By Desire Emmanuel with Agency Reports
A doctor in the United Kingdom has shared the visions he claimed many dying patients see before they pass away.
Appearing on a recent episode of the Diary Of A CEO podcast, hosted by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Dr Christopher Kerr went into details about six things discovered from interviewing dying patients, including what they saw in their final moments.
Dr Christopher Kerr is a hospice physician, neurobiologist, and CEO who has spent nearly three decades studying the psychological and spiritual experiences of the dying.
He has also researched end-of-life dreams and visions, challenging conventional medical views on mortality and grief.
He and his team have documented interviews with over 1,500 dying patients, tracking the comforting, non-delirious dreams and visions that 80% to 90% of people experience as they approach death.
During the episode by the BBC, Dr Kerr said that nearly 90% of dying patients experience intense dreams or visions. He said many patients start to see the same thing – loved ones who have passed away.
While he said there isn’t a single universal image, he claimed loved ones are the most common and comforting theme he found during his research into dying patients.
He said these people appear to be those who provided unconditional love, and patients often describe these encounters as incredibly real, comforting, and free of fear.
“The vast majority of people, nearly 90% of people, start to have very intense dreams or visions,” he said.
“And the overriding theme is that they’re seeing people who they’ve loved and who they’ve lost. And very specifically, it’s those that have loved them unconditionally, purely, and those that aren’t there. Dying is progressive sleep.”
The doctor said that patients often rate these experiences as a ’10/10′ for realism, feeling they are true occurrences rather than typical dreams or hallucinations. He also claimed that these visions are deeply comforting and notably free from the fear or distress typically associated with delirium.
“Very vivid are these dreams. Very little is said between the dreamer and the person in the dream,” he said, while explaining his research findings.
“What you’ll notice… which is striking, is the absolute absence of fear.
“So these dreams never deny the fact that they’re dying. They almost transcend it. And they really sometimes have trouble finding language for what they’re seeing, but they know how they felt, which is ‘kind of put back together’,” he added.
Sharing an example, Dr Kerr showed a video of a patient called Paul, who describes having approximately 15 vivid dreams about his deceased wife leading up to his death. He specifically notes that in these dreams, she was always wearing a ‘beautiful light blue dress.”
Dr Kerr also said these visions can happen while dying patients are awake, not just when they are asleep dreaming.
He said: “When we ask them to scale it zero to 10 on the degree of realism, it’s always a 10. So, it feels like this actually happened.
“And those of them who are having these experiences in the wake state, you can watch them. They’re looking right through you. They’re looking at the room. They’re petting the dog that isn’t there… 50% occur when they’re awake. It’s usually measurable within weeks, a couple of weeks [before they die], and it picks up as you get closer to death.”
The doctor also said that these end-of-life experiences are linked to the process of dying, which he describes as “progressive sleep” where sleep cycles and architecture change as one approaches death.
He also explained that as patients become more introspective and physically diminished, they naturally spend more time in these inner states.
While some might wonder if these visions are caused by delirium or brain chemistry, Dr Kerr suggested that his and his team’s research screens for delirium and distinguished it from these experiences.
The doctor said he essentially viewed these experiences as a way for patients to find peace, resolve past wounds, and feel reconnected to loved ones.
