Two NDEs from IANDS
What Researchers Found
The Story
A 22-year-old woman nearly drowned while surfing in Rincon, Puerto Rico, in February 1978. Strong waves and currents pushed her against a rocky reef cliff covered in sea urchins. She struggled to climb the cliff but kept getting pulled back into the water. During the ordeal, she detached from her body and floated above an old wooden bench. She observed her physical body struggling below and people on the beach forming a human chain to rescue her. To her right, she saw a warm bluish-white light she believed was God. In front, a tunnel appeared with her adoptive father Joe to the left and Jesus to the right, both in cloudy forms. A shadowy figure in the tunnel, later identified as her biological father, communicated with Joe and Jesus about whether she was coming. Thousands of ancestors and friends waited at the tunnel's end, murmuring in harmony. She watched a panoramic life review on a screen, starting in reverse from the drowning, through childhood, birth, and pre-birth where she chose to be born to learn perseverance and resilience while riding a white horse. God telepathically told her to return, teach that God exists, and prove her experience. She was thrown back into her body. People rescued her from the cliff. Years later, at age 65, DNA testing revealed her biological father, healing her childhood feelings of unworthiness from family secrets. She now feels confident, shares the message of God's existence and unconditional love, and maintains a daily dialogue with Christ to serve others.
“as the light of God was to my right there was a tunnel in front of me and to”
The first NDE features a veridical claim of observing bystanders gathering, a specific yell, and forming a human chain from an OBE vantage while drowning, which matched real-time events upon return; the second NDE has no such claims. However, the beach vantage was potentially sensory-accessible, rescue details predictable, verification self-reported without independent checks, and father identification intuitive rather than precise. Prompt reporting to boyfriend adds slight strength, but overall evidence is moderate due to lack of impossibility and robust corroboration.
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 first NDE features a veridical claim of observing bystanders gathering, a specific yell, and forming a human chain from an OBE vantage while drowning, which matched real-time events upon return; the second NDE has no such claims. However, the beach vantage was potentially sensory-accessible, rescue details predictable, verification self-reported without independent checks, and father identification intuitive rather than precise. Prompt reporting to boyfriend adds slight strength, but overall evidence is moderate due to lack of impossibility and robust corroboration.
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.