NDEs
56 cases
Near-death experiences, told by the people who lived through them. Each one checked against the same five questions.
All 56
Wales, United Kingdom
Patient 10
A man in intensive care said he saw what the doctor, the nurse, and the physical therapist were doing. A researcher was right beside him and confirms it.
United States, 1988
Al Sullivan
Al Sullivan had heart surgery. He says he saw his surgeon from above, moving his elbows as if trying to fly. Moving his elbows that way was a habit of the surgeon’s. On television, the surgeon said he could not explain how Sullivan saw the gesture under complete anesthesia.
United States, 1991
Pam Reynolds
Doctors stopped her heart to operate on her brain. She later said she had watched the operation from above. She talked about the saw they used and about what the doctors said about her groin. Some of what she described matches the surgical report.
United States, 1978
Mr. M.
He was resuscitated in the ER. He said he saw them put a needle into his groin. The medical record confirms that blood was taken from his groin, but on the opposite side from the one he named.
United States, 1978
Mrs. M.
She was resuscitated in her hospital bed. She later said she saw them prick her hand with a small needle, and she talked about blood gases. Her medical record notes that blood was taken from an artery at 7:30.
AWARE study, 2014
The blue-cap patient
He was resuscitated after a cardiac arrest in a hospital taking part in a study. He said he saw himself from the ceiling during the resuscitation, heard the defibrillator’s voice, and saw a man in a blue cap. His medical records confirm part of what he said.
Zurich, 1944
Carl Gustav Jung
After a heart attack in 1944, Carl Gustav Jung said he saw the Earth from space. According to him, his doctor appeared to him to say he had to go back, and from then on Jung feared for the doctor’s life. The doctor died months later.
California, 1997
Lucky Pettersen
At 4, Lucky came out of a coma and said his friend Big Gino had walked him back from heaven. Two weeks later, his family learned that Big Gino had died.
London, 1924
Doris
Doris was dying after giving birth and said she could see her sister Vida. Vida had died 18 days earlier, and no one had told Doris.
United States, 1973
Mr. S.
He was resuscitated in the early hours in a coronary care unit. He described how the two needles moved on the defibrillator, the machine that delivers the shocks. The medical record does not say which machine it was.
Madrid, Spain, 2019
Luis Miguel Domínguez
He says he was in a coma after a stroke and that he drank “fossil water” in New York. While he was in the coma, a large reservoir of water under the sea off the coast of New York was announced. He and his wife, Mónica, say no one told him about it.
Colombia, around 1985
Luding Coenen
She had a hemorrhage in childbirth and says she saw her grandparents and a light. She says that years later she saw buildings falling at two in the morning. It was the time of an earthquake in Turkey.
Mexico City, 2001
José Manuel Ramos Montalvo
He says he was in a coma after being hit with a rock and that he saw the Twin Towers burn on September 11. The attack is public record. Only he says he knew about it before anyone told him.
Colombia, 2020
Israel Vargas
He was intubated with COVID and says he saw hell and a white valley. He says that on some screens he saw Joe Biden and América de Cali win before it happened.
Barcelona, Spain, 2022
Juan Carlos Madrid
His heart stopped in the ICU. Ten days later he wrote the number 45 on a whiteboard. It was the number of minutes his resuscitation lasted, and he says no one had told him.
Chile, 1999
Mary Neal
A surgeon drowned in her kayak under a waterfall in Chile. She says an angel spoke to her about the death of her son, who died ten years later.
New York, United States, 1978
Tom Sawyer
A pickup truck crushed his chest in 1978. He says he traveled to a light and relived his life. Years later he said he knew a plane would crash. On the day of the crash he called a psychiatrist, and the psychiatrist remembers the call.
Nebraska, United States, 1963
Ken Leth
As a boy he was put to sleep with ether for surgery. He says spirits attacked him and that he saw the future in heaven. Starting in 2017, he said on the radio that Trump would be pushed out and that Trump would speak to a crowd.
Houston, United States, 1988
Elizabeth Krohn
Lightning struck Elizabeth Krohn’s umbrella. She says she spent two weeks in a garden. She says that in September 1988 she was told there that George Bush would be president.
Bogotá, 2021
Andrés Arévalo
Andrés Arévalo says that while he was in a COVID coma he dreamed Trump would be president again. Trump returned in 2025. There is nothing to show that Andrés told anyone about his dream before it happened.
Leeds, 1880
John Ogle
John Ogle was dying in Leeds and said George Hanley’s name in surprise. According to his mother, George Hanley had died ten days earlier, and no one had told John.
Hong Kong, 2006
Anita Moorjani
Anita Moorjani was in a coma from cancer. She says she heard a doctor in the hallway tell her husband she would not survive the night. The coma is in her medical records. The doctor’s words appear only in Anita’s own account.
Bogotá, 1995
Gloria Polo
A dentist was struck by lightning in Bogotá, and her heart stopped. She says she hugged her daughter, who was somewhere else, and then saw her whole life.
Mauritius, 1982
Ian McCormack
In 1982, Ian McCormack, a 26-year-old surfer from New Zealand, was stung by five jellyfish while diving at night off the island of Mauritius. He said that in the hospital he went through a darkness, that a light brought him out, and that he met Jesus. According to him, his mother dreamed that same night that he was dying.
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See allWhat is a near-death experience?
It is a very intense experience that some people have when they are about to die. Many feel they leave their body, see a light or meet relatives who have died. We explain it in the Guide.
What can be checked
We ask every story the same five questions. The most important is whether the person saw or knew something they could not have known, and whether someone from outside confirms it. Why we ask each question.
Which stories do we tell?
We tell what people lived through when they believe what they say, even if it can’t be checked. We don’t publish cases whose author has admitted making them up.
Which case is the best checked?
We rank the cases by what could be checked in each one, with the same scale for all of them. See it in the ranking.