Near-death experiences first started to become well-known around 1975, with the popularity of Raymond Moody's book on the concept (entitled Life After Life). But we have very good reason to believe that such experiences have been a fact of human experience long before Moody's book. In my posts below I document near-death experiences dating from long before 1975:
Near-Death High-Speed Life Reviews From Before 1950
Let us look at some more cases of near-death experiences or out-of-body experiences dating from long before 1975. The first account is from page 62 of the January 26, 1934 edition of the periodical Light, which you can read here:
The account above (and one below) remind us that before the term "out-of-body experience" became common, it was often more common for writers to use the term "out-of-the-body experience." Anyone searching for old accounts of this type should remember that.
The next account is from page 67 of the January 31, 1935 edition of the periodical Light, which you can read here:
The next account is from page 40 of the January 22, 1932 edition of the periodical Light, which you can read here:
An account of a near-death experience occurring during World War II appeared on page 179 of the November - December 1945 edition of the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, which you can read here. We read a doctor recalling his recollection of a woman saying that after her bus was hit by a flying bomb, she found herself up in the clouds. She thought she was going to see God, but was told "No, it is not yet time." She mentioned an experience of extraordinary vividness, with an altered sense of time. I won't quote the account, because instead of it being a first-hand account, it is a doctor's recollection of what the patient told her; and such second-hand accounts have lesser value as evidence.
On page 59 of the same edition we read another account of an out-of-body experience, in which someone states this:
"The ceiling seemed to disappear as
also the roof, and I clearly saw a star, or what appeared to be a star. Then,
I can only describe this my own way, I was given psychic vision, for my
Spirit left my body which I saw by my wife's in bed. I seemed to resemble
the shape of a flame with a long silver thread attached to my earth body.
I enjoyed, what I can only liken to, the Peace of God which passeth all understanding, I have never enjoyed such mental exhilaration before or
since."
On page 123 of the 1954 Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research (Volume 48), which you can read here, we read of a poll done of 42 students who were asked: "Have you ever actually seen your physical body from a viewpoint completely outside that body, like standing beside the bed and looking at yourself lying in the bed, or like floating in the air near your body?” 33% answered "Yes."
On the next page we read this:
"Of the students who reported having seen their physical bodies
from outside positions, more than one-fourth said that during such
experiences they seemed to be occupying another body, which seemed
to be real, tangible, and capable of voluntary movement. More than
two out of five reported that, during their out-of-the-body experiences they seemed to be able to pass through seemingly solid objects
—like closed doors, or blank walls."
On that same page (page 124) we are given two accounts of out-of-body experiences:
"2. Miss Nan Tignor, on March 8, 1953, reported the following
experience: 'I had just awakened and dressed, and was on my way to
my first class—about 10:15 a.m. 1 was standing on a hill looking
at myself walking toward me. I could see myself walking toward
the top of the hill very clearly and distinctly. 1 could see the
path (rocks) on which I was walking and the vague surroundings. From my physical body, I was at a position about thirty
feet away. I could see no one but myself.' Miss Tignor reports having had several such experiences, in each
of which she could see herself in a situation either walking or sitting
about twenty to thirty feet from her physical body, and in familiar
surroundings.
3. The following experience was reported by Mr. W. on February 28, 1953: 'I was hospitalized for pulmonary tuberculosis in August,
1948, when I experienced seeing my physical body from a viewpoint completely outside that body. I did not seem to be occupying another body—I seemed to be a rather formless entity.' "
The account by Nan Tignor has better value as evidence, as it is from a named witness.
Below are statements made on page 23 of the periodical here. The author is Sylvan Muldoon, one of the main experts of his time on the topic of out-of-body experiences:
" 'On one occasion at a dentist’s office.' says Arthur J. Wills, Ph.D., C.E., of 224
Herrick Road, Riverside, Illinois, 'the
dentist was drilling in my tooth. Suddenly I found myself outside of myself
looking over the dentist’s shoulder into
my own mouth!'
Mr. M. L. Hymans had just such an
experience, too, but on account of its
similarity, I do not repeat it. Later,
however, he had a second experience
out-of-the-body, at a time when he was
staying at a London hotel. Mr. Hymans
had been suffering with a heart ailment.
He awoke one morning from sleep and
shortly afterward fainted.
'To my great surprise I found myself
high up in the room, from where, to my
terror, I saw my body on the bed, eyes
closed. I tried to re-enter my body, but
without success, and concluded that I was dead. I could
not leave the room, and felt chained to it, immobilized in
the corner where I first found myself. An hour or two later I heard knockings on the door
... I could not respond. A little later the hotel porter
climbed through the fire escape to the balcony. I saw him
enter the room and look anxiously at mv body on the
bed and then at the door. Soon the manager and others
entered and a physician came. I saw him shake his head
when he examined my heart. He introduced a spoon between my lips. I lost consciousness and awoke in bed. The
experience lasted for two hours.' "
Below is part of an 1893 account of a near-death experience, one you can read here. We have the narrative element of something like a mix-up to explain the close brush with death, an element that I seem to recall occurs rather often in Asian or Mideast accounts of near-death experiences.
There was recently published in The Washingtonian a long article on near-death experiences and out-of-body experiences, which you can read here. The article mentions pre-1975 experiences of this type:
"And the phenomenon has a long history. During the first century, Pliny the Elder wrote about a man who’d experienced something that sounds a lot like an NDE. Carl Jung reported having one during a 1944 heart attack, later describing how he’d left his body and observed the world from above. And years after a 1961 NDE during a bout with pneumonia, Elizabeth Taylor told Oprah Winfrey all about it, including a conversation with her deceased husband."
Elizabeth Taylor's account of her experience can be found in the interesting clip below:
The policy of most scientists on so many of these types of mysterious phenomena is shown in the visual below, which illustrates what would have happened to a typical out-of-body experience being reported before 1975.
