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Definition of an NDE

A near-death experience (NDE) is a profound psychological event  that may occur to a person close to death or, if not near death, in a situation of physical or emotional crisis. Because it includes transcendental and mystical elements, an NDE is a powerful event of consciousness; it is not mental illness. ¹ 

Whether happening “truly near death” or under benign circumstances, the near-death experience contains powerful images and emotions, usually of peace and love though sometimes terror, despair, guilt. An NDE may include an out-of-body experience and vivid perceptions of movement, light, darkness; encounters with deceased loved ones, unfamiliar entities and/or spiritual presences; sometimes a life review, a landscape, a sense of overpowering knowledge and purpose. The aftereffects of an NDE or related experience are enduring, often powerful, and may be life-altering.

The NDE belongs to a larger family of experiences that go beyond the usual limits of space and time and can transform a person's life and beliefs. They may be called spiritually transformative, conversion, mystical, religious, or transpersonal experiences.

One-fourth of the 800 people who have submitted an account of their experience to the IANDS online NDE archives reported they were not close to death or clinically dead at the time.  Instead, they were in emotionally intense situations, praying or meditating, sleeping, or in ordinary states of consciousness when this phenomenon occurred. IANDS refers to these as “near-death-like experiences” or NDLEs.  Seventy-five percent of those who sent their accounts had a sense of being close to death, were in a life-threatening situation, or believed they were clinically dead.²