A Near-Death Experience (NDE) can occur when a person has a close brush with death, almost dies or is declared clinically dead and yet is later revived or resuscitated. A person who is declared clinically dead, but has a near-death experience, typically registers no pulse or breath for an average of five to fifteen minutes.
A feature of a near-death experience is that while a human brain can be seriously damaged in three to five minutes due to a lack of sufficient oxygen, no matter how long a person is clinically dead, there is usually little or no brain damage. The NDE in these cases is significant as it remains lucid and coherent in the experiencer’s mind over time.
The NDE can occur in a person at any age, including newborns and children. It is estimated that among children close to death, more than 70% have had a near-death experience.
Common features of an NDE
Whilst no two NDE’s are the same, certain features occur in all of them, regardless of the person’s gender, age, culture or religion. Few people experience every feature or in the same order. These features are:
- Feelings of Peace. For many people, this is the most memorable part of the experience. They also report that any feelings of physical pain their body might have been experiencing fade away.
- Being out of the body. The NDE often begins with the person leaving their body and taking an external, objective vantage point (such as near the ceiling).
- Travelling through a tunnel. The person may enter a tunnel which they travel through rapidly, heading towards a pinpoint of bright light which gets larger as they approach it.
- Approaching the light. This is often described as all encompassing, very brilliant but not dazzling, and something that draws the person towards it.
- A Being of light. At this point, the person might meet a Being of light. This is often an intense, emotional experience which they often cannot find the words to describe afterwards. The Being of light has a presence described as warm, welcoming and loving.
- A barrier. The barrier often represents a point from which they are prevented from going beyond at that time.
- Meeting or greeting relatives. These are relatives (or friends) who have died and may beckon, or wave them away from the other side of the barrier.
- A life review. The person may experience events from their whole life flash before them or appear as a panoramic vista. They may re-live and re-experience these events, sometimes from the point-of-view of other people (e.g. how it felt for other people in that event at that time). They often talk of self-judgement during the life review, rather than being judged.
- A moment of decision. People often want to stay and may even argue to stay, but are often realise or are told that it is not their time to go. Sometimes they make the decision to come back, or may have that decision made for them.
- The return to the body. This often happens rapidly and people often describe this as ‘snapping back’ into their body.
- The integration of the experience. The experience is vividly remembered for years, usually over a whole lifetime, without any diminution in intensity or detail. A person often reports a change in themselves after the experience and, whilst they do not want to die, they lose any fear of death.
In this presentation given at the 2019 International Association for Near Death Studies conference, Dr. Yvonne Kason covers the fundamental information of what constitutes a Near-Death Experience and the aftereffects of NDEs on body, mind, and spirit.
References:
A full list of references is available in the Reference Material section.
- Atwater, P.M.H (2007). Big Book Of Near-Death Experiences: The Ultimate Guide to What Happens When We Die. Charlottesville: Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc.
- Bailey, L. and Yates, J. (1996). eds. The Near-death Experience : A Reader. Abingdon: Routledge.
- Fenwick, P. and Fenwick E. (2011). The Truth in the Light: An Investigation of Over 300 Near-Death Experiences. London: Continuum.
