The Book 4th Edition
“A new idea is first condemned as ridiculous and
then dismissed as trivial, until finally, it becomes what
everybody knows.”
William James
All through this century there have been books published
detailing the observations made by doctors and nurses of
dying patients.
Although deathbed visions can be found in the literature
and lore of all ages, they were rarely mentioned in the
scientific literature until the late 1920's, when they were
studied by Sir William Barrett, a professor of physics at
the Royal College of Science, in Dublin.
He became interested in the topic when his wife, who was
an obstetrical surgeon, arrived home one night and told
him about a woman who had died at the hospital that day
from a hemorrhage after giving birth.
Just before she had died the woman, Doris, sat up and become
very excited about seeing a wonderful landscape and said
that her father had come to escort her to the other side.
What was most amazing to the Barretts was the fact that
the woman suddenly expressed surprise to see her sister,
Vida, with her father. It seems that the sister of Doris,
Vida, had died only three weeks earlier. Since Doris had
been so ill, the death of her beloved sister had been kept
a secret from her.
This story was so inspirational to Barrett that he undertook
a systematic study of deathbed visions. His was the first
scientific study to conclude that the mind of the dying
patient is often clear and rational. He also reported a
number of cases in which medical personnel or relatives
present shared the dying patient's vision.
His book, published in 1926 was called Deathbed Visions.
In it he noted that:
• many times at the moment of death people would
see a friend or relative at their bedside whom they thought
was still living
• in all cases when it was checked out, the person
they saw had died before them without their knowledge
• dying children often expressed surprise that
the angels they saw waiting for them didn't have wings.
In the 1960s Dr Karlis Osis of the American Society for
Psychical Research did a pilot study of deathbed visions
that confirmed the findings of Barrett and was later verified
across several different cultures. His finding were:
• the most common type of vision was of people
who had died before
them
• bedside visions were usually of short duration,
five minutes or less
• the dying patients stated that the visitor had
come for the purpose of taking them away
• belief in the after-life has no significance on
the frequency or the kind of apparition seen
• the majority of patients in the study had not
received drugs which could cause hallucinations.
In 1977 Dr Osis and his colleague, Dr Erlenddur Haraldsson,
published At the Hour of Death. This book extended
the original study and included reports from over 1000 doctors
and nurses in India as well as the United States. In all
it reported on the deaths of more than one hundred thousand
people. These studies were all found to correlate well with
the pioneering work done over a period of 30 years and reported
in the several works of Dr Robert Crookall of England.
According to the information provided to him by medical
personnel:
• only ten per cent of people are conscious shortly
before their death
• of this group one half to two thirds have near
death visions
• these visions take the form of apparitional visits
of loved ones, glimpses of the next world and medically
inexplicable moods of elation.
Dr Melvin Morse claims that the French historian, Philippe
Aries, has documented that before 1000AD the dying would
tell of visions of God and of seeing those who had died
before them. He complains that today patients who have such
visions are treated for 'anxiety' with narcotics and Valium,
both of which erase short-term memory and prevent patients
from remembering any visions they might have had (Morse
1993: 60). He also claims that about ninety per cent of
people who die in hospitals are 'heavily sedated, endlessly
resuscitated and medicated' and that doctors see deathbed
visions as a problem to be medicated away (Morse 1993: 63).
In his book Closer to the Light—Learning from
the Near-Death Experiences of Children, Morse puts
forward the view that deathbed visions are 'a forgotten
aspect of life's mysterious process' and that they can have
a wonderfully comforting and healing effect on both the
dying patient and the family (1993: 65). He recounts several
cases where dying children began to see visions of the afterlife
during the last few days of their lives. They described
amazing colors and beautiful places and deceased relatives
whom they sometimes had not known existed.
Not hallucinations
Dr Osis himself began with the supposition that these experiences
were simple hallucinations caused by the biochemical effects
of a dying brain. However, after investigating, he became
convinced that these experiences were so extraordinary and
so convincing that they could not be explained by the physical
condition of the patient or by the medication they had been
taking.
There are many cases on record with the Society of Psychical
Research where the apparitional visitor has been seen by
others at the bedside of the dying person, sometimes by
several persons simultaneously:
• in one well documented case a deathbed apparition
was seen by the dying woman, Harriet Pearson, and three
relatives who were caring for her (Journal of the Society
for Psychical Research Feb 1904: 185-187)
• in another case of a young boy dying, two witnesses
independently saw his recently deceased mother at the
child's bedside (Proceedings of the Society for Psychical
Research, Volume 6 p.20 ).
Deathbed visions are consistent with and support the other
evidence for afterlife. Of those who will experience conscious
death, fifty to sixty percent will experience a vision of
the afterlife.
The importance of deathbed visions
In his book Parting Visions (1994) pediatrician Melvin
Morse argues that:
• family members who know about the visions of
the dying are known to spend more time at the dying person's
bedside. This factor alleviates much of the guilt they
might feel after the death
• spiritual visions empower the dying patients making
them realize that they have something to share with others
• spiritual visions remove all fear of dying in
the patient and are enormously healing to the relatives
• they can prevent burnout on the part of medical
personnel
• if attended to they can dramatically reduce wasteful
medical procedures that are often painful to the patient.
He claims that 30-60% of the American health care dollar
is spent in the last few days of a person's life and 'most
of it is spent in irrational procedures that do nothing
to prolong life' (Morse 1994: 136).
Carla Wills-Brandon M.A. Ph.D. psychologist, counselor
and author of six published books, became interested in
deathbed visions when her own son had one when he was just
three years of age. Visited by an other worldly visitor
who shared that he was there to take his grandfather with
him, her son was confident his ‘Da’ was all
right. In her book One Last Hug Before I Go: The Mystery
and Meaning of Death Bed Visions, she not only re-examines
the research of Barrett and Osis, but also takes a look
at many recent experiences.
Nearing End of Life Experiences
(NELE)
Dr Jeff Long and Jody Long are researching Nearing End
of Life Experiences which they describe as a new category
of research in which a person may see beings and bright
light at or as far as six months prior to the time of death.
On the Internet
Carla Wills Brandon http://www.carla.wills.brandon.net/
is conducting on-going research on deathbed visions and
wants to hear from people who have had one.
To learn about further ongoing research work see the Internet
site of the University of Virginia Division of Personality
Studies.
http://www.med.virginia.edu/medicine/inter-dis/personality_studies/
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