Every year, thousands of people (the “experiencers") survive close brushes with death due to illness or to accidental or self-inflicted injury. Most of them remember nothing unusual from the episode, but a minority of about 10-20 percent do remember a near-death experience (NDE). Since 1975, when then-medical-student, now-psychiatrist Raymond Moody coined the term NDE in his groundbreaking book “Life After Life,” hundreds of research studies have revealed the features of the experience itself, as well as its aftereffects.
In an NDE, the experiencers find themselves—their consciousness—functioning apart from their physical body. The experience typically feels real, if not hyper-real—that is, more real than usual waking reality. An experiencer might be perceiving the material world, usually from a position above the physical body.
