• • A sense/awareness of being dead
  • A sense of peace, well-being, and painlessness
  • An out-of-body experience (OBE)—a perception of one’s body from outside of the body
  • Moving through a dark tunnel or passageway
  • A rapid movement toward and/or sudden immersion in a powerful light (or an encounter with a “Being of Light”) that communicates with the person
  • An intense feeling of unconditional love and acceptance
  • Being reunited with deceased loved ones 
  • Receiving a panoramic life review
  • Approaching a border or a decision by oneself or others to return to one’s body, often accompanied by a reluctance to return
  • Suddenly finding oneself back inside one’s body

A given NDE contains one or more of these elements, and most experiences vary considerably from the model suggested by this list of elements. As an example, as a girl, my sister Mary was drowning in a swimming pool before quickly being rescued by our mother. Mary experienced a brief life review before returning to her body, without any other NDE elements.

In 1978, P.M.H. Atwater began researching NDEs. Eventually, she researched over 3,000 cases for adult experiencers and 277 cases for child experiencers. Based on her research, Atwater discovered four distinctive patterns to the near-death experience itself. She defines these patterns as:

• • The initial experience, which involves one or more basic elements, “such as a loving nothingness, …a friendly voice/visitation, …a manifestation…”
  • The unpleasant or hellish experience, which involves elements such as, “a threatening void, stark limbo, or hellish purgatory, …indifference (like being shunned), …‘hauntings’ from one’s own past, …‘unfinished business’.”
  • The pleasant or heavenly experience, which involves elements such as “heaven-like scenarios of loving family reunions…, reassuring religious figures or light beings, validation…, lovely landscapes.” Life reviews, such as the one experienced by my young sister Mary, are common.
  • The transcendent experience, which involves, “otherworldly dimensions and scenes beyond the individual’s frame of reference sometimes include revelations of greater truths.”