Did You Have a Near-Death Experience? You’re Not Alone

According to the WSJ, 15 million American adults reported having near-death experiences. But how can we tell if they really happened? A story in today’s WSJ explores ways in which scientists are trying to determine the truth of the commonly told story…entering a black tunnel toward a bright light, feeling intense peace and joy, seeing your dead family members once again.

“At 18 hospitals in the US and UK, researchers have suspended pictures, face up, from the ceilings in emergency care areas. The reason: to test whether patients brought back to life after cardiac arrest can recall seeing the images during an out-of-body experience.” Only someone who had truly had such an experience would remember the images, since only they could see them.

A new movie starring Matt Damon is called Hereafter and deals with this topic. So discussions like these are becoming more common. Whether there is truth to these common stories it is remarkable, say some investigators that people of all cultures, races, religions and age groups all describe the experience in basically the same way.