“All my life i was in fear and terror of eternal torment…
This web site has set me free.”
–An anonymous reader
About the Website
Even after almost fifty years of talk about near-death experience (NDE), most people attend only to the emotionally pleasant ones. A continuing stigma diverts attention from those that are difficult, terrifying, unpretty. It is common to devalue a distressing experience, to think it doesn’t count, that it has no standing with spirituality, no positive outcomes.
This website takes a different view. My own distressing NDE, at 28, destroyed my sense of reality and took decades to resolve because of a near-total absence of data and conversation around which to build a more substantial perspective. This website exists to offer the kind of solid, trustworthy platform that was not available after my own traumatizing NDE.
This website is open to discussion of any question raised by any type of near-death experience—or any related anomalous event. It matters that more of us learn to be brave about facing distressing, ‘negative,’ deeply troubling experiences and their effects.
In a field inescapably crowded with uncertainties, my intention is always to look for grounding, for source, for context. Therefore, both this blog and its sister books, especially Dancing Past the Dark: Distressing Near-Death Experiences, include a variety of perspectives–academic, scientific, secular, religious, and “spiritual but not religious.” Readers are invited to comment, provided they come with a respect for multiple views and critical thinking. Courtesy is expected. Personal beliefs are not assumed to be universal fact. The site waves no doctrinal flag. Religious topics may be discussed; proselytizing will be shut down, as will quoting any scripture out of context. There will be many questions but few promises of concrete answers because there is little hard data for the deepest levels.
About the Author
I am a near-death experiencer and the author of three books about distressing NDEs. The eldest of four daughters, I grew up in a liberal Protestant parsonage in Upstate New York State, leaning into Canada. My BA in English is from the University at Albany–SUNY, and a master’s degree in Pastoral Ministry is from St. Joseph University, with all coursework (but no internship) for a graduate degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of Hartford. My professional experience pre-IANDS was in secondary-level teaching, health care education research, and nonprofit administration. I am fortunate to have landed in near-death studies in time for the early research and was even able to publish two pieces myself—the earliest study of childhood NDEs and, with the matchless Bruce Greyson, MD, a small but foundational analysis of distressing experiences. My three children, now middle-aged, live in the UK, US, and China. Their grown families include seven grandkids and going on three great-grands. Now a President Emerita of IANDS and retired, I live in coastal North Carolina. I do not play golf.
I hope you will keep coming back to see whatever may be new. If you have recommendations, please let me know (except, please, to repeat: no conventional religious claims or quotes from scripture, as those are already in abundant supply elsewhere, and no rants or abusiveness, which are also in overabundance).
You are very welcome here.
Nancy Evans Bush