Can a Near Death Experience Give You Superpowers? | Unveiled - video Dailymotion

Unveiled

Watch Can a Near Death Experience Give You Superpowers? | Unveiled - Unveiled on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00 According to studies, up to 15% of people have had a near-death experience in their

00:04 lifetimes.

00:05 A significant portion of humankind has been taken to the brink of dying, only to be brought

00:10 back to the land of the living.

00:12 But in some cases, they return fundamentally changed forever.

00:16 This is Unveiled, and today we're answering the extraordinary question; can a near-death

00:21 experience give you superpowers?

00:23 Do you need the big questions answered?

00:25 Are you constantly curious?

00:27 Then why not subscribe to Unveiled for more clips like this one?

00:30 And ring the bell for more thought-provoking content!

00:34 A near-death experience, or NDE, is an increasingly common phenomenon, felt and seen by anyone

00:40 who has come exceptionally close to dying.

00:42 Perhaps their heart has briefly stopped beating, or they've been knocked out cold in an accident…

00:46 but what happens next is difficult to explain.

00:50 There are certain often shared characteristics, though.

00:53 A white light, a long tunnel, life flashing before your eyes, and a sense of euphoria.

00:58 Upon being resuscitated, NDE sufferers also often report some kind of out-of-body event.

01:04 Perhaps they've seen themselves on the operating table, or they've stood at the foot of what

01:08 was very nearly their own deathbed.

01:10 In some cases, they've even heard doctors deliver their own "time of death" before

01:15 coming back from the dead to remember it.

01:17 After an NDE, many people claim to have a vastly different perspective.

01:22 Life takes on new meaning, and they feel more appreciative of the world around them.

01:26 But, on the other hand, your mood can go in the opposite direction as well… with some

01:30 reports of post-traumatic stress disorder taking hold.

01:34 Having come so close to death, some people feel haunted by it from that point forward.

01:38 Ultimately, there is no standard or expected reaction to an NDE… but every so often,

01:44 an especially unexpected effect comes to light.

01:48 Near-death empowerment is a story trope in some science fiction.

01:51 It's when a character's powers are enhanced, or they're able to unlock all new abilities

01:55 as a direct result of them very nearly dying.

01:58 In the world of comics and superhero movies, it's basically "what doesn't kill you

02:02 makes you stronger" to an extreme degree.

02:05 And yet, if reports are to be believed, then near-death empowerment is much more than just

02:10 a fictional device.

02:11 Instead, it's a mystery of the real world… and one that a select few people have been

02:17 able to tap into.

02:18 In 1983, Bruce Grayson headed a study titled "Increase in Psychic Phenomena Following

02:24 Near-Death Experiences".

02:26 At the time, Grayson was Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Chief of the Psychiatric

02:31 Emergency Service at the University of Michigan.

02:34 Later in his career, he became the Director of the Division of Perceptual Studies at the

02:38 University of Virginia, a role later filled by a leading voice in past-life memory research,

02:44 Jim Tucker.

02:45 In his 1983 work, Grayson sought to investigate "the reported incidence of psychic and psi-related

02:52 experiences occurring both before and after subjects' NDEs".

02:57 His research was conducted on members of the International Association for Near-Death Studies

03:01 who had had NDEs in the past.

03:04 Eighty volunteered to be surveyed, of which the results of sixty-nine of them were "returned

03:09 in analyzable form".

03:11 The survey probed participants on the occurrence of various phenomena before and after their

03:16 NDE.

03:17 The results showed a clear increase in many of them after the near-death experience.

03:22 Grayson writes that "ESP experiences while awake were reported to have occurred significantly

03:27 more frequently after the NDE than before.

03:30 The same for out-of-body experiences, encounters with apparitions, and perceptions of an aura

03:35 about someone else; and also for profound spiritual, mystical, or transcendental experiences,

03:42 lucid dreams, and recall of dreams at least once a week.

03:45 All of these things were found to have increased, on average, in the subjects after they had

03:49 had the NDE."

03:51 Grayson tempers the findings with a reminder that correlation isn't causation; that there

03:55 could be a number of other reasons why this pattern emerges.

03:58 For instance, an NDE might merely increase delusion rather than ESP powers; or having

04:04 had an NDE, a subject may be more prone to a "pro-NDE bias" rather than more prone

04:10 to something like genuine telepathy.

04:12 But nevertheless, of the nineteen individual items on the original survey, it was found

04:17 that nine of them did become more common after near-death.

04:20 So, could we say that a near-death experience gives you superpowers?

04:25 Based on Grayson's study alone, it would appear that it is possible… although exactly

04:30 what those superpowers are is a little ambiguous.

04:33 Extrasensory perception could mean mind-reading, time-viewing, or speaking with dead people.

04:38 A transcendental experience could be walking with God, revisiting the past, or talking

04:43 with animals.

04:44 In general, though, there is a suggestion of an increased somethingness; of greater

04:49 spirituality; of a connection to a higher plane.

04:52 But again, it's perhaps easy to see why not everyone would feel great about that.

04:56 And rather than honing their experience into a superpower, many NDEers have instead been

05:01 led to question their sanity… or to question whether they actually did survive at all.

05:06 In a 1989 paper by Cherise Sutherland of the University of South Wales in Australia reveals

05:12 more, Sutherland extensively interviewed forty subjects regarding their NDE for upwards of

05:17 ninety minutes at a time.

05:18 She questioned them on psychic phenomena, and determined with greater specificity the

05:22 difference before and after the event.

05:25 She also compared her findings from data from the general public - i.e. from those who hadn't

05:29 had an NDE.

05:31 Sutherland looked at, for example, clairvoyance, and found that 38% of the general population

05:36 reported it, 43% of her subjects reported it before their NDE, but 73% of her subjects

05:42 reported it after their NDE.

05:45 So, one conclusion to draw is that NDEers are subsequently more clairvoyant; they're

05:50 better at seeing the future.

05:52 For telepathy, Sutherland's numbers are 58% in the general population, 46% in subjects

05:58 before NDE, but 87% in subjects after NDE.

06:02 It might be said, then, that NDEers are subsequently more telepathic; they're better at reading

06:08 minds.

06:09 For intuition, Sutherland doesn't include a percentage for the general population, but

06:13 for subjects before NDE it's 60%, after NDE it's 95%.

06:19 Can we say, then, that NDEers simply know more?

06:23 Sutherland summarises that "every person interviewed was aware of the increase in psychic

06:27 phenomena in their lives, although the degree of this increase varied."

06:32 What's perhaps also telling, however, is the data put forward in the same study regarding

06:37 beliefs.

06:38 For example, regarding the belief in reincarnation, Sutherland lists the general population at

06:43 32%, subjects before NDE at 39%, subjects after NDE at 79%.

06:51 For life after death, in general, 59%, before NDE, 47%, and after NDE, 100%.

06:59 And finally, for fear of death, there's no number for the general population, but

07:03 for the subjects before NDE it's 78%, and after NDE it's 0%.

07:09 The data seemingly shows that all NDEers inherit a belief in life after death, and that none

07:14 of them are frightened of death, even if they were before.

07:17 Maybe that could be considered a superpower in itself.

07:21 What's your verdict on this issue?

07:23 Have you ever had an NDE that changed your life forever?

07:26 Or do you think that any supposed link between them and enhanced abilities can actually be

07:31 explained by something else?

07:34 Let us know in the comments!

07:35 For now, near-death experiences are still quite an unknown quantity.

07:39 There are things that NDEers report that science simply can't account for… although, equally,

07:45 there are some elements that seemingly can be accounted for.

07:48 The sensation of life flashing before your eyes, for example, has been linked to a noted

07:52 spike in brain activity at the time of death with regions dedicated to the preservation

07:57 of memory.

07:58 As more and more cases are made public, there are suspicions that confirmation bias could

08:02 be skewing some reports as well, with people seeing what they now expect to see as the

08:07 result of an increased NDE awareness.

08:10 Meanwhile, some claim that the apparent inexplicability of an NDE is purely the result of the brain

08:16 reacting to its ultimate trauma, the death of the body.

08:20 Neurons are firing off in all directions, and a euphoric chaos unfolds.

08:25 For those who do live to tell the tale, however, there is apparent evidence that certain aspects

08:30 of their lives from there on out will be different.

08:33 Perhaps profoundly different.

08:34 And to some degree, that's why it might be said that a near-death experience really

08:39 can give you superpowers.

08:42 What do you think?

08:43 Is there anything we missed?

08:44 Let us know in the comments!

08:45 Check out these other clips from Unveiled, and make sure you subscribe and ring the bell

08:50 for our latest content.

Can a Near Death Experience Give You Superpowers? | Unveiled

Category

Transcript

Recommended