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Near-Death Experiences: What Do We Know?

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Coma and Disorders of Consciousness

Abstract

The notion that death represents a passing to an afterlife, where we are reunited with loved ones and live eternally in a utopian paradise, is common in the anecdotal reports of people who have encountered a “near-death experience” (NDE). These experiences are usually portrayed as being extremely pleasant including features such as a feeling of peacefulness, the vision of a tunnel leading to a brilliant light, the sensation of leaving the body, or the experience of a life review. NDEs are increasingly being reported as a clearly identifiable physiological and psychological reality of clinical and scientific significance. The definition and causes of the phenomenon as well as the identification of NDE experiencers are still matters of debate. The phenomenon has been thoroughly portrayed by the media, but the science of NDEs is rather recent and still lacking rigorous experimental data and reproducible, controlled experiments. It seems that the most appropriate theories to explain the phenomenon tend to integrate both psychological and neurobiological mechanisms. It is remarkable to observe the richness and intensity of the memory despite a critical cerebral context. This challenges our conception of consciousness and offers a unique opportunity to better understand the neural correlates of consciousness. In this chapter, we will attempt to describe NDEs and how to identify them. We will also briefly discuss the NDE experiencers’ characteristics. Finally, we will address the main current explicative models and the science of NDEs.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the University and University Hospital of Liège, the Belgian National Funds for Scientific Research (FRS-FNRS), the BIAL Foundation, the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation under the Specific Grant Agreement No. 945539 (Human Brain Project SGA3), the FNRS PDR project (T.0134.21), the ERA-Net FLAG-ERA JTC2021 project ModelDXConsciousness (Human Brain Project Partnering Project), the fund Generet, the King Baudouin Foundation, the Télévie Foundation, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO) in the framework of the PRODEX Programme, the Public Utility Foundation “Université Européenne du Travail,” “Fondazione Europea di Ricerca Biomedica,” the Mind Science Foundation, the European Commission, the Fondation Leon Fredericq, the Mind-Care foundation, the DOCMA project (EU-H2020-MSCA–RISE–778234), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Joint Research Project 81471100), and the European Foundation of Biomedical Research FERB Onlus.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Coma Science Group, GIGA-Consciousness, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium

    Pauline Fritz, Nicolas Lejeune, Helena Cassol, Steven Laureys, Olivia Gosseries & Charlotte Martial

  2. Centre du Cerveau2, University Hospital of Liège, Liège, Belgium

    Pauline Fritz, Nicolas Lejeune, Steven Laureys, Olivia Gosseries & Charlotte Martial

  3. William Lennox Neurological Hospital, Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

    Nicolas Lejeune

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  1. Pauline Fritz
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  2. Nicolas Lejeune
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  3. Helena Cassol
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  4. Steven Laureys
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  5. Olivia Gosseries
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  6. Charlotte Martial
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Correspondence to Charlotte Martial .

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  1. Research Institute, Casa Colina Hospital and Centers for Healthcare, Pomona, CA, USA

    Caroline Schnakers

  2. Coma Science Group GIGA-Consciousness, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium

    Steven Laureys

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Fritz, P., Lejeune, N., Cassol, H., Laureys, S., Gosseries, O., Martial, C. (2023). Near-Death Experiences: What Do We Know?. In: Schnakers, C., Laureys, S. (eds) Coma and Disorders of Consciousness. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-50563-8_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-50563-8_13

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