Near Death Experiences

A brilliant light.

A feeling of extraordinary peace.

The sensation of floating above your own body.

And, sometimes, the unmistakable feeling that someone you loved and lost years ago is waiting for you.

These are among the extraordinary things people have reported during near death experiences.

But what exactly is happening?

Is the dying brain creating one final, spectacular experience?

Or could consciousness be showing us that the story isn’t quite over?

What Are Near-Death Experiences?

Near-death experiences, usually shortened to NDEs, are intensely vivid experiences reported by some people who have come close to death, including during cardiac arrest, serious illness, or severe trauma.

Although every account is different, researchers have identified recurring features.

People have described traveling through darkness or a tunnel, encountering brilliant light, experiencing overwhelming peace or unconditional love, meeting deceased relatives, undergoing a rapid review of their lives, and feeling that their consciousness has somehow left their physical body. Not every NDE is pleasant; some people report frightening experiences too.

And people have been reporting experiences around the threshold of death for centuries.

“I Was Outside My Body”

Perhaps the strangest accounts involve people who say they could see their own bodies from somewhere else.

Some describe looking down upon doctors attempting to revive them. Others report apparently observing things happening elsewhere.

Researchers at the University of Virginia’s Division of Perceptual Studies are particularly interested in so-called veridical NDEs, in which someone reports information they seemingly couldn’t have acquired through ordinary means. The researchers emphasize that the causes of NDEs remain complex and not fully understood.

That doesn’t prove consciousness actually leaves the body.

But it certainly gives us something to talk about over coffee.

Have you, or someone you know, ever had a near-death experience? We’d love to hear about it. Tell us your story in the comments below.

Why Do So Many Experiences Sound Similar?

This is where things become fascinating.

Why do people from different backgrounds describe similar elements?

Scientists have proposed explanations involving changes in brain function, oxygen levels, neurochemistry, memory, expectation, and the unusual physiological conditions surrounding a medical crisis.

Yet research continues.

Psychiatrist Bruce Greyson began studying NDEs at the University of Virginia in the 1970s and has studied more than 1,000 cases. Researchers have also developed formal scales to assess these experiences, and that work still continues today.

One particularly intriguing finding is how real these memories can feel. In a study of 122 people who reported NDEs, memories of the near-death experience actually scored higher on measured memory characteristics than memories of ordinary real events from around the same period.

Whatever is happening, people aren’t necessarily remembering something vague and dreamlike.

To them, it can feel profoundly real.

What If Death Isn’t the End?

Perhaps that’s the biggest question.

The scientific explanations deserve serious consideration. The brain under extreme stress may be capable of producing experiences we don’t yet completely understand.

But there’s another possibility.

What if consciousness isn’t entirely produced by the brain?

What if the brain is involved with consciousness, but isn’t the whole story?

And what if some people who approach the boundary between life and death briefly glimpse something beyond it?

We don’t know.

Perhaps near death experiences are the dying brain’s extraordinary final fireworks.

Or perhaps the people who return have stood briefly at a doorway the rest of us haven’t reached yet.

Maybe the greatest mystery isn’t what happens when we almost die.

Perhaps it’s what happens when we don’t come back.

If you enjoy mysteries like these, Stories From The Universe by Keith Everett contains 36 uplifting stories about coincidence, fate, synchronicity, and those extraordinary moments that make us wonder whether there’s more to life than we can see.

P.S. For more about manifestation, abundance, divine timing, and the remarkable teachings of Florence Scovel Shinn, visit the Florence Scovel Shinn Legacy YouTube channel.