friday, november 11, 1977
daily nebraskan
page 7
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By Marjio Lundstrom
On Aug. 31, rescuers grabbed Dan Daum's hair and
pulled him from the chilly waters of Pawnee Lake near
Lincoln.
The 27-year-old Omahan had tumbled into the lake
while retrieving an oar. His 14-year-old boating compan
ion screamed for help as Daum disappeared under water
for about two minutes.
Daum had no pulse as his rescuers took him to shore.
During those two minutes, Daum says today, he exper
ienced a bizarre sequence of events. Discussing it a week
later, he described what it was like to die.
Daum's experience a return from the dead to some, an
illusion to others-poses intriguing questions, especially
since it follows an almost classic pattern of seeming life-after-death
experiences.
What happened to Daum has happened to many
ojthers-in eerie exactness of detail. His account is strik
ingly similar to many cases reported to researchers.
The ramifications of the experiences are of the deepest
variety: Does the soul survive? Is there life after death?
Psychiatrists, - clergymen and those who . have
"returned".disagree,
. Real experiences
Whatever the interpretation, Daum and other Nebras
kans interviewed related experiences that were real to
them. All were certain the events had taken place.
And, in some way, each case was like one or more of
the others.
'Everything turned black. Then If was
just like everything speeded up
simultaneously. . . My body
was like clouds.'
Daum's experience was one he said was difficult to
express.
Slumped in a cushioned chair, he toyed with his wispy
brown hair and smoothed his mustache. Posters and wall
hangings ornamented the dimly lit room in the apart
ment house he helps manage. His fingers trembled as he
recalled the experience:
"Everything turned black. Then it was just like every
thing speeded up simultaneously. It was like I was a glider
or a helicopter-just sort of floating. My body was like
clouds.
"I could see what was happening below. Everything.
When I looked at myself lying in the boat, I thought,
'You dumb jackass, get up and move. Do something.
Fight, don't give up.
"I tried to communicate with the others. I yelled at
them. It didn't do any good. I tried to reach for anything,
but there wasn't anything there. I just couldn't reach far
enough. In a way, I was right in front of them. And yet I
was a million miles away."
Being of light
, After watching his own rescue, Daum says he was met
by a presences being of light.
"Somebody was there, but there was no form," he
said. "It was a very beautiful light-very brilliant, but
soft. It was a color you wouldn't mind looking at, I
remember how gentle the light was.
"If there isn't a God, then what the hell was that?"
The being of light spoke to him, Tie said, and showed
him a picture review of his life. Daum said the review
reminded him of the flickering frames of an old movie.
"I felt like I opened a door to my whole past and
walked right back into it," he laid. "It (being of light)
pointed out the mistakes I made and what I could have
' done to avoid them. It was a very content voice, yet it was
a learning, teaching type voice.
"It was like your father and mother comforting you
when you've been through something that's really hurt
you. They're gentle, but they're very strong and try to
give you advice ..." -
This story was written as an assignment in the Depth
Reporting class at the UNL School of Journalism. The
author is a senior from Wayne, She has been a reporter
for the Daily Nebraskan for nearly aye.ar.
Daum says he also encountered his mother and father,
both of whom had died violently. Both looked much like
they had in life, he said.
Whole face shone1
"My dad looked happy," he said. "He looked so happy
it was unbelievable. His whole face shone."
Daum said although he found the encounters comfor
ting and the floating sensation pleasant, he wanted to
come back into his body and live.
"I was confused and scared of dying, and I was too
damn stubborn to give up that easily," he said.
The being of light allowed him to return, he said.
"I asked him why he was letting me go back ... and
he told me that because I love life the way I do, he didn't
see any point in my giving it up. He told me that if I
wanted another chance, I'd have to make it worthwhile to
myself,"
The return was slow, Daum said he regained conscious
ness in the ambulance.
After being treated and released at Lincoln General
Hospital, Daum returned to Omaha to pick up his life
again. But the memory remains vivid and its effect pro
found. 'Everything different'
"After I came back here, everything was so different,"
he said. "Everything has a lot of beauty. The experience
has made me want to live 10 times more. People have
noticed a gentleness and contentment in my voice.'
Daum says now he is less afraid of death.
"It happens to us all, even to" trees," he said. "It's a
cycle that goes on, and if it docsn't-life wouldn't be life.
Death isn't beautiful, but in a way it is. In death, there is
beauty."
Daum's experience fits that of other Nebraskans.
The account most similar to his was that of 65-year-old
Frances O'Brien. of rural Denton. A strong, vivacious
woman, Mrs. O'Brien has operated a farm southwest of
Lincoln since her husband's death in 1968.
"I'm a fighter," she says, smiling. Shoulder length
silver-gray hair frames her angular face, which still boasts
strong, high cheekbones and flashing eyes.
Mrs. O'Brien suffers from a rare and what she described
as an incurable disease of the central nervous system,
systemic lupus erythematosus.
Heart stopped
In 1973, she underwent surgery at Methodist Hospital
in Rochester, Minn, During the operation, she said, her
heart and breathing stopped.
Then Mrs. O'Brien had an experience she says she
knows was no dream,
"I don't know how I even got there, but I was above
the bed and I saw them working so frantically to revive
me," she said, "I heard them talking. I could see and hear
and think because someone mentioned autopsy and I
realized they were talking about me,"
Mrs. O'Brien said the sensation was like being on an
air mattress on water on a slightly windy day,
'The transition was so easy," she said. "You don't
hurt anymore. If that's dying, then no one need fear,
"I didn't seem to need a body. It's a funny thing. I
didn't even seem like a wisp of smoke. I was just there.
I didn't have any thought of where I was going. I was
completely free-free like thought. There weren't any
dimensions. I could go where I wanted."
Competitive spirit
Mrs. O'Brien said she thinks the mention of autopsy
triggered her "competitive spirit" and helped her return to
her body,
"I was just stubborn enough I was going to do it," she
said. "Knowing myself, 111 accept a challenge. If some
body tells me I can't, then I must show them I can.?
Like Daum, Mis. O'Brien's feelings about death have
changed because of her experience.
"I'm not afraid to die" she said. "I
know definitely that you live on after you're supposed to
be dead, and you can take your intellect with you,"
Mrs, O'Brien's confidence that her experience confirms
life after death is not shared by two chaplains interviewed.
The Rev. -Aldine E. Anderson, director of chaplaincy
Hospital in Lincoln, said he does not deny that such
experiences exist, but said he does not think they have
anything to do with life after death.
Vivid dreams
Paolini said he believes the experiences are vivid
dreams, induced perhaps by the stress of illness or by
medication and drugs. Case similarities reflect similarities
in people, he said.
The rev, Aldine E, Anderson, director of chaplaincy
services at Omaha's Immanuel Medical Center, agreed that
similar accounts could be explained.
"There is a kind of universal attitude toward death,"
he said. "When you ask people about death, you are going
to get common kinds of answers because there is a
common way of looking at it"
Both agreed that so-called life-after-death experiences
do not support their religious beliefs.
The Bible does not teach immortality of the soul
Paolini said, but rather resurrection of the dead, Immor
tality of the soul is a Greek idea, he said.
"The Bible says to me that we die perfectly dead-then
we are resurrected," Paolini said. 'There is a gap between
dying and re-establishment of resurrection, not a continu
ous living of soul from life into death."
He described as fads such studies as Dr, Raymond A.
Moody's best-selling book Life Afterlife,
Bandwagon effect
"People make a lot of money writing books and
making speeches and everybody jumps on the
bandwagon," he said. 'They say what people want to
hear."
Reseachers who stress the beauty of death are "charla
tans," he said, because "anyone with compassion does not
think death is a beautiful field."
Paolini added that not all near-death "dreams" are
beautiful and pleasant.
"I've seen people who have had really bad trips," he
said.
'I heard them talking. I could see
and hear and think because someone
mentioned autopsy and I realized
they were talking about me.'
Only one of the Nebraskans interviewed described the
experience as unpleasant, A 24-year-old Lincoln high
school teacher, who did not want to be identified, said his
experience was "terribly frightening."
In September 1975, he underwent exploratory surgery.
His gall bladder was removed. Hours later, he suffered
massive internal hemorrhaging.
While hospital staff whisked him back to the operating
table, his heart stopped.
During the next four minutes, he experienced some
thing he said he wouldn't want to go through again,
"It wasn't a feeling of peacefulness," he said. Triere
wasn't any pain, but there wasn't any euphoria. It was a
feeling of saying, 'My God, look what almost happened'.'
Flashback of summer
Like Daum, this man was detached from his body and
watched a review of his life. However, his flashback en
compassed only memories of his past summer.
"It was a very rapid slide shdw of key things-not
many bad things, mostly good things," he said. "It was
like a moving picture, but I knew each thing was distinct."
Continued on p.8