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Copyright (c) 1990 By ED CONRAD Conclusive evidence of life after death actually has been available for more than a quarter-century. This opinion is shared by two of the world's foremost authorities on death and dying, Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and Dr. Bruce Greyson. They agree that the proof had been provided by a pair of Pennsylvania coal miners who, back in 1963, revealed that Pope John XXIII had appeared to both of them at the same time during their 14-day entombment following an underground cave-in near Hazleton, Pa.
David Fellin, one of the miners, personally had told Dr. Kubler-Ross about the appearance of the deceased pontiff and provided details of other mysterious, supernatural experiences which he, then 58, and Henry ``Hank" Throne, then 28, had shared while cut off from the rest of the world during the first five days of their grueling ordeal. Among the remarkable things Fellin had told Dr. Kubler-Ross during a day-long conversation in her home in Headwaters, Va., were the two separate occasions that he insisted he and Throne had been out of their physical bodies at the same time, during which they actually had engaged in conversation. Dr. Kubler-Ross, the internationally acclaimed author of numerous books on death and dying, said she believed Fellin and stated that the miners' miraculous rescue, the appearance of the deceased pope and the out-of-body experiences shared by two persons at the same time -- never before documented -- is ``the evidence . . . that life does not end when our physical body dies."
Dr. Greyson, then a psychiatrist at the University of Connecticut Health Center and an official of The International Association for Near-death Studies, had become acquainted with the incredible details of the supernatural events connected with the cave-in only in the last year of Fellin's life but had found them fascinating. ``I am most intrigued by the simultaneous experiences of David Fellin and Hank Throne, who apparently conversed while out of their bodies," he stated. ``If they can corroborate each other's accounts, they could provide evidence for the reality of `The Other Side' beyond anything yet available."
When making that statement, Dr. Greyson, then the editor of The Journal of Near-Death Studies, hadn't been aware that such corroboration actually had taken place soon after Fellin and Throne had been dramatically rescued. After being pulled to the surface through a 17 1/2-inch bore hole on Aug. 27, 1963, the two miners had been interviewed individually, then together, by a pair of psychiatrists and a third staff member from the Institute of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. These intriguing interviews, the subject of an article in the American Journal of Psychiatry, offered the evidence that both men undoubtedly had been mutual participants in a series of mysterious, supernatural events, including the appearance of the late pontiff, and their joint out-of-body experiences. The Journal article stated that ``neither man exhibited evidence of psychosis or marked mental abnormality when examined,'' yet dismissed their similar experiences as ``fantasies" and ``hallucinations." The authors felt they had been caused by the miners' life-threatening situation when entombed. This was their conclusion even through both men independently had described a variety of similar unexplained occurrences underground. They had mentioned, among other things, that their darkened chamber suddenly was illuminated with a bluish light; the deceased pontiff appearing to them; and seeing a large number of men who were neither miners nor members of the rescue party. Click here to go on to Page Three
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Pope John died in a hospital in
Rome, Italy, on June 3, 1963, some 10 weeks before the cave-in.
