On the experience of being near death.
Explaining the hurdles of recounting a Near-Death Experience
An analogy between spoken and written language
From the moment we are born, our brains are trained to interpret sensory data in a way that makes sense to us. It takes months for infants to synthesize visual images, initially seeing in black and white before gradually perceiving colour. This developmental process applies to all the senses.
For this analogy, we only need to acknowledge that we learn to understand and speak language long before we can read or write. Understanding and speaking a language is a natural development progression by our brains. After all, without this development we cannot function in the world around us.
Written language is an attempt to represent spoken sounds using letters and words. In English, we are limited by the Latin alphabet, which has only five letters—A, E, I, O, and U—to represent vowel sounds. However, the English language contains many more vowel sounds than these five letters can accurately depict. To compensate, we use combinations of vowels to approximate different sounds, but even then, inconsistencies remain. For instance, the "ea" in spread sounds different from the "ea" in beat.
The key point here is that our brains naturally make sense of sensory experiences and use this understanding in future encounters. In fact, the brain projects its learned "sense" of past experiences onto new situations even before we consciously perceive them. In other words, projection precedes perception. Literacy however is a skill we need to almost force ourselves to acquire, it’s not natural.
The challenge of describing an experience in words
When we try to put an experience into words, we often struggle. Speaking about it is one challenge, but writing it down is even harder. This difficulty arises because describing experiences is not a natural function of the brain—it is an acquired skill.
In modern society, there is a strong emphasis on intelligence, which revolves around analysing and comparing data. Think about quantum computing and artificial intelligence: we use these tools to predict future events.
Predicting the stock market can lead to financial gain.
Insurance companies analyse data to forecast natural disasters or medical conditions inpeople, helping them manage financial risk.
On a personal level, we use intelligence to weigh our options before making important decisions.
However, intelligence is not the same as behaviour and experience. While intelligence helps us analyse data, the human experience is fundamentally about projecting past experiences onto new events and using it in a creative way. Our behaviour is shaped by our past interpretation of all sensory data, influencing how we interact with our environment and those around us. For example, before we become conscious of seeing a wine glass let’s say, our brain has already projected a melee of past experiences onto this object. The feeling of our lips touching the rim, the swirling of the wine to enhance the smell and taste, the fragility of the glass and hence preventing it from dropping and so forth. The same applies when we encounter people. Like it or not, but we project stereotypes on all people we meet. I’ll discuss that in one of the lessons of our subscription course.
An author of a book, a good writer, knows that a story doesn’t come alive unless the pages provide this information of past experiences projected on the characters and their changing locations. It’s not a relatable experience until you have this projection. Let me illustrate this with the blurb on one of Daniel Silva’s books, The Fallen Angel: An intoxicating blend of art, intrigue, and history, The Fallen Angel moves swiftly from the cloistered chambers of the Vatican, to the glamorous ski slopes of St. Moritz, to the graceful avenues of Berlin and Vienna—and, finally, to a shocking climax beneath the world’s most sacred and contested parcel of land. Each setting in this extraordinary novel is rendered with the care of an Old Master, as are the spies, lovers, priests, and thieves who inhabit its pages. It is a story of faith and of the destructive power of secrets. And it is an all-too-timely reminder that those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it.
Understanding the Near-Death Experience (NDE)
It is an experience.
The term "Near-Death Experience" (NDE) distinguishes it from other types of experiences.
The brain struggles to interpret an NDE. Since it has never encountered this type of sensory data before, it attempts to "translate" the experience using the limited vocabulary and concepts it already knows—often inadequately.
Recounting an NDE tends to follow a pattern. People typically begin by describing preceding events (which are not the experience itself), followed by common interpretations such as:
A tunnel of light
Encounters with deceased loved ones
Visions of religious figures (e.g., Christ, Buddha, angels)
The core takeaway from an NDE is that consciousness continues beyond physical death because we eternally are not a body.
An NDE profoundly changes the experiencer’s behaviour, often for the better.
Common themes in NDEs and their impact on behaviour
Encounters with a profound sense of love and unity → Leads to increased compassion and altruism.
Loss of fear of death → Encourages a more meaningful and purpose-driven life.
Heightened spiritual awareness → Many experiencers develop a deeper sense of spirituality, even if they were not religious before.
Shift in values → Material concerns become less important, while relationships and personal growth take priority.
Increased psychic or intuitive abilities → Some report heightened intuition or extrasensory perception after their NDE.
Sense of mission or purpose → Many NDErs feel a strong calling to help others and contribute positively to the world.
An NDE is an event unlike any other, and the challenge of describing it lies in the brain's struggle to translate an entirely new experience into familiar language. Despite this difficulty, the transformative effects of an NDE are undeniable, profoundly altering the experiencer’s perspective on life and death.
What can we learn from NDEs?
If we shift our perspective to a vision similar to that received during a near-death-experience, a vision that there is no death and we’re not bodies, we will effortlessly experience a transformation of our behaviour. Accepting the experiences of others can effect to the same influence on our behaviour.