I recently had the pleasure of making a pilgrimage to my alma mater, the University of Virginia, in beautiful Charlottesville, VA. It was a gorgeous late-winter day, and I strolled the “grounds” (Note: Not the “campus,” as any UVA student quickly learns), taking in the glorious Rotunda and Lawn, and wandering through a few of the gardens enclosed within elegant “serpentine” brick walls, where lemony daffodils were already abloom far before ours up north had even begun to poke their sleepy heads through the soil. I remembered studying in those gardens, and even taking exams there, unwatched, as the U. has always had an Honor System that allows for such things. I thought about, and truly felt, the history of the place, founded and designed by Thomas Jefferson (or “Mr. Jefferson,” as he’s known on grounds). And I marveled that a place so steeped in history and tradition is now, in fact, the home of some of the most remarkable, most cutting-edge research in the field of what some would term “the paranormal.”
In honor of that visit, Reader, I’m thrilled to share this interview with Bruce Greyson, MD, UVA Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences, and colleague of Dr. Jim Tucker, who heads up the University’s remarkable Division of Perceptual Studies, and whom I featured in my first blog entry, as well as in my book Adventures of a Soul. While Dr. Tucker has focused his fascinating work mainly on children’s past-life memories, Dr. Greyson’s area of expertise is the NDE, or near-death experience. (And I can only say: Go, Wahoos, go!)
In this excellent interview, Dr. Greyson discusses the prevalence of NDEs (some 5 percent of the population have experienced them); the patterns and features of NDEs that are consistent across cultures—going as far back as ancient Greece and Rome; the accurate and verifiable things NDE experiencers have observed that logically should have been impossible for them to observe while unconscious and apparently “out of body”; the fact that NDE experiencers have often encountered deceased friends and loved ones whom they did not yet know were deceased at the time they “met” them during the NDE; how NDEs have dramatically affected and altered the lives of the great majority of those who have had them; how science has tried to explain NDEs; and more.
There are a host of other interesting interviews with Dr. Bruce Greyson on YouTube, and he’s also featured in the provocative documentary Surviving Death (along with Dr. Jim Tucker), based on the book of the same name by journalist Leslie Kean and available on Netflix. I haven’t yet read Dr. Greyson’s book, After, but Reader, it’s high on my list.
I had planned to visit Jim Tucker, who has been so kind to me and to my book, during my visit to the U., but alas, he was called to attend to a family matter and unable to meet up with me, though he hoped to, he assured me, next time I pass through. I’ll be sure to contact him then, and I’m hoping to meet Dr. Greyson too. It’s my dream to be a fly on the wall in the offices of the Division of Perceptual Studies. I’m wondering what other provocative stuff they’re looking into these days! Is sixty-two too old to be a student intern? Student of the metaphysical, that is!
Will a day ever come when UVA students may actually take courses in Perceptual Studies, or even Parapsychology? I’ll have to ask these two pioneering men of science for their take on that, next time I’m down in C’ville. Meantime, well, a gal can dream . . .