'People see Jesus': Doctor shares what she's witnessed from patients on the brink of death

My old pastor (him again) told a few of us a story about an incident when he was a young pastor.

He was visiting an elderly lady who was dying in hospital. She was "a sweet old soul", and one of his parishioners.

She was lying in bed and I don't know if she was conscious or not. But suddenly she sat bolt upright, reached out towards something only she could see and cried out "Jesus! I'm coming!"

Then she fell back dead. He added "she looked like a young girl!"

He said it was an eye-opener for a young pastor (his exact words).

I have never found that sort of thing all that persuasive as a Christian... though I find the subject of terminal lucidity, deathbed visions, and so forth fascinating, it's difficult to draw conclusions from the evidence, other than having intimations that there is more to reality that we don't really understand and that can't be accounted for by philosophical materialism. People in many religions have unusual experiences around death, not just Christians.

(anybody remember Steve Jobs? He was raised a conservative Lutheran but was a naturally curious person and was unsatisfied with the simplistic answers his pastor had, and later got involved in the counter culture and Zen. His last words were, "Oh wow! Oh wow!" as if he were seeing into some spectacular other world.)

BTW, it's more common to have deathbed visions of deceased relatives, than specifically religious content. And these experiences are surprisingly common.

Look up terminal lucidity some time. That stuff is really, really interesting. It shouldn't happen according to a materialist account of the world. It's as if near death, the consciousness of the person becomes somewhat unbounded from their physically decaying body, and they experience remarkable lucidity, sometimes regaining cognitive abilities they had lost.

The earliest widely documented case was in the early 20th century in Germany, with the case of Anna Katerina Ehmer. Nurses that work in hospice are much more familiar with the phenomenon. Sometimes people will appear to regain energy a few days or hours before they die, but in fact this is often means the person is very close to death. This can be confusing to loved ones, because they often have less familiarity with death.

I also remember an uncle who was dying of cancer. I visited him in hospital.

He pointed to the opposite wall & ceiling junction and said "Grandma's over there!"

I was an atheist at that time and thought he was hallucinating. He said " She is you know. I can see her!"

With spiritual hindsight I think he really could see her.

FireDragon76 said:

it's difficult to draw conclusions from the evidence

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Don't try to draw conclusions - the public and private records of such events as noted on the brink of death or "near death experiences", including so-called visions anywhere or visits or visitations have been clearly shown to be untruthful.

Michie said:

Terminal lucidity isn’t an official diagnosis. And not everyone who’s nearing death experiences it. Most healthcare providers who work with people who are dying only witness a few dozen incidents over their careers. But when these episodes do happen, they’re memorable for all who witness them.

Watching a dying loved one regain their ability and enthusiasm to engage can spark a flood of confusing emotions — from heartbreak to joy. It’s important to work through these feelings as you support your loved one through their final days, while caring for yourself, too.

What are the signs of terminal lucidity?​

Continued below.

What Is Terminal Lucidity?

Many people with end-stage dementia experience a sudden burst of energy and clarity called terminal lucidity. Here’s what we know about it.

my.clevelandclinic.org

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Sedatives and painkillers are often used nowdays. Sometimes in very high amounts.

I've often told my story of my father visiting my room the night he died. I was well and truly alive.

I went to a psychiatrist for a few years, initially for depression, but I kept going as I found we shared a number of spiritual experiences.

I suppose it was about five years ago when he said to me at one of our sessions "Something strange happened last weekend!"

I asked him what it was. He said he'd been going to a Catholic Church in a suburb called Indooroopilly. They announced a parishioner had died that morning. It transpired she had also been one of his patients.

He said "She was in the church!" He said he could see her. He said she seemed to be trying to get his attention, but gave up after a while and moved to the other side of the church. He thought she might have had family members on that side of the church.

If we're wondering why he didn't attempt to communicate with her, what would happen if you started talking to a "ghost" in church that only you could see?

Now I'd often told him about my father's apparition. I'd only see him every three, four or five months, but he just "happened" to have his apparition the weekend before I was due to come in for my next appointment.

You might say the memory was fresh in his mind. In other words I was given some street credibility about my own story regarding my father, as he'd now had a similar experience, but I don't think anything was said whereas my father and I had a full blown conversation before he disappeared into eternity with a blood curdling scream.

The psychiatrist in question has written a number of books about psychiatry for the layman. This is one of them and I happen to know it's on sale in our local Catholic St. Paul's Bookshop as I saw it there last Monday.


PS - This wasn't a "near death" experience. He was well and truly alive - his former patient and fellow parishioner was dead.