Near death experience (NDE)

Comparison of well-documented experiences of individuals who have been declared clinically dead, or who have been very near death, but who have subsequently recovered, show remarkable similarities. They usually commence with the certainty that they are dead, often with hearing themselves pronounced to be dead or that there is a grave medical complication. At this point there is no fear and no pain. Some then describe an out-of-body experience when they see themselves and the people round them from outside their own bodies. They describe hearing and seeing with particular clarity what is independently agreed to have occurred, with no feeling of having a body, simply being "I", and usually positioned somewhere near the ceiling.

The transcendent stages follow, of floating through a peaceful, dark or black, space or tunnel and emerging into brilliantly beautiful golden light. There is said to be a feeling of bliss beyond any previously known. Another world of beautiful landscapes and music is experienced. There may be a retrospective, panoramic view of past life, sometimes including encounter with a presence with whom their life is discussed. There is then a boundary beyond which no return is possible, and the choice of whether or not to return (for the sake of family, friends, or unfinished tasks). The choice to return is invariably with reluctance, requiring great effort of will – sometimes apparently against the individual's will.

Although there are negative experiences which mirror this sequence, with predominant feelings of loneliness and desolation, these are much less frequently recorded, arising in less than 3 percent of recorded cases; and the after-effects tend to be similar. Indeed, the after-effects of both the positive and the negative experience tend to be profound. Not only do those having lived through this experience no longer fear death, and are convinced that life continues after death, but personality changes include increased self-confidence and more loving relationships with other people. Orientation becomes less materialistic and the individual may be said to have experienced a spiritual rebirth and received a new purpose in living. The experience and its sequel are similarly experienced regardless of race, culture or religion. Being religious does not seem to affect the likelihood or depth of the experience. Interestingly, it seems more likely to arise in persons never having heard of such an experience than with those who know of its existence.

Since the understanding changes in accordance with the state-of-being of the experiencer, the unusual state-of-being inherent in the near death experience may be of assistance in rendering accessible a not otherwise achievable understanding of reality. Evidence suggests that although the brain and the thinking, conscious mind act closely together, they are not the same. By comparing near death experiences with cases of people who have predicted their own deaths and subsequently died (sometimes for unknown causes and sometimes after apparently living with impossibly grave conditions under which they would have been expected to die long before), evidence also shows that the will (including the will to live or to die) may be part of the transpersonal self such as is manifest in meditative states and peak experiences. The "everyday I" which most would consider their real selves would in that case be simply a projection of the real self.

Not only have near death experiences brought renewed confidence and improved quality of life to those experiencing them, they may possibly provide a means for systematic study of the mystic experience, thus bringing scientific study of the physical world closer to incorporation into the mystic. It has been suggested that the increasing frequency with which such experiences are being recorded may indicate a possible individual and collective change in humanity to a new awareness and reinterpretation of the truth and an understanding of the unity underlying existence.

The experience has been related to that of a shaman, of a person undergoing arduous rites of initiation and of an individual on a vision quest.