NDEs in History.

Given the reported frequency of the Near Death Experience, it should come as no surprise that throughout history people have recorded events that are remarkably similar to the modern NDE.

The Ancient Greeks

In the "Republic", Plato records the tale of a soldier, by the name of Er, who was slain in battle. 10 days after his death, Er came back to life on his funeral pyre and told of journeying toward "a straight light like a pillar". In addition, he tells of judges who separated the righteous from the unrighteous, sending the former to paradise and the latter to punishment. However, when his turn came, the judges told him that he had to return in order to tell people about what he had seen in the realm beyond life.

St Bede

St Bede noted an example of a person who died and reported an NDE. Unfortunately, we have been unable to track down the exact reference, but will update this section once we have.

Douglas Bader

Douglas Bader, though many haven't heard of him was an impressively outstanding aviator and one of the true heroes of the Second World War. As a British fighter pilot and inspiring leader, he was shot down by the Germans, and while he spent the remainder of the war as a prisoner, he also did his best to escape.

The amazing thing about him though, was that he had lost both his legs in an air crash in 1931 and had fought hard and long for the rivaling of flying again after being discharged from the RAF as medically unfit, only being accepted reluctantly into the fold, once war had started.

In his biography about Bader, "Reach for the Sky", Paul Brickhill tells briefly of Bader's experience of dying saying "Some instinct told him that he had been dying in that moment. (Ever since then, he has been convinced of it, and from that moment has never been frightened of dying. Later this was to have a vital effect on his life.)"

While Brickhill describes Bader's NDE as consisting only of the feeling of peacefulness, it is clear that even this had a huge impact on his life.