Do Animals Come Back To Visit After Death

As I raised my head upward from the footing to look effectually, I saw my deceased domestic dog from my babyhood bounding towards me. … It was overwhelmingly wonderful. I felt completely at peace and totally happy. I was and so excited to encounter her again, and I did not question the feel at the time. It was as if she had never died and she had always been waiting for me to wake up from my nap in the grass.

These words, taken from example reports collected by the Near-Expiry Experience Research Foundation, are from a young seaman who was recalling an experience that followed a life-threatening autumn from a navy pier. Subsequently losing consciousness, he plant himself in "an absolutely beautiful green field of grass" with his love canine friend.

After the reunion, he of a sudden became aware that he was in the medical unit of measurement, and a corpsman was shouting at him to "wake upwardly." The seaman later described those moments with his dog as "very brief, just very real. …There was non a single aspect of that feel which did not feel real."

The awareness of existence transported from a life-threatening situation to a place of peace, coming together with a deceased being embodying love and connexion, and then finding oneself all of a sudden "sent dorsum" is consequent with what are chosen near-death experiences (NDEs). The term was coined past Raymond Moody, Medico, PhD, in his 1975 volume, Life Later Life, in which he identified some of the core aspects of these mysterious experiences.

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Subsequent research has revealed that NDEs are common when a person has a close castor with death, during a psychologically traumatic outcome or nears the end of life. Known to have occurred during cardiac arrests, traumatic injuries, surgery, accidents, suicide attempts, childbirth, combat, and life-threatening illnesses, NDEs are reported beyond many cultures and have been recorded throughout history.

Research suggests that around 20 per centum of people who have a shut call with death report ane or more features of an NDE. These include a sense of leaving i's body, existence transported to a distant place (sometimes through a tunnel, which is where the "tunnel of light" imagery comes from), reuniting with deceased loved ones, meeting spiritual beings or experiencing a "panoramic" life review (sometimes spoken of as having one'southward life pass before one's eyes), then returning to the torso.

Although these experiences tin can be sorry, they are ordinarily associated with positive furnishings, such as an expanded understanding of spiritual matters, feelings of peace and joy, loss of fright of decease, and a sense of interconnection with others,

Despite decades of empirical research exploring everything from the origins, prevalence and characteristics of NDEs to their impact and cross-cultural validity, no systematic inquiry exists on the frequency with which the loved ones who announced during NDEs have four legs and a tail.

According to Janice Holden, EdD, LPC-S, LMFT, editor of the Journal of Nearly-Death Studies and pb editor of The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences, "Despite numerous people'south reports that they were reunited with love deceased pets during their NDEs, I'm not aware of a systematic study focused on this touching phenomenon."*

Indeed, in that location are many tantalizing anecdotes and instance reports of dogs coming to greet their man friends. For example, I worked with a patient named Alma, who, as she approached decease, expressed a deep sense of peace. When I asked where this peace came from, she told me a story about having survived a fire many years earlier, during which she had lost consciousness and been burned severely.

I remember leaving my body. I could come across myself on the footing below and the ambulance guys working on me. It was all very strange. Then I felt myself moving away. I saw a beautiful light and heard this amazing music that only brought me such peace. Eventually I constitute myself in a big thou where I'd grown up. I saw Sadie, my all-time babyhood friend, a cute little Schnauzer. She was running toward me, wagging her tail. I'd missed her so much when she died. Nevertheless, at that place she was, coming to greet me.

Afterwards an emotional reunion, Alma's mother joined them and encouraged her to "get dorsum." Alma didn't want to return. "I felt so happy, so loved. I wanted to exist there forever." Every bit her mother spoke words of encouragement, Sadie licked Alma's face. "She was licking me like crazy and I was laughing with joy. Then I suddenly woke up in the burn unit with the worst pain I'd e'er felt." Over the following months, as she endured many agonizing treatments, including several large skin grafts, Alma clung to those moments with her mother and Sadie. "I was never afraid of death again. I know I'one thousand going to be okay. I know Sadie and Mom are waiting for me."

Cease of Life Dreams and Visions

Many people have heard of NDEs but are surprised to learn that these experiences are part of a larger continuum of not-ordinary experiences common at the end of life. Often referred to as deathbed phenomena or end-of-life transpersonal experiences, these include things similar end-of-life dreams and visions (ELDVs) and after-expiry communications.

End-of-life dreams refer to profound and meaningful dreams that occur inside the context of dying—dreams that stand apart from others in that they are poignantly vivid and "more than existent than existent." For some, they accept the quality of a waking experience more than a dream. Such dreams oft bring a sense of connection with deceased loved ones and/or a felt sense of an afterlife as well as comfort, joy and an increased acceptance of death.

Maggie Callanan, a hospice nurse, chronicled her experiences with finish-of-life dreams in her pioneering book with Patricia Kelley, Final Gifts. Hospice physician Christopher Kerr, Doc, PhD, recently conducted systematic research into ELDVs. In his book, Expiry Is But a Dream: Finding Promise and Meaning at the Finish of Life, he observes that, although they can be transformative, their content "often consist[due south] simply of dreams or visions about everyday events, family unit, love, even pets."

Though dogs may announced in end-of-life dreams at any age, Kerr notes that they are especially likely to arrive in the dreams of dying children. Speculating on why, he writes, "Children often practice non know someone who has already died. As a result, the deceased who accept loved them best and come up back to them in the end are often dear pets."

He recalls a xiii-year-old named Jessica who was having dreams about her deceased black Lab. "I dream of my old dog, Shadow, that passed away. He is in a proficient place," she said. "He occasionally comes to see me, and I have a feeling he is there to say information technology is okay. I'one thousand in a safe place."

Jessica'southward dreams of Shadow occurred just prior to her death. According to Kerr, they brought the child "solace and the comfort of knowing she would exist entering a sheltering, prophylactic, and familiar territory aslope her furry friend."

Terminate-of-life visions, sometimes chosen deathbed visions, are similar to end-of-life dreams, merely they occur when a patient is awake. Such visions are often experienced by patients equally visitations or reunions with deceased loved ones whom only they can see. As with terminate-of-life dreams, these experiences are typically meaningful, comforting and profound. Many of those who experience these visions written report that the "visitors" who arrive convey a sense that they will be accompanying the patient on a trip to some other place. And, as with dreams, these visions sometimes include dogs.

Marilyn Mendoza, PhD, a clinical instructor at Tulane University Medical Center, recalls a dying woman who had a vision of her married man and canis familiaris, both of whom were deceased. "She stated that her husband had taken her mitt and, forth with the one-time dog, told her he would show her the path to follow to be able to dice peacefully."

Although such visions may occur months prior to death, they are most likely to occur when decease is imminent. In their book, At the Hour of Death: A New Wait at the Show for Life After Death, Karlis Osis, PhD, and Erlendur Haraldsson, PhD, approximate that about 62 percent of the patients in their study who'd had such visions died within 24 hours.

Given that these visions tend to occur so close to death when patients may no longer exist able to communicate, the presence of some visions may only be inferred. For instance, I once sat with a young man at the bedside of his dying female parent. She hadn't been awake in two days. Her respirations were shallow and rapid. Suddenly, she opened her eyes wide, a look of happiness and surprise on her confront. "Come here, boy" she said excitedly, "I've missed you so much." And so she airtight her eyes and was silent, a smile nevertheless on her face.

I looked at her son to meet what he made of what we had seen. He wiped tears from his eyes. "That'due south exactly how she used to call our old canis familiaris, Trapper. She ever had a special connectedness with him. Exercise y'all think it'south possible she saw him?"

Though incommunicable to ostend, I smiled and nodded my head.

After-Death Communication

After-death communication (ADC) involves seeing, sensing or receiving signs from a loved 1 who has died. In their book, The Art of Dying: A Journey to Elsewhere, neuropsychiatrist Peter Fenwick, Md, and his wife, Elizabeth Fenwick, estimate that between twenty percent to 50 percentage of grieving individuals study some type of ADC. In a systematic review of all research on ADC from the tardily 1800s to 2010, Jenny Streit-Horn found that at to the lowest degree one in iii people worldwide have reported ADC at some fourth dimension in their lives—usually, but non always, in the context of grief.

Little is known almost how frequently beloved dogs brand such appearances later they die. According to Michael Pull a fast one on, DVM, who has collected many such reports, information technology is common. Visits come in many forms, including seeing a dog's form, hearing paws or barks, or inexplicably finding what looks like a deceased dog's fur on a carpet that has recently been cleaned.

In his book, Canis familiaris Trunk, Dog Mind: Exploring Canine Consciousness and Total Well-Existence, Fox shares a story about Anita, whose deceased domestic dog Barney used to crash-land her side with his nose whenever he wanted to go exterior. Before long subsequently Barney's expiry, Anita began being awakened at night by the feeling of a little nose bumping up against her side. "One dark when I awoke to turn over in bed," Anita reported, "I saw his reflection in a mirrored closet door. I was surprised, only so glad that he was there. Looking closer at the flooring in front of the mirror where he should be, he wasn't there. He could only exist seen in the mirror."

As a long-time hospice social worker, I've heard many reports similar these, involving homo and animal loved ones. From dream visitations to unlikely coincidences and telling synchronicities, these experiences are often reassuring and meaningful. Every bit Fox puts information technology, "Many people take been greatly moved and comforted by the afterlife communications of their animal companions, and their lives have been significantly changed past the revelation that there is more to mortal life than we know."

Despite the fact that these transpersonal events tend to bring peace, joy and comfort, affirming the continuation of connections thought to accept been severed by death, many people are reluctant to share them with others, fearing they will exist dismissed or ridiculed. Unfortunately, this oft does happen when they are shared with those who are unsupportive or believe they know improve.

Some people insist on reducing these events to biological (due east.g., decreased oxygen, delirium) or psychiatric effects (e.g., hallucinations, wishful thinking). Some attribute them to imagination or medication side effects. Others reject them on the ground of personal beliefs or world views with which such experiences announced to be at odds.

Although some research suggests the possibility that in that location may be some biological mechanism at piece of work, none have ever been proven. Moreover, there is also research suggesting these events are real and that consciousness survives beyond expiry.

Merely getting lost in a debate about the origins of these experiences—which is not likely to be solved any fourth dimension presently—misses the signal. For those who have had them, these events tend to be profound and transformative. Equally Fenwick suggests, "Perhaps all we can logically do is to recognize first, their validity for the dying person, and second, their costive value both to them and to the families who grieve for them. If we are fortunate enough to witness or feel these events, we must acknowledge their spiritual significance, and never dismiss them every bit meaningless past-products of the dying process."

For those who have felt and received love from a faithful animal companion and who take grieved for the loss of a canine loved ane, it is no stretch to imagine that one twenty-four hour period, they volition exist waiting for us, tails wagging, when we make our own transitions into the mystery of death.

*Holden, J. Personal communication, 7/21/2020

Source: https://thebark.com/content/near-death-experiences-will-our-dogs-be-waiting-us

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