Painted by Hieronymus Bosch somewhere between 1505 and 1515.
Born into a family of painters, Bosch belonged to the Flemish School of painting and developed a unique style, creating dreamlike figures and scenes replete with fantasy. He was the painter of demons, hell, torture, fires, creative and grotesque figures, anthropomorphic animals, the capital sins, corruption, and the vices of his time.
The light at the end of the tunnel or how Bosch interpreted near- death experiences. — C.Guijarro-Castro
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The first description of an NDE may be that authored by the French army physician Pierre-Jean du Monchaux (1733-1766), who died on the island of San Domingo at the age of 33. He reported how an Italian patient, who was undergoing several blood-letting treatments due to fevers, suffered a very prolonged syncope; when he awoke, he reported having seen a powerful light and experienced a sensation so pleasant that he believed he was in heaven.
Considering that the main milestones of 15th-century medicine were the great advancements in anatomy, the separation of surgery from clinical medicine, the birth of modern pharmacology, and the syphilis epidemic that struck Europe, it is surprising that Bosch should represent the light at the end of the tunnel, one of the experiences most frequently reported today by subjects who have had an NDE and are able to recall it. Bosch was a visionary painter whose works reflected neurological concepts ahead of their time. The light at the end of the tunnel, as an NDE, was already known in the 15th century.
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