near-death experience
Brush with dying
A near-death experience is a vivid, often life-changing psychological event reported by people who have come close to dying or been clinically dead before being revived.
Common elements include feelings of peace, seeing a bright light, moving through a tunnel, encountering deceased relatives, or observing one's own body from above.
Whether these experiences reflect spiritual phenomena or neurological responses to trauma remains debated.
After her cardiac arrest, she described a near-death experience that changed her outlook on life.
Enclosed underground route
- lightVisible electromagnetic radiation
- out-of-bodySeparated from physical form
- resuscitationRestoring vital functions
- flatlineShow no heartbeat
consciousness · coma · anoxia · threshold · liminality · void · floating · border
Existence beyond mortality
- transcendenceSurpassing usual limits
- enlightenmentProfound spiritual awakening
- divineOf or from gods
- etherealDelicate beyond earthly measure
soul · otherworldly · heavenly · cosmic · supernatural · paranormal · visionary · sacred
Systematic fact-finding effort
- studyDeliberate learning effort
- anoxiaAbsence of oxygen supply
- endorphinsBody's innate pain blockers
- ketamineDissociative anesthetic agent
hypoxia · neuroscience · veridical · prospective · retrospective · Moody · measurable · replicable
Perception without external cause
- traumaLasting psychological wound
- flashbackInvoluntary past memory
- anxietyPersistent apprehensive distress
- fearEmotional response to threat
survivor · aftermath · recovery · therapy · counseling · integration · coping · transformation
Sudden profound insight
- awakeningReturn to consciousness
- insightDeep perceptive understanding
- revelationSurprising disclosed truth
- purposeReason something exists
gratitude · compassion · fearlessness · priorities · meaning · appreciation · clarity · values
tunnel
Enclosed underground route
- lightVisible electromagnetic radiation
- out-of-bodySeparated from physical form
- resuscitationRestoring vital functions
flatline · consciousness · coma · anoxia · threshold · liminality · void · floating · border · return
afterlife
Existence beyond mortality
- transcendenceSurpassing usual limits
- enlightenmentProfound spiritual awakening
- divineOf or from gods
ethereal · soul · otherworldly · heavenly · cosmic · supernatural · paranormal · visionary · sacred · eternal
research
Systematic fact-finding effort
- studyDeliberate learning effort
- anoxiaAbsence of oxygen supply
- endorphinsBody's innate pain blockers
ketamine · hypoxia · neuroscience · veridical · prospective · retrospective · Moody · measurable · replicable · skepticism
hallucination
Perception without external cause
- traumaLasting psychological wound
- flashbackInvoluntary past memory
- anxietyPersistent apprehensive distress
fear · survivor · aftermath · recovery · therapy · counseling · integration · coping · transformation · depression
epiphany
Sudden profound insight
- awakeningReturn to consciousness
- insightDeep perceptive understanding
- revelationSurprising disclosed truth
purpose · gratitude · compassion · fearlessness · priorities · meaning · appreciation · clarity · values · empathy
- life eventswedding, funeral, graduation, birthday party, anniversary
- memoriesmemories, remember, recollections, childhood memory, childhood memories
- milestonesgraduation, wedding, birthday, retirement, birth
- survival storiesescape story, wilderness survival, shipwreck tales, shipwreck, sea survival
- thrillsroller coasters, thrill, adrenaline, skydiving, bungee jump
- altered statestrance, altered states, hallucination, altered perception, consciousness expansion
near-death experiencedeath
Cessation of life
dying · passing away · birth · clinical death · being born
death, experience, deaths, experienced, experiences, inexperienced, deathless, deathlike, experiential