NDE Text Resources Thread

This is an old NDE account, but I wanted to share it for reference.
(Maybe it is already in another post, I didn't find it)

After reading a post by Tim in another thread, I realised that it mentioned a case I'd previously come across. 

In particular, this is  an example of an NDE where a living rather than deceased person is encountered during the experience.

Amanda Cable NDE During Childbirth

There is a picture on my mantelpiece which never fails to send a shiver down my spine. It shows my five-year-old daughter, Ruby, on her first day at school - with an unmistakable beam of pride and excitement on her face.

Her face is shiny and scrubbed, her dark hair is tied in neat bunches and she is wearing her new uniform for the first time.

It's the sort of first-day photograph which sits in living-rooms across the country. But while other mothers gaze fondly at such snapshots, I go cold at the sight of mine.

Because hours before Ruby posed so proudly for this picture, I had nearly died on the operating table.

I lost so much blood my pulse stopped and, as doctors fought to save me, I had the most extraordinary experience.

Somehow, and in some way, my young daughter led me back to life. More extraordinarily, she appeared just as she was to look a few hours later, on her first day at school - even though I had never seen her dressed that way before.

The experience has changed my life and way of thinking for ever. A complete cynic, I have never consulted psychics, never read astrology pages and have no superstitions.

I've read accounts of near-death experiences but have always dismissed what they say happens as being due to chemical changes within the brain as vital organs shut down.

Another link:

Why the day I ‘died‘ taught me how to live: Like most, Amanda Cable was sceptical about an afterlife... until a near death experience changed everything

In particular, this is  an example of an NDE where a living rather than deceased person is encountered during the experience.

And one in which 'sceptics' like Augustine will gleefully point out the fact that the child was obviously not a deceased relative. There are a continuing number of these (small precentage) and this one matches quite well with one notable one I rememeber well from 'Recollections of death', whereby the guy's whole family (his children) were in front of him in a/the tunnel. 

We are not allowed (by sceptics) to suggest that the intelligence behind the universe is simply trying to remind the individuals that they can't leave yet, they have responsibilities and must go back. 

Amanda's NDE also has remarkable observations (the hair of her child in bunches) which she couldn't have known about, but of course, she's obviously mistaken about that and actually did know, or she's lying. Obviously.

And one in which 'sceptics' like Augustine will gleefully point out the fact that the child was obviously not a deceased relative. There are a continuing number of these (small precentage) and this one matches quite well with one notable one I rememeber well from 'Recollections of death', whereby the guy's whole family (his children) were in front of him in a/the tunnel. 

We are not allowed (by sceptics) to suggest that the intelligence behind the universe is simply trying to remind the individuals that they can't leave yet, they have responsibilities and must go back. 

Amanda's NDE also has remarkable observations (the hair of her child in bunches) which she couldn't have known about, but of course, she's obviously mistaken about that and actually did know, or she's lying. Obviously.

It occurs to me that the explanation might more likely be along the lines of the spirit inhabiting and experiencing life through the Ruby child human being sensed her mother's moment of great need, and chose to appear to her for reassurance and hopefully to change her skeptical materialist orientation.

We are not allowed (by sceptics) to suggest that the intelligence behind the universe is simply trying to remind the individuals that they can't leave yet, they have responsibilities and must go back.

I think proponents also get tripped up by cases like this, or when a wound in a past life can cause a disability in the current incarnation.

As much as we might not like to think about it, it seems plausible that in some cases the NDE itself is something of a "siren's song" that as you put it has to be intentionally weighted against by reminders of loved ones that still need you.

So whether it's NDEs or Reincarnation, it seems - again in some cases - that there is a natural phenomena that one has to work with much in the same way technology has to get around the limitations imposed by physics. This seems to extend even to the questions of design in our clearly imperfect mortal existence.

I think proponents also get tripped up by cases like this, or when a wound in a past life can cause a disability in the current incarnation.

As much as we might not like to think about it, it seems plausible that in some cases the NDE itself is something of a "siren's song" that as you put it has to be intentionally weighted against by reminders of loved ones that still need you.

So whether it's NDEs or Reincarnation, it seems - again in some cases - that there is a natural phenomena that one has to work with much in the same way technology has to get around the limitations imposed by physics. This seems to extend even to the questions of design in our clearly imperfect mortal existence.

Fair point, Sci which is why I prefer to concentrate in the main on veridical NDE's during cardiac arrest (sans functioning brain). Just one of those falsifies materialism. (Super psi I don't take seriously)

It occurs to me that the explanation might more likely be along the lines of the spirit inhabiting and experiencing life through the Ruby child human being sensed her mother's moment of great need, and chose to appear to her for reassurance and hopefully to change her skeptical materialist orientation.

If one accepts the basics of all this then of course that is possible, yes !

[Laird]

Submissions for essays for its Substack, potentially remunerated financially (IANDS says up to $300, but I don't see exact amounts in the official Coming Home solicitation), are being solicited by Coming Home, "a documentary film series that shares the stories of people transformed by near-death experiences (NDEs)".

We welcome original writing on topics including, but not limited to:

• Autobiographical accounts of NDEs
  
• Philosophical and metaphysical implications of NDEs
  
• Scientific research on NDEs and consciousness
  
• Spiritual or religious interpretations of NDEs
  
• Historical and cultural perspectives
  
• The transformative effects of NDEs on individuals and society
  
• Interdisciplinary approaches to NDEs and altered states
  
• The relationship between NDEs and psychedelics
  

[Laird]

Results of New IANDS Near-Death Experience Poll Revealed
29 May, 2026
Matt Terzi
iands.org

Arguably the biggest surprise from the IANDS/Centiment poll is that 23 percent of American adults say they’ve had a near-death experience, while 35 percent say they know someone who has had an NDE.

In polling, the framing of questions matters significantly. The IANDS near-death experience poll specifically describes a near-death experience as one where the subject “transitioned to another realm and then returned to human existence.” This context matters when you consider the results of earlier NDE surveys, which don’t always frame NDEs this specifically.

I haven't been able to dig up more details about the poll, such as how they sampled the population, and how we can be sure that it is unbiased. Presumably, all of those details are currently available only to paid-up IANDS members.