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;etd11irDftsEvidence for life after death from Indiaand surprisingNewevidence for life after deat has come from India. It could be a block * buster in the field of what happens after we die.The story begins with Karlis Osis, Latvian • born psychologist and research-ir director for the American n Society, for Psychical Research in New York.George PlagenzReligionFor years Osis had studied the evidence for life after death. He had investigated the death - bed visions of hundreds of hospital patients who claimed to have had n glimpses of a post * mortem existence.he wondered.Gallup Polls showed that three out of four Americans believe in life after death* Their religion and culture had fostered this belief.visions as people in the West, that would rule out the wish fulfillment theory and add weight to the testimony about a life after death.n He had read Dr. Elisabeth Kubler * Ross’ studies of peo-y pie who had been clinically v dead and later revived and 0 who told of having visited a place that was “beautiful and inspiring beyond descrip-? Uon.”Was the brain, at the moment of death, just projecting these beliefs on to the screen of the mind?Osis decided to go to India and check out bis thesis, He is navy finishing a book on his findings.There was one possible way to find out.Osis was impressed by all the testimony — but not com-1 plelely. One question kept• hugging him.“Is it all wish fulfillment?'if the people in Eastern countries who have no wish for immortality, who want to get off the wheel of life’' and whose idea of paradise is oblj-vion — not living forever — }fthese people should turn out to have the same death - bedWhat Osis has concluded after interviewing 1700 medical personnel in India concerning the experiences of their dying patients is that there is no difference in the kind of death - bed imagery a person sees whether he lives in India or the U.S.The basic death - bed experience cuts across culturalTop adviser talks aboutreligion, armed forcesn By GEORGE W. CORNELL it NEW YORK (AP) -The 3S top adviser on religious n- affairs in the armed forces, Maj. Gen. Henry J. Meade, . savs militarv life these davsthe spiritual values that it provokes.Meade, the Air Force chief of chaplains and also chairman of the ArmedForces chaplains boardregiments of the American Revolution.From that time into the present, Meade said, ecumenical cooperation among the different majordifferences, says Osis. It is the same whether one is Christian, Jew, Moslem orHindu.He says the dying, whatever their orientation, see a world of great beauty and harmony. The experience is gratifying and value -fulfilling.This is not what Osis was prepared for in India.“What the people of the East expect after death issome form of reincarnation,he says, But this is not something they look forward to with any anticipation. Reincarnation to them is like hell is to us. It is a gloomy prospect, not a joyous one.If the last impressions of the dying are based on their expectation of what awaits them at death, it might have been supposed that those at death's door in India would see visions of frightening proportions.But that was not true in the great majority of cases, says Osis. I was both sur* prised and happy at discovering this.ttAnother fascinating aspect of Osis’ study — which corresponded to the findings of Kubler - Ross and Dr. Raymond Moody in this country — was that the dying in India often recognised departed relatives and friends who had come to guide them in their transition to the next world.the apparition who came to lake the departed to his new abode was a mythological or religious figure.“Here we became aware of how cultural factors affect the visions of the dying, says Osis, just as we did in thiscountry.“A dying person in the U.S. with a strong religious feeling might identify the figure coming to guide or welcome him into the next world as Jesus.Osis decided that, while there was a common denominator in all the visions, that common denominator was experiential, not perceptual.“The dying, he says, “appear to experiencesomething real woRtferful put they see only in great outlines, not in details. They see somebody emanting a great light which makes them feel good. Something is there but .what exactly it is we cannot say. We must not take their descriptions literally.What is interesting to Qpis.ip the light of skeptics' criticism that the visions of the dying are strictly the result of cultural or religious forces, is that neither the 0L ble nor the Baghavad - Gita, the sacred Hindu scriptures, mentions the fact of a guide or welcomer in the next world.In some cases, however,Yet such apparitions are common among the dying both in the U.S. and in India.
Newspaper Details
Troy Times Record
Troy, New York, US
Sat, Feb 05, 1977
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Jane F.
USA 12 Apr 2020
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