"I Floated out of my Body Into the Light" | Daniela Hanke's Near-Death-Experience
What Researchers Found
The Story
Ms. Hanke experienced a near-death event in 2009 after a lung biopsy for her chronic illness. She unplugged from her ventilator to go to the toilet, felt a heavy weight on her chest, stopped breathing, and passed out. During the NDE, she floated through a tunnel into a bright, beautiful light and felt weightless with no pain, time, or space. A film of her life played, showing moments with family and close people. She saw her body from above in the operating theater as doctors resuscitated her and felt overwhelming love. Then a force pulled her back into her body, which felt tight and cold. After the NDE, she shifted from a career-focused life to one centered on family and attitude over achievement. She quit her job, moved, trained in psychotherapy, explored spirituality, found faith in God, and now provides pastoral care and leads a self-help group for NDE survivors.
“I had never in my life planned to train in this direction. I went into this school building and wanted to find out more.”
The NDE includes an OBE with an elevated vantage point during unconsciousness from respiratory collapse, but lacks any specific, verifiable perceptual details about the resuscitation scene. No attempts at verification or confirmed accuracies are reported, and the experience was only vaguely shared soon after with family.
Score reflects verifiable perceptions reported. A low score indicates the experience was primarily spiritual or subjective, not that it didn't occur.
Score reflects transformation as described. Domains scored 0 indicate the topic was not discussed, not that no change occurred.
Are you here because someone you love has died?
These accounts were gathered because death may not be the end. Thousands of people have experienced something beyond — and come back to tell us about it.
What Researchers Found
The NDE includes an OBE with an elevated vantage point during unconsciousness from respiratory collapse, but lacks any specific, verifiable perceptual details about the resuscitation scene. No attempts at verification or confirmed accuracies are reported, and the experience was only vaguely shared soon after with family.
Score reflects verifiable perceptions reported. A low score indicates the experience was primarily spiritual or subjective, not that it didn't occur.
Score reflects transformation as described. Domains scored 0 indicate the topic was not discussed, not that no change occurred.