Near-Death High-Speed Life Reviews From Before 1950

In accounts of near-death experiences we tend to hear the same narrative motifs repeated over and over. One very common motif is a report of the observer separating from his body.

Another common motif of near-death experiences is an account of being propelled through some mysterious tunnel, towards some mysterious light or mystical destination.

 

Another common characteristic of near-death experiences are so-called life review events in which someone may recall the events of life in very rapid succession and great vividness.  Researchers of such experiences claim that about 20% of those having near-death experiences have such a life review. At the 26:56 mark in the video below, we hear a woman recall having such an experience while being trapped underneath the water while rafting in rapids. She says this: "And then I was taken through a life review that was like nothing I personally could have imagined." We then hear another person saying this:

"One collection of phenomena are changes in your thought processes. Your thoughts seem to be going faster than usual, they're clearer than usual, they're more vivid than usual. You may have a complete review of your entire life. And this is happening again in the context of likely brain damage, or at least severely restricted oxygen to the brain, when you would not expect much of an experience at all, let alone hyper-acute senses and rapid clear thinking."

We also have at the 30:20 mark in the video a woman describing a life-review during a near-death experience. At the 32:11 mark the woman having the river accident says that in her life review, "I could experience thousands of things all at the same moment of time, but I was experiencing each of them independently."  

Claims that such life-review events occur in near-death experiences go back more than a hundred years before Raymond Moody's 1975 book Life After Life.  For example, on page 267 of the June 4, 1875 edition of The Spiritualist, we have a first-hand account of such an experience, told by the distinguished scholar William Stainton Moses. He states this, describing a life-review during a near-drowning during a sporting event:

"It never occurred to anybody, I suppose, that a man who could venture in a little cockleshell such as I was sculling, was unable to swim ; and so no particular effort was made to rescue me. I went down dazed and confused with the upset, and the shouts and objurgations of the crowd. I remember the shout of the coxswain, more forcible than polite, and then I floundered about until I suppose I became unconscious. At any rate a strange peacefulness took the place of my previous feeling. I recognised fully that I was drowning, but no sort of fear was present to my mind. I did not even regret the fact. By degrees, as it seemed—though the process must have been instantaneous—I recollected my life. The link was—well, I am drowning, and this life is done with. It has not been a very long one. . . . And so the events of it came before my mind, and seemed to shape themselves in outline and move before me. It was not that I thought, but that objective pictures of events seemed to float before me, a moving tableau, as though depicted on the mass of water that weighed upon my eyes. I seemed to see the tableau, but not with the eye of sense: with that mysterious inner vision with which I have since discerned spiritual things. The silky, velvety appearance of the tableau, which seemed as I say to float before me, was very prominently impressed upon me. The events were all scenes in which I had been an actor, and no very trivial or unimportant ones were depicted, though they were not all serious, some indeed laughable enough. Nor was my frame of mind particularly solemn. I was an interested spectator ; little more. One incident of which I had no previous knowledge was recalled to my mind on that occasion, and has never again left it. My memory of it is now as clear as of other things. The next thing I remember was the interruption of this peaceful state by a series of most unpleasant sensations which were attendant on resuscitation."

In the same 1875 publication on page 268 we read, "Mr. Serjeant Cox said that several persons, on being resuscitated from hanging, had spoken of the memory of their lives having passed before them at the moment of suffocation." Similarly, on page 292 of the June 18, 1875 edition of The Spiritualist we have a similar account:

"Mr. Jencken said that six years ago he was attacked by a mob in Spain, and practically speaking he died four times that night, for he swooned away and came to again four times. The whole of his life passed before him like a panorama ; he thus read off a part of his life, then became conscious again of the onslaughts of the mob. A gun was fired at him, the mob disappeared to his consciousness, and again the vision of his past life returned, taking up the thread of events where it had left off. This occurred four times, each successive reverie beginning where the other had finished." 

Similarly, on page 410 of the 1876 book The Marvellous Country by Samuel Woodworth Cozzens, we have an account of a life review during a terrifying fall that almost killed the author:

"All this time I was acquiring greater momentum, until it seemed as though I was fairly flying into the very arms of the horrible death which stood staring me so steadily in the face. Not a bush or shrub could I see growing upon the precipitous sides; there was nothing, absolutely nothing, for me to cling to, and the stones and earth which I disturbed in my descent were falling in a shower around me.

Convinced that death was inevitable, I became perfectly reconciled to the thought. My mind comprehended in a moment the acts of a life-time. Transactions of the most trivial character, circumstances the remembrance of which had been buried deep in memory’s vault for years, stood before me in bold relief; my mind recalled with the rapidity of lightning, and yet retained a distinct impression of every thought.

I seemed to be gliding swiftly and surely out of the world, but felt no fear, experienced no regret at the thought; on the contrary, rejoiced that I was so soon to see with my own eyes the great mystery concealed behind the veil; that I was to cross the deep waters and be at rest.

I thought I heard the sound of many voices, in wonderful harmony, coming from the far-off distance, though from what direction I could not tell.

My momentum had become so great that I seemed to experience much difficulty in breathing; and I remember that I was trying to explain to my own satisfaction why this should be so, when the heel of my right boot struck the corner of a small stone that chanced to be firmly imbedded in the earth and therefore offered so much resistance to my descent, that upon striking it I was thrown forward upon my face. This stone without doubt saved my life."

The book has this illustration to depict the situation:

In 1892 Albert Heim produced a paper in German entitled "Notizen über den Tod durch Absturz," which can be translated as "The Experience of Dying from Falls" or "Notes About Death from Falling."  The original German text of the paper can be read here. Below is a translation I got using Google Translate. First Heim notes how he got his accounts of people who had close brushes with death after falling:

"In mountaineering and other literature we come across relevant stories here and there, although rarely. In the Hamburg Laza-rethen in the war year 1870, as well as on various later occasions, I interviewed war wounded. Several doctors who had a lot of contact with victims were able to tell me about their statements. I researched several bricklayers and roofers who had fallen from scaffolding and roofs, half-injured workers in mines, on railway lines, etc. A large number ...who fell without losing their lives were able to give me precise information. Those who were thrown away by the air strike during the Elm landslide and became unconscious told me their experiences. I also received detailed reports from some club members who had crashed and were rescued, from three fellow professionals, etc. A fisherman who had been swept deep under water when the Zug bank collapsed told me his experiences. We have some good accounts of the Mönchenstein railway accident from those who narrowly escaped with their lives, e.g. from a locomotive driver, from some passengers, etc. etc. But what has caused me not to miss an opportunity to write such notes for more than 25 years collect, were my own experiences." 

Then Heim notes a remarkable similarity in the accounts:

"For the vast majority of those who have had an accident - probably 95% - regardless of their level of education, the symptoms are exactly the same, only experienced slightly differently in degree. In the face of death due to a sudden accident, almost everyone experiences the same mental state - a completely different state than in the face of a less sudden cause of death. It can be briefly characterized as follows:

No pain is felt, nor is there any paralyzing shock that can occur in the event of minor danger (fire outbreak, etc.). No fear, no trace of despair, no pain, rather calm seriousness, deep resignation, commanding spiritual security and speed. The activity of thought is enormous, increased to a hundredfold speed or intensity, the conditions and the eventualities of the outcome are objectively clearly seen far away, no confusion occurs. The time seems very extended. You act quickly and think carefully. In many cases this is followed by a sudden look back into one's entire past. Finally, the faller often hears beautiful music and then falls into a wonderful blue sky with little rose-colored clouds. Then consciousness disappears painlessly - usually at the moment of awakening, which is only heard and never painfully felt. Of the senses, hearing is probably the last to disappear."

Heim discusses a strange increase in the speed of thought:

"Anxiety paralysis does not occur, thought activity appears to be enormously increased, and time is lengthened in the same proportion. The judgment remains clearly objective, and as far as the external circumstances allow it, the person who falls remains able to act at lightning speed."

Heim quotes a first-hand account by one person who nearly died in a terrifying fall:

"Meanwhile, a whole flood of thoughts had time to move through the brain in a clear way: The next blow will bring you a grim death, it was said. A series of pictures showed me in quick succession all the beauty and love that I had experienced in this world, and in between them the sermon that I had heard from Mr. Obersthelfer that morning sounded like a powerful melody: God is almighty, heaven and earth rest his hand; We must remain silent about his will. Infinite calm came over me at this thought, in the midst of all the terrible turmoil. The car was thrown up twice more; then the front part suddenly drove vertically down into the Birs, and the rear part with me was thrown sideways over the embankment down into the Birs. The wagon was shattered."

Heim gives this first-hand account of a fall he experienced, noting that his thought seemed greatly speeded-up:

"Then I saw, as if on a stage from a distance, my entire past life played out in numerous images. I saw myself as the main character playing. Everything was as if transfigured of a heavenly light and everything was beautiful and without pain, without fear, without torment. The memory of very sad experiences was also clear, but still not sad. No fighting or strife, the fight had also become love. Sublime and reconciling thoughts dominated and connected the individual images, and a divine calm passed through my soul like wonderful music. More and more a wonderfully blue sky surrounded me with little rosy and especially delicate violet clouds - I floated out into it without any pain and gently, while I saw that I was now flying freely through the air and that there was still a field of snow below me. Objective observation, thinking and subjective feeling occurred simultaneously side by side. Then I heard my thud and my fall was over."

Mentions of accounts such as these occur in published literature as early as 1847. Below is a quote from page 71 of the 1847 book "The Unseen World" by John Mason Neale:

"The nearest approach that man has ever made to the invisible world is probably in those persons who, having been to all appearance drowned, have been recovered on the use of the proper means. And what is singular is this ; by all accounts, after the first short struggle is over, there is perfect consciousness, but no pain. It is said that every action of past life is borne in upon a drowning man's mind with perfect clearness ; all rush on his memory together, yet each distinctly ; and if there be any suffering, it is entirely the moral pain which may result from that retrospect ; for there is no physical anguish. On the contrary, the prevailing sensation is an indescribable calm, accompanied by a pleasant green light, they say, like green fields : the agony begins with the attempt at resuscitation. It is believed that a gentleman, who occupies a distinguished place in scientific literature, and who is said to have been longer under water than any one who has ever been brought back to life, also, in a more remarkable degree than any one else, saw something of those 'unspeakable things which it is not lawful for a man to utter.' ''

This post is one of eight posts in which I have documented accounts of near-death experiences dating from before 1975. You can read the other posts here. 

In the video at the top of this post, we have a remarkable example of what is called a veridical near-death experience. At the 22:09 mark a doctor recalls his "first day as a doctor" on a long shift at a hospital. A second-year resident promised the doctor that he would be with the doctor throughout his long shift. Soon a patient went into cardiac arrest, and the doctor was able to prevent him from dying (the second-year resident being absent). The doctor recalls talking with the patient's wife using rather gloomy language, and eating the patient's lunch (which the patient was too sick to eat). Days later the patient spoke to the doctor, and recalls floating out of his body during his cardiac arrest. The patient scolded the doctor for eating his lunch, and talking to his wife using such gloomy language. The doctor is stunned to hear the patient claim that at the time of his resuscitation from cardiac arrest, the doctor was feeling sorry for himself because the second-year resident did not stay with him as he promised. This was a rather embarrassing thought that the doctor had kept to himself, and had expressed to no one. 

We have here a good example of what is called a veridical out-of-body experience, in which a subject recalls making observations while out of his body which should have been impossible for him to make, given his medical situation at the time. See my post here for many similar cases. The video at the top of the post at the 22:00 mark has a very remarkable account of a veridical out-of-body experience, in which a doctor reports someone reading his mind during an out-of-body experience. 

Four Near-Death Experiences of the Nineteenth Century

Ever since Raymond Moody's best-selling 1975 book Life after Life, the common characteristics of a near-death experience have been well-known. A particular near-death experience may have between 1 or more of these characteristics. The characteristics include:

• a sensation of floating out of the body, which may include seeming to view the body from above;
• feelings of peace, joy or tranquility;
• a life-review in which previous life events are reviewed or relived in some sped-up manner;
• a passage through a tunnel;
• an encounter with a very bright light or a “being of light” or a light that is somehow sensed to be numinous or a source of thought or feeling;
• an experience of seeing some heavenly or supernatural realm;
• an experience of seeming to see one or more deceased relatives;
• an experience of being told that you must “go back” and continue to live your regular life;
• an experience of having heightened consciousness, mentality or perception.

Could it be that such experiences are just a kind of modern myth that arose about 45 years ago, and that people continue to have such experiences because they are kind of “following a cultural script”? One way to test that idea is to see whether there are any accounts of such experiences very long before the publication of Life After Life.

As it happens, a few nineteenth century books contain accounts that have some of the characteristics listed above. One such book is the 1873 book Biography of Mrs J.H. Conant the World's Medium of the Nineteenth Century by Allen Putnam. The book can be read in full here. On page 36 of the book we are told Mrs. Conant received a bad overdose that caused a doctor to declare that “she must die.” Mrs. Conant then fell into a “deathly stupor.” She then experienced a near-death experience described below:

“Nature rallied, and she rapidly recovered. When she regained full consciousness, she remembered that she seemed to have been in some beautiful place, she thought was heaven. Here she met the mother who left her in earlier years, and when she wept and begged to be allowed to stay with her, her parent gently but firmly told her that she must return to earth life — that she had yet a mission to perform — and her poor tempest-tossed bark was again obliged to put to sea from out the haven of peace where it hoped to rest; but blessed were the assurances she received, that in due time she should again and finally cast anchor amid the golden sand that sparkles in the river of Paradise.”

So we have in this 1873 account three of the common characteristics of a near-death experience: a trip to a heaven-like place, a meeting with a dead relative, and a communication that the person must return to earthly life because the time was not right.

Another account of a near-death experience can be found in

the 1847 book "Autobiographical memoir of Sir John Barrow, Bart., late of the admirality." On page 398 of that book we have (from a letter by Beaufort) an account of an Admiral Beaufort who almost drowned at sea. The account is repeated on pages 176 to 179 of the 1863 book  From Matter to Spirit: The Result of Ten Years of Experience in Spirit Manifestations, Intended as a Guide to Enquirers by Sophia Elizabeth de Morgan and Augustus de Morgan, as you can see by using this link (and also reported in an 1886 book you can read here).  Beaufort states the following (I quote from the 1847 book):

"Many years ago, when I was a youngster on board one of his Majesty’s ships, in Portsmouth harbour, after sculling about in a very small boat, I was endeavouring to fasten her alongside the ship to one of the scuttlerings; in foolish eagerness I stepped upon the gunwale, the boat of course upset, and I fell into the water, and not knowing how to swim, all my efforts to lay hold either of the boat or of the floating sculls were fruitless....

With the violent but vain attempts to make myself heard I had swallowed much water; I was soon exhausted by my struggles, and before any relief reached me I had sunk below the surface—all hope had fled-— all exertion ceased—and I felt that I was drowning.

So far, these facts were either partially remembered after my recovery or supplied by those who had latterly witnessed the scene; for during an interval of such agitation a drowning person is too much occupied in catching at every passing straw, or too much absorbed by alternate hope and despair, to mark the succession of events very accurately. Not so, however, with the facts which immediately ensued; my mind had then undergone the sudden revolution which appeared to you so remarkable—and all the circumstances of which are now as vividly fresh in my memory as if they had occurred but yesterday.

From the moment that all exertion had ceased— which I imagine was the immediate consequence of complete suffocation—a calm feeling of the most perfect tranquillity superseded the previous tumultuous sensations—it might be called apathy, certainly not resignation, for drowning no longer appeared to be an evil—I no longer thought of being rescued, nor was I in any bodily pain. On the contrary, my sensations were now of rather a pleasurable cast, partaking of that dull but contented sort of feeling which precedes the sleep produced by fatigue. Though the senses were thus deadened, not so the mind; its activity seemed to be invigorated, in a ratio which defies all description—for thought rose after thought with a rapidity of succession that is not only indescribable, but probably inconceivable, by any one who has not himself been in a similar situation. The course of those thoughts I can even now in a great measure retrace—the event which had just taken place—the awkwardness that had produced it—the bustle it must have occasioned (for I had observed two persons jump from the chains)—the effect it would have on a most affectionate father—the manner in which he would disclose it to the rest of the family —and a thousand other circumstances minutely associated with home, were the first series of reflections that occurred. They took then a wider range—our last cruise—a former voyage, and shipwreck —my school—the progress I had made there, and the time I had misspent—and even all my boyish pursuits and adventures. Thus travelling backwards, every past incident of my life seemed to glance across my recollection in retrograde succession; not, however, in mere outline, as here stated, but the picture filled up with every minute and collateral feature; in short, the whole period of my existence seemed to be placed before me in a kind of panoramic review, and each act of it seemed to be accompanied by a consciousness of right or wrong, or by some reflection on its cause or its consequences ; indeed, many trifling events which had been long forgotten then crowded into my imagination, and with the character of recent familiarity.

May not all this be some indication of the almost infinite power of memory with which we may awaken in another world, and thus be compelled to contemplate our past lives? Or might it not in some degree warrant the inference that death is only a change or modification of our existence, in which there is no real pause or interruption? But, however that may be, one circumstance was highly remarkable ; that the innumerable ideas which flashed into my mind were all retrospective-—yet I had been religiously brought up—my hopes and fears of the next world had lost nothing of their early strength, and at any other period intense interest and awful anxiety would have been excited by the mere probability that I was floating on the threshold of eternity: yet at that inexplicable moment, when I had a full conviction that I had already crossed that. threshold, not a single thought wandered into the future—I was wrapt entirely in the past.

The length of time that was occupied by this deluge of ideas, or rather the shortness of time into which they were condensed, I cannot now state with precision, yet certainly two minutes could not have elapsed from the moment of suffocation to that of my being hauled up.

The strength of the flood tide made it expedient to pull the boat at once to another ship, where I underwent the usual vulgar process of emptying the water by letting my head hang downwards, then bleeding, chafing, and even administering gin; but my submersion had been really so brief, that, according to the account of the lookers on, I was very quickly restored to animation.

 My feelings while life was returning were the reverse in every point of those which have been described above. One single but confused idea—a miserable belief that I was drowning —dwelt upon my mind, instead of the multitude of clear and definite ideas which had recently rushed through it—a helpless anxiety—a kind of continuous nightmare seemed to press heavily on every sense, and to prevent the formation of any one distinct thought—and it was with difficulty that I became convinced that I was really alive. Again, instead of being absolutely free from all bodily pain, as in my drowning state, I was now tortured by pain all over me; and though I have been since wounded in several places, and have often submitted to severe surgical discipline, yet my sufferings were at that time far greater; at least, in general distress."

This astonishing account matches closely the “life review” accounts told in modern near-death experiences. There is also a very strong element of heightened mentality, heightened memory and heightened consciousness that matches accounts of heightened mentality often told in near-death experiences. Similarly, in 1892 Albert Heim described what it felt like to fall from a high height while mountain climbing.  His account included a feeling of tranquility and a life review:

"Then I saw my whole past life take place in many images, as though on a stage at some distance from me. I saw myself as the chief character in the performance. Everything was transfigured as though by a heavenly light and everything was beautiful without grief, without anxiety and without pain. The memory of very tragic experiences I had had was clear but not saddening. I felt no conflict or strife; conflict had been transmuted into love. Elevated and harmonious thoughts dominated and united the individual images, and like magnificent music a divine calm swept through my soul. I became ever more surrounded by a splendid blue heaven with delicate roseate and violet cloudlets. I swept into it painlessly and softly and I saw that now I was falling freely through the air and that under me a snowfield lay waiting. Objective observations, thoughts, and subjective feelings were simultaneous. Then I heard a dull thud and my fall was over."

According to this book (page 108), Heim later published a book about the experiences of other people who had survived falls from heights. He said that almost 95% of such people reported a common set of characteristics. There was:

"rather calm seriousness, profound acceptance, and a dominant mental quickness and sense of surety. Mental activity became enormous, rising to a hundredfold velocity or intensity....Time became greatly expanded....In many cases there followed a sudden review of the individual's entire past."

Another nineteenth century near-death experience can be found in the 1897 book Mediumistic Experiences of John Brown, the Medium of the Rockies by John Brown, which you can read here.  In Chapter VI (page 87-89) Brown reports of an experience he had near death, when he could no longer see, could no longer speak, and no longer use his limbs, at a time when he was convinced he was dying. Brown states the following:

"In a few moments, my head fell to one side, my heart having ceased to vibrate; then the whole involuntary machinery made one last effort for breath, but in vain. In a moment my entire nervous system gave one shake and all was still; all was quiet. I heard the doctors say, “that is the last; he will not move again; he is dead.” Yes, I heard all, but I did not see with my eyes. At this time it seemed to me, that I was moving slowly through a warm atmosphere; and in the distance I began to perceive a lighter or whiter spot in the darkness. As this light gradually increased in size, it came nearer to me, till finally it filled the room, and all outside. It was not like the light of our sun—it was more white, more still. It appeared to carry with it a life principle. At this moment I found myself lying horizontally above my body and about two feet from it. With no effort on my part I moved off from over my body and stood upon my feet, about five feet from it. I knew that I had left my body. I could see it on the bed..."

Here we have two of the characteristics of near death experiences: a report of floating out of the body and observing your own body from above; and a report of a mysterious bright light that has numinous characteristics.

It is rather clear from these three accounts that the typical near-death experience described by Moody is not at all some cultural creation of recent decades, but is instead something matching experiences people had more than a century before Moody's book was written. Collectively these accounts have every one of the main characteristics of a near-death experience except for the “traveling through a tunnel” characteristic that only occurs in a minority of such experiences. I may note that each of the books I have cited are little-known books of very low readership, and their accounts have been almost never reported. We cannot at all suppose that accounts in recent decades were derived from these nineteenth century accounts that were so little known.  

Postscript: On page 16 of the 1887 book here, we have two accounts of near-death experiences:

"1.A sailor who had been snatched from the waves, after lying for some time insensible on the deck of the vessel, proclaimed on his recovery that he had been in Heaven, and complained bitterly of his being restored to life as a great hardship. The man had been regarded as a worthless fellow; but from the time of the accident having occurred, his moral character was altered, and he became one of the best conducted sailors in the ship" (The Works of Sir Benjamin Brodie, vol. i. p. 184.)

2.  I was once told by a near relative of mine — says De Quincey — that having in her childhood fallen into a river, and being on the very verge of death but for the assistance which reached her at the last critical moment, she saw in a moment her whole life, clothed in its forgotten incidents, arrayed before her as in a mirror, not successively, but simultaneously ; and she had a faculty developed as suddenly for comprehending the whole and every part. The heroine of this remarkable case, continues De Quincey, was a gid about nine years old, and there can be little doubt that she looked down as far within the crater of death — that awful volcano — as any human being ever can have done that has lived to draw back and to report her experience."