Frequently asked questions

A near-death experience (NDE) is a very intense experience that some people have when they are about to die, or when they believe they are going to die. Many say they left their body, saw a light, or met relatives who had died. More in What is a near-death experience?

NDE is short for near-death experience. In Spanish it is called experiencia cercana a la muerte, or ECM. The term became famous in 1975 with the book Life After Life. It was written by Raymond Moody, who was then a medical student. Some researchers, such as the physician Sam Parnia, prefer to call it a “recalled experience of death.” More in What is a near-death experience?

Every experience is different, but some things come up again and again. The portalecm archive includes 253 people who have talked about their experience in public. That is the figure as of October 9, 2026. These are the three things they describe most often. 77 out of 100 say they met beings or presences. 74 out of 100 say they saw a very bright light. And 70 out of 100 say they left their body. Many feel peace and love. But there is another count from the archive, covering 192 of those people. In it, 36 out of 100 say they also felt fear at some point.

No. An out-of-body experience is the feeling of leaving your body, and sometimes seeing yourself from outside. It can be part of an NDE, but it isn’t always there. In the study in the Netherlands, about 25 out of 100 people who had an NDE described one. It also happens to people who are nowhere near death. In the Ring and Cooper study, 10 blind people had one, usually while resting or asleep.

Many people say they passed through a tunnel or a dark passage in their near-death experience. Sometimes there was a light at the end. The tunnel became famous in 1975. Since then it shows up in accounts far more often than before. It almost never appears in India or Thailand. More in What is a near-death experience?

It depends on the study. Between 4 and 23 out of every 100 people who survive cardiac arrest report an NDE. In the most-cited study, by Pim van Lommel in the Netherlands, it was 18 out of 100. In the general population, between 4 and 10 out of every 100 people say they have had one at some point in their lives. More in How many people have a near-death experience?

No. Some are filled with fear, distress, or an overwhelming loneliness. They are called distressing NDEs. By most estimates, they make up between 11 and 22 out of 100 NDEs. They have nothing to do with being a good or a bad person, or with religion. More in What if a near-death experience is frightening?

In the essentials, yes. Everywhere, there are people who say they went to another world, met beings or relatives who had died, and were sent back. The details change, such as who appears, what the place looks like, and why they are sent back. Each person describes what they see using the names from their own tradition. More in Are near-death experiences the same in other cultures?

Many people say it does. The change they mention most is losing their fear of death. In van Lommel’s study, everyone who had survived cardiac arrest had changed eight years later. That included those who had not had an NDE. But those who had one were less afraid of death and more interested in spirituality than the others. More in How does life change after a near-death experience?

No one knows. There are two main explanations. One says the brain produces them when it is in danger. The other says consciousness can carry on without the brain. Science has not been able to prove either one. More in What does science say about near-death experiences?

Not on their own. Nor do they prove that there isn’t. They show that these experiences exist, that they are very similar to one another, and that people remember them in great detail. To know where they come from, we would need evidence that doesn’t exist yet.

It isn’t clear. In van Lommel’s study, the researchers found no clear link between having an NDE and how long the cardiac arrest lasted or the drugs given. But that study did not measure anyone’s oxygen levels or brain activity. More in van Lommel’s study.

Clinical death is when a person loses consciousness because their heart or breathing stops, and not enough blood reaches the brain. That is how the 2001 study in the Netherlands defines it. That study adds that the brain suffers damage that can’t be repaired if resuscitation doesn’t start within 5 to 10 minutes. The physician Sam Parnia studies resuscitation. Parnia says intensive care doctors don’t use the term. They talk about cardiac arrest. More in the van Lommel study.

Sometimes there is some activity. The AWARE II study measured the brain during resuscitation. Some readings showed nearly normal brain waves, even 35 to 60 minutes after resuscitation began. In almost half of the readings, the line was flat. None of the people who remembered something had the brain monitor on. So it is not known whether those waves are linked to the memories. More in the AWARE II study.

There are cases with parts that have been checked, but none has been checked in full. On portalecm, each story says what has been checked, what hasn’t, and why. The most-cited cases, one by one, are in Verified near-death experience cases. And all the stories are in All NDEs, ordered from best checked to least.

It is when a person describes something they say they saw or heard while they were unconscious, and checking later shows that it really happened. For it to count as evidence, three things are needed. We need to know what they said before anyone told them. We need to know when each thing happened. And we need to rule out that they could have known it in an ordinary way.

A fair amount. The surgical report confirms that they operated on her groin, as she described. And two doctors confirm that the saw looked the way she described it. But the report says this happened at the start of the operation, while her heart was still beating, not while it was stopped. More in Pam Reynolds’ story.

No. Between 2008 and 2012, fifteen hospitals put pictures on high shelves where they could only be seen from the ceiling. But almost no cardiac arrests happened in a room with a shelf. And the two people who said they had seen their own resuscitation were in rooms without one. No one could get a picture right or wrong. More in the AWARE study.

It is a case published in van Lommel’s study in 2001. A nurse said that he took out the dentures of a man in a coma during resuscitation. According to the nurse, the man later knew where the nurse had put them. No one interviewed the man, and the hospital records were destroyed. Everything depends on what the nurse remembers, years later. More in the dentures case, step by step.

The score is the sum of the answers to the five questions asked of every story. Each “yes” adds one point and each “unconfirmed” adds half a point. For example, three “yes” answers and two “unconfirmed” answers add up to 4 out of 5. And two “yes” answers and two “unconfirmed” answers add up to 3 out of 5. The five questions are in How we check each story.

It means there is some support, but not the full evidence. For example, someone says they wrote it down, but that piece of paper has not been published. “Unconfirmed” does not mean that anyone is under suspicion.

It means that the question doesn’t fit what is being checked. For example, when the check is about who a person was, there is no time to compare. A question that does not apply adds no points. When none of the five questions applies, the story has no score. That happens when the experience includes nothing that can be checked against documents or witnesses. It does not mean it didn’t happen to them.

No. The score measures what can be proven today, not whether someone is telling the truth. A story with few “yes” answers can be completely sincere. It only means it wasn’t documented.

portalecm is a website about near-death experiences (NDEs). It tells, step by step, the stories of people who came close to dying. It asks each story the same five questions, to check what can be proven today. More in What is portalecm?

Write to contacto@portalecm.com. If a fact was wrong, it is corrected.