Can Experiences Near Death Furnish Evidence of Life after Death?
Emily Williams Kelly, Bruce Greyson, Ian Stevenson
OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying June 1, 2000 DOI: 10.2190/kntm-6r07-ltvt-mc6k via OpenAlex
Summary
Near-death experiences (NDEs) often convince those who have them that consciousness survives death, a conviction not shared by others. While any single NDE feature might be explained non-survivally, three features together suggest the possibility of survival: enhanced mental processes during serious physiological impairment, out-of-body experiences where the person views events from above, and awareness of remote events inaccessible to ordinary senses. The authors briefly report one case and describe two additional cases where the remote events apparently seen were verified by other people.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Case study Case report Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Individuals who have had near-death experiences |
| Keywords | Conviction Cognitive psychology Social psychology Political science Law |
| Citations | 26 |
| Key finding | Three features of NDEs—enhanced mental processes during impairment, out-of-body viewing, and awareness of remote events—when occurring together suggest the possibility of survival of death. |
Abstract
Most people who have a near-death experience (NDE) say that the experience convinced them that they will survive death. People who have not had such an experience, however, may not share this conviction. Although all features of NDEs, when looked at alone, might be explained in ways other than survival, there are three features in particular that we believe suggest the possibility of survival, especially when they all occur in the same experience. These features are: enhanced mental processes at a time when physiological functioning is seriously impaired; the experience of being out of the body and viewing events going on around it as from a position above; and the awareness of remote events not accessible to the person's ordinary senses. We briefly report one such case, and we also briefly describe two additional such cases in which the remote events apparently seen were verified by other persons.