The Wise Insights Forum team has studied reports of Near Death Experiences extensively. Many of these reports are available on YouTube. Some of the best were produced by French videographer Anthony Chene, who traveled across the U.S. to capture on video the Near Death Experiences of many actual people who experienced them. Here are some of the best:
The Near Death Experience of Dr. Alan Ross Hugenot, Naval Architect who became a Medium:
The Near Death Experience of Peter Anthony, who is now Psychic:
The Near Death and Life-Changing Experiences of Jeff Olsen:
The Near Death Experiences of Heidi Craig During Childbirth – Learning to Forgive:
“Beyond Our Sight” – How Near Death Experiences Alter Views of Consciousness:
Research Reports About Near Death Experiences
The academic study of near death experiences is outlined in this excerpt from Wikipedia:
Bruce Greyson (psychiatrist), Kenneth Ring (psychologist), and Michael Sabom (cardiologist), helped to launch the field of near-death studies and introduced the study of near-death experiences to the academic setting. From 1975 to 2005, some 2,500 self-reported individuals in the US had been reviewed in retrospective studies of the phenomena[26] with an additional 600 outside the US in the West,[26] and 70 in Asia.[26] Additionally, prospective studies had identified 270 individuals. Prospective studies review groups of individuals (e.g., selected emergency room patients) and then find who had an NDE during the study’s time; such studies cost more to perform.[26] In all, close to 3,500 individual cases between 1975 and 2005 had been reviewed in one or another study. All these studies were carried out by some 55 researchers or teams of researchers.[26]
Research reported in Wikipedia includes the following common characteristics of people who have near death experiences:
Researchers have identified the common elements that define near-death experiences.[3] Bruce Greyson argues that the general features of the experience include impressions of being outside one’s physical body, visions of deceased relatives and religious figures, and transcendence of egotic and spatiotemporal boundaries.[14] Many common elements have been reported, although the person’s interpretation of these events often corresponds with the cultural, philosophical, or religious beliefs of the person experiencing it. For example, in the US, where 46% of the population believes in guardian angels, they will often be identified as angels or deceased loved ones (or will be unidentified), while Hindus will often identify them as messengers of the god of death.[15][16]
Common traits that have been reported by NDErs are as follows:
- A sense/awareness of being dead.[3]
- A sense of peace, well-being and painlessness. Positive emotions. A sense of removal from the world.[3]
- An out-of-body experience. A perception of one’s body from an outside position, sometimes observing medical professionals performing resuscitation efforts.[3][17]
- A “tunnel experience” or entering a darkness. A sense of moving up, or through, a passageway or staircase.[3][17]
- A rapid movement toward and/or sudden immersion in a powerful light (or “Being of Light”) which communicates with the person.[18]
- An intense feeling of unconditional love and acceptance.[19]
- Encountering “Beings of Light”, “Beings dressed in white”, or similar. Also, the possibility of being reunited with deceased loved ones.[3][17]
- Receiving a life review, commonly referred to as “seeing one’s life flash before one’s eyes”.[3]
- Approaching a border or a decision by oneself or others to return to one’s body, often accompanied by a reluctance to return.[3][17]
- Suddenly finding oneself back inside one’s body.[20]
- Connection to the cultural beliefs held by the individual, which seem to dictate some of the phenomena experienced in the NDE and particularly the later interpretation thereof.[15]
The term “near death experience” or “NDE” became popular after the publication of Life After Life, a 1975 book written by psychiatrist Raymond Moody. According to Wikipedia, the book is a report on a qualitative study in which Moody interviewed 150 people who had undergone near-death experiences (NDEs). The book presents the author’s composite account of what it is like to die.[1][2] On the basis of his collection of cases, Moody identified a common set of elements in NDEs:[3]
(a) an overwhelming feeling of peace and well-being, including freedom from pain.
(b) the impression of being located outside one’s physical body.
(c) floating or drifting through darkness, sometimes described as a tunnel.
(d) becoming aware of a golden light.
(e) encountering and perhaps communicating with a “being of light”.
(f) having a rapid succession of visual images of one’s past.
(g) experiencing another world of much beauty.[3]
Life After Life sold more than 13 million copies,[4] was translated into a dozen foreign languages[5] and became an international best seller, which made the subject of NDEs popular and opened the way for many other studies.[6][7]