Welcome, splendid viewers, to Science and Spirituality on Supreme Master Television for the third of a three part series on near death experiences or NDEs featuring a leading expert in the field, Dr. Jeffrey Long.

The non-profit Near Death Experience Research Foundation was founded by Dr. Long, a radiation oncologist from Louisiana, USA and his wife in 1998 and serves as a platform for people from all walks of life to share their personal NDE stories with the public by submitting them online at the Foundation’s website.

Over a thousand near death experiencers, from all age groups, races, and religious backgrounds have documented their stories at the website. Dr. Long has discerned nine common themes from these recorded experiences. He says that these similarities constitute nine lines of evidence that, taken together, are conclusive proof for the existence of an afterlife.

It is astounding to me the wisdom and knowledge that near-death experiencers sometimes are aware of. It's as if all of a sudden, in the unearthly realms, they have a sense of knowing how the universe works, how it all fits together. Unfortunately, when they returned to Earth, they often, in fact typically find it very difficult to articulate their knowledge.

A good example of that is one near-death experiencer who said that the universe of knowledge that he had during his near-death experience when he returned to his earthly body was like trying to hold an ocean of unearthly knowledge in a tea cup of his earthly brain.

So as result of that, when they're again interacting with something infinite and having that type of infinite wisdom, it's just simply not reasonable to think that those of us in finite earthly existence are going to be able to remember and assimilate and understand all of that infinite knowledge.

A commonly reported feeling among near death experiencers is a desire to not return to the body after stepping into the afterlife. Dr. Long has documented the different reasons people have cited for returning to the physical realm.

When there's a discussion about returning into their earthly body, the near-death experiencer generally doesn't want any part of going back to the earthly body. They feel that intense peace, connection, love, and harmony. They feel they are a part of that unearthly heavenly realm and they want to stay there.

The most common reason that they ultimately decide if you will, to choose to return to their earthly body is number one: being in loving relationships, especially family relationships seemed to be very, very important in terms of what they need to learn. Important lessons about love and relationships are one of the major reasons that people ultimately choose to come to Earth.

Another important reason is that they return to their earthly body because they have lessons to learn. In other words, they realize that there are important things that they need to learn during their earthly existence, there are important lessons that apparently can only be learned here on Earth in an earthly existence. That is so important that they are willing to leave the beauty and wonder of a heavenly realm to return to Earth.

A lot of times you hear they're told ''It's not your time yet, you have to go back.” That's a very common phrase.

Many near-death experiences will have the phrase ''It's not your time.'' There seems to be an implication in that statement that there's a time when you're ready to return to the earthly realm or unearthly realm or that heavenly realm permanently. There's a time when the earthly life really should end. What seems to be important is that you have finished learning the lessons that you need to learn during your earthly life.

In fact, near-death experiencers will often say being in that earthly existence is actually a gift, it's actually a part of their overall spiritual development that they've had that opportunity to come down to Earth and to live their existence here.

Despite the large and growing body of scientific evidence for the reality of near death experiences, some have suggested alternative explanations for people’s accounts such as that they are mere hallucinations. Dr. Long now addresses one of these alternative theories.

Skeptics, they're trying to explain the near-death experience by the lack of oxygen to the brain. Can you describe what happens when we have a lack of oxygen and how that is different from a near-death experience?

One of my favorite skeptical explanations, if you will, of near-death experience is hypoxia which means decreased oxygen in the blood. But many of us in our life have had hypoxia: we may become severely short of breath, we may be experiencing suffocation for a whole variety of reasons. Well, when you're hypoxic - it has been very scientifically studied and determined - you slowly have decreased consciousness and the more hypoxic you get, the more toward unconsciousness you become.

Finally, when you've been hypoxic or you have a low enough blood oxygen level you're actually completely unconscious. Hypoxia and its associated progression toward complete unconsciousness is actually a very strong explanation for the inexplicability of near-death experiences in the sense that they are occurring in the face of a life-threatening event often with severe hypoxia at a time they should be associated with unconsciousness. And yet, the near-death experience, they are not unconscious, they are having these highly lucid, vivid, ordered experiences.

We’ll have more from our interview with the knowledgeable Dr. Long in just a few moments. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

Welcome back to Science and Spirituality on Supreme Master Television. According to Dr. Jeffrey Long’s book Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences, those that have undergone a near death experience report remarkably similar aspects of their experience regardless of their age group, religious background or culture.

One of the lines of evidence Dr. Long has advanced as proof of the afterlife is what he calls lucid or crystal-clear consciousness. This is defined as alertness when one is considered clinically dead and is a state that is not able to be explained by medical science.

Can we elaborate on ''lucid consciousness''?

The great majority of people that have a near-death experience, even though every physical test and clinical observation indicates that they are unconscious or clinically dead, at that time they are having a highly lucid experience. In fact, one of my studies' survey questions asked what was your level of consciousness and alertness at the time of your near-death experience?

About 76% of near-death experiencers said that their level of consciousness and alertness was actually higher than that of their earthly everyday life, and that's medically inexplicable.

I mean, clinically, if you go to any dictionary on Earth, unconscious means “no consciousness.” That means no ability to have a conscience, remembrance during that time that you're unconscious. And yet, consistently, essentially every near-death experience at the time that they are unconscious, that's when the near death experience is occurring. And there's no possible medical explanation for it.

One of our survey questions asked near-death experiencers if their experience was dream-like in any way. The question was deliberately worded for them to give an affirmative “yes” response if there was any part of their near-death experience that was in any way like a dream.

Essentially, uniformly, the response to that question was not just ''no'', but ''absolutely no.'' Near-death experiencers responded over and over and over that there was absolutely no connection between the experience of dreams and their near-death experience.

The near-death experience is not fragmented, it's very clear, it's not blurred, not confused.

Virtually all other types of pathological conditions of human consciousness - that is dreams, maybe hallucinations, maybe even psychotic episodes – typically, in other types of altered consciousness, the flow of the experience is fragmentary. That can happen in other types of pathological altered consciousness as well, but you essentially never see that experience. The experience elements don't skip around.

They are very logical and they are ordered in which they occur and very flowing with no skipping around. There's continuity from a natural progression from one element to the other typically seen in near-death experiences. Near-death experience has nothing to do with dreams whatsoever.

Another factor that was considered is since 1975, more and more people have become aware of near-death experiences because there have been books published and because of TV shows.

One of the studies I did was to compare near-death experiences before 1975. Now that's an important year because that was the year that the book ''Life After Life'' by Dr. Raymond Moody was published, and that was the first book that described near-death experience. Before 1975, we knew essentially nothing about near-death experience. In fact, the term wasn't even invented.

But as part of my study, I looked at near-death experiences that occurred prior to 1975 and compared them to near-death experiences that occurred after 1975 and compared the elements of the experience. They were essentially, absolutely identical between the two groups. So that tells me, as a scientist, that it doesn't make any difference ''when'' your near death experience occurred, if you'd even heard about near-death experience at all.

A near-death experience seemed to be constant whether or not there's any possibility that you'd have even heard of near-death experience. There seems to be no suggestion whatsoever from my research, from that study, that if you've heard of a near-death experience that that will alter what you share about your near-death experience at all.

Also you mentioned in the book that about 66% of people who had a near-death experience have never even heard of a near-death experience before that.

Yes, that's true, surprisingly. We had a surprisingly high percentage of my near-death experiencers surveyed, about two thirds indicated that at the time of their near-death experience they didn't even know what a near-death experience was, they'd never heard about it.

And yet, they have typical near-death experiences just like all other people even those who have heard about near-death experience. So once again, further strong evidence that it makes no difference whether you've heard of a near-death experience or not heard about a near-death experience, that is not going to change the elements of what occurs in a near-death experience at all.

Dr Jeffrey Long is not only convinced that there is an afterlife, he is also sure that death is a transition to another wonderful new beginning. He shares with everyone a beautiful message: “My absolute understanding that there is an afterlife for all of us - and a wonderful afterlife.” And: “The bottom line is what's on the other side is home.”

Our deep thanks Dr. Jeffrey Long for your insightful work that is showing the world through the lenses of science that death is not the end of the road, but the start of a new journey for those who cross to the other side. We wish the Near Death Experience Research Foundation the very best in its future work in this fascinating area that blends science and spirituality.

For more details on Dr. Jeffrey Long, please visit Dr. Long’s book Evidence of the Afterlife is available at Respected viewers, thank you for your company today on Science and Spirituality. Next is Words of Wisdom, following Noteworthy News. May the grace of Heaven always be upon us.