End-of-Life Dreams and Visions, also known as Deathbed Visions, Departing Visions or Near-Death Awareness are dreams and waking visions often experienced by those who are dying from natural causes or from a long-term illness.For over 10 years, Julie McFadden has worked as a nurse - first working in Intensive Care Units and, more recently, working in end-of-life care (also known as palliative care) in hospices, where her role is to ensure that patients have the most comfortable end to their life. These ELE’s (end of life experiences) predominantly include messages of comfort from pre-deceased family members, and/or a sense of ‘going home’, both associated with a greater level of peace and acceptance of death. Arguably, more people will have a deathbed vision than a near-death experience, out-of-body experience, or past-life regression combined. And yet, deathbed visions are not as frequently discussed, studied or as well-accepted by the medical community. The Journal of Palliative Medicine has recently published two studies by Dr. Christopher Kerr and others that finally provide some of the desperately needed data on this phenomena. Quantifying and recording the experiences of those in hospice care has brought the frequency and importance of these experiences into sharp focus.īelow is the video of a TEDx talk where Dr. End-of-Life Dreams and Visions: A Qualitative Perspective From Hospice PatientsĮnd of Life Dreams and Visions/Nearing-Death AwarenessĮnd of life visions and dreams have been reported throughout history by people of all cultures and faiths.End-of-Life Dreams and Visions: A Longitudinal Study of Hospice Patients’ Experiences.You can access both ELDV studies in their entirety published in the Journal of Palliative Medicine here: Christopher Kerr introduces the results of his study in a TEDx talk After the video, keep reading for more information on ELDVs, including quotes from hospice nurses on their experiences, and my analysis of the study’s conclusions.ĭr. They are experienced by children as well as by adults, by the religious and the non-religious alike. Hospice nurses are well-acquainted with this nearly universal aspect of the dying process and claim they often gauge when to call family members based on their observation of these experiences.ĭescriptions of deathbed visions experienced by hospice nurses (from ): They can first occur several months to only several minutes before death, however they seem to increase in frequency as death approaches. I have worked for hospice for several years and it is normal and common for a dying person to have visions at the time of death but also once they ‘get close’ to the dying process. it is in preparation…their loved ones come to get them, tell them its ok, etc. it can be so unsettling for patients we tell them it is a normal thing and its ok to talk to them its ok to go with them. I work in hospice, and every patient I’ve had sees someone before they pass. In fact, my coworkers and I know the end is close when the patients move into this phase. I work with some patients who are from a culture that finds this phenomenon very, very disturbing. These patients often do not take comfort from it, but see it as something really scary. That kind of unsettles me, though I know they are seeing passed loved ones due to what they are saying (as translated by family members). It does make one think when all kinds of different people from a variety of backgrounds and cultural beliefs all experience the same phenomenon. tencatĪs a hospice nurse I’ve been with many, including my own father, who have deathbed visions. I have seen the peaceful and the terrified.
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