Near-Death Experience
A Near-Death Experience is a personal experience that occurs during clinical death. The number of Near-Death Experience accounts has increased with the advancement in modern medicine. Each day more and more individuals are brought to life from clinical death. While each account has some differences, there are many similar experiences. Individuals recount detachment from their body, a deep feeling of peace and love, moving through a tunnel, and encountering light. Research has shown that after a Near-Death Experience, many often have permanent, positive, and transformative life changes. such as reduced fear of death, increased compassion, and a shift away from materialism to faith in God and an afterlife. (Some have had Near-Death Experiences,
The vast number of Near-Death Experiences from thousands of individuals are from different backgrounds, such as atheists, agnostics, diverse cultural, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Even with the differences in background, many near-death experience accounts share common features:
Out-of-Body Experience (OBE): A sense of separating from the physical body, often observing the surroundings from above. Including those working on the persons body.
The Tunnel and Light: Traveling through a dark, often described as a tunnel or void, towards a brilliant, peaceful, non-blinding light.
Profound Emotions: Intense feelings of unconditional love, peace, joy, and tranquility.
Meeting Others: Encounters with deceased loved ones, pets, or spiritual beings.
Life Review: A panoramic, swift, and sometimes emotional review of one's past life. This proves that they in a different dimension of time, as only the Bible describes. The person may only be clinically dead for a few minutes, yet they are able to have an experience that would take hours.
The Boundary: Reaching a barrier, or "point of no return," after which they return to their body. Almost all do not want to return because of the immense feeling of unconditional love, peace, joy, and tranquility.
Children's Reports: Children, who often have fewer pre-existing expectations of death, report NDEs with experiences similar to those of adults.
Consistency: Data from sources like the Near-Death Experience Research Foundation show that NDEs are a, relatively consistent experience across cultures.
Memory Quality: NDE memories are often reported as more vivid and real than regular memories or imagined experiences, according to a study on "Reality" of near-death-experience memories.
Veridical Perception: NDErs report specific, verifiable details about their environment that they couldn't have seen, such as the position of a surgical tool not in their view.
Most happen at clinical death, such as cardiac arrest, severe trauma, or drowning.
Enhanced Consciousness: Individuals often report feeling "more alive" than ever before.
Longest Near-Death Experience (NDE) with significant documentation, are: 6 hours (Annabel Beam) and a few are around 1.5 hours (Pastor Don Piper and Dean Braxton)
A small percentage are distressing or "hellish," involving feelings of isolation, terror, or negative (found in atheists and agnostics)
The sheer number of Near-Death Experiences means atheists and agnostics can no longer claim that there is no afterlife. Atheists and agnostics can no longer claim that humans do not have a spirit, spirit beings. Atheists and agnostics can no longer claim that humans are not made in the "image of God" as the Bible declares. These are transcendent events, just as the Bible declares are real. A person is not just neurochemical actions in the brain. The human mind is separate from the neurochemical actions in the brain.
The atheists and agnostic neurochemical, or similar to REM sleep intrusion hypothesis, do not stand up to any testing, due to the vast amount of data that shows the vast different backgrounds of the Individuals. The few long near-death-experiences prove these experiences are not from the brain, the false "Dying Brain" Hypothesis". But those with a materialist worldview must keep looking and reject the clear evidence. There are atheists and agnostics who will look at one case and say that it is not a real near-death experience. The problem is that they must now look at thousands of cases from all around the world to try to prove their point of view, but they cannot, as the evidence is too great.
Genesis 5:1 "...In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him".
1 Thessalonians 5:23 Humans have a spirit, soul, and body
Job 32:8 "But it is the spirit in a person, the breath of the Almighty, that gives them understanding." (Written over 4,000 years ago.)
Romans 8:16 "The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children."
1 Corinthians 2:11 "For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him?
See the Image of God page , God of the Bible and Human Uniqueness page
Individuals
The most rigorously documented near-death experience (NDE) is often cited as that of Pam Reynolds Lowery of Atlanta, Georgia, in 1991, who experienced a verified out-of-body experience during a high-risk brain surgery. Under "standstill" (EEG flatline, no blood flow to the brain, body temperature cooled to touch ), she accurately described surgical instruments and conversations, providing strong evidence of consciousness independent of brain function.
Dr. Eben Alexander: A neurosurgeon who documented his experience during a severe case of bacterial meningitis in his book, "Proof of Heaven". His case is notable because of his medical background and the severity of his brain infection.
Vicki Umipeg, a Blind NDEr, was documented by Dr. Kenneth Ring, this case involved a woman blind from birth who reported accurate, vivid, visual descriptions of her surroundings and resuscitation efforts while technically dead.
There are many, many more that can be cited.
Ref:
National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD nih.gov
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40627510/ 2025 Feb-Mar Diversity and similarity of near-death experiences across cultures and history: implications for the survival hypothesis
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6173534/ . 2014 Nov-Dec; Distressing Near-Death Experiences: The Basics
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6179792/ 2013 Nov-Dec. Getting Comfortable With Near Death Experiences: An Overview of Near-Death Experiences
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6172100/ 2014 Sep-Oct Near-Death Experiences Evidence for Their Reality
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1048929/full 2023 Explanation of near-death experiences: a systematic analysis of case reports and qualitative research