NDE encounters: a bright light and other beings

Evidence of the Afterlife by Jeffrey Long and Paul Perry presenting information from the Near-Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF).

Encountering a mystical or brilliant light

A beautiful light drew me to itself; the light still touches me with awe, and tears come immediately. {EA, 10}

At first the light was blue. Then it transitioned to white. It was an opalescent white; it almost glowed, but did not shine. It was bright, but not intensely bright, like glowing bright—pure bright. Pure but not in the usual sense of the word. Pure as in something you’ve never seen before or could ever describe or put into words. {EA, 10}

“NDErs may dramatically describe their strong attraction to the light and their emphatic desire to approach or merge with the light. The NDERF survey asked, ‘Did you see a light?’ NDErs responded with 64.6 percent answering ‘Yes.’” {EA, 10}

Encountering other beings, either mystical beings or deceased relatives or friends

Van Lommel writes: “If deceased acquaintances or relatives are encountered in an otherworldly dimension, they are usually recognized by their appearance, and communication is possible through what is experienced as thought transfer. Thus, it is also possible to come into contact with the consciousness or ‘self’ of deceased persons (interconnectedness), even if it was not possible to know that these relatives had died.” [AS, 23]

During my cardiac arrest . . . I saw, apart from my deceased grandmother, a man who had looked at me lovingly, but whom I did not know. More than 10 years later, at my mother’s deathbed, she confessed to me that I had been born out of an extramarital relationship, my father being a Jewish man who had been deported and killed during the Second World War, and my mother showed me his picture. The unknown man that I had seen more than 10 years before during my NDE turned out to be my biological father. [AS, 24]

Then I looked to my left and saw my grandmother who had passed away when I was nine months old. I also saw all of my deceased relatives with her, thousands of them. They were in translucent spirit form. {EA, 126}

I was surrounded by other beings, or people, who I felt as though I recognized. These beings were like family, old friends, who’d been with me for an eternity. I can best describe them as my spiritual or soul family. Meeting these beings was like reunited with the most important people in one’s life, after a long separation. There was an explosion of love and joy on seeing each other again between us all. {EA, 11}

“Why should seeing deceased friends or relatives be evidence of life after death? Because if NDEs were only a product of brain function, then one would expect that beings encountered during the NDE would be those most recently familiar to the NDEr.” A study by Emily Williams Kelly at the department of psychiatric medicine of the University of Virginia “found that 95 percent of the deceased individuals encountered [in NDEs] were relatives, while only 5 percent were friends or acquaintances. Only 4 percent of the NDErs in the study met beings who were alive at the time of the NDE. Other studies have shown that in dreams or hallucinations, the beings encountered are much more likely to be people who are still living.” {EA, 122-23}

“The NDERF survey asked, ‘Did you meet or see any other beings?’ In response, 57.3 percent answered ‘Yes.’” {EA, 11}

Jeffrey Long, MD and Paul Perry, Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences (2010)