Defying death’s hand

Oct 24, 2002

Did they really die and go to heaven, then return to tell their tale, or were they just a breadth away from death? <B>Fred Nangoli </B>explores the minds of the resurrected and writes

IT is approaching lunchtime. The toddlers in the grass-thatched kitchen are hungry, but their mother is hanging onto a patient in the bedroom who is breathing his last.

This is 1970 and Joseph Khaukha of Bubulo in Mbale has just clocked 24 years has succumbed to death after a short illness.

His grieving relatives sigh and say with his long suffering he deserves to rest. But hours after he is confirmed dead, Khaukha shocks the mourners when he sneezes causing everyone to flee, except his mother. Khaukha has defied death, some of the trembling mourners later whisper to each other.

The Christian brethren in village church describe his miraculous return to life as ‘another resurrection’. ‘This time among the Bagisu and not the Jews. But in spite of this miracle, Khauka remains dumb for three days and nights after his return to life and cannot communicate to the curious spectators.

On the morning of the fourth day, Khaukha who appears weak and tired, sniffs for while before he calls out to his mother. He is alive and well, save for his impaired hearing and blur on his tongue.

The frail youth later tells mourners that he has had a ball in the other world. He has indulged in skating over undulating hills amidst magnificent melodies. He only brakes when he reaches the seventh hill.

“I progressed with speed to the place I thought was my destination, a place with glittering lights and humans dressed in spotless garments all singing praises, when I heard a voice echoing like thunder apprehend. I wasn’t shocked at all, I stood still, then a strange long bearded man dressed in white robes suddenly appeared and barked at me,’ Khaukha said amidst total silence in the house.

“It was then that I realised that the place was not meant for me,” he adds. He reported that though he tried to explain his journey but the bearded man was adamant. “I decided to run back and managed to cover three hills in minutes only to find myself lying here,” Khaukha concluded.

But prior to his death, the light-skinned Mugisu was a bicycle repairer, a duty he resolved to uphold besides serving as a preacher in his Bubulo Church.

His aging homestead has, however, remained a mystery to many. Once they approach it, children run past it, while the adults always whisper to each other: ‘this is the home of the man who tested death.’

Similar stories, however, have been told by people who have experienced similar incidents. This experience is called Near Death Experience (NDE). This is point where people move close to death and miraculously recover.

On November 30, 2001, the most recent of a highly publicised NDE was reported in Nigeria. Pastor Daniel Ekechukwu of the Power Chapel Evangelical Church in Onitsha has been resurrected from the dead world.

According to the Revival Magazine of February 2002, Ekechukwu had died in a fatal car accident, while returning from seeing his aging father in his 20-year-old Mercedes following brakes failure.

A rescue team rushed a fatally injured Ekechukwu to a local hospital as hopes to save his life faded off.

A doctor on duty officially announced him dead, a death certificate was made and his body was transferred to the general hospital mortuary near his father’s home village where the mortician administered chemicals on it.

That night, however, turned into a nightmare for the mortuary attendant. The mortician felt something strange in the mortuary but was later awakened by what he called ‘church singing’ coming from the direction of the mortuary.

He got up and went to see what was going on, but the singing stopped. He was puzzled because he found nobody near the building.

He went back to bed. Then once
more came the clear sound of music and clapping.

Quite sure now, it was from the mortuary itself he got up, went in and looked around. Again the singing had stopped. Nobody was there but the dead. Very disturbed he went back. For the third time the music burst forth. This was real. It frightened him.

He drove to the nearby village to Ekechukwu’s father. He asked him to remove his son’s body. “It’s creating some kind of strange phenomena,” he said. The Ekechukwu’s father assured the mortician that “It is because he is a man of God.” The dead son was left in the mortuary, overnight till morning and all day Saturday. The mortuary attendants heard no more choir music the rest of the day.

But on the next day, a Sunday, of December 2, Ekechukwu’s body was dressed for the funeral, placed it in a coffin and taken to church by his wife, Nneka, where Reinhard Bonnke who knew nothing about the singing was preaching and praying upstairs in the main auditorium.

But after a short while at the church, pastors around Ekechukwu’s body noticed a slight twitching of the stomach of the corpse. Then the corpse drew a breath, and then irregular breathing took place in “short bursts” as they reported.

Encouraged, the pastors threw themselves into powerful petitionary prayer, stripped the body of the mortuary gloves, socks and shirt and began to massage from head to foot, because Ekechukwu was as stiff as an iron rod. They asked for fans to be brought in to give Ekechukwu more air to breath. Nearly two days after his death, Ekechukwu opened his eyes, sat up as people thronged the church to see the resurrected man. He then spoke for the first time “Water. Water,” which they gave him sip by sip and then a later a cup of tea.

Hundreds of people saw him slowly recovering. He had not yet collected his thoughts and for a while could not recognise anyone, not even his own son who came up to see his dad. However, he progressed, and within only hours, during the evening, he had full consciousness and coherence. He became a wonder, and crowds besieged his home.

‘The once-dead man not only rose from his coffin but the serious injuries, which had brought about his death, were also healed without the slightest trace,’ the Revival times states.

On December 25, 1995, another thrilling testimony was reported in Kenya.

Robert Stevens fell off a 100-meter cliff on Mt. Kenya. A rescue team carried the body down the mountain and to the nearest clinic.

The doctor in charge found no vital signs of life and was nearly ready to pronounce Mr. Stevens dead, when he opened his eyes and screamed, “Where am I?”

Stevens later reported to doctors that at the time of the impact of his fall, he floated out of his body.

Then his spirit climbed to another dimension where he viewed strange and wonderful beings and a temple ringed with fire. He reported having intensive feelings of love, joy and awe.

But several questions have been posed to psychologists, sociologist, religious leaders and doctors on this crucial issue. Dr Jack Smith, a psychologist at Makerere University said NDE are actually the dying experience. He said they can be a result of normal brain function at the point of death or the result of brain dysfunction creating a hallucination triggered by the biological stresses of dying, drugs, and a lack of oxygen to the brain.

But Dr Chris Semahore of Mulago Hospital, says NDE involves perceptions of one reality superimposed over another. “This other reality frequently is a spiritual one involving the existence of a loving God,” he said.

Reverend Ben Mugarura of St. Francis Chapel, Makerere University whose stepmother recently faced a similar experience says such experiences are extra-sensual. Mugarura admitted he has heard several testimonies from people who tasted death. He said such people have reported to him incidents of torture, pain, love and beauty. “But interestingly they have returned and become born-again Christians,” he said. To him such experiences started way back even before Christ.

But to Rev Stephen Gelenga of the same chapel, Christians the world over do not believe in death. He said, “Any body dead is just asleep and waiting for Christ.” Yet his view relates close to the Baaker tribe in southern Sudan who put their dead on stools and bury them seated. Their view is to simplify their resurrection.

But most charming of all is that people who have experienced ‘temporary death’ have told similar stories and chosen to live similar ways of life.

“Most of them have committed their lives to Jesus,” said Chris Opolot, a former student of psychology. This makes Pastor Alice Kuloba of Mbale a memorable example. She tasted death, returned and served a committed Christian life before finally succumbing to an asthma attack last year.

But Livingstone Babalanda a resident of Iyemba in Bugiri experienced death in 1964 and has since earned himself an extra name ‘Kamulali’ (red pepper) for defying death. Kamulali was bitten by a snake in the mid hours of the day and was pronounced dead three hours later. But about 10 hours later, a local medicine man who had arrived from Kamuli district had rescued his life.

Moses Teefe, a 70-year-old tailor who witnessed the incident as a youth said Kamulali later told his family members that where he had been, only darkness prevailed.

Psychologists in this field have shown that people under this experience have reported not only pleasure, but also an elongation of time.

A story of Reverend Edmund Donald Carr who miraculously survived on a January night in 1865 has remained in libraries of Shropshire country houses. In the weeks preceding Carr’s adventure the snow had fallen to a greater depth than in the previous 51 years. he, however, set off to walk four miles after lunch from Woolstaston to Ratlinghope, to preach to three people. After which, he set off home in a blizzard. Carr was not found for 18 hours, having lost most of his outer clothing before finally passing out.

But in the course of one of the many falls he had, Carr experienced what’s described as the agonal phenomenon according to Dr Chris.

Research in this field has shown that if NDE are real, then it is possible that this reality is real of even our destination after death.

This also indicates that an entire class of currently trivialised spiritual versions such as after death communications, shared dying experiences and premonitions of death are most likely also real.

An eighth century account showing such similar narration has also remained in the shelves of most libraries in Europe. The man who came back to life suddenly sat up astounding those weeping around his body. In his story he said, “I was guided by a handsome man in a shining robe, when we reached the top of a wall, there was a wide and pleasant field with light flooding that seemed brighter than daylight or the midday sun.

“I was very reluctant to leave, for I was enraptured by the place’s pleasantness and beauty and by the company I saw there. From then on, I decided that I must live in a completely different way,” he declared after his return.

Melvin Morse in his article Are Near Death Experiences Real? described a temporary death incident reported by an eight-year-old boy.

According to Morse, Chris had nearly drowned when his family’s car plunged over a bridge and into the freezing waters of a river near Seattle. His father was trapped in the car and died. His mother and brother miraculously swam to safety.

A passerby dived repeatedly to the sunken car, and finally brought Chris’s limp body to the surface. He was flown by helicopter to a nearby hospital and ultimately survived. After all that, Chris narrated: ‘first the car filled up with water, and everything went all blank. Then I died. I went into a huge noodle. It wasn’t like a spiral noodle, but it was very straight.

When I told my Mom about it, I told her it was a noodle, but it must have been a tunnel, because it had a rainbow in it. Noodles don’t have rainbows in them. I was pushed along by wind, and I could float. I saw two tunnels in front of me, a human tunnel and an animal tunnel.

First I went in the animal tunnel, and a bee gave me honey. Then I saw the human heaven. It was like a castle, just a regular castle. As I looked at it, I heard some music. It was very loud, and it stuck in my head.”

Although prior to his NDE, Chris had little interest in music, since his survival, his mother bought him a keyboard and he has taught himself to play the heavenly music he heard.

“Not cultural myths Chris clearly saw something he thought was real. The image of a rainbow in a noodle is so unique, it is unlikely to have its source in our cultural psychology. I had certainly never heard of one before,” exclaims Morse.

Until recently, the main reporters of NDE were from philosophers, mystics and poets, from Plato and Pythagorean to Walt Whitman. But today, the interests in the NDE phenomenon has attracted the participation of psychologist and scientist as well. Research has also disclosed that there are hundreds of thousands of people who have ‘temporarily died.’ A psychiatry professor, George Ritchie being one of them.

Prof. Ritchie, who during his nine-minute ‘death’ had found himself in the presence of Christ in a heavenly realm, later even wrote a book entitled Return from Tomorrow, to reveal his experience with death.

This inspired Raymond Moody, an American, whose book Life after Life (1975) quickly became a best seller, advertising itself as ‘actual case histories that reveal there is life after death’.

Although Moody himself later said, “I am not trying to prove there is life after death. Nor do I think that a “proof” of this is presently possible.” Basing on 150 accounts, Moody extracted the 15 most frequent elements in the NDE.

He labelled them in the sequence to which they tended to occur as follows: Ineffability, hearing the news, feelings of peace and quiet, the noise, the dark tunnel, out of the body, meeting others, the being of light, the review, the border or limit, coming back, telling others, effects on lives, new views of death, finally corroboration.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});