Near-death experiences lend a glimpse into the realm of light when earth shadows dim.

Timothy C. Morgan

When a human being is on the threshold of death, something happens within the brain—and perhaps within consciousness itself—that neither science nor theology can fully explain. In recent years, researchers have discovered compelling evidence that, in some cases, the dying brain shows a sudden surge of highly organized activity. Studies have documented bursts of gamma-wave activity—brain waves associated with memory, awareness, and integrative thought—occurring just before death. This surprising finding has renewed one of humanity’s oldest questions: Does consciousness end when the body dies, or does it continue in some form?

As Michael Zigarelli, a professor at Messiah University, observed in a 2024 Christian Scholar’s Review article, “For both Christianity and atheism, something fundamental and non-negotiable appears to be at stake. Yet only atheism need fear NDEs.”

A Longstanding and Controversial Phenomenon

For generations, people who have survived near-death experiences (NDEs) have reported strikingly similar accounts: traveling through a dark tunnel, encountering a brilliant light, meeting deceased loved ones, experiencing an out-of-body perspective, undergoing a life review, or encountering an overwhelming sense of divine love. Some describe meeting Jesus or being given a renewed purpose and “sent back.”

Public awareness of NDEs expanded dramatically in 1975 with psychiatrist Raymond Moody’s Life After Life, the first book-length study of 150 cases. Even so, historical skepticism has been strong. Most physicians and scientists long dismissed NDEs as hallucinations, drug effects, or neurological misfires. At the same time, many Christian theologians—despite affirming conscious life after death as a core doctrine—largely avoided sustained engagement with NDEs.

Yet pastors report a consistent pastoral reality: people who survive an NDE often return profoundly changed. Fear of death diminishes. Compassion deepens. Life becomes reoriented toward love, meaning, and service.

Near-death experiences are not uniform. In My Descent into Death, Howard Storm, then an atheist university professor, described a terrifying experience in which he cried out, “Jesus, save me!” He later reported an encounter with Christ marked by compassion and healing. Storm eventually abandoned atheism, earned a Master of Divinity, and became a pastor.

By contrast, researchers such as Janice Holden have documented cases in which individuals became less attached to organized religion after an NDE. In still other extraordinary reports, individuals blind from birth experienced sight during an NDE—only to return to blindness upon recovery. These accounts resist easy categorization and caution against simplistic interpretations.

Measuring the Experience

Interest in NDEs has grown alongside improved medical technology, which allows more people to survive cardiac arrest, stroke, or traumatic injury. Surveys suggest that millions have had some form of near-death experience. A 2019 multinational study involving more than 1,000 participants from 34 countries found that roughly one in ten reported NDE-like features.

Over the past four decades, researchers have sought to examine these reports with increasing rigor. At the University of Virginia, psychiatrist Bruce Greyson developed the Near-Death Experience Scale (NDE-C), a tool measuring the intensity of 20 commonly reported features. In an analysis of 1,300 cases, Greyson found that the most frequent elements included out-of-body experiences, heightened awareness, encounters with light, and overwhelming feelings of unconditional love.

At NYU Langone Medical Center, physician Sam Parnia has led the AWARE studies, which examine conscious awareness during cardiac arrest. His team found that a significant portion of patients reported clear, verifiable perceptions lasting beyond the point when the brain should no longer sustain consciousness.

What Happens in the Dying Brain?

In 2024, neurologist Jimo Borjigin of the University of Michigan published research documenting surges of gamma-wave activity in dying patients. In two cases, the removal of life support was followed by dramatic spikes in organized brain activity moments before death. Gamma waves are associated with memory, attention, and large-scale brain coordination.

Such findings do not resolve the question of life after death, but they challenge the assumption that the brain simply “shuts down” at death. Gary Habermas has cataloged cases in which patients with no measurable brain activity later reported verifiable details from their period of cardiac arrest.

One frequently cited case involved a woman who accurately described her resuscitation and later identified a red shoe on a hospital roof. Similarly, a case published in The Lancet described a patient who recalled where his dentures had been placed while he was clinically dead. These are known as veridical NDE perceptions: conscious awareness that appears independent of the body.

Not all researchers are persuaded. Philosopher Susan Blackmore argues that NDEs are genuine psychological experiences but not evidence of survival beyond death. In her view, they are the final constructions of a dying brain—experiences that cease when brain activity stops.

Theological Caution

For Christians, NDEs raise important theological questions. Scripture does not promise routine experiential previews of heaven, and the New Testament’s central hope is bodily resurrection, not disembodied survival. Still, affirming the authenticity of an NDE does not require diminishing God’s sovereignty over life and death.

By far, the most consistent outcome of near-death experiences is not doctrinal certainty but personal transformation. Survivors often report reduced fear of death, renewed purpose, deeper compassion, and healthier relationships.

Near-death experiences do not replace Scripture or redefine salvation. But neither should they be dismissed out of hand. As Zigarelli argues, “Thoughtful examination of near-death experiences will deepen, not destabilize, Christian theology.” NDEs may remind us of something already at the heart of the gospel: that love is stronger than fear, and death does not have the final word.

Timothy C. Morgan, former deputy managing editor at Christianity Today, teaches journalism at Gordon College. He is a contributing writer to this magazine.

A longer version of this article appears in the current issue of Ex Fonte magazine. Purchase the individual issue or subscribe.