Belief in an afterlife has shifted from being grounded in theistic religious experience to being supported by Near Death Experiences (NDEs), which modern medicine has made more common. Historical accounts from St. Paul, St. John of the Cross, and Tibetan and Japanese Buddhism are compared with a large survey of contemporary NDEs. The author argues for establishing a prospective research project to test the objectivity of some claimed experiences.
A case report provides strong evidence that veridical out-of-body experiences and physical healing can occur during near-death experiences. The article describes a specific instance where a patient accurately perceived events from a location outside their physical body—information later confirmed by others—and also experienced unexpected, documented medical recovery. These findings suggest that NDEs may involve more than subjective hallucination, raising questions about the relationship between consciousness and the body. The case supports the possibility that paranormal or biofield-related phenomena, such as those studied in parapsychology and biophysics, could play a role in these experiences.