How Would You Respond to a Deeply Disturbing Near-Death Experience?

You’ve likely heard accounts of dying people speeding through tunnels toward a blindingly bright light and then becoming overwhelmed by a sense of peace and wellbeing. But how would you respond to a deeply disturbing near-death experience?

Because less known are instances where terror, guilt, and despair fill those who almost die.

“The great majority of near-death experiences (NDEs) reported publicly over the past four decades have been described as pleasant, even glorious,” said NDE researchers Nancy Evans Bush and Bruce Greyson, MD, in their paper, “Distressing Near-Death Experiences: The Basics.”

“Almost unnoticed in the euphoria about them has been the sobering fact that not all NDEs are so affirming,” the authors continued. “Some are deeply disturbing.”

It’s a topic that fascinates me, particularly since an acquaintance told me about a man whose experience profoundly changed him, and a woman who had terrifying visions but refused to alter her thinking.

How would you respond to a deeply disturbing near-death experience? Would you interpret it as a glimpse into hell? 

What is an NDE?

Yes, plenty of people scoff at NDEs, equating these supernatural experiences to ghosts and alien abductions. Because an estimated nine million Americans have reported a transformative NDE after surviving a brush with death, many researchers don’t dismiss the stories.

They debate how to interpret them.

Many attribute these experiences to overactive imaginations. Physical reactions to the loss of oxygen and the effects of anesthesia. Some point to seizures and even memories.

But an encounter with God? Proof of an afterlife? A wake-up call?

Meet Dr. Raymond Moody

The first written accounts of NDEs date back to the Middle Ages, possibly earlier. Among the first to study the phenomenon was Dr. Raymond Moody, who not only coined the NDE term but also emerged as a leader in the field when he released his bestseller, Life After Life, in 1975. 

As a young medical student, Moody would listen to patients’ stories, struck by their similarities. They spoke of speeding through a tunnel, seeing a brilliant light, and then meeting deceased loved ones and beings of light who welcomed them as they crossed over to a heavenly realm.

Only then did they meet a powerful spiritual being some identified as God, Jesus, or some other religious figure depending on their beliefs. This powerful being then presented these people with a panoramic review of their lives before telling them that they had to return to their lives or make a choice.

They returned . . . reluctantly.

The Other Side of the NDE Coin

My acquaintance, Janet, didn’t have an NDE. But she witnessed the transformation of a man who did. His experience influenced her attitudes toward faith.

When just a teenager, training under the world-renowned cardiovascular surgeon Michael DeBakey at Houston Methodist Hospital several decades ago, Janet recalled hearing a man’s blood-curdling scream. During surgery, this man had died three times.

And each time, he experienced the same nightmarish encounter: a black space filled with smoke. He couldn’t escape the hands reaching out to grab him.

“No one could calm him down,” Janet said. “He kept yelling, ‘get me a priest. Get me a pastor . . . I saw hell. I don’t want to go there. How do I get to heaven?’ When a pastor came, “he prayed right there and accepted Jesus.”

How would you respond to a deeply disturbing near-death experience?

Another Chance

His experience sounded eerily like one cited in “Distressing Near-Death Experiences: The Basics.” In that account, an atheistic university professor recalled being maliciously pinched and then torn apart by malevolent beings. After that experience, he left the university and attended seminary.

Janet wasn’t a believer either when she met the patient in Houston. She is one now.

Which is why an encounter with a long-time neighbor, a non-believer, last year distresses her. Although not technically an NDE, the woman was on her deathbed when she started screaming, “‘Get them away from me. Get them away from me.’”

In her mind’s eye, malevolent hands were after her too.

“Just ask Jesus to save you,” Janet begged as she wept. “She wouldn’t do it.” Had this woman just sealed her eternal fate? Janet thinks so. What do you think?

How would you respond to a deeply disturbing near-death experience?

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The topic of today’s blog post does intrigue me. In my forthcoming novel, Always think of Me, the protagonist experiences the hovering and detachment as he’s drawn toward a blindingly bright light. that’s all I’ll say. You’ll have to read the book when it becomes available this spring. You can preorder at Amazon.

Hey, you also might want to read “Do You Believe in Miracles?” and “What Would You Do Differently?”