Q: What percentage of people who are brought back from the verge of death have a near-death experience (NDE)?

A: Approximately 30%. The figure doesn't vary much with the source of the trauma, whether illness, accident, or attempted suicide. The type of trauma also has little effect on the substance of the NDE.

Q: Why do only 30% have an NDE? What about the other 70%?

A: It is possible that everyone who comes close to death probably has an NDE, but only 30% remember them. Dreaming works similarly. Every healthy person dreams every night, but few remember their dreams on waking. However, recent research has also revealed that the childhood experiences of people who remember their NDEs are quite different from those of people who don't. Those who were abused, who suffered a severe mental or physical trauma, whose lives were unhappy, or who were sickly find it easier to break free of this world and enter into another reality. These people have a greater incidence of NDEs.

Q: Are people who already believe in God, reincarnation, or a next life more likely to have an NDE? How does the substance of their NDEs compare?

A: The presence or absence of religious beliefs doesn't affect the incidence of NDEs or their substance. However, they do lead to differences in the interpretation of the experience: Religious believers find in the experience an affirmation of their faith. Non-believers gain from their firsthand experience a recognition and understanding of a spirit that exists deep inside themselves. When psychologist Carl Jung was asked after his own NDE whether he believed in the existence of God, he is reported to have replied, "I don't believe, I know."

Q: Would someone who thought they were about to die, such as someone in the process of falling down a mountain, be more likely to have an NDE than someone unaware that they were in imminent danger of dying?

A: Though there's no clear answer to this, research has shown that people who believed they were about to die have had NDEs while their bodies were still functioning normally. That is, you don't have to actually be at death's door to have an NDE.

Q: Does everyone undergoing an NDE experience all ten of the characteristic features of an NDE?

A: Almost no one undergoing an NDE experiences all of the characteristic features.

Q: Who decides whether the person undergoing an NDE will return to their body?

A: Some people are asked to make a decision to return to their body when they reach the symbolic border between life and death. Others are forced to come back. Ultimately, those who have had NDEs are glad they returned, regardless of whether their return was compelled or voluntary. Their attitude contrasts with that of non-NDE suicide survivors, who tend to be resentful and often attempt to take their life again.

Q: Many people say that they lose track of time during their NDEs. Can you explain this?

A: Time doesn't exist during an NDE, or it doesn't exist in the way people normally understand time. Generally speaking, people having NDEs experience the past, present, and future simultaneously. The absolute space and absolute time of Newtonian physics don't exist. Quantum theory probably offers a more accurate picture of NDE space-time.

Q: What does the omniscience some people experience during an NDE refer to?

A: During an NDE, there is an expansion of awareness. Knowledge pours into the person, providing them with a kind of omniscience that is difficult to describe. Some people say that when they meet the light entity, they have a sense of understanding "everything." Every event has significance and is connected to every other in a perfectly logical way. Though they lose this understanding after they are revived, they retain a sense of belonging, of having a purpose in life.

Q: How do the phenomena experienced at the brink of death by people who've had NDEs and those of people who actually die compare?

A: The experiences of the two groups are very similar but not identical. People often report seeing God, angels, or deceased loved ones in their dying moments, suggesting that in the process of dying, we move back and forth across the boundary between life and death before gradually sinking down into the nether world. The severe accidents, suicide attempts, heart stoppages and other intense events that trigger NDEs, on the other hand, fling people into this other world.

Q: How long do people typically remain in a near-death state? Is there a direct correlation between the duration and the intensity of their experience?

A: The data show that a near-death state can end in a matter of seconds or persist for up to four hours. Generally speaking, the longer someone is clinically dead before being resuscitated, the more intense their experience. But there are also numerous examples of people who have had intense experiences over a very short time. There's not a definite correlation between the two.

Q: How do NDEs differ from other phenomena such as out-of-body experiences, channeling, and dreams?

A: There's nothing exceptional about the state of awareness of people having NDEs. Other methods, such as meditation, spiritual practice, shamanistic channeling, hallucinatory drugs, and even artificial electrical stimulation of the brain can cause people to see light entities, feel inexpressible joy and wellbeing, and have a sense of omniscience. Near-death crises are merely one means of triggering these kinds of phenomena or states of awareness. But NDEs are different as well. For example, people do not pass through tunnels, review their lives, or converse with deceased loved ones while hallucinating or engaging in a religious regimen.

NDEs are also very different from dreams. Those who've experienced them stress that they feel far more "real" than dreams.

Q: Are people who are informed about NDEs more prone to having them?

A: Current research shows that the incidence of NDEs is actually higher among people who hadn't previously heard of them. The reason may be that people who know something about NDEs are more able to accept death calmly when it comes. This is akin to Buddhist practitioners who contemplate death. Their object is to be able to remain composed when their time comes, and move serenely on to their next life.

Similarly, research on NDEs among the suicidal has shown that such people are less likely to experience a review of their lives to that moment. It may be that because they've already gone over their lives in such detail prior to their suicide attempts, they don't need to do it again.

Q: Which of the transcendent elements of an NDE-the return from the dead, the out-of-body experience, the encounter with the light, or the sense of immortality-is the most likely impetus for the change in outlook?

A: At present, we have no answer to this question. These various elements are very hard to examine in isolation. They occur as part of an integrated experience and their individual importance is difficult to weigh.