In my October 2025 post "Terminal Lucidity Helps to Discredit Claims That Brains Make Minds" (which you can read here) I discussed dramatic cases of terminal lucidity. The term "terminal lucidity" can be defined in two different ways:
(1) a case in which someone who had seemed to largely lose his mental faculties suddenly regains such faculties very near the end of his life, typically on the last day of his life;
(2) a case in which someone with extremely high brain damage retained his mental faculties to the end of his life.
Reports of terminal lucidity appeared as early as 1936, as shown in the 1936 article below (from page 603 of the September 17, 1936 edition of the journal Light).
In my post I discussed the first six of the 13 reports of terminal lucidity I will discuss in this post (some of which involve multiple cases):
(1) On page 603 of the September 17, 1936 edition of the journal Light, which you can read here, we read this: "The Rev. Cruwys Sharland related how a one-time pupil of his, after suffering for many years from disintegration of the brain, when approaching his death, suddenly recovered complete mental control and gave those present a long circumstantial account of a walking tour he had undertaken when quite a boy, in company with Mr. Sharland, then his tutor. Every detail was correct, every fact rightly placed, as Mr. Sharland himself testified. "
(2) On the same page 603 of the September 17, 1936 edition of the journal Light, which you can read here, we read this: "M. G. W. Surya writes of a friend of his who was summoned to the asylum in which his brother had for years been confined with complete softening of the brain. He found his brother perfectly normal and anxious to make certain suggestions to him. He died the same day, and autopsy revealed that the brain had entirely disintegrated.....Similarly, the well-known Berlin anatomist, Benecke, assured his students that Schinkel, the architect, died in possession of all his faculties, in spite of the fact that his cranium was subsequently proved to have been, ' so to speak, empty.' ”
(3) At the bottom of page 79 of the book you can read using the link here, we have an account by a person who says this about her grandmother: "An hour before she passed, this old lady suddenly woke up from the stupor that she had been in for six long years." We then hear an account of the grandmother speaking well, and acting as if she saw apparitions of the dead (a common occurrence for the dying, even those without any brain problems).
(4) On page 410 of the book Irreducible Mind we read this:
"Myers (1892b) had referred to the 'sudden revivals of memory or faculty in dying persons' (p.316)...The eminent physician Benjamin Rush...observed that 'most of mad people discover a greater or less degree of reason in the last days or hours of their lives' (p. 257). Similarly, in his classic study of hallucinations, Brierre de Boismont (1859) noted that 'at the approach of death we observed that ... the intellect, which may have been obscured or extinguished during many years, is again restored in all its integrity' (p. 236). Flournoy (1903, p. 48) mentioned that French psychiatrists had recently published cases of mentally ill persons who showed sudden improvements in their condition shortly before death. In more recent years, Osis (1961) reported two cases, 'one of severe schizophrenia and one of senility, [in which] the patients regained normal mentality shortly before death' (p. 24)."
(5) The paper "End-of-Life Experiences and the Dying Process in a Gloucestershire Nursing Home as Reported by Nurses and Care Assistants" is one that asked questions of workers at Kingsley House, a small facility handling no more than 31 persons at a time, and reporting only about 13 deaths per year. We read of these results, coming from the ten who responded: "7 reported unconscious or confused residents who unexpectedly became lucid enough just before they died to interact with relatives and carers," a phenomena sometimes called 'terminal lucidity.' "
(6) The year 2021 scientific paper "Spontaneous Remission of Dementia Before Death: Results From a Study on Paradoxical Lucidity" discusses many cases of terminal lucidity. We read this:
"The patient was a three-year-old Hispanic female with prolonged medical treatment history for her diagnosis of hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), a complex and often life-threatening medical condition resulting from an uncontrolled and ineffective immune response, leading to extreme inflammation in many organs/tissues. After over a year of intense treatments, she underwent an umbilical cord blood transplant, which is the only known cure for this condition. Unfortunately, the transplant was rejected, and while attempts were made to find another option for a second transplant, she had a re-emergence of her HLH and was admitted to the hospital for chemotherapy and immunotherapy. Despite some initial improvements, she developed progressive organ damage and deterioration over the next several weeks, prompting transfer to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), with worsening liver and pulmonary failure. She became severely jaundiced and encephalopathic, and was no longer speaking, eating, or responding to parents/providers. The ICU physicians were worried that she was an aspiration risk, prompting intensification of Do Not Resuscitate/Do Not Intubate (DNR/DNI) conversations with her parents. As all the known treatments available were exhausted and her condition worsened, the focus shifted to providing palliative care. Although initially resistant, after nearly two weeks of intense conversations with parents (including family members and a Catholic priest) and further deterioration in their daughter’s condition, a DNI and modified DNR status change was agreed. That evening, the patient awoke and asked for her usual comfort items (i.e., Lion King movie, parents, toys) and food. She showed no indication of mental impairment and regained the ability to sit up in bed and participate in coloring and other simple age-appropriate tasks. She spoke using logical, organized full sentences, and had multiple conversations with her parents that evening, which they and the bedside nurse described as 'like a miracle.' During the conversations with her parents, she reviewed all the important people in her life and prayed for them. She indicated awareness of transitioning to death and reassured loved ones of the need not to be concerned about her. She also seemed to be communicating with people who were not visible to others. After several hours, she asked to 'go to bed' and returned to her comatose state. During the next 24-48 hours, she never awoke again, and she ultimately died peacefully of cardiac arrest in her parents’ arms."
(8) In the same paper we read of a Patient Three:
"The patient was a 19-month-old boy who underwent a bone marrow transplant at 16 months of age for ill-defined immune deficiency. He was recovering with typical transplant complications until he developed fevers and progressive neurologic symptoms with loss of ability to communicate, loss of motor function, and loss of cognition.... Prior to the lucid event, he was not responding to healthcare providers and was giving parents only minimal response/eye contact. Three days prior to his death, he became much more alert and interactive, in stark contrast to his steady decline of the prior three months, which was preceded by his parents having decided they would not proceed with further life-saving medical interventions (i.e., surgeries, intubation, etc.). He was noted to be able to move, talk, eat, and communicate for 24-48 hours prior to a rapid decline and death. On the night before his death, he communicated with his parents that he 'was ready to go home' and that 'he and parents would be OK' using verbal and sign language. He talked about joining his brother who was a still-birth, and he told his parents he was going to be fine. Subsequently, he returned to severe mental impairment and died within 24 hours."
A new paper was recently published providing some additional examples of terminal lucidity. The paper (which you can read here) is entitled "Terminal Lucidity in Children: A Contemporary Case Collection." The paper's cases include these cases:
(9) Case #2 of the paper was a 9-year-old male who had suffered from leukemia for 1-2 years, which had resulted in "severe" mental impairment (apparently much worse than the "mild" mental impairment reported for Case #1). In his last 1 or 2 hours, he experienced a big change from his long previous state of being semicomatose, nonresponsive and mumbling. He "regained awareness of surroundings," "regained ability to speak with others in logical, organized sentences," had "awareness of impending death, but no fear," and "reassured loved ones and said “ 'goodbye.' " His mental impairment suddenly improved from "severe" to "none," He also acted as if interacting with deceased loved ones not visible to others. This lasted between 10 to 59 minutes, and within 2 hours of the start of such lucidity, he was dead.
(10) Case #3 of the paper was a 7-year-old female who had suffered from leukemia. In her last hour or two her mental impairment improved from "severe" to "none." Shaking off a semicomatose state, she "regained awareness of surroundings," "regained ability to recognize and interact with others," "regained ability to speak in logical, organized, complete sentences," and had "awareness of impending death." She also acted as if interacting with deceased loved ones not visible to others. This lasted between 10 to 59 minutes, and within an hours of the start of such lucidity, she was dead.
(11) Case #6 of the paper was a 16-year-old male suffering from chronic kidney failure, and also very bad seizures. In the 2-5 days before death his mental impairment went from "severe" to "none." He "regained awareness of surroundings," "recognized and interacted with others," "seemed to have a sense of peace and acceptance of his situation," "demonstrated greater clarity" and acted as if he had "met deceased others." We read this: "One week after going into the coma, he returned to a waking state and appeared to have full consciousness. My parents and the medical staff were completely taken aback by his clarity."
(12) Case #7 of the paper was a male child suffering from chronic kidney failure. At some point in the hour before death (for about an hour) his mental impairment went from "severe" to "none." He "regained awareness of surroundings," "recognized and interacted with others," "regained ability to understand spoken language," and acted as if he had "communicated with deceased others."
(13) In the paper here, we read of a case of terminal lucidity:
"The person had a diagnosis of mixed Alzheimer’s disease and Cerebrovascular Accident with severe cognitive impairment. The lucidity episode was observed by the therapist and family and lasted 1–3 minutes. The person was reported to have been noncommunicative with restricted or no speech and could not convey her needs. Her limited verbal responses were completely off-point. During a visit by family, the person was suddenly able to communicate and respond appropriately. She talked about significant people, places, and life events that family remembered, both positive and negative. There was an increase in clarity of thought and the person suddenly remembered how to play an instrument. The person died one week later."
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The paper here studied 92 patients with severe dementia and difficulties with verbal communication, and found that 57% of them displayed "episodes of lucidity" or EL.
A phenomenon related to terminal lucidity is the phenomenon of deathbed visions, often involving someone on his deathbed claiming to see an apparition or vision of a deceased person, or such a person experiencing a vision of some otherworldly realm or landscape. The recent paper on terminal lucidity notes a high overlap between terminal lucidity and deathbed visions. It states this:
"An intriguing feature that many children reported, which is also consistent with descriptions of lucidity in adult samples, is the presence of and communicating with nonvisible entities, a phenomenon known as deathbed visions (Barbato, 2024; Claxton-Oldfield, 2024; Fenwick & Fenwick, 2008; Fountain & Kellehear, 2012; Houran & Lange, 1997). Ten of our child cases appeared to experience deathbed visions as part of their TL [terminal lucidity] episode, suggesting a synchronous relationship between these phenomena."
The following account of a deathbed vision was published in 1921:
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