Near-Death Experiences / Terminal Lucidity
St. Paul Street Evangelization / SFC
Near Death Experiences
What is a “Near Death Experience”? It is when a person sees and hears things, despite being considered “clinically dead.”
Clinical death is defined as when there are no signs of life, when the heart, lungs, and circulatory system are not working. A person’s pupils quickly become fixed and dilated, a clinical indication that the brain is not functioning. If an electroencephalogram (EEG) is performed, it is flat line, with no detectable activity, which also indicates that the brain is not functioning. There is no scientific/medical explanation as to how a person could still have a fully functioning mind while the brain is not functioning.
When people receive general anesthesia (when undergoing surgery, for instance), their consciousness is suppressed, and this is indicated by a flat EEG. When they wake up, it is not surprising: they are unable to recall hearing or seeing anything during the time they were under anesthesia. But in an NDE, they have memories.
An NDE, then, is when a person recovers from clinical death, and he or she gives an accurate account of what was seen and heard before being revived. These accounts are verified as being accurate by the nurses and physicians who were involved in the resuscitation.
During an NDE, people are separated from their own bodies, as they view their bodies from above and outside, and have a panoramic view of the room and other locations.
Amazingly, persons blind from birth, who do not even have visual neurons in their brains, also see their own bodies, which of course they do not at first recognize. They “see” their bodies for the first time during their NDEs, again — as in all NDEs — with non-functioning brains.
Yes, there clearly are interactions between our physical brains and our minds (made up of our intellect, will, and consciousness). However during NDEs, people see, hear, and think while the material brain is not functioning. They have the concept of “self.” How do they do that while clinically dead?
For that matter, how do any of us have the concept of “self”? Do the electrons spinning around the protons and neutrons spin a little faster to give us the abstract concept of “self”? And then a secondary layer of abstraction: when I realize that I am thinking about my own awareness of myself as a unique person? How can the material world create abstract thought?
For almost 50 years there have been a wide range of pioneering physicians and neuroscientists and others have been exploring what happens to our mind when we die. Our bodies decay, due to unchanging natural laws, but is there evidence that our minds (souls) really go into “nothingness”? Is the material/natural world all that there is?
Studies of Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) (and terminal lucidity) provide evidence that our minds (souls) are not simply from brain cells or the electrical activity of the brain.
Amazingly, many NDEs involve an “out of body” experience of a new realm beyond death. Most of those experiences are positive and include feelings of peace, love, and light; but it is estimated that around 20% of NDEs are negative experiences. Some people, after a negative NDE, convert to Christianity.
This is all actually wonderful news, as it is scientific evidence that we humans have a trans-physical soul, and it implies that our souls (“life principle,” mind, intellect, and will) do not come from the material world, and thus do not follow the universal material laws such as decay and death (entropy / 2nd law of thermodynamics).
Brad’s Near Death Experience
In Lessons from the Light: What Near-Death Experiences Teach Us About Living in the Here and Now, Kenneth Ring, PHD, tells the story of Brad Burrows.
Brad, an 8-year-old boy blind from birth, was living in the Boston Center for Blind Children. Brad developed a rapidly progressing pneumonia which resulted in a respiratory arrest, requiring CPR for at least four minutes. During that time,
“He felt himself lifting up from the bed and floating through the room toward the ceiling. He saw his lifeless body on the bed, which of course since he had never seen his body due to blindness from birth, he did not at first recognize it was his own body. He also saw his blind roommate get up from his bed and leave the room to get help, the roommate later confirmed this.”
Brad then found himself above the roof and could see clearly,
“Brad could see snow. … He was able to give a very detailed description of the way the snow looked. … He saw a streetcar go by . … He recognized a playground used by the children of his school.”
When asked if he “knew or saw these things, he said ‘I clearly visualized them.’”
During NDEs in persons blind from birth, they always see people and objects in color. This is despite the fact that the brain is not functioning, and they have no visual neurons in the brain. This strongly implies that self-awareness and consciousness are from the soul (mind, intellect, and will), and not from the material world, the brain. Clearly there is an interaction between the brain and the mind, but the mind is part of the immaterial world, not the material world.
Virtually all of the clinically verified Near Death Experiences that occur in a hospital setting involve remarkably similar experiences that are unique to NDEs, but not consistently present in dreams; nor are they present in anesthesia-induced comas, or drug-induced altered mental states. While every element is not in each particular NDE, these particular experiences turn out to be much more common than previously thought.
These unique NDE experiences are:
- Out-of-body experience — hovering above themselves and looking down. Some do not recognize themselves. (Of course, those blind from birth have never seen themselves). Many experience something like going through a tunnel.
- Verified visual perceptions while out of the body
- Verified auditory perception, particularly of physician and nurse conversations, while out of the body
- Feelings of peace and painlessness
- Encounter with a loving white light
- A “Life review,” defined as “ineffability and transcendence that leads to a positive transformational change, as evidenced by greater interest in the meaning and purpose to life in those who have experienced it.” (Ann N.Y. Acad Sci. 1511 2022 pg 14 Dr. Sam Parnia)
Katy’s Near-Death Experience
Dr. Melvin Morse, a pediatrician at the University of Washington, explained the results of a case study in his book, Closer to the Light. Dr. Morse was the physician in charge of resuscitating 7-year-old Katie who was found in a swimming pool. She had been without a pulse for 19 minutes.
As in all clinically validated NDEs, Katie had all the hallmarks of clinical death: vital systems stopped, pupils fixed and dilated, no gag reflex. After receiving CPR, Katie was still unable to breathe on her own, so she was put on a ventilator. 72 hours later, Katie made a miraculous recovery, with no neurological or brain damage.
Katie recognized Dr. Morse when he came in to interview her after her recovery. Katie turned to her mother and said, “That’s the one with the beard. First there was this tall doctor who didn’t have a beard, and then he came in.” This recognition of Dr. Morse as the doctor resuscitating her is astounding, since during her resuscitation Katie was in a coma, and thus was not capable of seeing.
Even more astounding was when Katie was asked about what she remembered about being in the swimming pool. She said “Do you mean when I visited the Heavenly Father? I met Jesus and the Heavenly Father.”
In addition, Katie was able to accurately describe her mother making chicken soup and rice, as well as her younger brother playing with his GI Joe with a toy jeep, even though she was in a coma at the time these things happened. Katie was also able to describe exactly what each of her family members were wearing while she observed them.
Common NDE Findings:
- People experiencing a positive NDE like Katie do not want to return to life on planet earth but would rather remain in the transphysical existence of peace, and a loving white light.
- People who experience positive NDEs also lose their fear of death.
- Many children with NDEs meet dead relatives they did not know existed.
Terminal Lucidity
“Terminal Lucidity” is when a person who has been nonresponsive and/or nonverbal for months or years due to a coma, severe dementia, or Alzheimer’s suddenly “wakes up.” They acknowledge those around them, calling them by name; and they have normal conversations, even discussing their approaching death. Astoundingly, these previously non-responsive and/or nonverbal persons then subsequently and abruptly die.
Again, this is evidence that the soul (intellect/life giving principle) is not from the material world. Science can’t explain why someone who has been nonverbal for years, will suddenly have a normal intellect right before they die. What does imminent death have to do with enhanced consciousness?
Just like Near Death Experiences, Terminal Lucidity suggests that the nearness of death brings enhanced consciousness, coming from beyond the material world — from the soul.
While AI can and will do many things, humans are uniquely capable of higher intellectual functions such as having a concept of self, the exercise of free will, and morality. Only humans can create abstract concepts, and relate multiple abstract concepts to each other, creating new abstract concepts from them. This is beyond the capabilities of creatures that are bound merely to the material world. (See Spitzer Science at the Doorstep of God, Chapters 4-6 for more details)
NDEs and terminal lucidity point to a forgotten truth of the Catholic faith, that we have immortal souls that survive bodily death. Further, NDEs and terminal lucidity point to another revealed truth, that life, and our minds, do not come from the material world.
The Bible says,
All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
— John 1:3-4
The God of love is the author of both the material and immaterial/transphysical world. And in his Son Jesus Christ, he has become one of us to raise us up — body and soul, material and immaterial — into his eternal life. John 1:14 is true:
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten Son from the Father.
Written By
R. Scott French, MD, FACEP
Former Stanford Medical School Faculty
Advisory Board member Fr. Robert Spitzer’s Magis Institute
Resources
There have been many scientific studies on NDEs. Here are some resources for further study.
Raymond A Moody. Life After Life: The Investigation of a Phenomenon—Survival of Bodily Death, 1975. https://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA07269697.
Eben Alexander. Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey Into the Afterlife. Simon and Schuster, 2012.
Bruce Greyson. After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond. St. Martin’s Essentials, 2022.
Spitzer, Robert. Science at the Doorstep to God: Science and Reason in Support of God, the Soul, and Life after Death, Chapter 4. Ignatius Press, 2023.
Terzi, Matt. “The International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS).” IANDS Helping the World Understand Near-death Experiences, October 6, 2025. https://iands.org/.
Ring, Kenneth, and Sharon Cooper. Mindsight: Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences in the Blind. iUniverse, 2008.