Dear Reader,
Welcome to the website of my book 'On Heaven's Edge', in which I am offering you an interpretation of the so-called Near Death Experiences (NDE's) that puts the issues of death and dying in a new light. Summarizing: death can be seen as a transition to another form of life and - contrary to the opinion of many scientifically trained people - this view need not conflict with modern physics. Pretty important stuff, I think, because it's about death, an event we all have to face - while most people do not like that prospect.
The book originally appeared in Dutch as 'Rand van de Hemel'. A few years ago I discussed its contents with Patrick Bygate, a friend of mine who is an educated native English speaker. He was interested in the subject and considered it a pity that the book was only available in Dutch. So we decided to join forces and make an English version of the book. I translated the Dutch text in my best Dunglish, whereafter he translated it further into English. I am proud to say that he considered his part of the bargain as not more than a slight trimming of the text.
The end result is available now from your regular book shop (ISBN 978 94 639 8846 9), be it that it has to be imported from the Netherlands, lacking an English publisher. If you know one who might be interested, please, let me know (I am in full possession of the copyright). Or, even better, let that publisher know there's an opportunity to produce a book, written for a lay public, that clarifies the issue of life after death. Without recourse to matters of faith...
As I said before, most people do not like the perspective that in the end they are going to die. Maybe that after reading this book their outlook will be a bit less gloomy.
To give you the gist of the book you'll find below summaries of the chapters.
Wiebe Oost
1. THE PROBLEM
What is a human being? Just flesh and blood? Or is there more?
What is a human being? Descartes came to the only conclusion you can draw with certainty: "I think, therefore I am." But the question remains: What is "I"? That has to do with your brain. What can brain research tell us about "I"?
2. WHAT SCIENCE TELLS US
The human mind is an illusion...
Everything you do is accompanied by electric activity in your brain. According to many researchers those permanently changing patterns of electric voltages and currents are your self-conscious "I" and there doesn't exist something like an independent human mind. "I" is an illusion.
3. THE ARGUMENTS
We can't find anything... so there's nothing!
The accepted scientific thinking, the neopositivistic paradigm, assumes that measurable entities are the only items in existence. Therefore, because we can't meter the human mind, that mind can only be a product of our imagination.
That's philosophy, but if there's something outside our observable reality that's directing the currents in our brains, then that something must provide and use measurable energy and we haven't been able to detect even a trace of it. You can shrug your shoulders about a philosophical stance, but when it's about rigorous physical laws you have to comply - and the data that should be there are lacking...
4. THE OBJECTIONS
I'm so sorry, your honor, but I really couldn't do anything about it
If our mind is just electric activity in our brain, then that mind can't be more than a complicated automaton, guided by the observations of our senses, because electricity has to meet precise physical laws. In that case you can't be held responsible for your actions. Yet we direct our thoughts when we have to resolve a problem. The statement that the human mind can't be an independent entity because we can't meter it is unwarranted.
5. THE OTHER SIDE
Free minds!
People in a life-threatening situation may experience that suddenly they're looking at their own body from the outside, mostly from the ceiling. During this Near-Death-Experience (NDE) they are free to move around, unhampered by walls or doors. In this situation they 'see' and 'hear' things that they wouldn't have been able to see, even when they had been fully awake - and afterwards these observations turn out to have been fully correct.
Worldwide an estimated 24 million people have had this experience. So it looks that human consciousness can exist without a human body.
6. WHAT IS THAT, AN NDE?
Explaining the inexplicable
NDE's are of all times. Up till now none of the attempts to explain them did justice to all relevant facts. Based on the verifiably correct observations of people during their NDE we will have to accept that people can have intense experiences during a period that their brain is not functioning and that in this state they have the same feeling of their identity as during more usual circumstances. Our mind or self-conciousness can exist independent of our body, contrary to the neopositivistic view of that mind. There was, however, also a problem with the physics of the phenomenon. We will have to meet the conservation of energy.
7. ABOUT DIMENSIONS
There could be more than our eyes can see... also according to present day physics
The developments in physics in the past hundred years or so have led to the realization that our world could well be a constituent of a higher dimensional total. A more-dimensional reality allows things that are absolutely impossible in our three-dimensional world, things that are strongly reminiscent of the primary phases of an NDE.
By comparing our world to a two-dimensional one we can see that barriers like doors or walls in a lower dimensional world have no meaning in a higher dimensional one, just like the experience of a person during an NDE. Assuming that the mind that left the body is a higher dimensional entity we can resolve the conservation of energy problem without violating physics.
8. ABOUT LIGHT BULBS AND STRINGS
The physics of the smallest particles
During the past century physics has made tremendous progress, especially through the development of quantum physics and the relativity theory. An important candidate for a description of our world, consistent with our present physical understanding, is the superstring theory that states that there are more dimensions than our well-known three.
9. THE AUTONOMOUS I
Your unexpected aspect
People experiencing an NDE have no relationship with their body during that period, their thinking functions better than ever before and they correctly perceive what happens in the world around them, despite the fact that their brain isn't functioning.
According to the last chapter the supposition that there exist more and different dimensions has a sound physical background. We can begin to get some understanding of an NDE if we assume that a human being is a combination of a material body and an 'other-dimensional' part with the brain regulating our biological functions as well as acting as an intermediate between body and mind.
10. THE CONSEQUENCES
A different life style
When a human being is more than a body, death needn't be the end of your existence. The assertion that your self-conciousness will disappear when you die doesn't take into account our inability to measure things other than matter and energy and is therefore unwarranted. Scientifically it's acceptable that there is "more than the eye can see".
If your personality will survive death it's important to know what happens afterwards. People who underwent the deeper phases of an NDE were confronted with a judgement about their life, surprisingly in line with common religious beliefs.
11. FINALLY
A human being is more than the creature of flesh and blood that we meet in front of the mirror. Careful consideration of all aspects of NDE's forces us to accept that there is a self-conscious "something" that during your lifetime is connected to your body - which can also exist without that body. The idea that a human being has something we usually call our mind or our soul turns out to indicate, not a vague abstraction, but a concrete reality.
That is not something conflicting with the "usual" world, but it is linked to it. I have pondered with you how we can fit that extra into our knowledge of the physical world around us. The model I came up with is not more than a description that does justice to all known facts, contrary to the explanations that so far have been presented, explanations that often, quite unjustified, have been presented as "scientific". I do not claim that it is the only possible explanation - but so far I haven't had grounds to dissociate myself from it.
The existence of an hereafter is a central idea to almost all religions and that thought, as well as the notion of person-like entities, such as angels, is in line with the experiences of people who had an NDE and makes you wonder whether those religious notions might not be based on old experiences - instead of human fantasy. Even though that knowledge is now buried under everything religions have added in the course of time.
APPENDIX
A1. RELIGION
A motive for religion
NDE's are a phenomenon of all times, even very far ancestors will have experienced them, be it a much smaller percentage of the population than nowadays. The parallels between NDE's and religious notions suggest that NDE's might have to do with the origins of religion. During the deeper phases of an NDE people meet their forefathers, who in a sense turn out to still be alive. Ancestor worship is part of the eldest religions, a practice you still find in e.g. present-day Hinduism. Religious habits have become ever more complicated in the course of time, a self-enhancing process that may produce a system that bears barely any relationship with the original authentic experience and offers every opportunity for the wildest practices.
A2. RELIGIONS OF THE FAR EAST
This chapter contains a short overview of the ideas concerning an hereafter in Hinduism and Buddhism.
A3. ABRAHAMS DESCENDANTS
This chapter contains a short overview of the ideas concerning an hereafter in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
A4. A COMMON ORIGIN
Echos from the past.
The five religions of which we presented their ideas about an hereafter have to a large extend common roots, going back to Indo-European tribes. The ideas about God and the divine in different religions turn out to lie closer together than we often think.