What we can learn from Near Death Experiences
By: Paula Levin
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https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1D2hrC2DthdXxx0MERtOcSVEDinN3O4WN?usp=drive_link
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A Rosh Hashanah Reflection
Rosh Hashanah reminds us that life is not random and our choices matter. Every one of us will one day give a din v’cheshbon, a spiritual accounting, before the King of Kings (Avot 4:22). Near Death Experiences remind us to ask the same question Rosh Hashanah asks each year—not what happens when life ends, but how we should live while it lasts.
In 1975, American psychiatrist and physician Dr Raymond Moody published “Life After Life”, the first piece of medical research into a phenomenon he named a Near Death Experience (NDE). The book documented over 100 incidents of established clinical death followed by resuscitation, survivors’ stories of what they had experienced, and the uncanny similarities of those experiences. As medicine has advanced and with the speed of emergency response saving lives when every minute counts, millions more have experienced the phenomenon. Let’s explore what Judaism has to say about NDEs and what we can learn from those blessed with the chance to return from a journey that usually only comes with a one-way ticket.
Nomi Freeman[1] has had a fascination with NDEs ever since her father (renowned Argentinian Kabbalist Professor Avraham Polichenco, of blessed memory) passed away suddenly and unexpectedly at age 55. Standing at her father’s grave at the shloshim (a gathering that marks 30 days after death), she requested her father visit her one last time – a request she subsequently learned that our Sages caution against. It disturbs the peace of the departed who must make a difficult journey to return to this world. Expecting her father to appear to her in a dream, which didn’t happen, Nomi had accepted her request would not be granted, but months later, while fully awake and listening to a shiur at a Chabad centre, she saw her father enter the room. “He gave me a message, mind to mind, because there is no speech in that world, saying “Nomi, do as many mitzvos as you can because Moshiach is coming soon.” Nomi has since personally interviewed many people with NDEs, has researched what the Torah says about it and lectures around the world on the soul and Jewish mysticism.
I understand her drive to know what lies beyond our senses and this lifetime. The death of a loved one is deeply painful, the physical separation is utterly final, and often we are left reeling, longing for some assurance that their unique light has not been forever extinguished. NDEs offer the next best thing to proving that consciousness survives.
“NDEs offer a glimpse of the soul.”
“NDE’s offer a glimpse of the soul,” says Rabbi Michael Vegoda, who also finds the subject fascinating and has interviewed people who have experienced them. Rabbi Vegoda’s own father experienced an NDE as a child stricken with polio. “My father told us several times over the course of his life that he had left his body and that he had seen his sister, who passed away from the illness at the same time. For the rest of his life, he remained convinced of the reality of the soul, G-d, and life after death, despite being the most rationalist, level-headed person, whose career as a civil engineer was grounded in bricks and mortar. He was not afraid of death in the least because he had already experienced it,” says Rabbi Vegoda.
Nomi explains that many NDEs have the following features in common. Subjects leave their bodies (out-of-body experience (OBE)), see and hear things in their surroundings or in other locations they could not have witnessed and then travel through a dark tunnel. Dr Moody’s subjects reported being shocked at the sight of their body and at first were desperate to return. There is a rich anecdotal literature devoted to documenting OBEs and the things people witnessed they could never have known, such as conversations between doctors, nurses leaving surgery to fetch medication, and conversations between family members in different rooms. Rabbi Vegoda points out that just because something is anecdotal does not mean it has no credibility. “The fact that parachutes save lives is anecdotal, not based on double-blind, randomised trials. No one would ethically conduct a study in which 1,000 people jumped from planes, half with parachutes and half without. Instead, we are entirely satisfied with the overwhelming real-world evidence that people who jump with parachutes survive. Sometimes observational evidence is more than enough, even when our life depends on it.”
Rabbi Vegoda is however careful to make the point that these anecdotal glimpses of the soul cannot form the basis of our faith in G-d and His Torah. “The foundation of our faith is that our entire nation witnessed G-d speak at Mount Sinai.” The Torah itself states that no one before has ever claimed mass revelation, nor will anyone ever again in the future. And over 3 300 years later, this remains true, though the claim of mass revelation would be the best way to establish any religion. So NDEs are not the reason we keep the laws of the Torah. We do so because G-d told us to, 3 million people heard Him say so and chose Moshe to be His prophet and pen. Judaism never asks us to base our faith on extraordinary experiences. Rather, these accounts are interesting precisely because they echo truths that Torah has taught for thousands of years.
Interestingly, many of these reported experiences echo descriptions already found in our classical Torah sources. Nomi explains that after the tunnel, all enter a world of intense light and love where all their pain and suffering ceases to exist. Then they experience a ‘life review’, almost like watching a movie of every moment of their life. Moments where they did something particularly good seem to stand out, while moments where they hurt other people cause them to feel the other person’s emotions. This causes them terrible shame and pain.
Jewish sources describe a profound accounting of one’s life after death. Interestingly, many NDE survivors describe what they call a “life review”, in which every action is relived with extraordinary clarity. Nomi notes that these life reviews of entire lifetimes all take place within the few minutes the person is clinically dead, offering a glimpse of a world with no time. The Zohar[2] similarly describes that a person is shown his whole life before him. Set against this world of Truth, every deviation from Eternal Truth is experienced as intense shame, judgement does not come from outside the self, but is a result of seeing the truth. This is part of the cleansing a soul must undergo.
A madricha I once had on an Israel trip at age 21 told me that she had experienced an NDE and in her life review she watched herself cheating in a tennis match at age 10. She vividly recalled the feeling of shame! This anecdote alone has been extremely powerful in my life. Sometimes, when I am about to do or say something questionable, I remember her story and think to myself, I don’t want to see this in my life review. Let me rather choose the right thing!
Nomi also shares that most subjects see family members, some of whom they have never met or even seen photos of, but who they instantly recognise and feel close to. Sometimes a family member will tell them that it is not their time, and that they must return. Other times it is a Being of Light who tells them to return and gives them a mission. Rabbi Alon Anava was a secular Israeli, with long hair and tattoos when a drug overdose resulted in cardiac arrest. In his must-watch NDE YouTube video, he describes being shown a vision of himself as an Orthodox Jew – and told to embody this vision – which he subsequently has.
Rabbi Dessler’s description of the soul’s encounter with the Shechinah bears an interesting resemblance to reports from some NDE survivors who describe an overwhelming encounter with what they call a “Loving, Living Light”. In “Death and Beyond”, based on Rav Dessler’s work Michtav M’Eliyahu, the translator explains what this light is. The Nefesh is the lowest part of the soul, and it is most bound to the body. Over a lifetime, it totally identifies with the body. When it is time to leave this world, the Shechina, the Presence of G-d, is revealed to the Nefesh. The Nefesh is then drawn out of the body like metal attracted to a magnet. This is how the Nefesh is compelled to leave its body. If a soul is deserving, it will follow the Shechina to the next stage of death. If not, the Shechina leaves and the Nefesh now wants to return to its body. It suffers terribly when it realises its most desired object is now disintegrating (in the case of actual death), and may long for the body for years!
It is worth emphasising that NDEs only describe the first stage of death, a glimpse of consciousness that transcends the body and is not experienced by the brain – which in an NDE is dead by all measures. What lies beyond this stage of death is unknowable – tickets are one-way only. The Zohar says that the higher parts of the soul, the Ruach and the Neshama move on to the next world – but no one has returned from there and lived to tell the tale. The soul, in fact, is not a monolith and is made up of 5 parts: Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Chaya and Yechida. We are unaware of most parts of our soul, other than the Nefesh, which is our life force and drive for self-preservation. Higher parts of our souls speak to us, but our choices in this world may block our ability to hear them. The highest part of our soul is a literal piece of G-d.
Our sages further tell us that for the righteous, dying is like removing a hair from a glass of milk, smooth, easy and without friction. Those who have immersed themselves in this physical existence for its own sake will find the experience is like pulling wool out of a thorn bush! This revelation is rather sobering, bringing home the fact that so much of what we think is important in this world is transient, and our attachment to the material for its own sake – will only make life after life more difficult. Rabbi Anava even says that a person addicted to cigarettes will crave them after death! Judaism teaches that the physical world must not be shunned, but rather elevated. We can use this world wisely, utilising every experience to connect to Hashem. We can give money to tzedaka, make brachot on food, express gratitude for our blessings and perform acts of goodness and kindness that bring G-dliness into this lowest of all the worlds.
Nomi shares that the abovementioned features of the NDE (the tunnel, the light, the life review, seeing deceased family and friends) are universal across all humans, regardless of their religion. Interestingly, in Nomi Freeman’s research, only Jewish NDE experiencers report being brought before a tribunal. These reports often resemble descriptions of a Heavenly Court in classical Torah sources. The person’s fate is weighed by the court, and relatives or other souls may appear to plead on their behalf.
Rabbi Alon Anava, Sharon Nachshoni and Hila Baruch (whose NDE reports can all be watched online) all described the feeling of being almost completely naked at their tribunals – with no mitzvot or good deeds to cover them. This felt all the more shameful because of the calibre of souls in attendance, all wearing clothing of light. This aligns with the Baal Hatanya’s explanation that good thoughts, speech and actions are the garments of the soul.
Fascinatingly, in Nachshoni’s NDE, he recalled being asked if he had longed for the Redemption and if he had been honest in business. The Talmud states we are asked six heavenly questions after death – these being two of them.[3]
The Talmud also hints at the life review in its statement that even a trivial conversation is recorded. “For G-d will bring every deed into judgement, including every hidden thing,” as it says in Kohelet. The Mishna also says, “Reflect upon three things, and you will not come into the hands of sin: Know what is above you – an eye that sees, and an ear that hears, and all your deeds are recorded in a book.” This recalls the Rosh Hashana Unetane Tokef prayer, which says: “The Book of Remembrances is opened, and it reads itself, and every person’s signature is in it.”
While scientific literature may interpret NDEs as dreams, the effects of a dying brain, hallucinations or dissociative states, millions of people around the world have reported remarkably similar experiences. At the very least, they are worthy of serious scientific study. Many researchers interpret NDEs through current neuroscientific models, yet these remain debated and do not fully explain reports of verified perceptions during some out-of-body experiences. Current neuroscience provides powerful models of brain function, but the nature of consciousness itself remains one of the deepest unsolved problems in science and philosophy. NDEs therefore sit within a broader conversation about consciousness that is still very much open.
Whether one sees them as neuroscience, spirituality or something in between, NDEs confront us with questions that are difficult to ignore. If consciousness can exist independently of the brain, if life does not end, if all our choices reverberate across eternity, if we are held accountable for our actions then we are challenged to live with greater purpose, responsibility and intention. “For me, NDEs create a sense of urgency,” says Rabbi Vegoda. “Death is inevitable and life is precious. We need to do more of what G-d asks us, while we still have time. We can’t let limiting beliefs or labels like ‘I don’t keep Shabbat, I’m not religious” hold us back.”
Nomi says there is only one NDE reported in the Talmud, though there are many stories of souls of the departed communicating with or visiting the living. The Talmud in Pesachim tells the story of Rabbi Yossi. His father Yehoshua ben Levi was sitting at his bedside when he passed away. Not being allowed to touch a corpse, he held a feather to his son’s nose to see if he was still breathing and found that he wasn’t. But suddenly, Rabbi Yossi awoke. His father asked him, “What did you see?” to which Rabbi Yossi replied, “An upside-down world where those who are so powerful, wealthy and important are on the bottom, and those who are nobody here, are princes over there.” Rabbi Yehoshua told him that this is the upside-down world, while the next world is right-side up. (This recalls the episode when Shmuel the prophet was to anoint the new king of Israel, and chose the tallest and most handsome of Yishai’s sons, Eliab. G-d then said, “Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have rejected him; for it is not as man sees: for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”) For NDE survivors these are not abstract ideas learned in books, they are visceral experiences that change the trajectory of their lives. What if we could borrow from Rabbi Yossi’s vision right now, see through all that glitters in this world, past all that distracts us and align our hearts with the Torah’s value system?
Every NDE survivor returns transformed by the intense love they experienced in this antechamber to death. They return with the conviction that consciousness transcends the body and that our loved ones never die. Many are filled with urgency to do more good in the time they have left.
“NDEs tell us far more about life than they do about death.”
Ultimately, NDEs tell us far more about life than they do about death. They remind us of what the Mishnah has taught all along: this world is where eternity is shaped. Though one hour of bliss in the World to Come is more beautiful than all the life of this world, one hour of repentance and good deeds in this world is more beautiful than all the life of the World to Come. Every mitzvah, every act of kindness and every choice matters far more than we can possibly imagine. Perhaps that is the greatest lesson of the return ticket: to choose well while we still can.
As told to Chana Weisberg, editor of Jewishwoman.org on her podcast ↑
Naso 126b ↑
Shabbat 31a. The rest can be loosely translated as the following: Did you make fixed times to study Torah? Did you try to build future generations? Did you yearn for a better world? Did you deeply pursue wisdom? Did you use critical thinking to grow from your life experiences? ↑
