Founder of the Near Death Experience Research Foundation, Dr. Jeffrey Long MD shared research about NDEs, culled from over 1,600 cases. NDEs are lucid experiences that a person undergoes while unconscious or clinically dead that cannot be medically explained. While each NDE is unique, there is a remarkable amount of similarity and order to the experience, even among people from non-Western cultures, he reported.

During an NDE, people can see & hear around their immediate vicinity in an out-of-body state. For instance, after they've been revived, they're often able to correctly identify objects or people in the room they would not have seen while unconscious. After going through a tunnel-like experience, they encounter deceased friends and relatives-- never people that are currently alive, Long noted. And the "life review" described in NDEs accurately portrays events from the person's life, even if those events had previously been forgotten.

NDErs typically reach a boundary or wall they can't cross or see beyond, and though they don't want to go back to their earthly existence, they often agree to return for the sake of their family, Long detailed. About 15% of NDEs contain frightening material, with 2% having outright hellish imagery, he added. He also touched on a new international NDE study, called AWARE (AWAreness during REsuscitation) in which 25 medical centers will assess cardiac arrest patients to see how many have NDEs. Specific targets will be set up with hidden images to see if the patients are able to observe them when in an out-of-body state.