THE IMPACT OF NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCES, WITH LEE WITTING

Caer Hallundbaek speaks with Reverend Dr. Leland Witting, Pastor of the Union Street Brick Church in Bangor, Maine and Staff Chaplain at Eastern Maine Medical Center. He holds a doctorate in Near Death Studies from Bangor Theological Seminary and is a board member of the International Association for Near-Death Studies. Founded in 1978, it was the first organization in the world devoted to the study of near-death and similar experiences and their relationship to human consciousness. Topics in this hour include: what a near death experience (NDE) is; Witting's own experience of an NDE at age 8; who coined the term near death experience in the 1970s and its prevalence in culture and films; the 4 phases of NDE - disassociation, naturalistic/supernatural perception, life review, return; distressing NDEs; some aftereffects of NDE; how his affects his service as a hospital chaplain; stories of NDEs – accounts that he has found particularly striking; why is it important to study NDEs; its unifying impact on religious communities; the material and the spiritual; how today's crises, including the Occupy Wall Street movement, is a result of a deep-seated desire for a change in values that are spiritual at their core; and more.