Near-Death Experiences

Is there life after death? Some of the most compelling evidence of a posthumous existence comes from people who've clinically died—or nearly so. This is what's known as a "near-death experience," or NDE. As they step toward whatever lies beyond this life, their out-of-body travels take them to an unnameable destination where they are met with a variety of remarkable encounters. These are some of their stories. Whether you believe they're absolute proof of life after death is strictly up to you.

NDE and the Meaning of Life

"It was as if I had stepped through my eyelids. I sat up and was in awe at how clear everything appeared. I had worn glasses or contacts my entire life so I was amazed at the sharpness of my room around me and the vividness of the colors. I could perceive an energy surrounding everything." 

Wake-Up Call

"If felt as if I was falling in a very deep, slumbering, swaying invisible energy, so peaceful and so reassuring. Deep, deep down a very restful place. Suddenly, I heard a loud voice in my inner consciousness."

Taken by Asthma and Returned

"After what seemed like hours, but could only have been minutes, my grandfather said, 'You shouldn't be here. It's not your time yet. You must go back.' Then I felt warm, strong arms gently pushing me back."

Fateful Auto Crash

"It was a scary experience to have lived through. California highway patrol said we all were lucky to be alive, and he didn't know how we survived that wreck."

A Conversation With the Departed

"Cancer had ravaged her body, and when she died she didn't even look like herself, but now she looked so beautiful and she glowed as if she radiated. She didn't speak, [but] she communicated with me anyway."

"The White Place"

"I come to this 'white place' and there are some beings there—I'd say there were about 20. These beings have no bodies, as you might have guessed. They look like concentrated energies, but I know they're beings because they're waiting to greet me."

Psychic Protection

"We all had a tale to tell that we would remember for the rest of our lives—but for me, the story was just beginning. When I arrived home after the tour I felt strongly that I was protected somehow during the crash."

Fever Dream

"I pulled [on] a hole and could see that bright area in the fog at the end of the cloud. I saw a white shape there and it moved toward me. It didn't move like the other shapes, this one glided steadily." 

On the Operating Table

"As he reported to my mother, he died during his surgery. He didn't experience a tunnel of light, but he did float upward out of his body to the ceiling."

Near Drowning

"At some point, I finally gave in to the battle I was losing. All of a sudden, my body was no longer craving a breath. I did not need to breathe anymore, and with that, the panic stopped."

Heaven's Gates

"With a sudden whoosh, it was like I was on a super-fast elevator going up through a tunnel. Ahead only darkness, when suddenly there was a very bright dim light far away but very close straight ahead of me."

Turned Back

"When she started to get closer to him, he heard a voice say to him, 'Turn around and go back. It is not your time to go yet'."

An Intervention

"My grandmother told her that she intervened in what she called a 'near-life' experience and saved my life with her message." 

Floating Into Space

"After I came out of my blank state, I found myself floating above my house about 50 feet in the air rapidly ascending upward. I had another blackout and the next thing I knew I was in space looking at the Earth in its entirety."

Out-of-Body and Beyond

"I remember thinking how strange it was that I was up here when my body was still on the car seat! I also noticed that I didn't feel bad anymore. Then I saw my grandmother who had died 15 years earlier of a long and cruel illness."

Grandpa Says Go Home

"All of a sudden, I was talking with my grandfather, who had passed away when I was five years old. He told me, 'I didn't think you were supposed to be here yet'."

At the Edge of the Abyss

"I was given the last rites by a priest as my life hung in the balance. Whilst unconscious, I found myself in an underground tunnel with metal doors on each side."

Place of White and Gold

"It was as if the scenery was rolling by me. I felt a great sense of wonderment— like I was somewhere very special that not a lot of people get to see."

Sounds in the Void

"The thoughts in my mind were very prominent in the void. The only sound being my thoughts made the void very lonely. Without the distractions, you can hear yourself very well."

Return from Hell

"Then Frank told him that he was in hell, and he had come to take Al back with him. Al said he screamed and ran out of the house. He didn't go back for a week."

Recollections of an NDE at Age 6

"In the ambulance, I died and had an NDE. I found myself floating with my legs together and my arms out in a T formation. My hair was light and floating like I was underwater—but I wasn't in water."