By Tim Binnall
A hospice in upstate New York has amassed a huge collection of intriguing dreams and visions that their patients have shared before passing away. The fascinating work of Dr. Christopher Kerr and his staff at Hospice Buffalo in the town of Cheektowaga were recently featured in an enlightening profile piece from TV station KDKA. In the segment, the doctor recalled how he had initially been skeptical about this pre-death phenomenon, but soon became a believer after a nurse explained that she could tell when someone was about to die because they would experience these visions.
Kerr later learned that the nurse was not alone when it came to this unique ability. "Everybody but me was able to prognosticate death in part based on what people were seeing or experiencing," he marveled. The phenomenon so intrigued the doctor that, around a decade ago, he began documenting these cases and, since that time, he and his team have collected an astounding 14,000 instances of patients reporting pre-death dreams and visions.
According to Kerr, the phenomenon primarily takes the form of dreams in which a patient's already-deceased loved ones visit them and indicate that they'll soon be reunited. Remarkably, he revealed that in instances where it is a child having these experiences, they often report seeing pets who have passed away, since they are generally too young to have known anyone who has died. All told, a whopping 80% of Kerr's patients have claimed to have had these visions before they depart our Earthly realm.
Whether these vivid experiences are a genuine glimpse of visitors from the afterlife is, of course, a mystery. For his part, Kerr conceded that he does not have an answer as to what may cause them and expressed satisfaction with simply documenting these experiences which appear to have a profound impact on his patients. Since the dreams provide significant comfort for those who pass away, he argues, they should be respected and appreciated regardless of their origin.