDEs on the human brain, in an attempt to understand what is going on at a physical level.

Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at Anglia Ruskin University, Jane Aspell, said: “Several studies over the last 30 years or so have shown that OBEs are due to abnormalities in the way the brain processes and combines input from multiple senses, such as from vision, balance and touch. When the signals from different senses are not combined in the right way, then this can cause us to have a hallucination that our self is in one place and our body is in another.

"The reason that the information from different senses is not combined as it should be is due to abnormal function of a brain area called the temporo-parietal junction. This can occur due to lack of oxygen if someone’s heart stops temporarily, or due to brain injury, brain tumour, migraine, epilepsy or taking certain drugs. OBEs can also occur spontaneously in healthy people when they are very stressed, tired or in a traumatic or life-threatening situation.”

But how much is known about the nature of human consciousness, where it resides in the brain, and if it can leave the physical body?

Pro Aspell adds: “We know a huge amount about the brain, but given that is it the most complex object in the known universe, there is still a vast amount we do not know. We are starting to get some answers about how the brain generates consciousness, but this is a difficult topic to investigate and we are still far from knowing everything about it. Much more research is needed.”

ARU is currently running a couple of studies with people who have had OBEs: “One is investigating whether they have differences in body perception and another is investigating whether having an OBE causes any changes in a person’s outlook on life, personality or beliefs,” Prof Aspell explains. “We are still collecting data for these.”

Alternative theories

Some scientists and researchers present alternative theories, hypothesizing that consciousness is universal – and our brains are able to tap into it, under the right circumstances.

Indeed, there are many historical accounts of NDEs and OBEs that transcend cultures and religions, showing that such experiences, whatever they may be, are part of the human experience.

Many experiencers claim to witness things during an NDE or OBE that they simply could not have known about from a physical body perspective – adding credence to the notion that such experiences cannot be explained by the scientific paradigm of materialism.

One of those is Cambridge biologist and author of The Science Delusion, Dr Rupert Sheldrake. An author of more than 90 scientific papers, Dr Sheldrake asserts that “our minds extend beyond our brains” and says such things are revealed through studies into telepathy and the phenomena known as ‘the sense of being stared at’.

Speaking to the Peterborough Telegraph, he added: “Believers in the philosophy of materialism assume that consciousness is nothing but the activity of the brain, and dies with it, but this is merely an assumption for which they have no evidence. I prefer to pay attention to people’s experiences rather than their beliefs.”

Another is Federico Faggin, a renowned Italian physicist, inventor and co-founder of a foundation dedicated to the study of consciousness. Faggin invented the first commercial micro-processor and received a National Medal of Technology and Innovation from US President Barack Obama in 2010, and was later knighted in Italy. He is also the author of ‘Silicon: From the Invention of the Micro-Processor to the New Science of Consciousness’. After studying consciousness for 30 years, Faggin believes that it exists in a quantum realm. “It took me 20 years of work, to arrive at a hypothesis that consciousness and freewill must be foundational,” he says. “They cannot emerge from a brain. The signal in the brain is a correlate of something deeper."

Despite numerous hypotheses around the nature of consciousness, such things cannot yet be fully measured or explained.

For many experiencers, OBEs and NDEs offer a tantalising glimpse into the great beyond - the ‘afterlife’ – and that kind of reassurance is something we all want.