This was on Drudge today: Hospice Death Dreams Study It found that dying patients have similar "dreams that aren't dreams" of being visited by loved ones who have previously passed.
What I 'know' about this comes from reports of people who were at a person's passing, and a 'similar-but-different' experience of mine, and that of a friend.
The first time I heard of anything like this was when my Grandpa died. I remember mom remarkinmg that he seemed at pease, and was smiling when he went. She said she thought it was because he could see Grandma and relatives waiting for him.
When I was about 13 or 14, Mom and I drove up to to see her cousin's daughter take vows at the Immaculate Heart Sisters' novitiate in Montecito. (And I'm pissed that I don't remember her name.) We met, and started walking up the hill to the ceremony. My Novitiate cousin and I were chatting, and the subject turned to an end of life experience she had heard of. An aunt was dying, and her husband was racing to get to her before she passed. He saw, as the house came into view, light streaming from all of the windows. When he got into the house, he found his wife had passed just about the time the house came into view. And everyone there swore that most of the lights in the house had been off.
After her sister passed away, my friend Carole had a dream of her. As she told me, the dream wasn't a dream, she was talking with her sister about how she had passed.
And finally, my own experience - some time after my mom passed, I had a dream of having a conversation with her. It was short, and the only thing I remember was her telling my that I was going to be all right.
When I awoke from that dream, I realized that it was not like any other dream I had ever dreamt. It wasan actual conversation with Martha. It felt "different".
I have had 'premonitions' that were true - a friend had called, and I "knew" it as I got a block or so from the house. When I came in, mom mentioned that my friend had indeed called. This happened twice, and I have no explanation for it. All I knoew is that I was dead certain that my friend had called. I'm relating this just to show that the kind of certainty I experienced when mom visited me was neither unusual, nor surprisingly new.
I know that some medical profesionals have said that the 'moving to the light' experience can be explained by chemicals produced in the brain when a patient is near death or dying; and that it's just a function of physiology. I do not know if this is just musing, conjecture, or is being studied. But I won't be surprised when someone uses it to explain what is documented in the Hospice Buffalo study.
Me, I have some conjectures and beliefs about it. One conjecture: assume there are chemical processes in the brain associated with near death/dying, and that they are common phenomena. What if, instead of the chemical process causing the experiences the dying have, the chemical processes are caused by the "dreams that aren't dreams"?
Is my conjecture ameinable to evidentiary proof? Possibly, but I have no idea how go about it. Is my conviction that my conversation with mom wasn't a dream provable? Same answer - I hve no idea how to prove it.
All I can say about my conversation with mom, and the other stories I've been told is I believe it. I spoke with mom.
But I couldn't prove it in court.
