Historical Near-Death Experiences
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Thespesius of Soli
Being(s) of Light, Following Path, Fragrance/Smell, Near Death Experience, Negative/Hellish NDE, OBE (Out-of-Body Experience), Transformative ExperienceDate: During or before 1st century A.D. Location: Soli—Modern day Mezitli, Turkey. Then I spoke as follows:—The Solian, Thespesius, an associate and friend of that Protogenes who was here with us, having led a very dissipated life in his youth, and in a short time squandering his property, for a while on account of his impoverished condition…
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Er of Pamphylia
Being(s) of Light, Bliss, Following Path, Impasse, Ineffability, Life Review, Music, Near Death Experience, OBE (Out-of-Body Experience)Date: Prior to 375 BCE.Location: Pamphylia (Modern-day Southern Turkey) Well, I said, I will tell you a tale; not one of the tales which Odysseus tells to the hero Alcinous, yet this too is a tale of a hero, Er the son of Armenius, a Pamphylian by birth. He was slain in battle, and ten…
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Vision of St. Peter (St. Peter’s Apocalypse)
Date: Circa, 2nd Century A.D. Location: Undetermined, possibly Egypt or Palestine. And my Lord Jesus Christ our king said to me, “Let us go to the holy mountain.” And his disciples went with him praying. There were two men there, and we could not look on their faces, for a light came from them shining…
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Vision of Salvius (6th Century Monk)
Bliss, Contradictory Experience, Home, Impasse, Ineffability, Near Death Experience, OBE (Out-of-Body Experience), Transformative ExperienceDate: September 10th, 584 A.D. Location: Modern-day France. Although I am fain to continue this History from the point reached in the foregoing books, a feeling of veneration bids me first say somewhat on the death of the holy Salvius, who died, as is well known, in this year. As he himself used to relate,…
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Peter the Monk (via Gregory the Great)
Being(s) of Light, Fragments, Impasse, Near Death Experience, Negative/Hellish NDE, Religious Text, Transformative ExperienceDate: Prior to 590 A.D. Location: Perhaps Spain? A certain Slav was a monk and lived with me here in this city in my monastery. He used to tell me that when he lived in the wilderness he knew a monk named Peter, who was born in Spain. He lived with him in the vast…
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Stephen (via Gregory the Great)
Date: Prior to 590 A.D. Location: Constantinople, modern day Istanbul, Turkey. Continued from Peter the Monk But because the human heart is worse than obdurate and hard, it happens that though others have the same vision and see the same punishments, they do not always reap the same profit. The honerable man Stephen, whom you…
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The Soldier (via Gregory the Great)
Being(s) of Light, Dead Acquaintances, Fragrance/Smell, Impasse, Near Death Experience, OBE (Out-of-Body Experience), Religious TextDate: Prior to 590 A.D. Location: Undetermined. Most likely in the Middle East. Continued from Stephen At that time a certain soldier was also brought to the point of death. In a similar way his soul was carried out of his body, so that he lay void of any sense of feeling. But he quickly…
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The Vision of Drythelm
Being(s) of Light, Bliss, Contradictory Experience, Following Path, Fragrance/Smell, Home, Impasse, Ineffability, Music, Near Death Experience, Negative/Hellish NDE, Religious Text, Transformative ExperienceDate: Circa 696 – 699 A.D. Location: Cunningham, Northumbria (Modern day Northern England and Sourthern Scotland) About this time, a noteworthy miracle, like those of olden days, occurred in Britian. For, in order to arouse the living from spiritual death, a man already dead returned to bodily life and related many noteable things that he…
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Tortgyth’s Vision
Date: Prior to 731 A.D. Location: England, perhaps near Barking. When Ethelburga, the devout Mother of this God-fearing Community, was herself about to be taken out of this world, one of the sisters whose name was Tortgyth saw a wonderful vision. This nun had lived many years in the convent, humbly and sincerly striving to…
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Vision of Tundale
Being(s) of Light, Bliss, Following Path, Fragrance/Smell, Ineffability, Near Death Experience, Negative/Hellish NDE, OBE (Out-of-Body Experience), Religious Text, Transformative ExperienceDate: Circa, 1149. Location: Cork, Ireland. As many inhabitants of the city of Cork, who were present then, may testify, he lay dead for three days and three nights; and later he spoke bitterly of all that he suffered during this period because of his previous easy carelessness, as his present life bore witness. For…
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Monk of Evesham’s Vision
Being(s) of Light, Bliss, Dead Acquaintances, Following Path, Fragrance/Smell, Impasse, Ineffability, Music, Near Death Experience, Negative/Hellish NDE, OBE (Out-of-Body Experience), Religious Text, Transformative ExperienceDate: Circa, 1196. Location: Evesham Abbey, Worcestershire England In those days a monk belonging to the convent of Evesham fell ill, and for fifteen months he was terribly afflicted with bodily pain. Food and drink made him so nauseous that sometimes he would take nothing but the smallest drop of cold water for nine days…
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Mrs. Goffe
Date: June 3rd, 1691 Location: Rochester, England The case of Mrs. Goffe is also of remote date, 1691, but it taken from a contemporary report made by the Rev. T. Tilson in a letter he addressed to the famous divine, Richard Baxter, who published it in a book he wrote. The case is given in…
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Thomas Say
Being(s) of Light, Bliss, Dead Acquaintances, Expanded Perception (Field of View), Impasse, Impossible Knowledge, Music, Near Death Experience, OBE (Out-of-Body Experience), Transformative ExperienceDate: Circa, 1725. Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Vision During A State of Coma This case has a resemblance to this vision of Dr. Wiltse, in Proceedings, Vol. VIII. p. 180 (quoted in Human Personality, Vol. II. p. 315), and is still more interesting in that, if the statements given are to be implicitly trusted, the patient…
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Johann Schwerzeger
Date: 1733Location: Undetermined. UK? In the year 1733 Johann Schwerzeger fell into a state of trance, after an illness, but revived. He said he had seen his whole life, and every sin he had committed, even those he had quite forgotten—everything had been as present to him as when it had happened. He also lamented…
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Mrs. Birbeck of Cockermouth
Date: 1739 Location: Cockermouth, UK. In 1739 Mrs. Birbeck, the wife of William Birbeck, banker, of Settle, and a member of the Society of Friends, was taken ill and died at Cockermouth, while returning from a journey to Scotland, which she had undertaken alone—her husband and three children, aged seven, five, and four years respectively,…
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Old Man Westburn
Date: Circa 1757-1758 Location: Undetermined (Most likely near Edinburgh) Sir Bernard Burke, in his book entitled Family Romance, thus describes the dream and death of Westburn, about 1757 or 1758. Westburn, who was an elderly man, and not in very strong health, was in the habit of reposing during an hour after dinner, and his…
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Admiral Francis Beaufort
Bliss, Contradictory Experience, Ineffability, Life Review, Near Death Experience, Paradoxical Lucidity, Transformative ExperienceDate: Circa. 1825Location: Portsmouth Harbour, England The following letter, addressed by Admiral Beaufort to Dr. W. H. Wollaston, giving an account of the feelings of the former when apparently on the very point of death from drowning, was originally published in the Life of the late Sir John Barrow. It will well repay perusal: The…
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Meanwhile in India
Date: Circa. 1830 – 1840. Location: United Kingdom, India The following incident was sent to the “Spectator” by “H. Wedgwood” in 1882. He says: Between forty and fifty years ago a young girl, a near connexion of mine, was dying of consumption. She had lain for some days in a prostrate condition taking no notice…
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Margaret Hangley
Date: September 20, 1849 Location: Bangor, Maine. The following communication refer to a palpable case of spiritual transit to the other world, and the prophetic announcements are among the facts which forever remain to puzzle and rebuke the skepticism of unbelieving men. [Ed.] To Editor of the Telegraph: Dear Sir: During the summer of 1849,…
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Dr. Passavant’s Account of a Peasant Boy
Bliss, Dead Acquaintances, Impasse, Near Death Experience, Paradoxical Lucidity, Transformative ExperienceDate: Undetermined (Probably mid-19th Century [~1850])Location: Undetermined (Probably in Pennsylvania, US) Dr. Passavant relates the case of a peasant boy, who after a short but painful illness, apparently died, his body being perfectly stiff. He, however, revived, complaining bitterly of being called back to life. He said he had been in a delightful place, and…
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Edward Young
Being(s) of Light, Bliss, Contradictory Experience, Dead Acquaintances, Near Death Experience, OBE (Out-of-Body Experience)Date: Prior to Dec. 25, 1852 Location: USA? My Dear Friends:— In accordance with my promise to you, the other evening, I now proceed to give you an account of my, while laying on the bed of death. I felt an internal consciousness, from my first being taken sick, that that was my last sickness:…
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