Deathbed visions represent another phenomenon that evidences the survival of the soul after death. We find accounts of these visions in all places of the world, in the most different cultures and in all ages of humanity.

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Such reports are totally compatible with the teachings of Spiritism, in whose literature we find several cases of people who, deserving such privilege, at the moment of the detachment of the physical body, are visited by deceased relatives or friends, or even by spiritual protectors, who come to help them have a serene transition to the spiritual world.

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Skeptics attribute such views merely to "hallucinations", but those who have witnessed such a phenomenon have no doubt that it is not a mere hallucination. I myself witnessed a case of DBV, which occurred with my mother, days before her death. She used to talk to two people "who dressed in white" and came to visit her. The way she looked and talked to the invisible people in the room was amazing and very real.

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We can find in the literature on DBV thousands of fully documented cases of dying people who were visited by deceased relatives, including some cases where the dying person did not have the information that the relative visiting him had already died. Such phenomena have been studied by renowned researchers, two of which we present in this work: Sir William Barrett and Dr. Erlendur Haraldsson

 

 

Sir William Barrett

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sir William Fletcher Barrett (1844 – 1925) was one of the pioneers of psychical research. During his 50 years of research, he observed many types of phenomena.  Less than a year before his death, Barrett said:  “I am personally convinced that the evidence we have published decidedly demonstrates  the existence of a spiritual world and the survival after death”

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In his “Deathbed Visions” book, first published in 1926, the year after his death, Barrett reported on a number of intriguing cases, in which a dying person appears to see and recognize some deceased relative or friend. It was the first major publication on the topic, and it included some cases in which the dying people seemed to acquire knowledge they could not have come to by ordinary means.

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“These cases form, perhaps, one of the most cogent arguments for survival after death, as the evidential value and veridical (truth telling) character of these visions of the dying is greatly enhanced when the fact is undeniably established that the dying person was wholly ignorant of the decease of the person he or she so vividly sees.” Barrett stated in the book.

 

Below one interesting case reported on the book, which happened with Sir William’s wife, Lady Florence Barrett, a prominent obstetric surgeon and Dean of the London School of Medicine for Women, when she was in attendance on a patient in the Mothers' Hospital, at Clapton:

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“Lady Barrett received an urgent message from the Resident Medical Officer, Dr. Phillips, to come to a patient, Mrs. B., who was in labour and suffering from serious heart failure. Lady Barrett went at once, and the child was delivered safely, though the mother was dying at the time. After seeing other patients Lady Barrett went back to Mrs. B.'s ward, and the following conversation occurred which was written down soon afterwards. Lady Barrett says:

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"When I entered the ward Mrs. B. held out her hands to me and said, 'Thank you, thank you for what you have done for me - for bringing the baby. Is it a boy or girl?' Then holding my hand tightly, she said, 'Don't leave me, don't go away, will you?' And after a few minutes, while the House Surgeon carried out some restorative measures, she lay looking up towards the open part of the room, which was brightly lighted, and said, 'Oh, don't let it get dark - it's getting so dark ... darker and darker.' Her husband and mother were sent for.

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"Suddenly she looked eagerly towards one part of the room, a radiant smile illuminating her whole countenance. 'Oh, lovely, lovely,' she said. I asked, 'What is lovely?' 'What I see,' she replied in low, intense tones. 'What do you see?' 'Lovely brightness - wonderful beings.' It is difficult to describe the sense of reality conveyed by her intense absorption in the vision.

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"Then - seeming to focus her attention more intently on one place for a moment - she exclaimed, almost with a kind of joyous cry, 'Why, it's Father! Oh, he's so glad I'm coming; he is so glad. It would be perfect if only W. (her husband) could come too.'

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"Her baby was brought for her to see. She looked at it with interest, and then said, 'Do you think I ought to stay for baby's sake?' Then turning towards the vision again, she said, I can't - I can't stay; if you could see what I do, you would know I can't stay.' "But she turned to her husband, who had come in, and said, 'You won't let baby go to anyone who won't love him, will you?' Then she gently pushed him to one side, saying, 'Let me see the lovely brightness.'

"I left shortly after, and the Matron took my place by the bedside. She lived for another hour, and appeared to have retained to the last the double consciousness of the bright forms she saw, and also of those tending her at the bedside, e.g. she arranged with the Matron that her premature baby should remain in hospital till it was strong enough to be cared for in an ordinary household.”

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The most important evidence is however given by Miriam Castle, the Matron of the Hospital, who has sent the following account:

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"I was present shortly before the death of Mrs. B., together with her husband and her mother. Her husband was leaning over her and speaking to her, when pushing him aside she said, 'Oh, don't hide it; it's so beautiful.' Then turning away from him towards me, I being on the other side of the bed, Mrs. B. said, 'Oh, why there's Vida,' referring to a sister of whose death three weeks previously she had not been told. Afterwards the mother, who was present at the time, told me, as I have said, that Vida was the name of a dead sister of Mrs. B.'s, of whose illness and death she was quite ignorant, as they had carefully kept this news from Mrs. B. owing to her serious illness.”

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In this account, Mrs. "B." had the vision of two deceased relatives, her father and sister, who came to visit her, just before her death. But she did not know that her sister had died three weeks before. This fact demonstrates that it was not a simple "hallucination".

 

Another interesting case is reported in Barrett’s book:

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"In a neighbouring city were two little girls, Jennie and Edith, one about eight years of age and the other but a little older. They were schoolmates and intimate friends. In June, 1889, both were taken ill of diphtheria. At noon on Wednesday Jennie died. Then the parents of Edith, and her physician as well, took particular pains to keep from her the fact that her little playmate was gone. They feared the effect of the knowledge on her own condition. To prove that they succeeded and that she did not know, it may be mentioned that on Saturday, June 8th, at noon, just before she became unconscious of all that was passing about her, she selected two of her photographs to be sent to Jennie, and also told her attendants to bid her good-bye.

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"She died at half-past six o'clock on the evening of Saturday, June 8th. She had roused and bidden her friends good-bye, and was talking of dying, and seemed to have no fear. She appeared to see one and another of the friends she knew were dead. So far it was like other similar cases. But now suddenly, and with every appearance of surprise, she turned to her father and exclaimed, 'Why, papa, I am going to take Jennie with me!' Then she added, 'Why, papa! you did not tell me that Jennie was here!' And immediately she reached out her arms as if in welcome, and said, 'Oh, Jennie, I'm so glad you are here!'"

 

Sir William Barrett died in 1925. Several weeks after his death, his wife Florence began receiving very evidential messages from him through the mediumship of Mrs. Leonard.  Over the next eleven years, she sat with Leonard every few months, taking verbatim notes as Sir William communicated.  She also received evidential messages from several other mediums. A book, “Personality Survives Death”, published in 1937, resulted from these sittings.

 

 

 Dr. Erlendur Haraldsson 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Erlendur Haraldsson is professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Iceland. He has published numerous scientific articles and several  parapsychology books. In 1982–83 he worked with Ian Stevenson at the University of Virginia on reincarnation research.

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In 1971, Erlendur co-authored with Karlis Osis the book “At the Hour of Death”, describing research into deathbed visions in the United States and India that they interpreted as more consistent with the hypothesis of a transition experience than with the "extinction hypothesis".

 

The experiences were the same, independent of cultural influences and independent of the types of illnesses or medications administered, and approach the issue of life after death on the basis of a scientific evaluation of a substantial quantity of data (1,000 cases), where approximately 700 physicians and nurses were asked what they had heard from their patients concerning deathbed visions.

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“Our destiny after death is probably the most important area of human experience into which we can inquire. According to the prevailing scientific world view, the destiny is a harsh one. Textbooks tell us in no  uncertain terms that after the heart stops circulating blood, the brain is no longer nourished and begins to decay rapidly – within a quarter of an hour or so. At that point, the texts say, the patient’s personality is simply no more. It is irreparably destroyed. The individual ceases to exist.

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For centuries, medical schools have inculcated this grim, uncompromising concept into doctors and nurses – those who will be the ones to help us when we die. But has this view of human nature really been so well established as to allow of no doubt? Is it a solid truth on which we can rely in all situations?

Surprisingly, the experiences of the dying themselves often contradict the accepted medical view. What insights do we get from the dying? What do they experience? What do they “see” at the end? Doctors are starting to ask, is death, from their point of view, bleak destruction or a new beginning?

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Although most patients apparently drift into oblivion without awareness of it, there are some, clearly conscious to the end, who say they “see” into the beyond and who are able to report their experiences before expiring. They see apparitions of deceased relatives and friends. They see religious and mythological figures. They see unearthly environments characterized by light, beauty, and intense color. These experiences are transformative. They bring with them serenity, peace, elation, and religious emotions. The patients die a “good death” in strange contrast to the usual gloom and misery commonly expected before expiration. Other deathbed patients, although they report no visions, nevertheless undergo the same transformation, which sometimes includes the cessation of pain.” – (At the Hour of Death - Erlendur Haraldsson )

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