A near-death experience (NDE)

A near-death experience (NDE), refers to a broad range of personal experiences associated with impending death, encompassing multiple possible sensations including detachment from the body; feelings of levitation; extreme fear; total serenity, security, or warmth; the experience of absolute dissolution; and the presence of a light, which some people interpret as a deity.[1]

These phenomena are usually reported after an individual has been pronounced clinically dead or otherwise very close to death, hence the term near-death experience. Many NDE reports, however, originate from events that are not life-threatening. With recent developments in cardiac resuscitation techniques, the number of reported NDEs has increased.[2] Many in the scientific community regard such experiences as hallucinatory,[3][4][5] while paranormal specialists and some mainstream scientists claim them to be evidence of an afterlife.[6][7][8]

Popular interest in near-death experiences was initially sparked by Raymond Moody's 1975 book Life After Life[9] and the founding of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) in 1981.[10] According to a Gallup poll, approximately eight million Americans claim to have had a near-death experience.[11] Some commentators, such as Simpson[12] claim that the number of near-death experiencers may be underestimated, mainly because some such individuals are presumably afraid or otherwise reluctant to talk about their experiences.

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