Next meeting will discuss near death experiences

HUMANIST ASSOCIATION

The Leisure World Humanist Association will meet on Sunday, Dec. 5, in Clubhouse 3, Room 1, from 10:30 a.m.-noon.

Association President Dave Silva will speak on the subject of near-death experiences (NDE). He will talk about how frequently NDEs occur, what factors the experiences have in common, and why they occur for some people and not others.

Silva had a near-death experience when he was 8 years old, and like others who have gone through the experience, he remembers it in vivid detail. For many people who have had an NDE, it alters the way they view life.

Some of the common factors people experience in an NDE are becoming pain free, seeing a bright light at the end of a tunnel, having an out-of-body experience, meeting living or dead loved ones and sometimes even religious figures, and experiencing time distortion and a rapid review of memories.

NDEs became a subject of broad interest after psychiatrist Raymond Moody published his best-selling book “Life After Life,” in 1975. According to the Scientific American, about 17 percent of people who nearly die experience NDEs. People who are religious are no more likely to experience an NDE than people who are not; however, the nature of the NDE is often different.