It led to his 2010 book, "Visions, Trips and Crowded Rooms: Who and What You See Before You Die. "I had one particular patient - it was hours later she passed away - she was describing the angels out in the hallway, saying, 'Look at how beautiful they are, they're in beautiful white gowns.' "ĭavid Kessler, a Los Angeles writer who has worked in hospice care, interviewed doctors, nurses, social workers, clergy and others to learn what terminally ill patients had told them about seeing those who had preceded them in death. "I've seen patients sit there and have a conversation in front of me with someone I couldn't see," said Melissa Brestensky, a nurse in the Cabot Inpatient Unit of Good Samaritan Hospice in Butler County. Sightings of angels are also a common theme, which perhaps occurs more often with those who are religious.
This is a portent for frustrations or obstacles that are hindering your path toward your goals.
You are one-sided in your views and in your thinking. Perhaps you feel that you have too much responsibility to bear and are overburdened by circumstances in your life. She and others said the more comfortable and familiar patients get with hospice staff, the more likely it seems they are willing to bring up such experiences. Dead person coming back to life dream is a warning for your fears of aging and dying. "I said, 'Wow, that is amazing,' " Hayes recalled, "and the next day she passed." My mother, husband, sister - they were all standing right at the foot of my bed.' I saw all of my loved ones who have passed on before me. I sat down, and she said, 'Katie, you'll never believe what I saw last night. "One day I went to her, and she was in bed. Katie Hayes, also with UPMC Family Hospice and Palliative Care, recalled an elderly woman terminally ill with heart disease whom she got to know well over a period of months. "What Nancy knew was Tom's end-of-life experiences had meaning. "She said, 'Because he's seeing his deceased mother.' " Kerr related. When the experienced nurse, Nancy, suggested otherwise, he asked why. He advised a nurse that a terminally ill patient still had quality time ahead if given IV antibiotics and other fluids. In a 2015 Ted Talk, Kerr explained his own awakening to the topic as a relatively new doctor of hospice patients in 1999. One reason the phenomenon may not be widely known is dying people - or their family members - fear the perceptions of their mental state if they discuss it.
"There's almost like this built-in mechanism of serenity or safety, and the fear of death kind of diminishes," said Kerr, who was involved in the research, which is being updated and broadened, and in plans for a book and film documentary, "Death is But a Dream," tied to such end-of-life experiences.Īmong those who feel positive, Kerr said, "the predominant themes are of love and forgiveness." He noted, however, that people are often reluctant to volunteer information until told that what they've experienced is normal among the dying. In fewer than 1 in 5 instances, the patient reported distress from the dream or vision. In about three-fifths of cases, there was a theme of preparing to go somewhere. Of participants in that study, more than half the time they were reported to be either awake or a combination of asleep and awake during their experiences.