Appendix A
This index catalogues the major near-death experience cases discussed throughout this book. Cases are organized by primary source, with the chapter(s) in which each case is discussed noted in parentheses. Each entry includes a brief summary of the veridical element and its evidential significance. Cases that appear in multiple chapters are listed under their primary source with all relevant chapter numbers included.
Case 1.1 — Informant’s Mother. A Dutch woman observed specific details of her own resuscitation from an out-of-body vantage point and later accurately described the procedures and positions of the medical staff to their astonishment. Demonstrates veridical perception of the immediate environment during a medical crisis. Chapters 2, 4.
Case 1.4 — Vicki Umipeg Noratuk. A congenitally blind woman who reported detailed visual perceptions during her NDE, including seeing her own body and the medical team working on her. One of the most significant cases in the blind NDE literature, as her brain had never processed visual input. Chapters 4, 6.
Case 1.5 — Al Sullivan. During heart surgery, Sullivan observed his surgeon Dr. Hiroyoshi Takata making an unusual flapping gesture with his elbows—a distinctive habit Takata used to avoid contaminating his sterile hands. Sullivan described this accurately despite being fully anesthetized with eyes taped shut. The surgeon later confirmed the habit. Chapters 4, 5, 12.
Case 1.9 — Penny Sartori’s Patient. From Sartori’s prospective study in a Welsh ICU, a patient accurately described his own resuscitation procedures in detail, while control patients who had not had NDEs gave wildly inaccurate guesses about what had been done to them during their own resuscitations. A powerful comparison that undermines the “lucky guess” objection. Chapters 4, 11, 13.
Case 1.10 — Deep Hypothermic Cardiocirculatory Arrest Case. A patient undergoing deep hypothermic cardiac arrest—a procedure in which the brain is cooled to the point of complete electrical silence—reported conscious awareness during the procedure and accurately described events. Published by Beauregard and colleagues. Chapters 4, 5, 15.
Case 1.11 — Laurin Bellg’s Patient (“Jim”). An ICU patient described specific details of events in the room during his cardiac arrest, including conversations among staff and the particular equipment used, all later confirmed by Dr. Bellg. Chapters 4, 29.
Case 1.12 — Laurin Bellg’s Patient (“Ruby”). Another ICU case from Bellg’s practice in which a patient accurately reported details of her resuscitation and the staff involved, despite being clinically dead at the time. Chapters 4, 29.
Case 2.1 — Roseann’s Deathbed Vision. A dying patient demonstrated telepathic knowledge of the contents of a letter written by a visitor—knowledge she could not have obtained through normal means. Chapters 4, 9.
Case 2.2 — A Penny on the Cabinet. During cardiac arrest, a patient had an out-of-body experience and reported seeing a penny on top of a high cabinet that was not visible from the ground. A nurse later climbed up and confirmed the penny was there. This is a classic “hidden target” case. Chapters 4, 11, 13.
Case 2.3 — Maria’s Tennis Shoe. Perhaps the most famous hidden-object NDE case. Maria, a migrant worker in Seattle, had a cardiac arrest and during her OBE saw a man’s dark blue tennis shoe on an upper-floor window ledge of the hospital. She described specific details—worn material over the little toe, a lace tucked under the heel—that were not visible from inside the building. Social worker Kimberly Clark Sharp retrieved the shoe and confirmed every detail. Skeptics have attempted to debunk this case, but Sharp responded point by point. Chapters 4, 11, 13, 31.
Case 2.4 — “The Red Shoe.” Similar to the Maria case, another patient during an OBE identified a shoe in an unexpected location outside the hospital. Corroborated by staff. Chapter 4.
Case 2.15 – 2.18 — Bellg’s ICU Cases. A series of cases from Dr. Laurin Bellg’s ICU practice in which patients reported veridical perceptions of events happening in other rooms of the hospital or involving family members at distant locations. These cases are significant because they involve perceptions that cannot be explained by residual sensory awareness. Chapters 4, 8, 29.
Case 3.6 — Sue Saunders’s Patient. A man who was resuscitated after cardiac arrest later identified the respiratory therapist (Saunders) who had assisted him and accurately described her yellow smock and the mask over her face—details he could only have observed while clinically dead, since she arrived after he lost consciousness and left before he regained it. Chapters 4, 13.
Case 3.7 — The Man with the Dentures (van Lommel’s Lancet Study). One of the most thoroughly investigated cases in the NDE literature. During cardiac arrest, a comatose patient observed a nurse remove his dentures and place them in a specific drawer of the crash cart. Days later, the patient identified the nurse and directed him to the exact drawer. Published in van Lommel’s landmark 2001 Lancet study. The case has been subjected to extensive skeptical scrutiny by Gerald Woerlee and others, but corroborating investigations by Rudolf Smit and Titus Rivas have reinforced its evidential strength. Chapters 1, 4, 5, 11, 13, 31.
Case 3.10 — Dutch NDE Cases Reported After the Dentures Man. Additional Dutch cases reported in response to media coverage of the dentures case, providing further corroborated instances of veridical perception during cardiac arrest. Chapters 4, 13.
Case 3.27 — Brazilian Cardiac Surgeon’s Case. A cardiac surgeon in Brazil reported a patient who accurately described specific, unusual details of the surgical procedure performed on him during cardiac arrest. The surgeon himself confirmed the details. Chapters 4, 13.
Case 3.29 — Pam Reynolds. The most extensively studied NDE case in the literature. During a standstill operation (hypothermic cardiac arrest) to repair a basilar artery aneurysm, Reynolds reported an OBE in which she accurately described the Midas Rex bone saw (“like an electric toothbrush” with interchangeable blades in a “socket wrench case”), heard a conversation about the size of her femoral arteries, and identified a female surgeon involved in the groin incision. Her eyes were taped shut, her ears were blocked with molded earplugs emitting 100-decibel clicks, and her brain was eventually drained of blood and cooled to 60°F. This case is the primary subject of Marsh’s extended critique and the focus of Chapter 5 in this book. Chapters 1, 4, 5, 11, 13, 15, 31.
Case 3.31 — Kristle Merzlock. A seven-year-old girl who drowned and was clinically dead for an extended period. Upon resuscitation, she accurately described events and conversations that occurred while she was being transported to the hospital and while medical staff worked on her—events she could not have witnessed through normal means. A pediatric case that also undermines the cultural conditioning objection. Chapters 4, 7.
Case 3.32 — A Deceased Pet. During an NDE, the experiencer encountered a deceased pet in the transcendent realm—a pet whose death had not been communicated to the patient. Later confirmed. This case is notable because it demonstrates that NDE encounters with deceased beings are not limited to humans and are not easily explained by expectation. Chapters 4, 9.
Case 3.33 — Bellg’s ICU Case (Cardiac Arrest). Another ICU case from Dr. Bellg involving veridical perception during confirmed cardiac arrest. Chapters 4, 29.
Case 3.37 — Chris Yerington’s Case. A recent case involving veridical perception during cardiac arrest, investigated by Dr. Chris Yerington and Dr. Lori Meyers. Chapter 4.
Case 3.39 — Netflix Surviving Death Case. A case featured in the Netflix documentary Surviving Death (Episode 1), involving veridical perception during cardiac arrest with medical corroboration. Chapters 4, 30.
Case 4.3 — George Rodonaia. A Georgian physician declared dead for three days in the morgue after being hit by a car (in the Soviet Union). During his NDE, he reported visiting a newborn infant in an adjoining hospital ward and telepathically perceiving that the baby had a broken hip—an injury the medical staff had not yet discovered. Upon resuscitation, he told the staff, who then confirmed the fracture by X-ray. Chapters 4, 8, 13.
Case 4.6 — Gary Schwartz’s Reported Case. A case involving telepathic perception during an NDE, presented by parapsychologist Gary Schwartz. Chapter 4.
Case 5.1 — Durdana Khan. A two-and-a-half-year-old Pakistani girl who, during a near-fatal bout of viral encephalitis, reported encountering a deceased person she had never met or seen photographs of, and she accurately described the person’s appearance and characteristics. Later confirmed by family members. A pediatric case involving encounter with a verified stranger. Chapters 7, 9.
Case 5.4 — Sherry’s Son’s Drowning NDE. A child who drowned and reported encountering a deceased person not previously known to the child. Details later confirmed. Chapters 7, 9.
Case 5.5 — Viola Horton. During her NDE, Horton encountered deceased individuals she had never met and described specific, verifiable details about them. Featured in the documentary Life After Life. Chapters 4, 9.
Case 6.1 — Huriye Kacar. During her NDE, Kacar encountered a deceased individual whose death she did not know about at the time of her experience. The death was later confirmed. This is a “Peak in Darien” case—one of the strongest categories of evidence, because the experiencer had no prior knowledge that the person they encountered had died. Chapters 4, 9.
Case 6.4 — Children of the Light Case. A child’s NDE in which the child encountered a deceased relative whose death was not yet known to the child or the child’s family. Chapters 7, 9.
Case 7.1 — Apparition of the NDEr. While clinically dead, the patient was reportedly seen by a living person at a distant location—an apparition case in which the dying person appeared to visit someone else. The distant person later confirmed the visitation and its timing corresponded to the cardiac arrest. Chapters 9, 23.
Case 7.4 — Historical Apparition Case. An older historical case in which a dying individual was perceived by a distant witness at the time of death. Chapter 9.
Case 7.5 — Bellg’s Shared Experience Case. From Dr. Bellg’s ICU practice, a case in which medical staff or family members reported perceiving the patient or anomalous phenomena at the time of the patient’s clinical death. Chapters 9, 29.
Case 7.6 — Stephen’s Girlfriend’s Probable NDE. A shared death experience in which a healthy bystander perceived NDE-like phenomena at the time of a loved one’s crisis. Significant because the bystander’s brain was not in any compromised state, ruling out the “dying brain” explanation entirely. Chapters 9, 23.
Case 8.1 — Penny Sartori’s Patient (Healed Arm). A patient who had been unable to use his arm due to a contracture (claw hand) for years. After his NDE, the arm was unexpectedly restored to normal function. Documented by Sartori, Badham, and Fenwick in a peer-reviewed publication. Chapters 4, 23.
Case 8.8 — Mellen-Thomas Benedict. After an extended NDE during which he was pronounced dead, Benedict experienced a dramatic health recovery that astonished his medical team. Chapter 23.
Case 8.10 — Annabel Beam. A young girl who fell from a tree, had an NDE in which she reported visiting heaven and meeting Jesus, and upon recovery experienced the unexpected healing of a previously diagnosed chronic intestinal condition. Her mother documented the case in Miracles from Heaven. Chapters 7, 23, 30.
Case 9.5 — Electrical Anomalies. A case in which the NDEr experienced persistent, documented interference with electronic equipment after the NDE—a frequently reported aftereffect that defies easy physicalist explanation. Chapter 23.
Cherylee Black (Cases 9.1–9.3). An NDEr who developed multiple documented paranormal abilities following her experience, including heightened intuitive perception and anomalous interactions with electronic devices. Chapter 23.
Elizabeth Krohn. Following her NDE, Krohn reported the development of precognitive dreams and other paranormal abilities, documented over many years. Chapter 23.
Enrique Vila López. A Spanish NDEr who developed unusual abilities after his near-death experience. Chapter 23.
The Dentures Man. See Case 3.7 above. Originally published in van Lommel et al., “Near-death experience in survivors of cardiac arrest: A prospective study in the Netherlands,” The Lancet 358 (2001): 2039–2045. The cornerstone prospective case. Chapters 1, 3, 4, 5, 11, 13, 31.
Van Lommel’s Prospective Study (General Findings). In the first large-scale, methodologically rigorous prospective study of NDEs, van Lommel and colleagues studied 344 consecutive cardiac arrest survivors in ten Dutch hospitals. Sixty-two patients (18%) reported an NDE. The study found no correlation between NDE occurrence and medical factors (duration of arrest, medications, prior knowledge of NDEs), undermining physiological explanations. Chapters 1, 3, 11, 13, 14, 15, 31.
Pam Reynolds (Sabom’s Account). See Case 3.29 above. Sabom’s Light and Death (1998) provides the most detailed medical and surgical account of the Reynolds case, including the full surgical timeline and the anesthesiologist’s records. Sabom’s meticulous documentation is the primary basis for evaluating the case against Marsh’s critique. Chapters 5, 11, 15.
Sabom’s Cardiac Arrest Patients. In his pioneering prospective study, Sabom compared descriptions of resuscitation by cardiac arrest patients who reported OBEs with those of cardiac patients who did not. The OBE group gave accurate, detailed descriptions consistent with what actually happened; the non-OBE control group made major errors. This controlled comparison remains one of the strongest pieces of evidence against the “reconstruction from general knowledge” hypothesis. Chapters 3, 4, 11, 13.
Vicki Umipeg Noratuk. See Case 1.4 above. A congenitally blind woman who experienced detailed visual perception during her NDE—seeing her own body, the medical team, and the hospital environment for the first time in her life. She also reported seeing colors and light in the transcendent portion of her NDE. Central to Ring and Cooper’s argument that NDEs cannot be explained as visual hallucinations generated by a brain that has never processed visual input. Chapters 4, 6.
Brad Barrows. Another congenitally blind NDEr from Ring and Cooper’s study who reported visual perceptions during his NDE, including seeing the snowfall outside the hospital—a detail later confirmed. Chapter 6.
Ring and Cooper’s Broader Sample. Ring and Cooper studied 31 blind and sight-impaired individuals who had had NDEs or OBEs. Of the 21 who were blind (including 14 congenitally blind), the majority reported detailed visual perception during their experience. The collective sample makes it extremely difficult to attribute these experiences to normal brain function. Chapters 6, 31.
AWARE Study—Case of Verified Auditory Perception. In the AWARE (AWAreness during REsuscitation) study, one patient provided a verified, timed account of events during cardiac arrest that corresponded to objective monitoring data. The patient accurately described two auditory stimuli from an automated external defibrillator at verified times when the patient was clinically dead. While the study’s hidden visual targets were not successfully identified, this case provided the first scientifically controlled evidence of consciousness during cardiac arrest. Chapters 3, 4, 11, 13.
AWARE II (Ongoing Results). Parnia’s follow-up study has continued to document cases of recalled awareness during cardiac arrest, with further evidence of organized cognitive activity in the absence of measurable brain function. Chapters 3, 13.
Holden’s 2009 Meta-Analysis. Janice Miner Holden analyzed 107 cases of apparently nonphysical veridical perception (AVP) from the NDE literature. She found that 92% of reported perceptions were completely accurate, approximately 6% contained some error, and only about 2% were substantially inaccurate. This statistical pattern is devastating to the skeptical position: if NDEs were hallucinations, confabulations, or reconstructions, we would expect a much higher error rate. Chapters 3, 4, 11, 13, 31.
Morse’s Pediatric NDE Cases. Melvin Morse conducted the first systematic study of NDEs in children. His young subjects—some as young as three or four years old—reported the same core NDE elements as adults (out-of-body experiences, tunnel, light, encounters with deceased relatives, a border or boundary) despite having little to no cultural exposure to NDE concepts. These cases are powerful evidence against the cultural conditioning hypothesis, because the children had not yet been exposed to popular NDE narratives. Chapters 3, 7.
Long’s NDERF Database Analysis. Jeffrey Long’s analysis of thousands of NDEs collected through the Near Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF) demonstrated nine lines of evidence for the reality of NDEs. His cross-cultural analysis showed that all core NDE elements appear consistently regardless of the experiencer’s nationality, language, religion, or cultural background. His comparison of 79 non-English NDEs with 583 English NDEs found no statistically significant difference in NDE elements between the two groups. Chapters 3, 8, 31.
Long’s Evidence for God from NDEs. In God and the Afterlife, Long presents evidence that NDEs consistently point toward the existence of God, with the majority of NDErs—including atheists and agnostics—reporting encounters with a being of love and light. Chapters 28, 31.
Carter’s Comprehensive Review of Veridical Cases. Chris Carter compiled and analyzed veridical NDE cases from across the literature, providing detailed rebuttals to each major skeptical objection (hypoxia, hypercarbia, endorphins, REM intrusion, temporal lobe seizures, etc.) and showing that none of these proposed mechanisms can account for the verified accuracy of NDE reports. His work is drawn upon extensively throughout Parts II and III of this book. Chapters 4, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 31.
Bellg’s ICU Case Collection. Laurin Bellg, a critical care physician, documented multiple NDE cases from her own ICU practice. Her firsthand medical witness to these events is significant because she observed the patients’ clinical condition directly and could personally confirm that there was no normal mechanism by which the patients could have obtained the information they reported. Her cases include veridical OBE reports, encounters with deceased persons, and shared death experiences. Chapters 4, 9, 29.
Miller’s Cross-Cultural NDE Analysis. J. Steve Miller independently analyzed 58 non-Western, non-Christian NDEs and found no pattern of anti-Christian elements. His study supports the conclusion that the core NDE experience is consistent across cultures and does not simply reflect the experiencer’s prior religious beliefs. Chapters 8, 28.
Miller’s Deathbed Vision Cases. In Deathbed Experiences as Evidence for the Afterlife, Miller documents multiple deathbed vision (DBV) cases in which dying patients perceived deceased relatives—including relatives they did not know had died—and experienced terminal lucidity (sudden mental clarity in patients with severe brain damage shortly before death). Chapters 9, 28.
Marsh’s Acknowledged Cases. While Marsh’s book is primarily a critique of NDE evidence, he does acknowledge and discuss several notable cases, including the Pam Reynolds case (pp. 19–27), the cases from the eight key texts he selected for analysis, and the general landscape of ECE (extra-corporeal experience) reports. His treatment of these cases—and the cases he omits—is analyzed in detail in Chapters 4, 5, and 11 of this book. Chapters 1, 4, 5, 10, 11.
Fischer and Mitchell-Yellin’s Two Primary Cases. Fischer and Mitchell-Yellin focus their analysis primarily on two cases: Pam Reynolds and the Man with the Dentures (discussed in their Chapter 2). They also engage the Colton Burpo case (Chapter 11), the James Leininger reincarnation case (Chapter 11), and the Eben Alexander case (Chapters 4 and 12). Their treatment of these cases—and the much larger body of evidence they do not engage—is analyzed throughout this book. Chapters 1, 4, 5, 10, 11, 30, 31.
Eben Alexander. A neurosurgeon who had an elaborate NDE during a week-long coma caused by severe bacterial meningitis, when his neocortex was documented to be completely nonfunctional. His case is notable because of his medical expertise and the severity of his brain impairment. During his NDE he encountered a deceased birth sister whose existence he had not known about at the time. Discussed in The Self Does Not Die (Cases 5.2 and 3.34) and critiqued by both Fischer and Mitchell-Yellin and Luke Dittrich in Esquire. Chapters 4, 5, 15, 30.
Colton Burpo. A four-year-old boy who reported an NDE during an emergency appendectomy. He described his parents praying in separate rooms of the hospital, reported meeting a miscarried sister in heaven (whose existence had never been discussed with him), and described his great-grandfather from a photograph the family confirmed he had never seen. Critiqued by Fischer and Mitchell-Yellin (Chapter 11) as potentially involving suggestion and parental reinforcement. Discussed in this book both as a case of interest and as an example of the difference between popular NDE accounts and peer-reviewed research. Chapters 7, 30.
Anita Moorjani. Diagnosed with stage 4 lymphoma and comatose, Moorjani had an NDE during which she reported perceiving events at a distance (including her brother’s travel arrangements from India). After reviving, her cancer rapidly went into remission in a manner her oncologists described as medically inexplicable. Documented in The Self Does Not Die (Case 8.5) and her own book Dying to Be Me. Chapters 4, 23.
“Peak in Darien” Cases (Greyson, 2010). Bruce Greyson’s 2010 study in Anthropology and Humanism documented multiple cases of dying persons seeing and identifying deceased individuals whose deaths were not yet known to the experiencer or anyone present. These cases are among the strongest in the NDE literature because they eliminate the “expectation” and “wish fulfillment” objections entirely. Chapters 4, 9, 31.
Terminal Lucidity Cases. Multiple documented instances of patients with severe brain damage (advanced Alzheimer’s, brain tumors, strokes) who experienced sudden, dramatic restoration of cognitive function shortly before death. These cases challenge the physicalist assumption that consciousness is wholly produced by the brain, since the neural substrate was profoundly damaged yet lucid consciousness emerged. Discussed in this book as corroborating evidence alongside NDEs. Chapters 9, 22, 31.
Shared Death Experiences. Cases in which healthy bystanders at a dying person’s bedside reported experiencing NDE-like phenomena—leaving the body, entering a tunnel of light, encountering deceased relatives alongside the dying person—despite not being ill or in any medically compromised state. These cases are uniquely powerful because the “dying brain” hypothesis cannot apply: the bystander’s brain is functioning normally. Documented by Raymond Moody, William Peters, and others. Chapters 9, 23, 31.
↑ 1. Case numbers follow the numbering system used in Titus Rivas, Anny Dirven, and Rudolf Smit, The Self Does Not Die: Verified Paranormal Phenomena from Near-Death Experiences (Durham, NC: IANDS Publications, 2016).
↑ 2. Janice Miner Holden, “Veridical Perception in Near-Death Experiences,” in Janice Miner Holden, Bruce Greyson, and Debbie James, eds., The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences: Thirty Years of Investigation (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger/ABC-CLIO, 2009), 185–211.
↑ 3. Pim van Lommel, Ruud van Wees, Vincent Meyers, and Ingrid Elfferich, “Near-death experience in survivors of cardiac arrest: A prospective study in the Netherlands,” The Lancet 358, no. 9298 (2001): 2039–2045.
↑ 4. Michael Sabom, Light and Death: One Doctor’s Fascinating Account of Near-Death Experiences (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998).
↑ 5. Kenneth Ring and Sharon Cooper, Mindsight: Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences in the Blind (Palo Alto, CA: William James Center for Consciousness Studies, 1999).
↑ 6. Sam Parnia et al., “AWARE—AWAreness during REsuscitation—A prospective study,” Resuscitation 85, no. 12 (2014): 1799–1805.
↑ 7. Chris Carter, Science and the Near-Death Experience: How Consciousness Survives Death (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2010).
↑ 8. Laurin Bellg, Near Death in the ICU: Stories from Patients Near Death and Why We Should Listen to Them (Sloan Press, 2015).
↑ 9. Jeffrey Long with Paul Perry, Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences (New York: HarperOne, 2010).
↑ 10. Melvin Morse with Paul Perry, Closer to the Light: Learning from the Near-Death Experiences of Children (New York: Villard Books, 1990).
↑ 11. Bruce Greyson, “Seeing Dead People Not Known to Have Died: ‘Peak in Darien’ Experiences,” Anthropology and Humanism 35, no. 2 (2010): 159–171.
↑ 12. Michael N. Marsh, Out-of-Body and Near-Death Experiences: Brain-State Phenomena or Glimpses of Immortality? (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).
↑ 13. John Martin Fischer and Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin, Near-Death Experiences: Understanding Visions of the Afterlife (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016).
↑ 14. J. Steve Miller, Near-Death Experiences as Evidence for the Existence of God and Heaven: A Brief Introduction in Plain Language (Acworth, GA: Wisdom Creek Press, 2012).
↑ 15. Penny Sartori, Paul Badham, and Peter Fenwick, “A Prospectively Studied Near-Death Experience with Corroborated Out-of-Body Perceptions and Unexplained Healing,” Journal of Near-Death Studies 25, no. 2 (2006): 69–84.
↑ 16. Rudolf Smit, “Corroboration of the Dentures Anecdote Involving Veridical Perception in a Near-Death Experience,” Journal of Near-Death Studies 27, no. 1 (2008): 47–61.