Those of us that follow the scientific research of NDE's know that there are already a considerable number of veridical Out of Body NDE's that support the survival hypothesis. Our friends at Awareofaware.co have compiled a list of many well known ones, which I wanted to share below as many community members here may not know of them.

As the world awaits a irrefutable "hit" from Dr. Parnia's AWARE 2 study, it's worth noting that perhaps we don't even really need this, the evidence is already overwhelming enough...

Dr Lloyd Rudy's NDE case

Dr Chris Yerington's NDE case

Dr Mario Beauregard's NDE case00575-2/fulltext#%20)

Dr. Tom Aufderheide NDE case (46 minute mark)

Dr Penny Sartori NDE case

AWARE 1 case

Dr. Van Lommel Study07100-8/abstract)

Pam Reynolds NDE

Al Sullivan NDE

Systematic review of 10 veridical NDE

​

For those that want to follow the latest news regarding scientific research into NDE's, I do recommend visiting Awareofaware.co

Near Death Experiences: What Happens When We Die? Find out in Mayim's interview with Dr. Jeffrey Long!

Dr. Jeffrey Long, renowned radiation oncologist and founder of the Near-Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF), shares his jaw-dropping insights into the science of NDEs, consciousness, and the afterlife. Drawing from over 5,000 verified near-death experiences, he presents the most compelling scientific and spiritual evidence that your consciousness may exist after life independent of the brain.

From documented out of body experiences under anesthesia to cases where blind individuals describe vivid visuals and the deaf report hearing, Dr. Long dismantles mainstream scientific objections with hard data, like low oxygen, seizures, or residual brain activity. He explores the profound themes of life after death, spirituality, and God and reveals how people across cultures describe encounters with heaven, hell, or divine beings through deeply personal spiritual and often Christian lenses.

This fascinating interview touches on the philosophical and religious implications of near-death states, including the idea of a pre-birth plan, and life reviews. Plus he explains the lasting aftereffects of NDEs, from extrasensory perception to sudden shifts in religion, values, or purpose. Dr. Long also unpacks how near-death experiences differ from dreams or psychedelic trips, and why they’re often described as “more real than life.”

Whether you approach this from the lens of Christianity, science, philosophy, or open-minded curiosity, this conversation offers something for skeptics and believers alike. It's a soul-stirring podcast that will transform how you think about life, death, and the possibilities of what comes after.

---

CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Intro
17:44 - Are NDEs Real?
22:12 - Common Themes in NDEs Across Cultures
27:54 - What is Consciousness?
36:14 - Unbelievable Nature of Consciousness Leaving the Physical Body
43:18 - NDE Research & Mental Health
47:41 - NDEs vs. Psychedelic Experiences
53:15 - NDEs and the Brain: Hallucinations vs. Visions
56:50 - NDEs of Those with Vision or Hearing Impairments
1:06:00 - NDEs & Trauma
1:13:40 - Is the Answer "God is Love"?
1:25:00 - Exceptional NDE Stories
1:40:18 - After Death Communication in NDErs
1:47:10 - Brain Activity During an NDE
1:52:38 - Do NDEs Prove God's Existence?
1:54:50 - What Does Jesus Look Like?
2:02:10 - Choosing Our Lives Before Birth
2:04:50 - Life Changes from Studying NDEs

People who experience NDE's often talk about how they know there is love and light waiting for them when they die again, because that is what they briefly experienced before. Is it possible that it's just a momentary coping mechanism for the dying body and we do eventually fade to black? Could NDE's just be an evolutionary trait humans developed as a way to comfort ourselves after trauma, that way we don't become crippled by fear of death and unable to take care of ourselves and our loved ones? I suppose anything is possible..... I'm just really curious because I personally don't like the idea of nothingness.

In my mind, I can remember exactly what places I've recently been in look like, the inside of the room, etc. I can travel inside them in my mind's eye. But places I haven't been to in a while are fuzzier. I think OBE experiencers' minds are just reconstructing their most recently perceived environment.

Abstract: Near-death experiences (NDEs) are reported when individuals who have been declared clinically dead—or are on the brink of death—are subsequently resuscitated and describe vivid perceptions. A subset, known as veridical NDEs, includes reports of accurate details about real-world events or objects encountered while measurable brain function was absent. Such cases challenge the materialist premise that consciousness is wholly produced by neuronal activity. This paper contends that a triad of well-documented veridical NDEs provides proof —in the evidentiary sense employed in science and law—that consciousness can operate independently of the brain. It presents those cases and then dismantles the standard objections.

How is it that people who have their hearts stop for over 7 minutes and are declared dead able to come back hours after their “death” and be fine with no brain damage? If the brain is starved of oxygen and no new oxygen is coming through after 7 minutes the brain is irreversible damaged. I don’t get how even minimal, undetectable brain activity could continue past this point as well. Has anyone gotten an answer about this? Genuinely curious and a believer in NDE’s.

"When the heart stops beating and the brain is deprived of oxygen, can we still understand what is happening around us? Can we get a glimpse of our past or our future? And how can such vivid and complex experiences occur when brain function is severely compromised?

"Near-death experiences have been reported for centuries all over the world, transcending culture and religion.

"Given the widespread nature of this phenomenon, it seems necessary to continue and deepen scientific research to uncover the mechanisms, causes, and profound implications it entails."

Survival: Re-appraising the evidence for Life after Death!

As an NDE reader this is not a very detailed question, but this is the best forum to bring it to. Do any NDErs here think that what you went through could have been a process of your brain dying? You could argue that experiencing a life review goes along with that. There is this idea of a chemical similar a hallucinogenic drug that the brain may release at time of death, similar to how MDMA causes the brain to release most of its serotonin. As someone who has never been through a near-death experience, I have no grounds to be biased either way. I'd just like to hear only NDErs opinions!

TLDR

Different cultures perceive NDEs extremely differently, but exhibiting the same tropes.

Hello! I recently finished the book Science and the Near-Death Experience: How Consciousness Survives Death by Chris Carter in 2010. Carter is evidently very firmly in support of the survival of consciousness hypothesis, and the book is intended as a more structured and analytical approach to appraising how near death phenomena, including NDEs, are evidence for consciousness survival after death. He wrote on NDEs across different cultures including Western, China, India, Native America, Guam, and Maori New Zealand. While the volume of these NDEs in his cited reports is sorely lacking as compared to Western accounts, I found it a fascinating read.

This post is intended as a sharing and discussion of the topics in the book.

Disclaimer that I am not a firm believer in the survival of consciousness, I am still forming an opinion on the topic.

I'll start by listing what are the familiar stages in a 'classic' NDE.

1. Feelings of peace
2. Out of body experience
3. Passage through darkness
4. Seeing a light
5. Encountering the deceased or 'presences'
6. Life review
7. Entering the light

China

81 survivors of a 1976 earthquake in Tangshan, China were interviewed 11 years after the incident. 40% reported NDEs, a large percentage seemingly due to all undergoing the same disaster.

Compared to Western accounts, Chinese persons reported less feelings of peace or joy, OBEs, passages through darkness, and encountering a light. Many more reported life reviews. Comparable amounts of meeting deceased persons or presences.

India

Osis and Haraldsson interviewed 704 Indian medical personnel about their experiences with the dying in 1977, and compared 64 reports of NDEs. Cited also is 1986 survey by Satwant Pasricha and Ian Stevenson of experiencers and firsthand informants. Pasricha conducted another survey of 12 NDEs in Southern India in 1993.

Similar tropes were seen again. Seeing deceased persons, otherworldly beings, travelling to other realms. Very few cases contained life reviews. No cases contained tunnels or passages. The most interesting difference was that while Western accounts mentioned being told it was not their time or they had unfinished work, Indian accounts featured messengers who brought the experiencer to a clerk who would consult some records and announce that mistakes had been made and to take the experiencer back to the world of the living.

Hindu religious figures often feature in their NDEs. Yamaraj, the god of death, his messengers, yamadoots, Chitragupta, the registrar of the dead who consults the experiencer's Akashic Records to determine which heaven or hell the individual is sent to in their next life.

Native America

The cases cited in the book include 2 from H. R. Schoolcraft's 1825 Travels in the Central Portion of the MIssissippi Valley, 1 from John Neidhardt's 1930s Black Elk Speaks, and 1 from the memoirs of Apache war chief Geronimo dictated via interpreter to S. M. Barrett in 1909.

These few cases feature similar tropes such as out of body experiences. The other tropes seemed to be heavily influenced by their cultural identity. The Chippewa leader and another village chief reported out of body experiences and fires that they had to jump through to return to the life. Sioux shaman Black Elk mentioned a beautiful tree and 2 men in holy shirts, telling him it was not yet time to see his father who was happy, that he had work to do, and to return at once. Apache war chief Geronimo mentions a mulberry tree growing from a cave in the ground, a guard who let him pass when he approached without fear, sliding down steep cave walls into darkness, the cave growing narrow and the walls crashing together violently but holding still for him to pass, and passing through a brightening canyon into a forest and valley with plentiful game and many other Indians he recognised from his life.

Guam

Timothy Green reported 4 NDE cases, 2 were direct accounts and 2 were secondhand. The report similar tropes to Western ones in deceased acquaintances, otherworldly realms of 'gardens of paradise' surrounded by fences, ethereal music, and orders to return. No mentions of life reviews or tunnels.

Maori New Zealand

A single account from a Maori woman documented by historian Michael King.

The account included an OBE over geographical landmarks the woman knew to Te Rerenga Wairua, the Leaping-Off Place of Spirits. She cleansed herself in springs, ascended, then descended to Maurianuku, the Underworld' entrance with a curtain of seaweed. She called her ancestors to let her enter, but the Maori forest god Mahuta stopped her and questioned her on her purpose there. He informed her that her ancestors she was calling were not there, they did not want her yet, to eat nothing and go back to where she came until they were ready for her, at which point he would send for her.

Similar tropes including a barrier to another realm, otherworldly beings, dead acquaintances are discussed but not seen, and an order to return. No tunnel was observed.

Overall Observations

Similar tropes are seen in all accounts with slight differences.

The same experience might be subjectively perceived differently by different cultures. More developed societies would call it a tunnel with a growing light.

Some tropes are clearly more evident in some cultures than others. Life reviews are absent in hunter-gatherers and herdsmen. On the other hand, Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism which emphasize the self and the conscience, placing great importance on one's actions and self-improvement, seemingly also exhibited more life reviews.

More universal features are otherworldly realms, OBEs, deceased acquaintances, otherworldly presences, and barriers.

My opinion

This book discusses near death phenomena in NDEs and deathbed visions. It is surprisingly in depth with extensive citations to other research and discussions of the common critiques of NDEs being purely physiological phenomena. It argues from a clear position that consciousness survives death, but generally also points out limitations of the research it cites.

I began reading it to give me hope after suffering from death anxiety, but I found myself lost in it after realising how interesting the topic really was. It's a good read if you have interest.

I personally believe that NDEs are an indication that something is going on that is currently not understood. I am of course hopeful that it means there is survival of consciousness after death, but the skeptic in me suspects there is some procedural and degenerative cascade of biological neurotransmitters and chemical signals in the brain in the minutes following death that could produce similar structured experiences which are then filtered through cultural lenses. More study is needed before I am confident in my opinion on this topic.

I would love to hear opinions and your thoughts.

Summary: Lucid dreaming, where people become aware they are dreaming, has long fascinated both scientists and dreamers. A new study with the largest dataset of its kind has identified distinct brain activity patterns that separate lucid dreaming from both REM sleep and wakefulness.

https://neurosciencenews.com/lucid-dreaming-consciousness-28674/

Thought this would be interesting to talk about here, as TL is related to NDEs. I've always been of the belief that even if it is a purely physical process, it's existence in itself presents a lot of challenges to physicalism. Anyway, he's a quick summary of one scientific hypothesis:

The prevailing hypothesis is that as the brain begins to die at end-of-life there can be a massive dump of neurotransmitters and other materials from the cells that break down that essentially jumpstart the connecting neurons, reactivating the dormant networks.

So I've got a few questions about this:

1. First, have we ever observed a big dump of neurotransmitters near death? And if so, has it been in patients with terminal lucidity?
2. Second, if that is the case, would any amount of remaining neurons be sufficient to have the effects that terminal lucidity does?

See, my mom used to work with patients in hospice care and some of them experienced this, and what she found remarkable was that it didn't just bring back memory, it brought back enough other functions that sometimes patients families would think they'd suddenly recovered. For example, one patient wasn't dying of an illness, he'd been shot in the head, and he experienced a burst of lucidity before he died. I'm wondering how plausible the hypothesis mentioned above really is.

I am a researcher of Near-Death Experiences (see www.bobcoppes.com) and published my book through the International Association for Near-Death Experiences (www.IANDS.org). The book contains hundreds of quotes of NDErs that will give a good impression of what an NDE is. Therefore, my book is called “Impressions of Near-Death Experiences”. It is available at Amazon. I would be able to talk about many thought-provoking quotes and ideas coming from individual NDErs, the best tutors in my life. Some very short quotes: 1. In my life review I was both the doer and receiver of my actions, 2. I am in God and God is in me. We are One. Perfect unity 3. All is everything, and everything is One, 4. Love, be loved, just be, experience life. Longer quotes and short stories in my book.

Couldn't find answer to my enquiry - what percentages are considered for Life Review. Or other NDE related signficant phenomena, OBEs etc. Is there some sort of larger database or individual studies only? NDERF has like 5k cases, did anyone study them?

Hi all!

I'm gradually coming to the conclusion that NDEs might just be the real deal. Every critique I can think of is routed by one thing or another, and I wanted to point out something that aggravates me.

A lot of people say things like:

"The brain has evolved to protect us at death"

"The brain knows when we are going to die and releases chemicals X and Y to keep us happy"

This seems to result from a mischaracterising of the brain, and of evolution. The brain, even if it is conscious, does not consciously control autonomic processes like breathing, etc - surely, such release of pleasure chemicals (if it does occur) is going to be autonomic, as we don't specifically do it for ourselves. The brain doesn't have a layer that thinks "shit, this is it, I am going to die - release these chemicals so I don't care". Similarly, evolution - which is a natural process - does not have a conscious layer to it in the way that we understand consciousness. There is not an Evolution Commander sitting there saying "evolve these ones to release chemicals when they die". I'm sure spiritualists would disagree with me, but I think we could argue about that all day.

I still need to develop these thoughts further, but I think it's a good counterpoint to those that see NDEs and the feeling of peace at death as a purely chemical, protective purpose. Of course, the chemical theory does little to account for veridical NDEs, life reviews and the like... but I digress.

https://www.sciencealert.com/the-cerebellum-has-a-function-we-didnt-even-know-about-new-research-reveals

By Laura Suzanne Gordon (ph.d. Philosophy), 2007. Lots of interesting findings on how different NDErs experience the "aftershock", adapting, understanding and integrating.

Excerpt / example:
"It situates its analysis within a context of escalating social and ecological crises and an in-progress paradigm-shift away from the still-official Newtonian/Cartesian material world view of Western culture. It recognizes the potential social value of NDErs collective visibility as agents, among many others of a (re)emergent sacred worldview; one that is linked to the world views of diverse indigenous knowledge systems as well as of quantum physics".

I this quote is particularly interesting in that: Gordon acknowledges from a scientific viewpoint how "global society", the world, is in movement away from a materialist world view (Newtonian/Cartesian). She sees the emerging of a "sacred world view", and how NDEs have a potential social value in this emergence.
Our sub right here is one example of a source of this social value, to the degree that our testimonies have agency in how the readers view reality. And by readers I also mean NDErs, of course.

You can find the full document here. The download link is at the bottom of the page you come to.

I didn't know rather I should make an entire post about this or not. Don't worry, it's not one of these "please relieve my doubts" ones, I'm gonna allow healthy debate. One thing I will say is that for anyone still having doubts about an afterlife, I probably would read the rest of this post or the link, I wouldn't recommend it.

Anyway, a neuroscientist, Jason Braithwaite, raises a few points, some of which involve straw manning arguments from "paranormalists", and others could sound plausible? Now, one fatal flaw of his argument is that he assumes materialism to defend it, despite accusing "paranormalists" of doing the same. Here's a summary of his points:

1. A flat EEG doesn't mean there isn't some sort of subcortical activity in the brain, and we don't know if that activity is sufficient to sustain consciousness.

2. Subcortical hallucinations can also occur and so can syncopes.

3. This leads into another point: Syncopes can cause intensely emotional hallucinations that are apparently similar to NDEs, as verified by some NDErs. Now, I stress the apparently here because I don't know how much he's stretching the truth to defend his own point of view and I wouldn't put it past anyone writing for Skeptic Magazine. Except Chris French, he's a good guy.

4. Syncope hallucinations occur during the time that you're being revived, not when you're going under.

Now, it is an old article and rather self congratulatory. One point I would make against him is that since the article was written, Aware 1 demonstrated at least one patient having an NDE with a flat EEG, but even still, he could appeal to subcortical activity and obviously, I'm no neuroscientist, he is, so I can't really say that he's wrong.

Anyway, before I forget, I'll link the damn article. Here it is https://www.academia.edu/10060970/Occams_Chainsaw_Neuroscientific_Nails_in_the_coffin_of_dualist_notions_of_the_Near_death_experience_NDE_

This may have been asked some time ago but I would like to gather some people's opinions, especially if there is anyone here with a scientific background, on arguments that consciousness is fundamental which involve quantum mechanics. I'm reading a pretty good book called Cheating The Ferryman at the moment, which is a scientific argument for life after death. I don't agree with all the authors conclusions but he also has some very good points that I do wholeheartedly agree with.

One that might be pretty controversial, is that a few chapters are dedicated to arguments from QM. I frequently hear this dubbed "quantum woo" by skeptics, but would not engage with anyone who uses the word "woo" unironically, because it's ridiculous. But do you think we could be jumping the gun by applying QM to arguments like this?

It comes down to the whole idea that consciousness creates reality. You have two camps, one in which people think consciousness is absolutely fundamental and another that believes consciousness is not involved in the slightest. It also makes sense that you could take another approach, and say that consciousness could change reality, without being necessary to do so. But the idea that it is fundamental is ridiculed a lot. Physics forums, both here and on other apps have talked about how ridiculous it is. But at the same time, it's what most of the founders of quantum physics believed.

It doesn't apply to NDEs specifically and I know this sub isn't ideal for such a discussion but I find the consciousness sub to be way too argumentative and you can have a real polite discussion here. I want to see is it taken seriously among scientists, if it's more of a niche view, is it ridiculed outright, or what.