by Jeffrey Long, MD

Near-death experiences (NDEs) are events that take place as a person is dying or, indeed, is already clinically dead. People who have NDEs are called near-death experiencers (NDErs). From the time neardeath experiences were first medically researched and described by Dr. Raymond Moody in his pioneering book, Life After Life, in 1975, medical doctors and other researchers have examined this phenomenon in depth.

There is no widely accepted definition of neardeath experience. This NDERF study took a straightforward approach by defining both the neardeath and experience components of near-death experience. I considered individuals to be “near death” if they were so physically compromised that they would die if their condition did not improve. The NDErs studied were generally unconscious and often apparently clinically dead, with absence of heartbeat and breathing. The “experience” had to occur at the time they were near death. Also, the experience had to be lucid, to exclude descriptions of only fragmentary and disorganized memories.

Throughout the following we will present the results of the NDERF survey. Unless otherwise indicated, these will be the results from surveying 613 sequential NDErs who completed the most recent version of the NDERF survey. This version of the survey included the NDE Scale questions. The NDE Scale asks sixteen questions about the content of the experience and is the most validated research method to help distinguish experiences that are near-death experiences from those that are not. The 613 NDErs whose survey results we are presenting here all had NDE Scale scores of 7 or above, further validating these experiences as actual NDEs. The original version of the NDERF survey studied responses from 413 NDErs. The NDE Scale questions were not used in the original NDERF survey.

No two near-death experiences are identical. However, when many near-death experiences are studied, a pattern of elements that commonly occurs in NDEs is easily seen. These elements usually occur in consistent order.

Researchers have concluded that NDEs may include some or all of the following twelve elements:

1. Out-of-body experience (OBE): Separation of consciousness from the physical body
2. Heightened senses
3. Intense and generally positive emotions or feelings
4. Passing into or through a tunnel
5. Encountering a mystical or brilliant light
6. Encountering other beings, either mystical beings or deceased relatives or friends
7. A sense of alteration of time or space
8. Life review
9. Encountering unworldly (“heavenly”) realms
10. Encountering or learning special knowledge
11. Encountering a boundary or barrier
12. A return to the body, either voluntary or involuntary

Below are descriptions of each of these elements from the case studies I have amassed over more than ten years of research, as well as the percentage of NDErs from our study group who experienced each of the elements.

1. Out-of-Body Experience (OBE)

I could feel my spirit actually leaving my body. I saw and heard the conversations between my husband and the doctors taking place outside my room, about forty feet away down a hallway. I was later able to verify this conversation to my shocked husband.

One NDEr observed in the out-of-body state the reaction of the doctor to nearly losing this patient:

Why were you so upset, screaming and swearing in the operating room? Didn’t you know that I could hear every word you said?

This NDEr then shared what the doctor responded:

You are right. I was so frustrated and tired and angry in that operating room that I just started screaming when we were losing you. It was either scream or cry. You were dying, and there was not a damned thing that I could do to stop it. I will have to rethink what I say to an unconscious patient from now on, won’t I?

Out-of-body experiences are often the first NDE element. The NDERF survey asked 613 NDErs, “Did you experience a separation of your consciousness from your body?” In response, 75.4 percent answered “Yes.”

2. Heightened Senses

There isn’t a way to explain it, as there is no feeling like it here on earth. It was crystal clear. It was like going home at last, at last. A feeling of belonging, of meaning, of completeness.

It just seemed so much more real than anything I had ever experienced in my entire life.

The NDERF survey asked, “How did your highest level of consciousness and alertness during the experience compare to your normal, everyday consciousness and alertness?” Of the NDErs surveyed, 74.4 percent indicated they had “More consciousness and alertness than normal.”

3. Intense and Generally Positive Emotions or Feelings

This is the hardest thing to try and explain…. Words will not come close to capturing the feelings, but I’ll try: total, unconditional, all-encompassing love, compassion, peace, warmth, safety, belonging, understanding, overwhelming sense of being home, and joy.

All I felt was love, joy, happiness, and every wonderful emotion you could feel all at once.

Total peace, total calm. I was not in the least bit afraid or anxious.

When we got to the light, the totality of life was love and happiness. There was nothing else. And it was intense. Very intense and endless in scope.

[I felt an e]xtreme sense of love and peace and beauty that I cannot describe in words.

The NDERF survey asked, “Did you have a feeling of peace or pleasantness?” To this question, 76.2 percent selected “Incredible peace or pleasantness.” The NDERF survey asked another question about a specific emotion during the NDE: “Did you have a feeling of joy?” NDErs responded to this question with 52.5 percent selecting “Incredible joy.”

We found a small percentage of NDEs were frightening to the NDEr.

4. Passing Into or Through a Tunnel

My next awareness was of being submerged and cradled in a warm, wavy, wafting motion at the opening of a tunnel. The tunnel had billowy soft sides and was well lit, with the tunnel dimensions decreasing and brightness increasing as it got closer to a single bright light.

We traveled very fast into a tunnel. The tunnel was all different colors: blue, yellow, white, green, and red.

The NDERF survey asked, “Did you pass into or through a tunnel or enclosure?” Of NDErs responding to this survey question, 33.8 percent answered “Yes.”

5. Encountering a Mystical or Brilliant Light

A brilliant white light at the end of the tunnel, and when the wings enveloped me I became part of the white light.

A beautiful light drew me to itself; the light still touches me with awe, and tears come immediately.

At first the light was blue. Then it transitioned to white. It was an opalescent white; it almost glowed, but did not shine. It was bright, but not intense bright, like glowing bright—pure bright. Pure but not in the usual sense of the word. Pure as in something you’ve never seen before or could ever describe or put into words.

It was as if we passed through a wall into my light pod directly. There was a large majestic center light and then the individual yet connected pod lights exactly like the center light only smaller. I think now the pod lights, like mine, were other souls connected to the center light, God.

The light may be described as brilliant, “like a million suns,” but virtually never hurts the NDEr to look at it. NDErs may dramatically describe their strong attraction to the light and their emphatic desire to approach or merge with the light. The NDERF survey asked, “Did you see a light?” NDErs responded with 64.6 percent answering “Yes.”

6. Encountering Other Beings, Either Mystical Beings or Deceased Relatives or Friends

I was surrounded by other beings, or people, who I felt as though I recognized. These beings were like family, old friends, who’d been with me for an eternity. I can best describe them as my spiritual or soul family. Meeting these beings was like reuniting with the most important people in one’s life, after a long separation. There was an explosion of love and joy on seeing each other again between us all.

My dad was right next to me, but I couldn’t see him visually. My sister was very close; I felt she was to my left. I felt other family members close by, but I did not see them. My sister and other family members seemed to be more to the left. The only person besides my sister and my dad that I knew was there was my grandmother. There were others there but none I can say for certain besides the ones I mentioned.

I heard my mother’s and daughter’s voices, but my daughter, who was only approximately two at the time, well, it was the sound of her voice grown up, but I knew it was her voice. They called my name, and my body moved like through an air current very quickly. It was like the wind carried me so fast, and I saw a bright, bright light very quickly and then a beach, and then I saw my mom and daughter standing on the beach; my daughter was grown up.

The NDERF survey asked, “Did you meet or see any other beings?” In response, 57.3 percent answered “Yes.” When NDErs encounter deceased beings, most are deceased relatives as opposed to friends or loved ones. Some NDErs encounter seemingly familiar beings, but they cannot recall having previously met them. Later in their lives some NDErs recognize a picture of a deceased relative as the being they encountered in their NDE. The relative may have died years or even decades before the NDEr was born.

7. A Sense of Alteration of Time or Space

When I first left my body I had my diving watch on. I took some very unscientific measurements of the distance I traveled by watching for features and measuring them by the second hand on my watch. Totally unscientific. But my conclusion was and has always been: I was measuring time in an altered time. The ground never moved in a linear fashion; the distances were erratic at best. The distances were always changing, sometime[s] repeating and then instantly becom[ing] longer or short[er] than the previous distance. Yet my watch was always ticking without change. My intuition and impression were that I was in a different time zone, one where my earth[l]y watch was of no use or inept at making any measurement or reflecting time. Also without mistake I would say this whole thing took an hour or more. It seemed to me that I was in the NDE for a very long time. But when I asked my diving partners how long had I been unconscious, they estimated five to ten minutes. Thus I had another reason to support why my diving watch didn’t seem to measure the time in my NDE.

It seemed as though I experienced so much in such a small length of earthly time. Where my soul had traveled to know nothing of time as we know [of] time passing on earth.

Both time and space in earth stopped completely. Simultaneously, “the time and the space” on the other side was completely alive, evident[ial], and real.

Yes, while I was in the light, I had…[no] sense of time as I know it here on Earth. In other words, no sense of the serial nature of time…past, present, or future. All times (past, present, and future) were experienced at every moment in time while I was in the light.

The NDERF survey asked, “Did you have any sense of altered space or time?” To this question the majority, 60.5 percent, answered “Yes.” Another NDERF survey question focused only on an altered sense of time, asking, “Did time seem to speed up?” NDErs responded to this question with 33.9 percent selecting “Everything seemed to be happening all at once.”

8. Life Review

I saw my life flash before me shortly after I left my body and was still in the hospital room. I was told that I was going to help educate and teach many people, and that is exactly what I am doing now.

I saw every important event that had ever happened in my life, from my first birthday to my first kiss to fights with my parents. I saw how selfish I was and how I would give anything to go back and change.

Next he showed me my life review. Every second from birth until death you will see and feel, and [you will] experience your emotions and others that you hurt, and feel their pain and emotions. What this is for is so you can see what kind of person you were and how you treated others from another vantage point, and you will be harder on yourself than anyone to judge you.

I will not see what others have done to you. I will see what you have done to others.

Life reviews involve a review of prior events of the NDEr’s life. Fragments of one’s earthly life may be seen, or the review may be panoramic, covering all of one’s earthly life. The NDERF survey asked, “Did you experience a review of past events in your life?” To that question, 22.2 percent of NDErs answered “Yes.”

9. Encountering Unworldly (“Heavenly”) Realms

Well, the end of that tunnel was the most peaceful place; it was beyond my imaginings, pure, serene, and loving.

The landscape was beautiful, blue skies, rolling hills, flowers. All was full of light, as if lit from within itself and emitting light, not reflecting it.

There was such beauty, beautiful beyond expression. There was also a bright city or something like a city in the distance. The colors and structures of everything [were] beautiful…awesome.

All around me I could see and feel a beautiful peace and tranquility with love and peace…. As far as the eye could see to my left was a beautiful landscape of tulips of every color imaginable. To my right was a wall of a beautiful blue that matched the sky.

The sound of that music I cannot possibly describe with words because it simply cannot be heard with that clarity in this world! The colors were out of this world—so deep, so luminous, so beautiful!

The NDERF survey asked, “Did you see or visit any beautiful or otherwise distinctive locations, levels, or dimensions?” To this question 40.6 percent of NDErs chose “Yes.”

Asking this question in a more general way, the NDERF survey asked, “Did you seem to enter some other, unearthly world?” To this question 52.2 percent of NDErs responded that they encountered an unearthly realm.

10. Encountering or Learning Special Knowledge

When I looked into his eyes all the secrets of the universe were revealed to me. I know how everything works because I looked into his eyes for a moment. All the secrets of the universe, all knowledge of all time, everything.

I understood (I use this term because I did not actually hear) the colored drops were the experiences of all who had lived. The experiences existed as separate items yet belonged to the whole. The whole was the collective knowledge of all.

The NDERF survey asked, “Did you have a sense of knowing special knowledge, universal order, and/or purpose?” To this question 56.0 percent of NDErs answered “Yes.” Another question asked, “Did you suddenly seem to understand everything?” To this question, 31.5 percent responded that they seemed to understand everything “About the universe,” and 31.3 percent responded that they seemed to understand everything “About myself or others.”

11. Encountering a Boundary or Barrier

On my side of the boundary, time seemed to go slow. On the other side, time went by faster.

There was this door in front of me with this music coming out and people celebrating with utter joy that I knew and recognize[d] as home. Once [I] crossed, I couldn’t come back.

I reached the point where I felt I had to make the choice whether to go back to life or onward into death. My best friend was there (who had died of cancer two years before), and she told me that this was as far as I could go or I would not be able to turn back. “You have come to the edge. This is as far as you can go,” she said. “Now go back and live your life fully and fearlessly.”

I wasn’t allowed to cross that boundary. There was no choice.

The NDERF survey asked, “Did you reach a boundary or limiting physical structure?” To this question 31.0 percent of NDErs answered “Yes.”

12. A Return to the Body, Either Voluntary or Involuntary

I remember as I looked down at them, I said to the angel, “Why don’t they just let her die?” I did not realize, at that time, the body that I was looking at was mine. Then in a commanding voice, she [the angel] said, “You must go back now.”…“She must live,” she said in a soft calming voice. “She has a son to raise.”

I was really hurt that I couldn’t stay because there wasn’t anything that I wanted more than to stay. Pure love is the best way to describe the being and place that I would be leaving. Under protest, I was sent back.

I found out that my purpose now would be to live “heaven on earth” using this new understanding, and also to share this knowledge with other people. However, I had the choice of whether to come back into life or go toward death. I was made to understand that it was not my time, but I always had the choice, and if I chose death, I would not be experiencing a lot of the gifts that the rest of my life still held in store. One of the things I wanted to know was that if I chose life, would I have to come back to this sick body, because my body was very, very sick and the organs had stopped functioning. I was then made to understand that if I chose life, my body would heal very quickly. I would see a difference in not months or weeks, but days!

The NDERF survey asked, “Were you involved in or aware of a decision regarding your return to the body?” To this question, 58.5 percent answered “Yes.”

EXPERIENCE PROVIDES THE BEST EVIDENCE

A man should look for what is, and not what he thinks should be. ~Albert Einstein

As far as I’m concerned, it makes perfect sense that the best evidence for understanding what happens when we die would come from those who actually did nearly die or even experienced clinical death. This commonsense perspective is certainly validated in this NDERF study. The substantial majority of people who had a near-death experience believe their NDEs are real and are evidence of an afterlife. For NDErs, having a near-death experience is their personal proof of both the reality of the NDE and an afterlife.

Excerpt from Evidence Of The Afterlife – The Science of Near-Death Experiences