Near-death experiences aren’t all that rare. As many as 20% of people who survive cardiac arrest and 15% of those who’ve been in intensive care report having various “adventures.” Incidentally, the impact of these “journeys” can be either positive (e.g., increased empathy, reduced fear of death) or negative (e.g., misunderstanding from others, psychological issues). Researchers from the UK and Belgium, led by Pascal Michael, conducted a review of studies on this topic.
The most important thing is to learn to distinguish near-death experiences from pathologies—in particular, delirium or hallucinations, which are common in critically ill patients. The authors note that medications can also influence the likelihood that these “adventures” will occur or that the person will have memories of them. People sometimes maintain a connection with their surroundings during near-death experiences and later recount what was happening around them during resuscitation.
The authors suggest including questions on this topic in the standard protocol for interviewing patients after a coma or intensive care. Technology also inspires optimism. Scientists may soon be able to identify this state based on a person’s brain activity instead of relying on personal accounts. Incidentally, not only are the “full” near-death experiences, but there are also “threshold” ones, which involve individual elements, such as an out-of-body experience, a meeting with a deceased individual, or a sensation of light. Near-death experiences may be one of the phase states, as demonstrated by lucid dreamers in a well-known REMspace experiment involving flying through a tunnel in a lucid dream.
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The article was published in July 2025 in Frontiers in Psychology.
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