Researchers Publish First Comprehensive Model of Near-Death Experiences

Every once in a while, you'll meet someone—or read about someone in a juicy Reddit thread—who's experienced what is broadly called a "near-death experience." Maybe you've even experienced one firsthand. And while the circumstances that lead people to these experiences obviously differ, the experiences themselves are oddly similar: bright lights, inexplicable calm, the sense that they're leaving their body behind.

What's behind this overlap? Researchers at Belgium's University Hospital of Liège say they're closer to finding the answer. In a paper for Nature Reviews Neurology, they describe the first comprehensive model of near-death experiences, or NDEs. The model outlines the step-by-step process through which the brain might enter an NDE and attempts to explain the experience from an evolutionary perspective.

The researchers began by conducting a meta-analysis of any prior NDE studies they could find. These spanned a wide range of ...