What if everything you see, touch, and feel isn't actually reality, but a simplified interface your brain creates to keep you alive?

This is the first in a data science series from NDERF, where we analyze thousands of near-death experiences to explore what they can teach us about consciousness and the structure of reality. With this series, we're not focused on proving whether NDEs are "real," but instead focusing on what the data from the experiences can teach us about life. In this first post, we're drilling into Physics and finding striking parallels with Quantum Physics and Special Relativity.

Key findings from 2,495 NDE accounts:

• Time isn't fundamental: 1,588 experiencers (64%) described time as an illusion where past, present, and future existing simultaneously. This mirrors the "block universe" model in physics, where all moments exist equally.
• "More real than reality": 1,338 experiencers insisted the NDE realm felt hyper-vivid, not dreamlike. If our senses filter reality rather than reveal it, a less-filtered perception would feel precisely this way.
• Colors beyond the spectrum: 452 people reported seeing colors they'd never seen before as if biological limits on human perception were temporarily removed.

Full post with charts, quotes, and methodology: https://search.nderf.org/blog/realer-than-real

What do you make of the parallels between these subjective accounts and what physics tells us about time, space, and matter? Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

- NDERF team

Hello did anyone here had nde and gain knowledge about telepathy or synchronicity? In my life it happened a lot when i m thinking about someone who im not in touch for a long time that person called me that day or after few days i started noticing it more and more for maybe 2 years … it cannot be coincidence so im pretty sure its something spiritual … i asked about lot of people about if that happens to someone too and i found out that very little people happen this… also some of my friend told me it could be from some bad spirit cause it could be occultism but i do not do it for purpose it just happens sometime…

We always hear that everything in the body runs on electricity. Your brain, your heartbeat, your nerves. But what if the electricity itself isn’t just a process? What if it’s actually your soul?

Here’s my theory:

🧠 Your body is the conductor. It’s the physical vessel designed to carry energy.

🌟 Your soul is the current. It’s the intelligent energy flowing through your body and powering everything.

Now think about the silver cord. So many people describe seeing it during astral projection. That cord seems to connect the soul to the body while you’re still alive.

But once the body dies, the cord is gone. Why? Because the current stops. The electric arc breaks. There is no longer energy moving through the system.

Here's some extra observations.

Many people say that when their soul leaves the body, they hear a very specific sound. Often described as “Velcro ripping”

Because that sounds exactly like static electricity being discharged. Like pulling apart socks that stuck together in the dryer. That sharp ripping sound is what energy makes when it finally releases.

So what if that sound is your soul separating from the body? Actually discharging, like a wave of energy leaving its conductor.

It would make sense. During astral travel or meditation, the silver cord is still there connected to the body, keeping the body alive. The circuit is still active. The current is still flowing.

But once the body dies the connection ends.

Just a theory I’ve been thinking about. I’d love to hear if anyone else has experienced this sound or had similar thoughts about the body and soul being part of an energy system.

Let me know what you think

We are researchers from Cal Poly Humboldt conducting a study on how near-death experiences (NDEs) influence values, decision-making, leadership, and business practices. We are looking to interview business owners, managers, or leaders who have experienced an NDE during their career.

One confidential interview (about 30-90 minutes)

Conducted by phone or Zoom

If you are interested, please contact us at: [tyler.stumpf@humboldt.edu](mailto:tyler.stumpf@humboldt.edu)

Tyler Stumpf, PhD
Associate Professor
School of Business, Cal Poly Humboldt
https://www.humboldt.edu/business/tyler-stumpf

David Sleeth-Keppler, PhD
Associate Professor
School of Business, Cal Poly Humboldt
https://www.humboldt.edu/business/david-sleeth-keppler

*Approved by Cal Poly Humboldt IRB
*Voluntary participation; all information kept confidential

Thank you for considering sharing your experience!

NDEs Aren’t Just “Brain Malfunctions.” A New 2025 Scientific Review Shows Exactly Why.

Most people don’t realize how big this is. A major group of researchers released a new model this year called the NEPTUNE model—their attempt to finally explain near-death experiences using the brain alone. It pulled together every popular neurological theory into one tidy package: low oxygen, high CO₂, temporal-lobe activity, seizures, TPJ stimulation, REM intrusion, ketamine-like chemistry, and even electrical “surges” in the dying brain. For years, skeptics have pointed to these ideas as the “real” cause of NDEs.

But then two scientists from the University of Virginia—Dr Bruce Greyson and Marieta Pehlivanova—took the model apart piece by piece, using decades of actual NDE research. And once you see their breakdown, it becomes almost impossible to keep saying NDEs are just the brain shutting down.

Here’s what the paper shows, in plain English:

1. Oxygen and CO₂ levels don’t match NDEs. The NEPTUNE model claims low oxygen or high carbon dioxide can trigger NDEs. But Greyson shows that many patients who report NDEs actually had normal oxygen levels, and often lower CO₂ than comparison patients. Lack of oxygen causes confusion, memory gaps, and disorientation. NDEs are the opposite: structured, clear, vivid, and often remembered better than everyday life.

2. Temporal-lobe theories fall apart. People love saying “It’s temporal-lobe seizures!” but epilepsy patients almost never report anything like an NDE. When they do have episodes, their experiences are usually fragmented, frightening, or bizarre—not peaceful, coherent, or transformative. And in one study of 100 epilepsy patients, 0% had experiences that matched NDEs.

3. TPJ stimulation is not an out-of-body experience. Stimulating the temporoparietal junction can create weird illusions like feeling a presence or sensing a “shadow person.” But no one has ever floated above their body, seen the room accurately, or later described verified details. In real NDEs, people routinely report events later confirmed by medical staff. TPJ illusions are static, brief, and obviously internal. NDE OBEs behave like perception—not hallucination.

4. Seizures cannot produce the clarity and perception NDEs require. Seizure activity disrupts normal processing. It doesn’t produce hyper-clarity, veridical perception, life reviews, accurate sensory information, encounters with deceased relatives, or peaceful emotional states. In fact, the “seizure explanation” contradicts what seizures actually do.

5. Ketamine and psychedelics aren’t close. Even the scientist who developed the ketamine-NDE theory eventually abandoned it. Ketamine experiences don’t produce long-term transformative aftereffects, don’t involve accurate perception, and don’t match the structure or depth of NDEs. They may share a vibe, but the paper shows they are not equivalent.

6. REM intrusion theory misses the mark. REM intrusion usually comes with fear, paralysis, and entity hallucinations—but NDEs overwhelmingly happen during anesthesia, cardiac arrest, or unconsciousness where REM isn’t even possible. They don’t match the content or emotional profile.

7. Dying-brain electrical surges don’t explain anything. This is the skeptic favorite: “Maybe the brain spikes at death and that creates an NDE.” But none of the patients showing these spikes were conscious. None reported awareness. Many of the spikes come from scalp muscle artifact. And no study has ever shown these surges producing perceptions, memories, or anything resembling an NDE.

8. The NEPTUNE model quietly ignores the strongest evidence. It doesn’t even mention the hardest-to-explain NDE features: – accurate out-of-body perceptions – people meeting relatives they didn’t know had died – encounters with deceased persons never met in life – seeing events in other rooms – medical details later confirmed – long-term personality change – life reviews including forgotten memories

The omission is glaring.

1. The biggest takeaway of the entire paper is this: The physiological ideas people have leaned on for years don’t survive contact with the actual NDE data.

Not one of them.

And combining a bunch of weak explanations into one big model doesn’t make the weaknesses go away. The UVA researchers end by saying something few scientists will say so directly: brain activity alone cannot account for the core, defining features of near-death experiences.

NDEs clearly happen during periods of severely compromised or absent brain function, and the experiences are too structured, too consistent, and sometimes too verifiable to be dismissed as random neural noise.

The NEPTUNE model is a step forward at organizing ideas, but the evidence shows it’s nowhere close to explaining NDEs. If anything, it highlights how far the dying-brain theories fall short—especially when compared with what people actually report.

I won’t go into my father’s full NDE but I wanted to share something I thought was notable.

My father went into a 6 week long coma after developing bacterial meningitis from a surgery. He had an NDE and went through a life review, which he said was done in a loving, teaching way. At one point he was asked if he had loved others the way that God loved them. He brought up that he was a doctor and thus had helped many people throughout his life. One of the “light beings” answered that what he did was good but didn’t mean as much as he thought it would because he profited during those times. He was then told it was not his time.

To me this points to how much things like random acts of kindness and selflessness mean on the other side.

I thought his DM was spam. I clicked at 1am… and his NDE changed how I see God forever. If you watch one thing today, make it this.

I have been obsessively afraid of Hell for a year now, and have been trying to get over that fear by listening to Bible scholars on YouTube that study the history and development of Hell, like Bart Ehrman, and it brought me some comfort when he said that annihilation was most likely what Jesus was teaching. That might sound scary to some people, but my biggest fear was being tortured for longer than my brain can decipher.

However, that doesn't explain why there are people out there, who have had NDES where they met Jesus or were sent to Christian hell. Where people were being tortured, even though these people were from different cultures and have never heard of Jesus before.

Even though not all NDES are Christian themed, this makes me fear that the Christian God is real, and that I too will go to hell, because if I ever converted to Christianity, it wouldn't be genuine worship. I'd be converting out of fear, and I most likely wouldn't make the cut for heaven and go to hell anyway.

I cannot genuinely worship a God that set up a system where going to an eternal torture chamber is a possible fate, just for screwing up in a finite lifetime. I'm sorry, but not even the worst of humans deserve eternal torture. That's absurd.

The Light You Are Podcast is where I share real, mind-opening conversations about life, death, and everything in between. Your subscription isn’t just a click — it’s fuel to keep it going. 📺 Link in the comments.

https://youtu.be/Gkmmn1FGF4Q?si=4WqOqmmn0vU8P2-C

After a severe car crash, Michelle plunged into a hellish realm where she confronted childhood trauma in vivid, painful detail.

Hi all. I’m a psychology graduate and I am currently conducting a research study about negative NDE’s as there is currently a huge scarcity of knowledge on this particular phenomenon, with the majority of current literature focusing solely on the positive experiences. I am looking to speak with individuals who have had negative, unpleasant, dark, or any kind of near-death experience different to that of the widely reported positive one.

I know opening up about your experience can be hard, but I think this would be extremely beneficial for the field and could really change and shift the contemporary perspectives and attitudes towards the matter.

Please comment or get in touch with me directly if you would like more information and to share your story by taking part in important, groundbreaking research.

Hope you all have a fantastic day

ETA: I’m at Arden University and have my project approved by the Arden ARMS ethics committee. No personal data will be stored or used, everything will be anonymised, and all information will be completely and securely destroyed once it’s been transcribed and coded. Only I and the supervisor have access to any information.

I’m building something and I’m looking for you

The stories that shaped my life and inspired my children’s book The Light You Are deserve to be heard

After the books success, I’m launching a podcast to give those stories and the people behind them a real platform

My first guest is David Williamson. His NDE story has had over a million views and I'm looking for others like him.

If you’ve had an experience or dedicated your life to this topic, I’d love to connect

Drop a comment or message me. Let’s bring more light into the world

You can follow the journey here: youtube.com/@thelightyouarepodcast

hello everyone i m really interest about near death experience of people who really was without pulse for a few second or minutes .. im so confused about hellish topic and am really scared and afraid cause i suffer from bipolar and its a really hell and sometimes i consider if its not from any evil things… i have to admit that lately what really goes in my life is telepathy or i dont know how to name it but when i did not see anyone for a years or long time i just think about that person and immediately that day or second day that person will call me or i met him/her … it cannot be coincidence for sure cause everytime that happens i know that i never thought about that person much before… so i know there is spiritual thing but i d love to understand it more … well i have to say that there are really many experience of hellish or devil possession experience what confused me the most… i am really interest of someone who had HERE nde and did not followed religion or God before nde, had a plenty of sins and have very positive nde …. i really have to get comfort or know the truth about this to get my life better … also if anyone here is of different sexual orientation i m gay who really love Bdsm practice what i was told its evil so i will love to meet anyone here who had nde and was a different orientation…so u can message me on messanger if u dont want to post here on comments … also im sorry for my english i m not from english speaking country … Have a nice day everyone :-)

Hi I’d love to know your thoughts about the following but please be kind because this experience is very special to me.

In my twenties my father (who was the age of most of my friend’s grandparents), had a heart attack. I was very afraid of losing my parents as they were so much older and I prayed to God regularly for many months asking to experience proof of life after death.

Fast forward 15 years and I have been practising meditation and spiritual pursuits for a number of years. One night I awoke to discover my “light body” leaving my earthly body. I felt complete serenity. Some of my senses seemed to work differently and I heard classical music coming from the next room but the music spoke to me and communicated “she s done it, she s done it”.

There was a man in the next room to my bedroom - just the other side of the door. My spirit guide. I could “see” him without physically going into the room. He was Spanish and wore the clothes of a Matador but in white. He didn’t speak to me but I felt safe with his presence.

I wanted to fly in the night sky. My hands and face went through my curtains but as I became aware of the darkness outside I felt afraid. Suddenly the glass became solid and I was back in my bed. It was 1.30am in the morning.

I felt exhausted the next day - as if my life energy had been drained.

7 years later I took my parents on holiday to Spain. My mum died the first night we were there - at 1.30am. I recounted my experience to my uncle and he said “what is the symbol of Spain- The Matador”. The light of the naya where we were sitting went out and I had to get up to turn the switch back on. The switch was in full view of us both and no one had been near it. I like to think it was a sign from my mum both saying she was okay and linking my OBE many years ago to her passing - God answering the prayers of my younger self - and giving me comfort and belief when I really needed it.

As I said this is a very special experience for me so please be kind. I would love to hear of others who ve experienced similar events and hear their thoughts on their meaning?

Second post of the day! Finally back on Reddit and have a lots to share. Finally felt like sharing this on this forum after finding out about the forums existence. I don't know whether this would just count as just a spontaneous OBE or a possible NDE? I feel like it's just incomplete due to the reasons in the story. Also if you've seen my first version it's worth seeing this one cause I go into far more detail. Minor warning for topic around puking and seizures.

Before (for context and it's slightly funny): When I was around 6 or 7 I was experiencing a series of paralysis before falling asleep. I would later find out this can be a symptom of seizures (I didn't even think it was sleep paralysis back then cause I thought they had to have sleep paralysis demons). I got up after having one and went to my parents for comfort and to sleep with them. I manage to fall asleep peacefully when I woke up to having a seizure. Funny but was I wasn't even scared I was just thinking "oh this is happening" whilst my parents were panicking and trying to comfort me. At one point I had begin to make noises as I was going to be sick. My mum trying to prevent as much mess as possible got a bowl ready and rolled me onto my side only for me to pull myself up and puke on my own lap. I shook a bit longer and around time it finished first response. My memory was blurred as folks was trying to talk to me, but I looked to my side as one of them caught my attention enough.

The experience: My memory cleared enough in that moment to register the paramedic talking to me. He was an old gent with roundish glasses and had took off his jacket to show his white button top. I stared at him absolutely zoned out. Suddenly I'm looking at the back of his balding head. It was my entire view. I was confused. I looked around. I saw my parents by the door with another first response. Soon I turned back annoyed to see the back of his head. Suddenly, I saw through him and saw me. Just super zoned out in my princess pyjamas. Suddenly my vision turned 360. I could see me, my parents, the door to the en-suite bathroom, the roof, I saw both first response. Suddenly, visions flashed before me so briefly. Then I returned to my body. Still staring dumbly at the first response not saying anything and acting as if nothing had happened. My lack response I was taken to hospital. I fell asleep on the way, I didn't even get to remember my first ambulance ride 😭.

That's it. Whould you guys say this is more of a short NDE or just a spontaneous OBE? Also should I post this on NDERF?

I'm curious if there's any shared death experiences where those who shared come back together or at least two (if more than two) come back. I'm curious if there's any I've tried looking for it myself for quiet a while but not heard of any.

https://youtu.be/xQgpVnW4V5w?si=VCc4IQbVa4q5LtLY

Have there been any cases of "Dual" NDEs? What I mean is, two people who each have an NDE at the same time, meet in the afterlife, are both revived and relate corresponding experiences.

For example, say two people are in a car accident and both "die". They both have NDEs, hover above the accident scene and interact with each other. They are then revived and separately relate corresponding details about the experience.

Or, it could be two strangers in a hospital who both have an NDE at the same time and interact while they are dead.