Terminal Lucidity - Parallels in the Experiences between Humans and Animals

Terminal lucidity happens when people who are in a coma or are experiencing Alzheimer’s, dementia, or other conditions where the brain is not working normally become completely lucid for hours or days just before they die. They have a full memory and know who they are talking to and can reminisce on past experiences. It has been reported in the medical literature over the past 250 years but has received little attention.

An example was reported by Michael Nahm a German biologist and parapsychologist in Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics and the second in the National Library of Medicine.

"An elderly woman who suffered from the Alzheimer’s disease for 15 years and was cared for by her daughter. The woman was unresponsive for years and showed no sign of recognizing her daughter or anybody else. However, a few minutes before she died, she started a normal conversation with her daughter, an experience for which the daughter was unprepared and which left her utterly confused."

"Anna Katharina Ehmer, was a 26-year-old woman with severe mental disabilities who lived in an institution for people with mental disorders, and who had allegedly never spoken a single word during her life. Yet, she was reported to have sung dying songs for a half hour before she died. The case was reported by the head of this institution and by its chief physician."

British neuropsychiatrist Peter Fenwick reported in the Journal of Palliative Care

"A woman in a nursing home with severe spinal fusion and was able to only look down to the floor for several years noticed one day with surprise that she was able to look out of her room window for the first time – and died soon after."

As amazing as these experiences are animals have appeared to show terminal lucidity too. A number of cases were collected by Rupert Sheldrake and colleagues published in the Journal of Scientific Exploration. One was about a cat and the other about a dog.

"My cat Cleo was dying, and I was sitting with her. She was nearly comatose, not moving, her eyes glazed over unseeing. Her legs were very cold. This state had been progressing upon her for days, and because of the coldness of her legs, I felt she might be very close. But I was just sitting there, mostly, not even really petting her. Suddenly she woke up. She put her paw upon my hand and gazed into my eyes with intensity. She was saying goodbye to me. That was perfectly clear. Within an hour, she had passed."      

"My pet was a six-year-old Chihuahua that developed a brain tumour. He was basically out of it, did not respond to my wife or me, and was having occasional convulsions. The night before, he was to be put down at the vet for a brief time, for about 30 minutes he was completely normal. He jumped up in my lap, wanted to play like everything was normal, then went to my wife and did the same thing. All of this happened in about a 30-minute time frame, and then he went back into “out of it and convulsing.” We told the vet about this, and he said he had never heard of this before and that the dog would not recover. Anyway, that did happen, and my wife and I believe he was saying goodbye."        

Vincent and Margret Gaddis in the book The Strange World of Animals and Pets reported a similar case.

"During the prime of its days, tomcat Pussy was taught by the couple who kept him to hold out a paw to shake hands. As Pussy grew older, he suffered from severe chronic dysentery and had to be put down. When the vet arrived, the cat dragged himself out of his basket, walked straight to its sorrowful keepers, and held out his paw to each of them in turn. He then crept back into his basket, buried his head in his paws, and awaited his fate."        

This seems to indicate similarities between the consciousness of humans and animals that consciousness exists outside the body and that the brain acts as a transmitter. But how would this explain the woman with spinal fusion able to move her head just before dying.       

A clue may come from our own observations during between lives regressions. This involves very deep hypnosis so the body is totally immobile and the client is guided through a past life death and into the soul memories of their consciousness. Speech often has a long delay in response to navigation questions. Yet at a point when the regression reaches a particular part of their soul memories the encounter often causes the clients arms to move in communicating information and to talk quickly. But this is not the person coming out of deep hypnosis because when the regression finishes it may take up to ten minutes for them to regain physical movement and their blood flow to increase following the deep trace. It seems that the high vibration of the client's soul consciousness can raise the vibrations of their physical body and transform it.

Could it be that a very high vibrational part of soul consciousness of those close to death provides the energy and drive for terminal lucidity? We have also found in our retreats when the consciousness of the participants is raised with very high vibrational energy for a week the most remarkable life changing events can happen including being more intuitive, heart-centred, and developing a deep inner knowing that can become part of everyday life.

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