What is Near Death Experience (NDE) ?

Near Death Experience (NDE) is the experience people have when they die for some time and then come back to life. It gives us a chance to understand what happens to our consciousness, mind and soul after we die.

These experiences vary a bit, but surprisingly many of them have many commonalities. It’s a rare and mystic experience, but not necessarily scary.

No matter, how these narratives sound, we can still listen to these experiences with an open mind.

Let’s see some of the most common experiences that people have reported, when it comes to NDE.

Table of Contents

• Higher level of Reality
• White or Black light
• Out of body floating experience
• Life review phenomenon
• Life changing phenomenon
• Resistance to go back to life

Higher level of Reality

When people have a mystical experience, they begin to lose the usual sense of material reality around. Their level of consciousness and alertness increases. They perceive that “mystical experience”, to represent a more fundamental level of reality than our everyday material reality. Just as when we know after waking up, that our dream was a lower level of reality.

As per one person, who experienced NDE, “I think, what happens when we die is that, we enter into another state of existence or another state of consciousness that is so extraordinarily different from our physical world, that the language we have is not yet adequate to describe this other state of existence or consciousness.”

White or Black light

Many people who have had this NDE, reported passing through a tunnel and seeing a white/golden or a black light at its end. It pulls and calls for them.

As per one person who had NDE, “As I got there, I just knew that this is the real world. This has everything that I could ever need. This is truth, it’s reality, is absolutely love”.

They talk about the white light as an entity that represents pure, unconditional love, the kind of love they never got on Earth, and absolute knowledge that comes naturally to you, without making any effort. Also, a feeling of complete peace.

On the other hand, the black light is described as pure evil and the scariest thing they have had experienced.

This experience is way too common to be a fluke. It also does not carry any religious propaganda undertones, so there seems to be no reason why so many people will deceivingly report the same kind of experience.

After returning back to life, many of such people describe our world as an illusion and completely unreal. No wonder, this experience leaves deep impact on anyone that experiences it. For example, a cop left his job after having this experience, as he said that he cannot hurt or kill anyone now.

Arguments in favour and against

As per scientists, this tunnelling effect and seeing a white light, can be because of the dilation of pupil at death time. And the experience that people have had, can be due to residual brain activity. We know that brain remains alive for a few hours even after death.

But as a counter argument, people who had this experience said, that this was way more real than just a dream. And many have accurately described the events that happened soon after their death, e.g. what doctors catering to them said or how their relatives reacted etc.

Out of body floating experience

Some patients have had out of body experiences, wherein they found themselves floating above their own body and watching doctors and nurses perform frantic resuscitation efforts.

Not only this, many of them accurately report what happened in the room while they were technically dead. As per a study, nearly half of people who have a near-death experience will experience this out-of-body state (OBS), and an unbelievable 97.6% of the time, every observation that they shared was true.

This probably happens because their consciousness rises up and usually hovers in an area above their body. This suggests that consciousness and mind are different from just brain functions.

Life review phenomenon

Some people experience a life review, where the whole of their life flashes in front of them like a movie. Their entire life runs in a sort of fast-forward, like rewinding a tape. They see exactly what they’ve done, again a second time.

And as per people’s accounts, it’s not just the more important events. Every major and minor experience flashes again - every single act that you have done, every single thought that you have thought, every single word that you have spoken. Suddenly all of this is back with you, and you also experience the effects of these acts, these thoughts and these words on other people.

It may be a very morally and ethically humbling experience. They realize that in our life, we are the very people that we hurt, and we are the very people that we help. We all are one!

One person gave this account of his experience: “I saw one thing, that I had said to a person when I was 21 years old, that made him cry. I even got to see the result of it. I was so horrified that I caused this person to feel so terrible - like my words penetrated his heart. I thought how one harsh word could destroy somebody, even if I didn’t mean to do so.

I felt that these were the things that were more important to God, rather than my materialistic achievements in the world, like my job and awards. The best experiences were the acts of kindness and emotions like love. Small things that I had long forgotten - like befriending someone that everybody was mean to, or someone who was neglected, the animal I helped, giving money to a homeless person.”

Life changing phenomenon

Near death experience is often a life-changing experience. You can imagine, what it must be like to go through your entire life and see everything that you’ve ever done, from almost omniscient point of view - with regard to the effects of those actions and see what your actions do to other people. It’s a heavy kind of lesson. You’re not the same after that. It’s something that stays with you.

As per one housewife that experienced this, “I started to do yoga and I’ve never done that before. I slowly started moving to more vegetarian diet. I made so many small changes.”

A very very common element you see in people going through extreme trauma or near-death experiences is that, they pop out the other side and say wow let’s go play, let’s go help. It’s not about my bank account or the size of my house. We all have in us a divine spark. It is our direct access to truth, our direct access to God and the purpose of all spiritual practices that exist are to awaken that spark. To give it life, to give it energy, so that it can transform you.

One of the energies that comes from that spark is love. That is why many people become much more emphatic and non-violent after this extreme experience.

As per one person, “I realized during my near-death experiences that, we’re all connected. I wish everybody knew how connected we all are, how we are all one. Because if we knew that, I think this world would be a very different place. Because it means there’s no us and them, there’s no me and you. It’s all us.”

Resistance to go back to life

Many people describe the near-death experience as so beautiful, peaceful and loving, that they actually feel bad after getting alive!

As they felt being pulled back in their body, they resisted. They felt as if the place with that white light was where they actually belong.

In the words of one such survivor - “I said to the radiant light being, that how can I go back down there, knowing that this is where I belong. This radiant being replied, that I need to go back as my work on Earth was not complete and that he will always be with me. I don’t remember agreeing, but I must have. Because the next thing I knew, I’m floating over my body, that is lying in the hospital bed. I knew that this is not me, this is just a house or a vessel that I am living in. I went crashing down into my body and my heart started beating, and I started breathing. There was this palpable sadness that came over me as I regained consciousness. Or should I say, when I lost the supreme consciousness.

When I was technically dead, I felt finally at home and finally felt the connection, that I had always yearned for in my life. Something that I thought would come through marriage, through a child, through family, through work that I loved. But there was nothing in my life experience that could even come close to that sensation. It was that profound! It was that blissful!”

But not all people have reported nice experiences. Some people have given accounts of a blackness that started gulfing them, as soon as they died. They instantly knew that it was pure evil and they felt a fear that they had never experienced before. They pleaded to God for mercy and a second chance and felt so relieved when they got alive again.

So, it seems like there are two sides of the coin, even after death. Some may call them glimpses of heaven and hell. Well, maybe.

Winding Up

Just as by using science, we gain objective truth; using our experience we gain holistic truth. Can science explain feelings of love, or acts of sacrifice?

In many ways, the holistic experienced based truth may be much true than the objective scientific truth. But its only drawback is that we cannot share it. Yes, we can describe it to some extent, but we cannot share. So, we cannot and should not force (or expect) others to believe it.

So, I won’t say that I believe in life after death, but I must say that I have become somewhat convinced that near-death experiences establish the reality of life after death to some extent, based on my own personal research and research of many others.

But, as I said, I won’t believe it. At least till I experience one myself!

One thing is for sure. A near-death experience seems to have very dramatic effects on people. It changes their perspective on life, their fear of death, their interpersonal relationships, how they approach their life, how they push their jobs, their children or family and so on.

And if you leave out some religious propaganda videos (e.g. catholic NDE stories), this seems to be a pure spiritual experience, rather than a religious one.

According to one person, “None of my religious experiences were there. There were no deities or messengers of God or Angles. When I was with the light, there was no judgment, there was no hell or heaven, there was no good and bad. Just absolute peace and unconditional love.”

What are your thoughts on this mystic experience? If you know someone who have had such an experience, do let us know in the comment section.