The near-death phenomenon: Joseph Geraci at TEDxWilmington

one of the disadvantages of asking a ryeol retired professor to speak as you get a lecture from the moment of conception we are programmed to die that's a comforting thought that stuck today what seriously all goes according to plan we are born drooling and pooping in our pants and in many cases we end up that way some consider life a circle we start at one point we go all the way around and we end up where we started however I consider life a continuum a straight line and death can come at any point on our line often before it can be played out completely diseased accident crime can cut it short for some the temporary break in the line is kind of a hiccup a little mini break if you will and encounter with death it's a phenomenon called the near-death experience or the NDE it also can be the result of any kind of trauma disease accident or crime it's called near-death for the benefit of the scientific community but for those who have experienced it there's absolutely nothing near about it the counts of the experience may vary but the experience itself has been rewarded reported by millions of people around the earth from many different religions and even atheists or I should say former atheist and particularly a young and the old it there's no difference my own research is on a young and how their experience impacted their education than their learning they had the same experience as adults but we're limited in their expressions they had trouble verbalizing it their expression was through their behavior I found that they tended to be withdrawn and aloof to regulations they were sometimes labeled learning-disabled when in actuality according to their accounts they were totally bored with the elementary subject matter later in life their thirst for knowledge led them to numerous degrees and profitable careers and interestingly enough quantum physics seemed to surface a lot in their talks but that's another story the NDE accounts had been well documented they have been widely published and are almost a household word you've heard of the out-of-body experience where people claim to have seen their bodies from above and able to tell exactly what the CPR teams if that was a case we're doing to them you've heard of traveling through a tunnel toward a light a life review where your entire life passes before you being with family and friends and finally the light being part of that late in 1977 I myself had an NDE and although I may have led you to believe that I was going to share that experience with you I lied it's impossible for me to do so where there's nothing to compare it to in life there are no words to describe timelessness eternity total knowledge total peace and total love words in our form of communication are for here only and they fail miserably emotions the emotion of the experience do give a hint and the only way that I have personally been able to express the emotion is through my poetry many of them relate not only to the joy of the experience but to their frustrations as well I was fortunate to have some of my poetry come to the attention of a talented musician in the UK and recently produced an album with the poetry to music the cause of my hiccup in life was a faulty surgical procedure after which I bled to death one week post-op I lost all less than a pint of blood I wish I could tell you was a glamorous operation but of all things it was a hemorrhoid at demand no such thing as a simple operation I knew I was going to die and I knew my wife and children were going to be okay I knew everything was going to be fine when it became aware of that I said goodbye to my life and was clinically dead for 4 to 5 minutes with excuse me with no vital signs during my brief encounter with eternity I was immediately immersed into the light I went from fear and pain to peace and love I was part of it it was part of me I felt oh I saw I felt as though I had always been there and my life was just a instant snap of the fingers then bang I'm back I'm on the gurney the CPR was successful darted I didn't want to come back I would just find where I was thank you which would explain as I was told later why I was fighting the CPR team back to surgery for that operation again if you've ever had at once and measured it twice in two weeks I soon learned that the railings are by the commode were not just for the handicap cone days late I was able to reflect on the experience I had never heard of an NDE I thought I was the only one that had such an experience it went beyond my traditional religious upbringing is a nice Italian Roman Catholic to a very profound spiritual level and it would be months before I could share it the first I didn't want to share it was much too personal however the emotion of the experience welled up inside of me to the point where I thought I would explode if I didn't I finally found the courage to share it with my wife at a great risk for I thought you might think that I finally lost my mind and that's turned out to be the case with number people who experienced that reluctance to share it for fear of being labeled crazy fortunately for me my wife was understanding and was relieved to learn the cause of my odd behavior her support was a big help it's also interesting to note that a number of married people have had an NDE end up in divorce the experience causes such a profound change in one's personality that the spouse feels as though they're married it to a total stranger and a lot of times our marriage breaks now the feeling also left me with the experience also often with very profound thoughts and feelings the importance and meaning of life simply to love that's it there is no need to climb a mountain search for a guru to tell you that the importance of humor the feeling of total knowledge which I obviously wasn't allowed to bring back with me and the fact suicide is a no-no it's not the preferred preferred choice of entrance I was giving a guest lecture at a university one day on the experience a young man in the back of the room raises hand is is well doctor if that experience is so great it's so lovely on the other side why don't you jump out the window and go back well after the class settled down a little bit I said well two reasons one we're on the first floor and the second while you were talking to that young lady next to you instead of listening to me I explained why you don't mess with an old professor adjusting after the experience was difficult from a non human experience to a human one again coming from an experience where there was no balance of right versus wrong soft versus hard good versus bad low versus hate or peace vs. war there was no yin-yang as found here in life in nature no action versus reaction it was all positive nothing negative a plateau of perfection having to want to get it once again exists in an imperfect world was traumatic I couldn't watch TV for its violence I couldn't watch cosmetic commercials because of the vanity involved and much to the chagrin of my wife my personal appearance appearance was not a very high priority I also lost the corporate drive to get to the top of the ladder at work it took time to accept myself that's capable of human faults and behavior I became very upset if I caught myself getting angry or being less than nice to someone I wanted to hold on to that loving light that I had come to know however I can now say with authority after 36 years of readjustment I am fully capable of messing up upon further reflection to the experience I found it interesting that I've never heard of anyone was had the experience who committed any serious crime killed anyone cheated someone joined a gang or started a war perhaps the answer to this concept of world peace would be to have everyone have an NDE imagine what that clinic would look like better yet there are many peaceful and loving people who have not had any ease perhaps we should listen to them pay attention to them and we can avoid the trauma among the most peaceful and loving people you will find are the very young children they are the most innocent honest dependent and infection 't people on earth they are incapable of lying hurting or malice they are the yang of human nature before being introduced to the in any abuse of a child is an assault on a very fabric of humanity and a low that binds us as a former police officer I have had the misfortune of witnessing some of the most horrible assaults and neglect of children they remained beyond comprehension and unworthy of being associated with the human species children are the personification of peace and love existent in the NDE they are what we once were and what we will be again perhaps the Nobel Peace Prize should one day be given to a child having experiences hiccup in life is why I believe life to be on a continuum rather than a circle for at the end of life if we continue on beyond our final drew and poop our essence who we are beyond our physical characteristics the love and peace that truly define us go on so as we are programmed to die a conception so I believe we are programmed to continue that death thank you

Channel: TEDx Talks

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Id: OzSa5IX0mqA

Length: 13min 56sec (836 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 11 2013