Eternity in Their Near-Death Experiences
As reports rise, scientists are
taking NDE’s more seriously.
But is it a scientific question?
Doctors and scientists have no doubt that people with near-death experiences (NDEs), who recover from times when they are “clinically dead” in the hospital, saw something. A few common reports have been tabulated by statistics: feelings of peace and love and joy, feeling outside of the body, and (in not a few cases), feelings of distress and fear.
What’s a scientist accustomed to materialism and scientism supposed to do with reports like these? One common reaction is to send them to secular psychologists for therapy. Psychologists at the University of Virginia decided to study if the “coping strategies” prescribed by therapists are helpful to those who had profound worldview changes after going through a NDE.
UVA Aims to Improve Support for Near-Death Experiencers (UVA Health, 2 Oct 2025). This press release adds as a subtitle, “Near-death experiencers often report profound changes to their world view. New School of Medicine research suggests the types of support that can help them cope.”
The research, from UVA’s Division of Perceptual Studies, is believed to be the first to explore the most common and effective ways to assist people grappling with potentially profound changes to their world view. For most, near-death experiences, or NDEs, have a positive effect; the brush with death can give experiencers renewed purpose in life, a desire to serve others and an appreciation for being part of a greater whole. But even then some people may struggle to make sense of the experience, especially if their NDE conflicts with their religious or existential beliefs, personal values or scientific views. Additionally, individuals who have had an NDE may struggle with incorporating changes in priorities, relationships and values into their lives.
Caution should be advised when assessing the subjective reports by individuals. It is impossible to experience another person’s NDE. Much more should outsiders be cautious of statistics of those having a positive NDE vs a distressing NDE. One thing impossible to know is whether the experiences reach the same point: do most of them begin comforting or neutral, accompanied by an out-of-body sensation, but then becoming increasingly fearful or comfortable the longer the person is in the NDE state? These are questions science cannot answer. What kind of instrument could measure such things? Doctors and scientists are limited to subjective reports by individuals.
Support Needs After a Near-Death Experience: A Quantitative Study With Experiencers (Pehlivanova et al, APA PsycNet, accepted 25 June 2025). This is the paper associated with the above press release. It is focused on how psychologists can support patients who have undergone a NDE. As such, the scientists cannot explain NDEs but only categorize patient reports and evaluate which coping strategies seem to provide patients the most help. The scientists did not seem to consider whether bringing a Biblical counselor would help someone who experienced stress from their experience.
Despite commonly—but not exclusively—pleasant emotions during the NDE, the experience can cause distress if it challenges the individual’s social, religious, spiritual, philosophical, or scientific worldview and value systems (Greyson, 1997; Pratte, 2022). An overarching challenge post-NDE is the assimilation of the reality experienced during the NDE (often described as “realer than real life”) into an experiencer’s worldview and their everyday life (Stout et al., 2006). Many struggle with returning from the exceptional state experienced during the NDE and coping with the perceived triviality of their life or the problems they were facing before the NDE, a situation termed “reentry problems” and likened to culture shock (Furn, 1987a, 1987b; Greyson & Harris, 1987; Stout et al., 2006). This can manifest as a sense of loss of the unconditional love experienced during the NDE, which can turn into anger or depression at having returned to life from what felt like “home” (Furn, 1987a, 1987b; Greyson, 1997). In the immediate aftermath, NDErs may also struggle with the physical and emotional traumas from the illness or medical crisis that led to the NDE (Furn, 1987a, 1987b; Greyson & Harris, 1987; Stout et al., 2006). NDErs may struggle with integrating their experience with conflicting beliefs and value-systems they held before their NDE (Greyson, 2006; Groth-Marnat & Summers, 1998; Martin & Kleiber, 2005).
The paper is frustratingly silent about the worldview changes from before the NDE. It just says that “Almost 70% of participants reported changes in religious or spiritual beliefs and altered views on survival after death.” What did the experiencers see that altered their views? Again, silence. Secular psychologists in today’s politically-correct environment would certainly not wish to appear partial to one religion or worldview over another.
One participant shared, “My NDE was considerable; I know I’ll never be the same person ever, so ongoing reflection and inner work are needed daily.” Another described this transformation as a “double-edged sword,” wanting to share insights to reduce others’ fear of death yet fearing judgment. Participants noted the ongoing, often solitary journey of integrating such transformative experiences, reflecting a recurring theme of isolation despite the personal significance of the NDE. More than 20% of participants reported relationship challenges or breakdowns, and additionally more than 20% reported marriage dissolutions of break-ups, following their NDE.
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Even if secular psychologists could associate prior worldviews with changes after an NDE, statistical information could never be relied on to indicate which worldview is more sound, logical, or more in touch with reality after death. Part of that ignorance, as stated above, would be that experiences may undergo changes the farther out of this life the patient goes. More importantly, the experience could be subject to spiritual deception.
Science & Culture Today has been posting a series of articles about Near Death Experiences, claiming they provide evidence of a soul. In this episode (24 Aug 2025), caution is urged about interpreting them.
Most everyone living is probably interested in these NDE accounts. We all know we will die, and are curious about what happens after death. We are drawn to stories of those who came back from the brink after being declared clinically dead. But CEH advises strongly against trusting NDE stories. If there is a spiritual battle going on for human souls, as the Bible teaches, what forces might be deceiving the experiencers? It would be simplistic to think that “nice people” are always getting a comfortable NDE, and wicked sinners are getting an experience of fear and terror. There are remarkable accounts of unbelievers shrieking in terror when at death’s door; but others, among the worst of evildoers like Chairman Mao, died peacefully.
There may be physical commonalities due to brain circuits that begin shutting down operations regardless of worldview. These could result in some of the most common reports of lights and feeling like one is hovering above the hospital bed. Even in life we can imagine ourselves having such experiences; we even get them in dreams sometimes. This means that parts of NDEs could be mere replays of mental recordings during life.
But consider the possibilities for demonic deception. The demons, according to the Bible, are real, and have as their goal to lead humans away from God and the gospel. Spiritual entities envisioned in NDEs could be demonic, saying, “Come this way, Harry; nothing to fear (heh heh heh); everything will be just fine” as they lead Harry down a primrose path to the judgment. On the flip side, we cannot rule out holy angels providing comfort to a redeemed soul in those moments of transition; some will be told to return back to the body, that their time has not yet come. This could lead to some of the reports by experiencers who were disappointed at having to return to this world.
Nobody knows for sure what goes on in the anecdotal reports. Were they dreaming? Were they seeing something real? Were they being deceived? Were they experiencing hope or fear based on spiritual realities visible to them for the first time? We cannot know; therefore, we should not trust NDEs as authoritative accounts. Two things we do know: we all will die some day, and we have God’s Word, the Bible, to guide us through that transition after this life.
We must base our worldview and hope and the direction of life on what we can know, not what other people’s experiences. God is not silent about life after death. He has put “eternity in our hearts,” Solomon said—a longing for life and purpose greater than this current life. Solomon wrestled with that longing centuries before Christ was born. Now that Christ has come, and the gospel has been proclaimed to the world, the apostle John said that we can know that we have eternal life (I John 5:13). Jesus said,
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” (John 3:17-21).
By default, we are under judgment for our sins, this passage says. But there is forgiveness to the one who “believes in him” (that is, in Jesus). The Son of God paid the penalty for sin, allowing God to declare us righteous by faith. The Bible teaches that we are under wrath unless we turn to Christ. We must repent (turn around) and believe in him: i.e., entrust our souls to his provision for us on the cross. We’ve all heard about being “born again.” This is the Bible passage about that. “You must be born again,” Jesus told Nicodemus earlier in the chapter. The end of the chapter says how to be born again: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (verse 36).
Don’t wait till death is near to figure this all out. Paul said, “Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (II Corinthians 6:2). Experiencing the love of God in Christ removes the fear of death right now. The writer of Hebrews called fear of death a kind of slavery (Hebrews 2:14-15). Embrace the liberation that God offers us! You can say like Samuel F. B. Morse in his old age, “The nearer I approach the end of my pilgrimage, the clearer is the evidence of the divine origin of the Bible, the grandeur and sublimity of God’s remedy for fallen man are more appreciated, and the future is illumined with hope and joy.”
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