You are sitting with someone as they die, and the room fills with a light that is not from this earth. Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli examine shared death experiences — the cases where a perfectly healthy bystander sees it too.

https://youtu.be/PzqqyTz9HfU

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Links for this episode:

• Raymond Moody and Paul Perry, Glimpses of Eternity (Guideposts, 2010)
• William Peters, At Heaven’s Door (Simon and Schuster, 2022)
• Peter Fenwick and Elizabeth Fenwick, The Art of Dying (Continuum, 2008)
• Sir William F. Barrett, Death-Bed Visions (Methuen, 1926)
• Karlis Osis and Erlendur Haraldsson, At the Hour of Death (Avon Books, 1977)
• Edmund Gurney, Frederic Myers, and Frank Podmore, Phantasms of the Living, vols. 1–2: vol. 1; vol. 2
• Daniel Bourke, Apparitions at the Moment of Death (2024)
• Shared Crossing Project
• Peters, Kinsella, and Williams, “Shared Death Experiences: A Little-Known Type of End-of-Life Phenomena Reported by Caregivers and Loved Ones,” American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, 2021
• See also: Pope St. Gregory the Great, Dialogues (especially Books 2 and 4)
• IANDS Fact Sheet on Shared Death Experiences

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Chapters:

• 0:00:12 – Intro
• 0:00:41 – Cold open: Have you ever sat at a deathbed?
• 0:01:33 – What is a shared death experience?
• 0:03:04 – What bystanders actually perceive
• 0:04:38 – SDEs vs. crisis apparitions and deathbed visions
• 0:06:18 – Raymond Moody coins the term
• 0:06:59 – The first case: Dr. Jameson and her mother
• 0:10:48 – Moody’s own shared death experience
• 0:13:16 – William Peters and the Shared Crossing Project
• 0:14:57 – Peters’ four modes of SDE
• 0:17:31 – Dana’s shared life review
• 0:20:37 – Veridical content: the yearbook photographs
• 0:21:34 – The mist and the soul leaving the body
• 0:24:46 – A whole family sees the light
• 0:26:59 – History: how far back do these go?
• 0:27:16 – Pope St. Gregory the Great’s Dialogues
• 0:28:16 – St. Benedict and St. Scholastica
• 0:29:56 – Benedict, Germanus of Capua, and Servandus
• 0:32:55 – Romula, Servulus, and Tarsilla
• 0:37:51 – The Society for Psychical Research
• 0:38:41 – Phantasms of the Living: little Isidore
• 0:40:40 – Fanny seen in Shanghai and in Wales
• 0:43:08 – Sir William Barrett’s Deathbed Visions
• 0:45:31 – Osis and Haraldsson: At the Hour of Death
• 0:47:11 – Peter and Elizabeth Fenwick
• 0:48:01 – Peters’ cases: the stairway of light
• 0:51:51 – Scott Taylor and Nolan
• 0:53:04 – Hospice nurse Julie McFadden
• 0:54:14 – Who has SDEs, and how common are they?
• 0:56:18 – Why SDEs matter for surviving death
• 1:00:13 – Thank you to Patrons
• 1:00:46 – Sponsor: Rosary Army and School of Mary
• 1:01:08 – Sponsorship opportunities
• 1:02:13 – Eight theories
• 1:03:43 – Reason Perspective: Fraud
• 1:05:48 – Coincidence
• 1:07:50 – Confabulation
• 1:09:32 – Bereavement hallucinations
• 1:11:30 – Chemical signaling from the dying body
• 1:13:12 – Expectation and cultural script
• 1:15:31 – Brain entrainment
• 1:18:50 – A genuine glimpse: the positive case
• 1:21:19 – The state of the evidence
• 1:23:07 – Faith Perspective
• 1:25:30 – Bottom Line
• 1:26:58 – Further Resources
• 1:27:43 – SpiderMail bumper
• 1:27:53 – Mysterious Feedback: #418 Skeleton Lake
• 1:28:03 – Feedback: “a historical” vs “an historical”
• 1:31:37 – Feedback: supercells, hail, and elevation
• 1:37:38 – Feedback: human sacrifice theory
• 1:39:35 – Feedback: bodies moved by freeze and thaw
• 1:41:05 – Feedback: why no animal skeletons?
• 1:41:36 – Your mysterious feedback
• 1:42:13 – Thank you to Oasis Studio 7
• 1:42:24 – Jimmy’s YouTube channel
• 1:43:09 – Next Time: Buck Nelson, the Ozark Spaceman
• 1:43:24 – Get your Mysterious merch
• 1:43:40 – Show notes
• 1:43:47 – Become a Patron
• 1:43:55 – Sponsor: The Grady Group
• 1:44:49 – Outro

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