Near-Death Experience
Definition
The bridge-science articulation of the consciousness-experiences reported by individuals who have approached or experienced clinical-death and subsequently returned. Near-Death Experience names the structural-feature documented across many specific reports including out-of-body articulation, life-review, encounter with luminous-presences, and the broader consciousness-articulations beyond the body's structural-features.
Literal meaning
The consciousness-experiences during clinical-death-or-near-death events. The Near-Death Experience documentation has been compiled across decades of contemporary research, with consistent structural-features reported across many specific cultural-contexts.
Esoteric meaning
Near-Death Experience articulates the structural-feature that the broader contemplative-tradition has recognized as *the threshold-passage articulation*. The structural-recognition is that consciousness operates at scales beyond the body's structural-features; the body's clinical-death does not extinguish consciousness, the consciousness articulates through structurally-distinct features during the threshold-passage. The broader-tradition's articulation of *What Happens Between Lifetimes* operates through Near-Death Experience documentation at the bridge-science articulation.
Allegorical meaning
A traveler who has approached the boundary of an unfamiliar-land, perceived structural-features of that land, and then returned with reports of what was perceived: the reports are not full-articulation of the land but provide structural-features that the broader-articulation can integrate; the Near-Death Experience reports operate similarly for the broader threshold-passage articulation.
Extended meaning
Near-Death Experience articulates several specific structural-features: (1) Out-of-body articulation: many reports include consciousness operating from position-distinct from the body's location; (2) Life-review: many reports include comprehensive-review of life-events from broader perspective; (3) Encounter with luminous-presences: many reports include encounter with structurally-distinct consciousness-presences (often interpreted as deceased-relatives, guides, or broader spiritual-figures); (4) Tunnel and light-articulation: many reports include passage through tunnel-articulation toward luminous-presence; (5) Return to body: the reports include return to body's articulation, often with continuing-effects on the practitioner's broader-life-arc. The relationship to *What Happens Between Lifetimes*, *Threshold Period*, *Embracing Death*, *Cosmic Consciousness*, and the broader consciousness articulations is structural.
*Near-Death Experience* articulates the bridge-science threshold-passage research. The article complements *What Happens Between Lifetimes*, *Threshold Period*, *Embracing Death*, *Cosmic Consciousness*, and the broader consciousness articulations.
Usage
A practitioner encounters Near-Death Experience in the broader articulation of bridge-science and in specific contexts of threshold-passage research.
Comparative tradition
Tibetan articulation of *bardo*-states. Christian articulation of mystical-vision-experiences. The various tradition-specific articulations of threshold-passage consciousness.
Science correspondence
Pim van Lommel's *Consciousness Beyond Life* (2010). Bruce Greyson's research at the University of Virginia. The International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS). The broader contemporary research at the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia.