By Logan Monteleone
Elm Staff Writer
At noon on Wednesday, Feb. 14, Academy of Lifelong Learning (WC-ALL) members, faculty, and other guests gathered in Hynson Lounge for a special Valentine’s Day presentation. David LaMotte spoke on “What the Near-Death Experience Can Teach us About Life and Love.”
The talk was part of WC-ALL’s monthly Learn@Lunch event, which includes a catered meal and a lecture by a featured speaker. The lunch costs $25 for WC-ALL members and $30 for non-members. Details about upcoming speakers and lunch dates can be found on the WC-ALL portion of the College’s website.
LaMotte teaches a WC-ALL course once each semester that explores the questions, insights, and research findings surrounding near-death experiences (NDE). He has studied the subject of NDE for over twenty years.
Jeff Ferguson is a Chestertown resident currently taking LaMotte’s NDE course. His wife took the class in the fall, and between hearing her praise and sitting in on the last few classes of the semester with her, he was eager to take the course himself.
“This is a fascinating subject,” Ferguson said of NDE. “It’s only been under study for a little more than 50 years, and it’s really still evolving. The experiences that people have had, and what they come back to relate with, is phenomenal.”
After filling their plates at the buffet and chatting around the dining tables in Hynson Lounge, guests turned their attention to the speaker.
LaMotte began by introducing the focus of his talk: gaining insight from people who have recounted their near-death experiences.
“We’re going to focus on what their experiences have been, what they suggest about life and love, and what a lot of their takeaways are that I’m going to share at the end,” LaMotte said.
LaMotte posed a series of perennial human questions, asking the audience to consider how they would respond to a child or grandchild who asked, “What is life?,” “What is love?,” or “What is feeling?” He offered typical answers provided for complex questions, prodding the audience to deeply consider, not just dismiss, questions of life and love’s meaning.
Studying accounts from people who have survived near-death events, LaMotte says, show that NDE may provide individuals with insight into the greater meaning of love and existence and their relationship to one another. The gravity of LaMotte’s subject was balanced with humorous comments, including quoting Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” to the chuckling of audience members.
“Over the past 50 years, with improved resuscitation techniques, information sharing via the internet, a lessened stigma over sharing these experiences, and serious research into trying to understand these experience that defy a solely material or brain-based explanation, thousands of similar cases have come forward and a picture is forming that is less easy to ignore,” LaMotte said.
Noting the remarkable consistency across the experiences of NDE accounts, LaMotte listed commonalities, including out-of-body consciousness, a hyperawareness of energy, feelings of pure love, a sense of painlessness, and intense sympathy and sensitivity to the experiences of others.
WC-ALL Coordinator Shane Brill — who ran back and forth between cameras, recording the lecture to post on the WC-ALL website — took LaMotte’s course this past fall, and continues to find the insights on love and discovery eye-opening.
“The NDE research paints an uplifting picture of reality on a canvas of boundless compassion,” Brill said. “Using a collection of stories as a lens, we can admire the exquisite brushwork of love and energetic connection woven through our collective experience. Simple acts of narrative, sincerely shared, empower us with the courage to challenge cultural values that lead us astray from the discovery of our authentic selves. We’re reminded of the importance of intention, and the birthright of belonging.”
“As we recognize ourselves in each other, we can let heartfelt actions guide us toward experiences that make us feel more alive, finding fulfillment in our fullest expression,” Brill continued.
To conclude his lecture, LaMotte showed a video of a classic example of a NDE. In it, an individual who nearly drowned in a lake, Andy Petro, describes hearing voices, moments of timelessness, an out-of-body experience of consciousness, and seeing “the light,” all of which yielded tremendous insight and revelation that changed his outlook.
Building up to his closing question, LaMotte shared a quote from a NDE recount which he finds particularly resonant.
“I always thought of love as an emotion, as something we feel, but I was shown that love is actually the energy of which all of creation is made,” LaMotte quoted. “And the Creator who I encountered as the light, pure light, is pure love.”
LaMotte finally asked the audience, “So, what will you say to your grandchild or child, or nephew or niece, when asked, ‘What is life, what is love?’ And more importantly, how will you answer when you ask yourself those same questions?”
Both the Andy Petro video, “Divine Expansion and Complete Knowledge,” and the recording of LaMotte’s full talk are linked on the WC-ALL Learn@Lunch webpage.
Photo courtesy of Shane Brill
Photo Caption: David LaMotte addresses members of the WC community and Chestertown residents at his talk on Valentine’s Day.