Near-Death Visions of Unborn Children: Indications of a Pre-Earth Life

Near-Death Visions of Unborn Children: Indications of a Pre-Earth Life

Craig R. Lundahl, Ph.D 

A limited number of accounts of near-death visions that include unborn children suggest a life before birth. The unborn children in these visions have been described as spirits, as children or children but full-grown, and as residing in another world, perhaps different from the realm of the afterlife. The arrival of these children into our earthly world is similar to the departure of near-death experiencers into the other world.

Even though mention of this event in NDEs is rare, it still deserves exploration if for no other reason than that it is consistent with and supportive of another element of NDEs, namely the experiencers' moving to another sphere or dimension after death. Seeing unborn children in the NDE suggests that people move into this earthly sphere from
another realm, just as the NDE suggests that we can move from this sphere into another realm upon death. These visions of unborn children in the NDE could also broaden our perspective surrounding life and the NDE and add to our understanding of human development. The purpose of this paper is to document this rare aspect of the NDE,
visions of unborn children, which heretofore has gone unrecognized in near-death studies.

Near-Death Visions of Unborn Children: Indications of a Pre-Earth Life

Craig R. Lundahl, Ph.D 

From the paper:

"Almost two decades of near-death research has clearly documented the phenomenon of the near-death experience (NDE). Among NDE accounts collected over this time are a limited number that are sugges tive of a life before birth. Several researchers have published NDE accounts in which experiencers have seen individuals they identified as persons who had not yet been born. Craig Lundahl (1982, in press) described two NDEs in which the experiencers were shown the spirits of children who would come into their families. Howard Mickel described the NDE of Calvin, who saw a group of young children playing together during his journey to the other world. Calvin's "eyes fastened upon one and a message was instantly im pressed upon his mind that this was his little unborn son" (Mickel, 1985, p. 31). Melvin Morse and Paul Perry (1990) wrote about the childhood NDE of Katie, who while in the other world made new friends, among them two young boys who were waiting to be born. Craig R. Lundahl, Ph.D., is Professor of Sociology and Business Administration and Chair of the Department of Social Sciences at Western New Mexico University. Journal of Near-Death Studies. 11(2) Winter 1992 1992 Human Sciences Press. inc. 123 JOURNAL OF NEAR-DEATH STUDIES Kenneth Ring (1980) mentioned the case of a NDEr who experienced a life review in which she saw the backs of two children she would give birth to in the future. Arvin Gibson (1992) also cites a case where an experiencer saw a male spirit who would be her child"

It seems to me these albeit rare occurrences further validate the reality of NDEs as excursions into a spiritual realm separate from the physical realm, along the lines of dualist philosophy. They also further validate the New Age (and other traditional) views of the nature of the cycle of human life using a reincarnation process to repeatedly experience physical life presumably as some sort of a learning process. And in which the soul with much previous experience decides to reincarnate into a particular family with certain therefore built-in advantages and disadvantages due to things such as the particular genetics involved (perhaps causing birth defects/genetically caused diseases), psychological problems with the parents, income level, location, and time period.

This design of the grand system of life naturally brings up many as of yet unanswered (at least satisfactorily) questions as to the justness of the scheme since the human self often would never choose a very difficult life for its future incarnation.