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The Truth in the Light: An Investigation of Over 300 Near-Death Experiences
Most of us at the very least wonder about our own immortality and many people are convinced that there is something beyond death, beyond the blackness of the grave. In Western Judaeo-Christian culture we absorb from an early age the idea that virtue now has its own reward - later. We are taught that the universe is essentially moral and that there are absolute human values. But increasingly, science presents us with a picture of a much more mechanical universe in which there is no absolute morality and man has no purpose and no personal responsibility except to his culture and his biology. We no longer live in an age when faith is sufficient; we demand data, and we are driven by data. And it is data - data that apparently throws some light on our current concepts of Heaven and Hell - that the near-death experience seems to offer. The near-death experience (NDE) is intriguing for two major reasons. First, it is very common and secondly, it is cross-cultural. The results of one NOP survey in America suggest that over 1 million Americans have 'seen the light'. Any experience that is so common must have had some influence on the way we think about life and death. Indeed, it could be the very engine that drives our ideas of an afterlife. Many people believe that in the NDE we are given glimpses of Heaven (or Hell). But it is just as reasonable to assume that it is the NDE itself which may have shaped our very ideas about Heaven and Hell. The experiences described in this book are all first-hand accounts from people who wrote to me or to David Lorimer, chairman of the International Association of Near Death Studies (UK), after a television programme, radio broadcast or magazine or newspaper article made them aware of our interest in near-death experiences. We asked 500 of those who wrote to answer a detailed questionnaire about their experiences. Our aim was to gather in a standardised format as much detail as we could about the NDE, the people who have experienced it and the effect that the experience has had on their lives. It is from this database that the statistics quoted in this book have been drawn, and the accounts given to me by these people and by others who have written to me since then form the basis of the book. But their accounts provided much more than mere statistics. Each one was special in its own way, and provided a personal testimony which I found both moving and utterly sincere. It is very seldom that an author can so truthfully say that without others a book could not have been written - in this case, without these people there would, indeed, have been no book. I feel privileged to have been allowed to read their accounts, and I am grateful to everyone who, by being willing to share their experience with me, has helped in this search to find the truth in the light. Peter Fenwick London December 1994
318 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
88 people are currently reading
326 people want to read
About the author
Peter Fenwick
21 books23 followersPeter Brooke Cadogan Fenwick was a British neuropsychiatrist and neurophysiologist who is known for his studies of epilepsy and end-of-life phenomena.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 19, 2019
Have been fascinated by this subject for some time. Dr Fenwick have researched it so well and have given every explanation that science can offer. With numerous case studies. If you have ever wanted to get deep into this subject with eyes wide open this is the book for you. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
February 16, 2024
A SCIENTIST COMMENTS ON A SURVEY OF >300 NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES
Neuropsychiatrist Peter Fenwick wrote in the Introduction to this 1995 book, “The near-death experience (NDE) is intriguing for two major reasons. First, it is very common and secondly, it is cross-cultural… Any experience that is so common must have had some influence on the way we think about life and death. Indeed, it could be the very engine that drives our ideas of an afterlife. Many people believe that in the NDE we are given glimpses of Heaven (or Hell). But it is just as reasonable to assume that it is the NDE itself which may have shaped our very ideas about Heaven and Hell… One aim of this book is to give space to those who have experienced the beyond and to give ourselves time to listen to them without preconceived prejudices. Then we may be able to decide whether their experiences can be explained by an entirely scientific approach or whether it is only by taking a wider view of man and of the universe that we can find any satisfactory answers. The experiences described in this book are all first-hand accounts from people who wrote to me or to David Lorimer, chairman of the International Association of Near Death Studies (UK) … We asked 500 of those who wrote to answer a detailed questionnaire about their experiences… Over 350 people replied… Most experiences occurred during illness. The illnesses varied very widely but were usually severe though not always life-threatening.” (Pg. 1-3)
He states, “As well as being such a common feature of the near-death experience, OBEs [Out-of-Body Experiences] also occur on their own, quite frequently and quite spontaneously, to people who are not near death at all. They can be induced by drugs (LSD and other psychedelic drugs, for example).” (Pg. 36)
He asks, “So what happens during an OBE? Does ‘something’… really leave the body? And can it… pick up information while it is away from the body?... The most straightforward explanation is that the out-of-body experience is a trick of brain function---that it is totally explicable in terms of human physiology and psychology… the brain is quite capable of making a whole new synthetic world for you. The brain can reset the coordinates of ‘self,’ re-running them so that the brain definition of you moves from behind your eyes to the ceiling…” (Pg. 41)
He notes, “In the popular imagination, it is the image of the light at the end of the tunnel that seems most to epitomize the near-death experience. Often the tunnel is seen as the passage, literal or figurative, to the next world. And yet it is by no means a universal part of the experience---only just over half (51 percent) of our sample found themselves in a tunnel.” (Pg. 49)
He observes, “About a quarter of the people who told us about their experiences were aware of some spiritual ‘presence.’ Although the ‘being of light’ always has spiritual significance, it is only seldom that people describe seeing a particular religious figure such as Christ. Even those people whose Christian faith is strong don’t always see Christ. Much more often there is a feeling of ‘coming before one’s maker’; the being is felt as ‘God’ in a very broad sense. Perhaps ‘spiritually neutral’ is the nearest one can get to the feelings the being evokes.” (Pg. 62)
He explains, “The music of the NDE may help us fill in another corner of the NDE puzzle. There is some evidence that a particular part of the brain, the right temporal lobe, is involved in the appreciation and synthesis of rhythmical, concordant music; if the right temporal lobe is damaged … an inability to hear music as music… sometimes develops. If we are right in assuming that the heavenly music of the NDE is essentially harmonious and concordant, it seems likely that this part of the brain may somehow be involved.” (Pg. 88)
He suggests, “If you were to ask ten people at random whether they had ever had any experiences that could be regarded as psychic… probably at least half would tell you that they had. The belief that one has healing powers is also quite common. So it may well be that people who have psychic experiences or acquire healing abilities after an NDE might in fact have had them prior to the experience but perhaps had been unaware or taken no particular notice of them.” (Pg. 148)
After discussing cases from India, he states, “At first glance these Indian experiences seem to have more in common with each other than they do with most Western experiences. None of the Indian subjects had an out-of-body experience and viewed his own physical body. Neither did they describe going down a tunnel. Instead, the subject is taken by ‘messengers,’ and as a result of some bureaucratic bungling, usually a case of mistaken identity, is finally brought or pushed back. Although Indian subjects sometimes meet relatives or friends, they apparently do not play any significant role or influence the decision to return… Nevertheless, we can recognize plenty of parallels…” (Pg. 161)
He summarizes, “Cultural differences undoubtedly exist, but on the whole they seem little greater than the individual differences due to personality circumstances and religious beliefs which are found amongst the people in any one culture. The common ground between cultures and between individuals is that the NDE seems to be an ‘awakening’ experience, often arousing a sense of spirituality and a stimulus for personal development.” (Pg. 168)
He points out, “belief in Hell seems to be quite widespread. And if over half the population do still believe it exists, it might be expected that at least some of them would have hellish near-death experiences. And yet those appear to be rare. Only two or three of the people who wrote to us described their experiences as ‘hellish.’ Some investigators … have found no hellish experiences amongst the people they have questioned.” (Pg. 188)
He notes, ‘In most NDEs people have no difficulty in recognizing friends and relatives quite easily, but in a few accounts people seem unable to describe the faces of the people they meet, or they describe them as faceless… What do we make of this? … We know that damage to the posterior right temporal area can destroy the ability to make cognitive models of faces, so it could be that the face-building area of the brain is particularly sensitive to some destructive factor, such as lack of oxygen, which may be present during an NDE... It would be odd to find that one specific cognitive function, the building of models of faces, is apparently disrupted by the process of unconsciousness while the remainder of the model-building mechanism remains intact. A more likely explanation is that a psychological rather than an organic mechanism is involved.” (Pg. 204)
He adds, “Can science provide an answer in this case? There seems to be only one possible one, and that leaves even more questions unanswered. We have to postulate that the brain CAN retain the capacity for making images in unconsciousness and with the visual cortex damaged, and that when the memory circuits are ‘down,’ memory can be retained by some other means, as yet undiscovered. There are big assumptions and undercut in a major way our present view of how the brain works normally and in unconsciousness. But then, one of the fascinating things about the NDE is that it does confound many of our assumptions about how the brain works.” (Pg. 108)
He acknowledges, “There is some evidence to support the view that endorphins may be involved in the NDE. The people who have near-death experiences are often in great pain or under great stress---exactly the situations in which you would expect high levels of endorphins to be produced. So we can make a good case for the involvement of the endorphins.” (Pg. 217)
He admits, “it the NDE is indeed a mystical experience I can think of no logical reason why these non-near-death experiences should be any different from those in which the experiencer is quite definitely on the threshold of dying. Reading through some accounts of people we know not to have been near death at the time of their experience, I found it very difficult to distinguish these accounts from ‘real’ NDEs. The same phenomena, the same feelings of peace and joy are described; the aftermath of the experience (usually a loss of any fear of death) is the same, and the experiences are no less significant and valuable to the person concerned than they are if he or she actually has been snatched right from the jaws of death.” (Pg. 233)
This book will be of keen interest to those studying Near-Death Experiences.
Neuropsychiatrist Peter Fenwick wrote in the Introduction to this 1995 book, “The near-death experience (NDE) is intriguing for two major reasons. First, it is very common and secondly, it is cross-cultural… Any experience that is so common must have had some influence on the way we think about life and death. Indeed, it could be the very engine that drives our ideas of an afterlife. Many people believe that in the NDE we are given glimpses of Heaven (or Hell). But it is just as reasonable to assume that it is the NDE itself which may have shaped our very ideas about Heaven and Hell… One aim of this book is to give space to those who have experienced the beyond and to give ourselves time to listen to them without preconceived prejudices. Then we may be able to decide whether their experiences can be explained by an entirely scientific approach or whether it is only by taking a wider view of man and of the universe that we can find any satisfactory answers. The experiences described in this book are all first-hand accounts from people who wrote to me or to David Lorimer, chairman of the International Association of Near Death Studies (UK) … We asked 500 of those who wrote to answer a detailed questionnaire about their experiences… Over 350 people replied… Most experiences occurred during illness. The illnesses varied very widely but were usually severe though not always life-threatening.” (Pg. 1-3)
He states, “As well as being such a common feature of the near-death experience, OBEs [Out-of-Body Experiences] also occur on their own, quite frequently and quite spontaneously, to people who are not near death at all. They can be induced by drugs (LSD and other psychedelic drugs, for example).” (Pg. 36)
He asks, “So what happens during an OBE? Does ‘something’… really leave the body? And can it… pick up information while it is away from the body?... The most straightforward explanation is that the out-of-body experience is a trick of brain function---that it is totally explicable in terms of human physiology and psychology… the brain is quite capable of making a whole new synthetic world for you. The brain can reset the coordinates of ‘self,’ re-running them so that the brain definition of you moves from behind your eyes to the ceiling…” (Pg. 41)
He notes, “In the popular imagination, it is the image of the light at the end of the tunnel that seems most to epitomize the near-death experience. Often the tunnel is seen as the passage, literal or figurative, to the next world. And yet it is by no means a universal part of the experience---only just over half (51 percent) of our sample found themselves in a tunnel.” (Pg. 49)
He observes, “About a quarter of the people who told us about their experiences were aware of some spiritual ‘presence.’ Although the ‘being of light’ always has spiritual significance, it is only seldom that people describe seeing a particular religious figure such as Christ. Even those people whose Christian faith is strong don’t always see Christ. Much more often there is a feeling of ‘coming before one’s maker’; the being is felt as ‘God’ in a very broad sense. Perhaps ‘spiritually neutral’ is the nearest one can get to the feelings the being evokes.” (Pg. 62)
He explains, “The music of the NDE may help us fill in another corner of the NDE puzzle. There is some evidence that a particular part of the brain, the right temporal lobe, is involved in the appreciation and synthesis of rhythmical, concordant music; if the right temporal lobe is damaged … an inability to hear music as music… sometimes develops. If we are right in assuming that the heavenly music of the NDE is essentially harmonious and concordant, it seems likely that this part of the brain may somehow be involved.” (Pg. 88)
He suggests, “If you were to ask ten people at random whether they had ever had any experiences that could be regarded as psychic… probably at least half would tell you that they had. The belief that one has healing powers is also quite common. So it may well be that people who have psychic experiences or acquire healing abilities after an NDE might in fact have had them prior to the experience but perhaps had been unaware or taken no particular notice of them.” (Pg. 148)
After discussing cases from India, he states, “At first glance these Indian experiences seem to have more in common with each other than they do with most Western experiences. None of the Indian subjects had an out-of-body experience and viewed his own physical body. Neither did they describe going down a tunnel. Instead, the subject is taken by ‘messengers,’ and as a result of some bureaucratic bungling, usually a case of mistaken identity, is finally brought or pushed back. Although Indian subjects sometimes meet relatives or friends, they apparently do not play any significant role or influence the decision to return… Nevertheless, we can recognize plenty of parallels…” (Pg. 161)
He summarizes, “Cultural differences undoubtedly exist, but on the whole they seem little greater than the individual differences due to personality circumstances and religious beliefs which are found amongst the people in any one culture. The common ground between cultures and between individuals is that the NDE seems to be an ‘awakening’ experience, often arousing a sense of spirituality and a stimulus for personal development.” (Pg. 168)
He points out, “belief in Hell seems to be quite widespread. And if over half the population do still believe it exists, it might be expected that at least some of them would have hellish near-death experiences. And yet those appear to be rare. Only two or three of the people who wrote to us described their experiences as ‘hellish.’ Some investigators … have found no hellish experiences amongst the people they have questioned.” (Pg. 188)
He notes, ‘In most NDEs people have no difficulty in recognizing friends and relatives quite easily, but in a few accounts people seem unable to describe the faces of the people they meet, or they describe them as faceless… What do we make of this? … We know that damage to the posterior right temporal area can destroy the ability to make cognitive models of faces, so it could be that the face-building area of the brain is particularly sensitive to some destructive factor, such as lack of oxygen, which may be present during an NDE... It would be odd to find that one specific cognitive function, the building of models of faces, is apparently disrupted by the process of unconsciousness while the remainder of the model-building mechanism remains intact. A more likely explanation is that a psychological rather than an organic mechanism is involved.” (Pg. 204)
He adds, “Can science provide an answer in this case? There seems to be only one possible one, and that leaves even more questions unanswered. We have to postulate that the brain CAN retain the capacity for making images in unconsciousness and with the visual cortex damaged, and that when the memory circuits are ‘down,’ memory can be retained by some other means, as yet undiscovered. There are big assumptions and undercut in a major way our present view of how the brain works normally and in unconsciousness. But then, one of the fascinating things about the NDE is that it does confound many of our assumptions about how the brain works.” (Pg. 108)
He acknowledges, “There is some evidence to support the view that endorphins may be involved in the NDE. The people who have near-death experiences are often in great pain or under great stress---exactly the situations in which you would expect high levels of endorphins to be produced. So we can make a good case for the involvement of the endorphins.” (Pg. 217)
He admits, “it the NDE is indeed a mystical experience I can think of no logical reason why these non-near-death experiences should be any different from those in which the experiencer is quite definitely on the threshold of dying. Reading through some accounts of people we know not to have been near death at the time of their experience, I found it very difficult to distinguish these accounts from ‘real’ NDEs. The same phenomena, the same feelings of peace and joy are described; the aftermath of the experience (usually a loss of any fear of death) is the same, and the experiences are no less significant and valuable to the person concerned than they are if he or she actually has been snatched right from the jaws of death.” (Pg. 233)
This book will be of keen interest to those studying Near-Death Experiences.
September 9, 2008
A no-nonsense, scientific analysis of the phenomenon of Near Death Experiences. Written from a skeptical point of view, leaving the reader to make their own conclusions on if this phenomenon is a glimpse into the afterlife or something that science can explain. Scientific explanations are given for accounts of NDE, yet there is still, admitted by the skeptical author, aspects of NDE that not even science can explain.
February 26, 2025
Incredible book, wow! It is a thorough investigation of the stories of NDE by people both ill, near death or not ill at all! It looks at the NDE experience from a clinical and scientific perspective, and then assesses what is possible medically and scientifically and what cannot be explained by either.
It looks for patterns, and brings stories that illustrate them such as the tunnel of light, the presence of departed people, the knowing and the blocking of the path at a point in the journey, the life review, what children say, the cultural overlays, some hellish travels, music, color, messages, and the journey back to the body. It also searches for factual parts of the NDE stories regarding what the person with the NDE saw or heard that they could not physically have known, due to their condition. And surprisingly, the NDE experience has little to do with the person's religious beliefs. Such overlays are not really a part of the NDE. It also looks at NDE experiences of children versus adults and different cultures. It also presents data analyzing the specific elements of the NDE and cites other studies as well.
The book considers possible explanations of NDEs, such as drugs, oxygen starvation, hypercarbia, hallucinations, opiates and endorphins of the brain -- and finds each missing the same difficulty. Brains which are disorganized so that consciousness is lost do not produce coherent hallucinations. Or brains that are disorganized in an unconscious person, can't create lucid experiences. Some explanations produce other phenomena in the body that are NOT experienced by the person having the NDE. Like, the fact that many NDEs occur when NO drugs are used for that patient.
All in all, the book then considers that the seat of the soul is perhaps at the root of the NDE. As yet, a coherent theory of the mind and the brain as separate entities is not available to us yet, to explain the NDE. Yes, this yet to be created theory might be where the NDE's experience is truly found. If the mind exists externally, connected to the brain for a time, but continues after the death, then, the NDE may eventually be evidence of the soul, and life after death.
Truly a fascinating read. It is a very easy read and is not written for scientists specifically, and is without a lot of medical jargon. So it is accessible to the layperson as a good nonfiction book on NDEs. Importantly, if you are afraid of death, this book may assuage you
It looks for patterns, and brings stories that illustrate them such as the tunnel of light, the presence of departed people, the knowing and the blocking of the path at a point in the journey, the life review, what children say, the cultural overlays, some hellish travels, music, color, messages, and the journey back to the body. It also searches for factual parts of the NDE stories regarding what the person with the NDE saw or heard that they could not physically have known, due to their condition. And surprisingly, the NDE experience has little to do with the person's religious beliefs. Such overlays are not really a part of the NDE. It also looks at NDE experiences of children versus adults and different cultures. It also presents data analyzing the specific elements of the NDE and cites other studies as well.
The book considers possible explanations of NDEs, such as drugs, oxygen starvation, hypercarbia, hallucinations, opiates and endorphins of the brain -- and finds each missing the same difficulty. Brains which are disorganized so that consciousness is lost do not produce coherent hallucinations. Or brains that are disorganized in an unconscious person, can't create lucid experiences. Some explanations produce other phenomena in the body that are NOT experienced by the person having the NDE. Like, the fact that many NDEs occur when NO drugs are used for that patient.
All in all, the book then considers that the seat of the soul is perhaps at the root of the NDE. As yet, a coherent theory of the mind and the brain as separate entities is not available to us yet, to explain the NDE. Yes, this yet to be created theory might be where the NDE's experience is truly found. If the mind exists externally, connected to the brain for a time, but continues after the death, then, the NDE may eventually be evidence of the soul, and life after death.
Truly a fascinating read. It is a very easy read and is not written for scientists specifically, and is without a lot of medical jargon. So it is accessible to the layperson as a good nonfiction book on NDEs. Importantly, if you are afraid of death, this book may assuage you
July 31, 2022
I have read quite a number of books on this subject, that interests me very much. Next to Pim van Lommels book ("Consciousness beyond life") this book by Peter and Elisabeth Fenwick is highly recommended reading if you are into this subject. Peter, like Pim van Lommel, take a scientific approach; Peter excells in investigating more that 300 NDEs. The book does not read like a everyday novella but it is not supposed to be. He addressed the topic methodically and as a true scientist. The difference with many traditional scientists however, in my humble opinion, is that he comes to the conclusion that there is an overwhelming amount of examples (he himself explicity does not call it evidence) that there are many people who have NDEs that have a lot of element in common that cannot be explained by science today, but nevertheless are there. In reality. He comes to the impression that the brain alone is not what makes us ús: there is a difference between the brain and the mind. In my impression, like an experienced scientist, Peter is not steering in any direction when quoting and explaining all the experiences, but draws careful conclusions in Chapter 14 and onwards that ask for more research into the observation that NDEs are there, are real, but cannot be explained by science today. And the same goes for the end of life-process that he describes in the last chapters of this clear and thorough piece of research. If you are interested to learn more from Peter, check out his other books and his posts on YouTube. And (just a recommendation): read Pim van Lommels book in which the author has more interesting insights in NDEs, its characteristics and what the relation between NDEs and junk DNA in his view might be.
February 9, 2013
This is a book about Near Death Experiences, approached from a scientific perspective, bearing in mind that scientific method of analysis is objective and yet the data being analysed is subjective. The aim of the book is to give space to those who have experienced the beyond and to give ourselves time to listen to them without prejudice.
"Then we may be able to decide whether their experiences can be explained by an entirely scientific approach or whether it is only taking a wider view of man and of the universe that we can find any satisfactory answers."
All accounts analysed and described in the book are first hand experiences and the author states that he approached the research from a skeptical point of view.
I found this a fascinating read and as Fenwick says himself on pg 21;
"The NDE is a subjective experience. It includes sensations from an external world, and an internal world of thoughts, emotions, feelings of absolute truth, absolute knowledge, and of pure love. When we look at the NDE we can interpret it in three ways." He then goes on to talk about the physiological interpretation, the psychological interpretation and the transcendental mystical experience.
Worth a read regardless of personal beliefs. Personally I don't believe we really have the science
to fully understand this as yet (even though there have been some advancements in recent years). I see science as an evolving process of discovery, relevant to what we know and understand at a point in time before we discover something further which gives us a greater knowledge and understanding, which in turn may confirm or deny previous knowledge.
While the earth spins at approx (1,670 kph)at the equator and we feel like we are standing still, anything is possible in this world, however we want to explain it, so I maintain a very open mind.
"Then we may be able to decide whether their experiences can be explained by an entirely scientific approach or whether it is only taking a wider view of man and of the universe that we can find any satisfactory answers."
All accounts analysed and described in the book are first hand experiences and the author states that he approached the research from a skeptical point of view.
I found this a fascinating read and as Fenwick says himself on pg 21;
"The NDE is a subjective experience. It includes sensations from an external world, and an internal world of thoughts, emotions, feelings of absolute truth, absolute knowledge, and of pure love. When we look at the NDE we can interpret it in three ways." He then goes on to talk about the physiological interpretation, the psychological interpretation and the transcendental mystical experience.
Worth a read regardless of personal beliefs. Personally I don't believe we really have the science
to fully understand this as yet (even though there have been some advancements in recent years). I see science as an evolving process of discovery, relevant to what we know and understand at a point in time before we discover something further which gives us a greater knowledge and understanding, which in turn may confirm or deny previous knowledge.
While the earth spins at approx (1,670 kph)at the equator and we feel like we are standing still, anything is possible in this world, however we want to explain it, so I maintain a very open mind.
June 12, 2016
Poorly written and painful to get through. Thought about burning it several times while I was reading it. With that said, so many near death experiences involved velvety darkness and hyper speed, that it begs the question, what if dark matter is just energy in transit, waiting to be converted into its next form/host. Maybe universal energy is finite and shape shifts. Meh, we'll never know. It's just my personal theory. Don't read it.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews