The Toronto Star of February 20, 1976, carried this amazing heading:

“‘Dead’ 105 minutes doctors revive boy”

The Canadian newspaper explained:

“A 16-year-old boy who ‘died’ for 105 minutes three weeks ago now just wants to get back to school.

“Edward Milligan collapsed on a school snowshoeing expedition and had no heart beat, no pulse and did not breathe for at least 105 minutes. . . .

“Dr. Arnold Tweed, a specialist at [Selkirk General Hospital], said ‘it is the longest time we know of’ that a patient’s heart has stopped beating and the patient recovered without apparent brain damage.”

Less than a year later, on January 20, 1977, the New York Post carried an even more amazing report. The newspaper heading read:

“Longest Death: Revived After 4 Hours”

The report told about a 20-year-old Chippewa Indian woman, Jean Jawbone, who was found unconscious in a snowbank. She had been there for nearly two hours at temperatures as low as 33° F below zero (−36° C)! Her heart had stopped, and her body temperature was only 75° F (24° C), more than 23° F (13° C) below normal! The Post reported:

“The doctors applied non-stop heart massage, depressing the breastbone and squeezing the heart for two hours before they had any signs of life returning.

“A tube was inserted into her windpipe to pump air.

“Finally, they used a rare technique known as peritoneal dialysis—injecting a warm solution into the abdominal cavity.

“After the woman’s body temperature rose sufficiently, a defibrillator was used to give her heart an electrical jolt that established a regular beat.

“She regained consciousness, was able to talk, and ‘behaved just like a person coming out of anesthesia,’ [Dr. Brian] Pickering said.

“Yesterday, Miss Jawbone was ‘just waiting to go home.’”

Surely these are remarkable recoveries. And with the advent of modern medical techniques, recoveries like these are occurring with greater frequency. But they can raise intriguing questions, as noted in a headline of the San Diego Union of October 1, 1978:

“Case Poses Problem Of ‘Death’ In Texas”

The newspaper explained:

“Roger Ragland’s startling return to life after 12 hours of apparent clinical death has renewed debate over what constitutes death in Texas. . . .

“‘He had all the neurological signs of brain death,’ said Dr. James Lindley, who examined the youth in the Brackenridge Hospital emergency room.

“Physicians had received his family’s permission to use the teen-ager’s kidneys in a transplant, and put him on a respirator to continue blood and air circulation through body tissues. The family had notified a funeral home.

“The day after the accident, however, neurosurgeon Bryon Neely noticed movement in Ragland’s legs and then detected brain activity. . . .

“Texas now has no legal definition of death. Such legislation could be brought before the Legislature when it meets in January.”

Have these persons actually returned from the dead?

Clinical Death

“A person whose heart and lungs stop working may be considered clinically dead,” explains The World Book Encyclopedia. Yet thousands of persons today who were at one time clinically dead are now alive and healthy. As a result of a heart attack, of drowning or of electrocution their heart and lungs ceased to function. But persons present at the time knew how to reverse the dying process. How?

The person applied cardiopulmonary resuscitation, CPR, and successfully revived the victim.a If a person’s heartbeat and breathing have stopped for more than about four to six minutes, it is generally too late to restore him to meaningful life. By that time his brain has usually been damaged due to being deprived of oxygen for too long. How, then, you may ask, is it possible for people clinically dead for hours sometimes to be restored to good health?

The rapid dropping of their body temperature at the time of “death” is responsible. Dr. Brian Pickering, who revived Jean Jawbone (mentioned in the previous article), explains: “She is a very lucky woman. The extreme cold had the effect of freezing the brain and preventing any damage to it.” Persons who have drowned in very cold water have also been successfully revived after being “dead” for quite a long time.

Insights into Death?

Walking around in good health today are literally thousands of persons who were once clinically dead. Has their experience given them insights into death? Do they remember anything about it?

Many say that they do. Doctors have interviewed quite a few of such persons, and a number of recent books are based on the stories that they have told. Newspapers have reported the findings under attention-grabbing headlines. For example, on January 6, 1979, one headline in the Toronto Star said:

“There is life after death and it may be hell, says MD

Book reports experiences of people who have ‘died’”

The National Observer carried the headline:

“Back From Death?

A Few Who’ve Been There Say They Found Signs of Life Beyond”

Similarly, the Atlanta Constitution proclaimed:

“Life After Life

People Who Have ‘Clinically’ Died Describe a Sensation of the Soul Leaving the Body”

Many of the stories told are gripping and astounding. Heart specialist Dr. Maurice Rawlings, of the Diagnostic Hospital in Chattanooga, Tennessee, has resuscitated hundreds of patients. Often, he says, patients describe vivid experiences upon being revived. Almost all of them tell of enjoying very pleasant, blissful things. But not all. In one instance a 48-year-old mail carrier “dropped dead” while running on a treadmill in his office. Rawlings resuscitated him again and again, explaining:

“Each time he regained heartbeat and respiration, the patient screamed, ‘I am in hell!’ He was terrified, and pleaded with me to help him. . . .

“This patient had a grotesque grimace expressing sheer horror. His pupils were dilated and he was perspiring and trembling—he looked as if his hair was on end.

“He said: ‘Don’t you understand? I am in hell. Each time you quit massaging my chest I go back to hell. Don’t let me go back to hell!’”

Experiences such as this one have convinced Dr. Rawlings that there is life after death. And a number of other medical men and investigators have reached the same conclusion as a result of the stories that they have heard “dead” persons tell. Thus the New York Post carried the headline:

“Science begins to believe that there is life after life”

Why the Stories Are Believed

The fact is that stories told by revived patients at times are indeed remarkable, baffling. Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, one of the chief investigators of so-called after-death experiences, tells about a 12-year-old girl who, ‘in crossing the threshold into the life beyond,’ was met by an older brother, whom she described in detail. But, as the doctor explained, the brother had died three months before the girl was born, and her parents had never told her about this brother.

Dr. Raymond A. Moody, who also has interviewed many such patients, says that while “dead” one girl went out of her body and into another room in the hospital. There she found her sister crying, and saying: “Oh, Kathy, please don’t die.” Later, when Kathy told her sister exactly what she had said and where she had been when she said it, her sister was amazed.

‘Aren’t such experiences proof that something leaves the body at death to continue life elsewhere?’ some will ask. Dr. Moody claims: “There is no normal way for these people to have guessed what was going on in the room while they were ‘dead.’” He says: “If Mr. Jones tells you his spirit was hovering about the ceiling and proceeds to describe who was in the room when and what went on, it seems as if one has no alternative but to believe him.”

Yet, is there really no alternative explanation? Is it accurate to say that these revived people were truly dead? Does the stoppage of breathing and heartbeat mean that actual death follows immediately?

Biological Death

No, it does not. As noted earlier, death does not occur all at once. The World Book Encyclopedia explains: “The individual cells of the body continue to live for several minutes [after clinical death]. The person may be revived if the heart and lungs start working again and give the cells the oxygen they need.” But what if the vital oxygen is not provided soon enough?

This encyclopedia continues: “The brain cells—which are most sensitive to a lack of oxygen—begin to die. The person is soon dead beyond any possibility of revival. Gradually, other cells of the body also die. The last ones to perish are the bone, hair, and skin cells, which may continue to grow for several hours.”

So those persons who reportedly were restored to life were not actually dead. They had not experienced complete, or biological, death. Their heartbeat and breathing had simply stopped temporarily.

Why is it, then, that so many persons who have been revived tell such amazing experiences? Isn’t it possible that, in their state of clinical death, they could be receiving a preview of what awaits them in a future life? Does death open the door to a life beyond?

Conflicting Reports

The belief in an immortal soul is practically universal. The magazine Presbyterian Life of May 1, 1970, describes the popular concept: “There is a divine soul in each of us, imprisoned in our bodies. When, at death, we toss aside our bodies, our souls return to their true home in heaven.”

The reports of many who have been revived from apparent death would seem to confirm this concept. For example, typical is the description of what one woman said happened to her when she was supposedly dead:

“After I floated up, I passed through this dark tunnel and came out into brilliant light. A little bit later on, I was there with my grandparents and my father and my brother, who had died. There was the most brilliant light all around. And this was a beautiful place. There were colors—bright colors—not like here on earth, but just indescribable. There were people there, happy people.”

On the other hand, most revived persons tell nothing about a life beyond. Dr. George E. Burch, who is a well-known cardiologist at Tulane Medical Center, explains: “I have interviewed approximately 100 such patients. . . . They told me that during the three and a quarter or less minutes before they were revived, they all experienced a sensation of deep, pleasant, peaceful sleep.” They did not remember anything.

Why are there such conflicting reports? What really happens to us when we die?

Ongoing Life After Death?

“People of most cultures believe that at death something which leaves the body has ongoing life,” observes the book Funeral Customs the World Over. But the questions are: Where did this belief originate? Does the Bible teach it?

The above-quoted Presbyterian Life, which described the popular concept of the soul, points to the source of the belief. It explains: “Immortality of the soul is a Greek notion formed in ancient mystery cults and elaborated by the [ancient Greek] philosopher Plato.” Dr. Moody, who sought parallels in ancient writings to what revived patients told him, writes: “The philosopher Plato left us descriptions of occurrences very similar to those experienced in near-death situations.”

But doesn’t the Bible also support this immortality-of-the-soul teaching? Moody had to acknowledge that it really does not. And Presbyterian Life concluded emphatically that there is “nothing in Scripture to back up the idea that souls have ‘an immortal subsistence.’”

In agreement, The Jewish Encyclopedia observes: “The belief that the soul continues its existence after the dissolution of the body is a matter of philosophical or theological speculation rather than of simple faith, and is accordingly nowhere expressly taught in Holy Scripture.” (Italics added.)

No, the soul is not some separate part of humans that can survive death. The Bible does not teach this pagan concept, as the New Catholic Encyclopedia explains: “The soul in the O[ld] T[estament] means not a part of man, but the whole man—man as a living being. Similarly, in the N[ew] T[estament] it signifies human life: the life of an individual, conscious subject.”

Search the Bible as you may, you will not find one text that says that the soul is immortal or that it survives a person’s death. Yet you will find many Bible texts that say the soul dies, or is subject to death. For example, the ones at Ezekiel 18:4, 20 read: “The soul that is sinning—it itself will die.”

So the Bible does not teach that death is a door to a life beyond. Such a teaching is a lie. In the magazine Psychology Today of July 1977, it is observed: “Thousands of years ago, a snake of all things, said to a certain young lady, ‘Ye shall not surely die.’ Ever since then it seems we have believed, or liked to believe, this first lie.” (Gen. 3:4) The truth is, death is a terrible enemy—it is the end of life, nonexistence.—1 Cor. 15:26.

How is it, then, that some people, after being revived, report having experienced life beyond “death”? Surely, not all the people who report these things are lying, are they?

Possible Explanations

From youth on many people have been inculcated with belief in an afterlife, and so these ideas about immortality are embedded deep in their minds. Dr. Nathan Schnaper, who sees many of these revived patients, discounts their stories as psychological fantasies. “These people are experiencing a vacuum,” he says, “and psychologically we can’t abide a vacuum. It’s a void that must be filled, so they invent these experiences.”

This is not to say that they do this intentionally. Significantly, patients under medication also have reported hallucinations and out-of-the-body experiences. Similarly, in the critical minutes while a patient is near death—when the heart stops pumping blood, yet before the cells die—the brain’s oxygen-starved condition produces extraordinary effects. Those who recover may be merely reporting the results of this altered state. Julian DeVries, the medical editor of the Arizona Republic, identifies such factors as being responsible for the experiences reported.

“When physical prowess is at its lowest ebb,” he writes, “as under anesthesia, or the result of disease or injury, automatic control of bodily functions diminishes accordingly. Thus, the neurohormones and catecholamines of the nervous system are released and pour out in uncontrolled quantity. The result, among other manifestations, is the hallucination, rationalized after returning to consciousness, of having died and returned to life.”

Unanswered Questions

Yet the above does not explain how certain patients, upon revival from apparent death, know about things that happened while they were unconscious. As Dr. Moody said: “If Mr. Jones tells you his spirit was hovering about the ceiling and proceeds to describe who was in the room when and what went on, it seems as if one has no alternative but to believe him.” How can this remarkable knowledge of revived patients be explained?

“‘I have masses of people around me, and hands lifting me up, as it were,’ came through—and, after a pause, ‘I was so unhappy until I could make you know.’”

There are many reports of conversations such as these, even as there are similar reports from persons who have been revived from apparent death. Evidently, communications are being received from somebody. But they are not being received from the dead! The Bible is very emphatic about this when it says: “The living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all.” (Eccl. 9:5) Death is not a transition from life here to a life beyond.

Who, then, is responsible for these revelations from ‘another world’?

Promoters of First Lie

Do you recall what God told the first human pair would be their penalty for disobedience? “You will positively die,” God said. (Gen. 2:17; 3:3) But it was “the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth,” who told Eve: “You positively will not die.” (Rev. 12:9; Gen. 3:4) In view of this, should it really be surprising that the rebel angel Satan, and those angels who joined him in rebellion against God, would promote this lie that if people disobeyed God’s command, they would not die off the earth, but keep living as humans?

They have done this by teaching that, at the death of the human body, the “soul” lives on in a spirit realm. To support this, they provide sorcerers, spirit mediums and fortune-tellers with special knowledge that seems to originate with the departed souls or spirits of the dead. But Jehovah God has sought to protect his people from this evil deception. When the Israelites were about to come into the land of Canaan to possess it, he ordered them:

“You must not learn to do according to the detestable things of those nations. There should not be found in you . . . anyone who employs divination, a practicer of magic or anyone who looks for omens or a sorcerer, or one who binds others with a spell or anyone who consults a spirit medium or a professional foreteller of events or anyone who inquires of the dead. For everybody doing these things is something detestable to Jehovah.”—Deut. 18:9-12; Lev. 19:31; 20:6, 27.

Yet, God’s servants have repeatedly been tempted by persons whom Satan uses to spread his lie of human immortality, as the Bible says: “People will tell you to ask for messages from fortunetellers and mediums, who chirp and mutter. They will say, ‘After all, people should ask for messages from the spirits and consult the dead on behalf of the living.’” But what does the Bible advise? “You are to answer them, ‘Listen to what the LORD is teaching you! Don’t listen to mediums—what they tell you will do you no good.’”—Isa. 8:19, 20, Today’s English Version.

However, someone may object: ‘Doesn’t the Bible itself promote the view that the living can consult the dead? Didn’t King Saul get information from the dead prophet Samuel?’ Let us examine this.

King Saul’s Inquiry of the Dead

Saul was well acquainted with God’s law about spirit mediums and fortune-tellers. Thus the account regarding his making inquiry of the dead is prefaced with the comment: “Now Samuel himself had died, and all Israel had proceeded to bewail him and bury him in Ramah his own city. As for Saul, he had removed the spirit mediums and the professional foretellers of events from the land.”—1 Sam. 28:3.

But a desperate situation arose in the 40th year of Saul’s reign. A mighty enemy force of Philistines came against the Israelite army camped at Mt. Gilboa in the valley of Jezreel. Saul was terrified. Because he had left Jehovah’s laws, Jehovah no longer responded to his appeals. Prior to his recent death, the prophet Samuel had refused to see Saul. So now, in this desperate situation, Saul sought a spirit medium for guidance.

Saul’s servants told him that such a medium lived in the city of En-dor, located some 10 miles (16 km) away, not far from the Philistines camped at the city of Shunem. So Saul disguised himself and with two of his men made the dangerous journey to En-dor under cover of night. The woman was found and, after receiving assurance that she would not be exposed for practicing her God-condemned art, she agreed to contact the dead Samuel. (1 Sam. 28:4-12) In the course of the séance, “Samuel” appears, as the spirit medium describes to King Saul:

“‘A god I saw coming up out of the earth.’ At once [Saul] said to her: ‘What is his form?’ to which she said: ‘It is an old man coming up, and he has himself covered with a sleeveless coat.’ At that Saul recognized that it was ‘Samuel,’ and he proceeded to bow low with his face to the earth and to prostrate himself.

“And ‘Samuel’ began to say to Saul: “Why have you disturbed me by having me brought up?’ To this Saul said: ‘I am in very sore straits, as the Philistines are fighting against me, and God himself has departed from me and has answered me no more . . . And ‘Samuel’ went on to say: ‘Why, then, do you inquire of me, when Jehovah himself has departed from you?’”—1 Sam. 28:13-16.

Is the Bible here teaching that this woman really did bring back Samuel in some spiritual form? Or did her demon-controlled mind visualize a representation of Samuel?

Samuel or Not?

Remember, God’s law condemned spirit mediums, saying: “Do not turn yourselves to the spirit mediums, and do not consult professional foretellers of events, so as to become unclean by them. I am Jehovah your God. . . . I shall certainly set my face against that soul and cut him off from among his people. And as for a man or woman in whom there proves to be a mediumistic spirit or spirit of prediction, they should be put to death without fail.”—Lev. 19:31; 20:6, 27.

Clearly, Almighty God was strongly opposed to all spiritistic practices. And, as we have noted, God was also displeased with Saul because of his disobedience, and refused to communicate with him. So even if a spirit medium could get in touch with the dead, would that medium be able to force God to give Saul a message through dead Samuel? Is a spirit medium stronger than God?

Consider this too: God’s prophet Samuel strongly opposed spirit mediums while he was alive. As a follower of God’s law, he saw to it that they were put to death. So, then, would he, while he was dead, allow a spirit medium to arrange for him to meet with Saul? If Samuel refused to speak with Saul while alive, could a condemned medium make him do so after he had died?

Furthermore, why did God’s law label the practice of consulting the dead as something “unclean,” “detestable” and deserving of death? If the communication were actually with dead loved ones, why would a God of love designate this as a terrible crime? Why would he want to deprive the living of getting some comforting messages from the dead?

No, it obviously was not Samuel that the spirit medium of En-dor contacted. Samuel was dead, and at death, according to the Bible, a person “goes back to his ground; in that day his thoughts do perish.” (Ps. 146:4) Rather, the voice was that of a wicked spirit person, one of Satan’s angels, who was impersonating Samuel. These powerful, invisible agents of Satan have, by such methods, been promoting Satan’s lie of human immortality for thousands of years.

Source of the Knowledge

So when certain patients, revived from near-death situations, know about things that happened while they were “dead,” this may be due to dreams experienced, either when lapsing into unconsciousness or when coming out of it. Or, since the patients were not alive in some spiritual form personally to witness these things, they may have received such knowledge from the same source as did the spirit medium of En-dor. In their critical, near-death situation, as their life-forces were ebbing, the demons conveyed to them information that they could not receive by ordinary means.

We should not be surprised that Satan would operate in such devious ways. “Satan himself keeps transforming himself into an angel of light,” the Bible warns. In fact, God’s Word says: “The god of this system of things has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, that the illumination of the glorious good news about the Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine through.”—2 Cor. 11:14; 4:4.