MILWAUKEE -- Thousands of people claim to have had a near-death experience (NDE), and many books have been written about the subject. Near-death experiences happen unexpectedly and have been described by different people as an out-of-body experience, seeing an image of a light at the end of a tunnel, seeing one's life pass before one's eyes or just a sense of peaceful bliss which is so wonderful that the dying person does not wish to return to one's body.

Similar to NDE but less well known is a term called Near Death Awareness (NDA) which occurs when a person is dying slowly of a degenerative illness. Maggie Callanan, a hospice nurse, internationally known speaker and author, recently gave a presentation at State Fair Park on Near Death Awareness.

As a registered nurse for over 35 years, Callanan has had a lot of experience ministering to the dying. Initially she worked in hospitals in high technology, in the emergency room and in the intensive care unit, but for the last 21 years, she has found her most fulfilling work as a hospice nurse.

Similarities among dying patients

Through Callanan's experience as a hospice nurse, she and her co-workers began to see similarities among their dying patients in the ways in which they were trying to communicate with them. Initially, the patients' comments seemed incoherent and confusing and were dismissed as hallucinations due to the pain medication or as a symptom that their illness was finally reaching the brain.

But after an in-depth study of more than 200 cases, the nurses realized that many of the patients near death seemed to have a special awareness of people, places, and things.

Callanan began giving presentations on NDA in 1985. She and a co-worker then decided to write a book on the subject, which was published in 1992. The book, "Final Gifts: Understanding the Special Awareness, Needs, and Communications of the Dying," was primarily written for families and caregivers of people who were dying.

"Our motivation came from watching families and caregivers focus on taking care of the patient's physical needs, which can be overwhelming, and in the process they were missing the wonderful gifts that were being revealed as the patient was dying," explained Callanan.

Medical field recognizes mind-body connection

Although the book was published 10 years ago, Callanan believes there has been more of a movement towards the body-mind connection in the medical field and as that awareness becomes more integrated with science, her work has become more recognized.

"There is a course at Harvard which explores the body-mind connection and on the state nursing exam there is a question that relates to NDA," said Callanan. She believes that these are signs that there has been a significant breakthrough in the scientific community in regards to the importance of the body-mind connection.

In the book, Callanan described NDA this way, "This awareness evolved gently and gradually, as though they were drifting back and forth from a consciousness of this existence to an awareness of the next, intensifying as the patient was nearing death." Callanan and her colleagues decided to give this experience the name, Near Death Awareness.

Two types of NDA

Typically, patients who are experiencing NDA make comments that can be placed in two categories. According to Callanan, "The first category of comments from dying patients were in reference to what the patient was experiencing: being in the presence of someone not alive, the need to prepare for travel or a change, mention of a place only they could see and their knowledge of when death would occur."

She cited as an example a dying man who told his wife to get a cake with sparklers on it immediately. "When I asked the wife what that meant, she started to cry. Apparently their wedding anniversary was on the Fourth of July and this gentleman always had sparklers on his cake instead of candles. Even though it was only April, this man knew that he needed to celebrate their anniversary early. In fact, he was buried on the Fourth of July."

The second category of comments "centered on the desire to reconcile personal, spiritual, or moral relationships," Callanan explained, "and requests to remove some barrier to achieve a sense of peace." She gave this example of a young woman dying of uterine cancer.

"One day I found her sitting on the living room floor crying and asked her if there was anything that I could do to help. As we talked together, it became apparent that she wanted to make scrapbooks for each of her three young children to remember her by and she wanted to help her husband manage the family finances," she said. "With some help, over the next several weeks, she was able to put together the books for the children, finish the family finance work, and even hire a woman to watch the children while her husband was at work. Once she had accomplished these tasks, she just seemed to let go and she was able to die peacefully."

By recognizing that NDA may occur with a dying person, caregivers can be instrumental in helping a person die peacefully.

Callanan explained, "The journey of a dying person is unique and journeys are easier if they are shared. Our patients can be our teachers. You need to be close to them and pay attention, learn what you can from them. The most important message is that there is more to dying than just the physical journey."