I found this video extremely interesting, and somewhat comforting. (12 minutes long) Those who work with the dying are familiar with patients seeing long deceased loved ones, angelic beings, even hearing music and comforting voices as the patient nears death. Deathbed phenomena have been documented in the days, weeks, and months before death since the 1500s. Often confused with hallucinations, deathbed phenomena can bring comfort to patients and caregivers if those involved know what they are experiencing. This talk will explain deathbed phenomena and present on-going research about the topic. Accounts from the dying and bedside witnesses will be shared. Maybe worth a bit of discussion.
Very interesting! It reminds me of my long-time friend Jimmy that was a Hall of Fame blues player. He died a few years ago from a serious infection. He was friends with all the old famous blues players. Because of diabetes, he had had one leg amputated. Shortly before he died he was recorded having a conversation with Johnny Lee Hooker. Some were concerned he was hallucinating but I agreed with a few that the conversation sounded just like he was talking to JLH in real live person about how the Delta blues players developed a new style after many of them moved to Chicago and became what is known today as the Chicago blues. It was his favorite topic and something he and Johnny had discussed several times. His voice was normal and calm and he finished with, "I will talk at you again face to face in a few Johnny, but right now I have some pressing business to take care of." Then he died calm and happy. I think of this often as he used to message me every morning to see how I was and what I was practicing. On the last message I sent him, I played my version, Stevie Ray Vaughn style, of Mary Had a Little Lamb on my nylon string guitar. He loved it. Next thing I know his wife is rushing him to the ER and he was life-flighted to a larger facility that had specialists. Interesting topic @Beth Gallagher!
My mother had quite a few conversations with my late father and late aunt after she slipped into what I can only describe as an "awake coma". For two days, she talked almost non-stop with people who weren't there. She had "telephone conversations", she gave people recipes and driving instructions, she made appointments and lunch dates. She didn't respond to us, but she sure was talking to someone. I have to wonder if we store up every interaction we've ever had in our lives and if she was "reliving" them. All the conversations seemed to be pleasant ones and they seemed to make her happy.
I remember staying overnight in the hospital room when my father was dying. He was "conversing" with unseen individuals but I had always assumed it was the morphine hallucinations or whatever.
I probably have told this story somewhere here before, but it fits for this thread. My mom lived until she was in her 80’s, and she fully expected all of her life, that she would still be alive to see Jesus come back again; so I grew up thinking that she would always be there. When her heart failure was so bad that she had to be put in the hospital, she wanted to come home, but she was more comfortable there where she had medical attention. She was actually only there a few days, but one day she said to me and Daddy, that if we would not take her home, then she wanted Jesus to come and take her home with him. The next night, she was telling me about some “poor little Mexican family” that was in the basement, and she had been helping to take care of them. Since I knew that there was no little Mexican family living in the hospital basement, my only conclusion was that Mom had been slipping back and forth between this world and the next one, and she was helping angels some where in some basement who were taking care of the little Mexican family that somehow needed divine help. Early the next morning, the hospital called to let me know that Mom had passed peacefully in her sleep, and I hope that she was still helping the angels when she left this earth.
I find it oddly comforting to think that as we are dying, we "see" familiar and loving people that have gone before us. Maybe that takes the fear and anxiety out of the moment, at least I hope so.
It's a nice idea but one that I do not expect at my own death. I see familiar and loving people that have passed on by looking at pictures of them now.
I don't know what to "expect" at my own death; I haven't had the experience and certainly there are no textbooks to study. My point here is that in the process of dying, it might be comforting to not be in a state of sheer terror but to believe that you would be joined by familiar people who went before. Since my diagnosis in January I have put a lot more thought into the possibilities of a positive death experience. I'm agnostic, so have no expectation of heaven or hell, but I'm curious nonetheless.
Mona Simpson, the sister of Steve Jobs, gave a eulogy on October 16, 2011 at a memorial service at the Memorial Church of Stanford University. At the very end, Simpson said: “Steve’s final words, hours earlier, were monosyllables, repeated three times. Before embarking, he’d looked at his sister Patty, then for a long time at his children, then at his life’s partner, Laurene, and then over their shoulders past them. Steve’s final words were: OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW.” Wonder what Steve saw?
It's my belief that we start the dying process the day we are born and each day of life brings us closer to death. Nothing to fear.
The one person I loved more than anyone else on this earth is my Grandmother. She was in a hospital in Florida and I was in Arizona talking to her on the phone. I could barely talk because the floodgates opened up and about all I could muster up for a bit was, “I love you Grandma”. A moment or two passed and her last words to me were, “I know you do so don’t cry, I’m going Home”. My last words to her were, “I’ll see you later Grandma”. From my understanding, she passed shortly after we talked. Now, only those present would know if she saw anything or had some sort of vision but when I talked to her, her voice was soft, sincere and fully comforted by her faith that she was indeed going Home. Some day I want to see her and I too am comforted by the same faith that I will. Will I see Angels before I pass? Dunno. It is written that Angels were there when Christ ascended so...........
The only thing I know is I want to leave in peace at home and with all my mental facilities. The older I get, the more I realize that the physical human mind cannot understand what is spiritual. It is like trying to know what is beyond our universe. We cannot understand an endless universe or eternity. Many have gone crazy trying. We cannot understand that nothingness maybe everything. My American Indian great grandfather had a saying that was passed along in the family. "Try to keep your mind untroubled, because dying with a troubled mind is final. It cannot be undone. Live in peace with yourself and die in peace."