A half-century ago, Dr. Raymond Moody coined the term “near-death experience” (NDE) and began chronicling these profound occurrences. Much has happened since in the world of NDE research.
Not long after Moody put his attention on near-death experience phenomena in the 1970s, a cadre of researchers began following in his footsteps. Over the last five decades, this small but growing band of researchers has continued to expand our understanding of NDEs.
Their findings, grounded in rigorous methodology, have not only validated some of Moody’s initial observations but have also brought new dimensions of the subject to light.
In this article, we provide an overview of what’s happening at the forefront of NDE research.
What did Dr. Eben Alexander experience?
Perhaps the most famous scientific examination of a near-death experience is neurosurgeon Dr. Eben Alexander’s meticulous investigation of his own NDE, reported in his 2012 bestselling book Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife.
In November 2008, Dr. Alexander contracted bacterial meningitis, a life-threatening disease that left him in a coma for seven days. During this time, his brain’s neocortex—the part responsible for thought and consciousness—was completely shut down.
In medical terms, this is sometimes referred to as a brain that is “flat-lined.” This state typically means that electroencephalogram (EEG) readings, which measure brain activity, show minimal or no detectable signals.
While in the coma, Dr. Alexanders’ brain was not capable of producing conscious thought. Moreover, his bacterial meningitis was so severe that his survival was highly unlikely, and if he were to live, the recovery of any brain function was considered almost impossible.
However, Dr. Alexander went through an astounding inner journey while in the coma, gifting him with insights that challenged his previous scientific beliefs.
After miraculously surviving the disease with his mental faculties intact, Alexander went about documenting his experience.
Dr. Alexander’s background in neurosurgery
It’s important to note that before his near-death experience, Dr. Eben Alexander had performed more than 4,000 brain surgeries. He specialized in complex neurosurgical problems such as brain tumors, spinal cord disorders, and trauma. His expertise was microsurgery, which involves the use of high-powered microscopes and precision instruments to perform intricate operations on the brain and spinal cord.
As might be imagined, Dr. Alexander’s vast experience in this field added significant weight to his account of his NDE.
Dr. Alexander’s NDE journey
Dr. Alexander remembers beginning his near-death experience in a dark, murky “underworld” filled with roots and a pulsing, rhythmical sound.
Soon thereafter, he found himself in an overwhelmingly beautiful and bright place, accompanied by a being he identified as a “guardian angel.” While in that state, he felt a deep sense of love and connection.
Dr. Alexander described encountering spiritual beings and experiencing an all-encompassing sense of the divine. He perceived a higher consciousness that he interpreted as God or the “Source.”
He also reported receiving messages of reassurance and unconditional love, with a focus on the significance of love and the interconnectedness of all life.
Alexander’s belief system prior to his near-death experience
As a neurosurgeon, Dr. Alexander adhered to a purely materialistic view of consciousness. He believed that consciousness was entirely generated by the brain. Prior to his own near-death experience, he considered NDEs and other spiritual experiences as products of brain physiology.
However, his NDE led him to reevaluate his previously-held view that consciousness is dependent upon brain activity. He now believes that consciousness exists independent of the human brain and that the mind is more than a mere byproduct of neural activity.
Dr. Alexander’s book maps his journey from skepticism to a belief in the afterlife and a higher spiritual reality. The book includes his reflections on the limitations of current scientific paradigms in explaining the full nature of consciousness.
Alexander now advocates for a more open-minded approach to understanding consciousness. He also collaborates with other researchers to explore the implications of his experience.
Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife has sold more than two million copies since its publication in 2012. The book reached the top of the New York Times bestseller list and has been translated into 37 languages.
The bulletproof NDE
Podcaster Kim Montgomery, whose Journey to a New Earth podcast often features individuals who have had near-death experiences, said of Dr. Alexander’s near-death experience that it “is the bulletproof NDE that you just can’t shoot holes in.”
She continued: “There’s no denying the fact that he was a brain surgeon whose brain died. All his testimony [during his near-death experience was] when his brain was offline. I mean, it’s just amazing and it was so exciting for me to finally see that one particular story come out that you couldn’t argue against.”
What have other NDE researchers found?
More recent empirical studies on near-death experiences have provided fascinating insights into the nature of these phenomena. What is striking is how common and universal these reports are. Here is a sampling:
Resuscitation and perception of consciousness
A 2023 study published in medicalxpress.com explored NDEs in cardiac arrest patients.
Dr. Sam Parnia and his team used monitoring devices to study subjects during resuscitation efforts. Parnia is an associate professor of medicine at New York University’s Langone Medical Center and a leading expert in the scientific study of death, cardiac arrest, and near-death experiences.
He also is the director of critical care and resuscitation research at NYU Langone, where he leads a team investigating what happens to the brain and consciousness during cardiac arrest and resuscitation.
Among the 53 patients in the study who survived their cardiac arrest, 28 participated in detailed interviews. About 40 percent of these participants reported some form of awareness during the period their hearts had stopped.
Interestingly, these individuals described experiences such as seeing deceased relatives, feeling weightless, or moving through a tunnel. Despite their brains flatlining, some patients exhibited spikes in brain activity consistent with consciousness up to an hour into resuscitation.
The NDE study, also reported in resusitationjournal.com and Smithsonian Magazine, highlighted a person’s ability to be consciously aware during periods traditionally thought to be devoid of brain activity.
The study includes detailed accounts of patients being aware of the CPR process or having vivid experiences, despite them being clinically dead with no heartbeat or breathing. These findings suggest that consciousness may persist even when clinical signs of life are absent.
ICU survivors and long-term impact
Another 2023 study, published in Critical Care, examined the incidence and long-term impact of NDEs among intensive-care-unit (ICU) survivors. The study was conducted by researchers from the Universities of Liège in Belgium and Laval in Canada.
The study followed patients who had survived prolonged critical illnesses. Approximately 15 percent of them reported NDEs.
The research focused on the long-term psychological and spiritual impacts of these experiences. Patients reported significant changes in their outlook on life, including a deeper appreciation for life, increased empathy, and reduced fear of death.
Consistent with other studies, the findings point to the transformative potential of NDEs, even in patients who have faced severe medical trauma.
Dr. Pim van Lommel’s NDE contribution
An older study worth mentioning is the 2001 NDE investigation by Dutch cardiologist Dr. Pim van Lommel. His groundbreaking study of 344 survivors of cardiac arrest was published in the Lancet in 2001.
Van Lommel’s study concluded that “more and more experiences are being reported by serious and reliable people who, to their own surprise and confusion, have experienced, independent of their physical body, an enhanced consciousness with a persistent experience of self.
“These experiences have been reported in all times, in all cultures, and in all religions. In several prospective empirical studies, it has been proven that an enhanced and clear consciousness with self-identity can be experienced during the period of cardiac arrest (clinical death), when global cerebral function can at best be described as severely impaired and at worst nonfunctional.”
Dr. van Lommel is the author of Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience.
Other NDE researchers
Many other researchers have contributed to the growing base of knowledge in the field. Two of these are Dr. Bruce Greyson of the University of Virginia and NDE pioneer researcher Dr. Kenneth Ring.
A psychiatrist and professor emeritus at the University of Virginia, Dr. Greyson developed the Greyson Scale to measure the depth of NDEs.
His long-running research has discovered that NDEs often result in dramatically positive and sustainable transformations in personality and outlook for the individuals involved. Those who have gone through NDEs frequently report a newfound sense of purpose and a diminished fear of death.
Dr. Ring’s work followed closely on the heels of Dr. Moody’s research. His 1980 book, Life at Death: A Scientific Investigation of the Near-Death Experience, remains a classic in the field.
Insights from the other side
An update on NDE research would not be complete without mentioning the work of David Suich.
Suich’s journey into the world of NDEs began during his battle with a chronic and painful physical condition and severe depression. He clicked on a YouTube video about an atheist who had a near-death experience. This seemingly random event led him on a 15-year journey of research into NDEs. To date, he has gathered more than 1,200 testimonies of people who have died and returned to life.
“In 2007 I started investigating NDEs and then after a few hundred I thought, you know, there’s lots of good books out there about individual [near-death] experiences and there’s lots of high esoterical, spiritual concept books that are really hard to understand,” he told YouTube podcaster Kimberly Montgomery in a 2021 interview.
However, Suich saw a void in the NDE literature: The need for “a sort of Spirituality 101” collection of the insights people were reporting in the wake of their NDEs.
Below is a sampling of those insights, which can be viewed as mere curiosities, profound insights, or a mix of both, depending on your point of view. No matter what they may be, they are presented here for your consideration. These are taken from Suich’s YouTube interview with podcaster Montgomery.
Here’s a sampling of David Suich’s NDE conclusions:
“The most common near-death experience is somebody dying in an accident or in the hospital, you know surgery gone wrong or something like that. They come out of their body [and] they can see themselves from above. They’re looking down at their own body below. They can hear the thoughts and feel the emotions of the people around them. They try talking to them [but] nobody can hear them now.
“After they’ve recovered from their brush with death, they may explain their experience as the opposite of a ghost. They might say that they felt more real and more alive than they’ve ever felt in their life.
“So people describe a clarity of thought that we just don’t have down here on earth. They describe an intensity of emotions that we don’t have here on earth….
“They describe this love that cannot be described in human words. Even the word love is completely inadequate to describe what they feel. They say things like imagine the strongest love you’ve ever felt in your life and multiply it by about 500 or a thousand and that’s what it feels like or think about the 100 happiest moments of your life and put them all in the one moment….
“Whatever they were chasing in their life before, whatever was number one, whether it was a hobby or career or a relationship or something like that, that takes a back seat and they come back focused on serving humanity.”
“So there’s a phrase or an idea that many NDE-ers come back with, and that is: ‘There’s a perfect plan and it’s working itself out in its perfection.’ Well, it certainly doesn’t seem like it from down here, but I know that there is a purpose to it.”
Why so many reports of NDEs now?
Suich explains: “If you had an NDE a hundred years ago, they’d put you in a mental institution. Or if you talk about it too much, you know, you get pushed away by family and friends….
“So that’s probably one reason. The other reason is that we need it more here. We’re in a great shift and so we need to hear these experiences to help change our attitudes and our consciousness and realize that we’re all connected.
“Okay, so what’s happening right now is there’s a great shift and a great change.”
The Great Shift
Based on his study of more than 1,200 NDE reports, Suich believes a world of greater cooperation is on the horizon. He calls this new normal “The Great Shift.”
If the NDE information he has gathered over 17 years is to be believed, this shift from a highly competitive nation-against-nation world to a significantly more cooperative attitude will occur gradually over the next half-century and beyond.
However, he says the NDE reports he has studied suggest that for this shift to happen, we will have to pass through a period of “chaos and division,” much like we are seeing today.
A glimpse of what’s ahead
As researchers continue to explore the boundaries of human consciousness, the study of NDEs offers compelling evidence that the intricacies of life and death are far more complex than previously imagined.
These experiences, documented and analyzed over decades, provide a tantalizing glimpse into the mysteries of existence. And they point to the exciting potential of spiritual realities being proven by science—whether sooner or later.
