“All my life i was in fear and terror of eternal torment…
This web site has set me free.”
As this is written, a Google search on “negative near-death experiences” will bring up well over two million links. Is another site really necessary? You can believe it is! Make this two million and climbing.
The thing is, there will be some well-grounded information somewhere in that mass of entries, but you’re on your own to find it. Overwhelmingly, post after post and site after site, what you will find is rumor or biased views or outright falsehood and a ton of guesswork. Too many sites are like trampolines, launching folks into sheer nonsense.
By contrast, this site will give you as much reliable data about distressing (“negative”) NDEs and their relatives as is available. Both the blog and its sister book, Dancing Past the Dark: Distressing Near-Death Experiences, include a variety of perspectives: academic, secular, religious, and “spiritual but not religious.” Although I come from a religious background, this site waves no doctrinal flag. When the data isn’t altogether factual, I will say so. Opinion will be noted as such. There will be many questions but few promises of concrete answers, because there is little hard data available.
I want to create the fullest possible understanding of what is going on with these deeply troubling experiences.
I am a near-death experiencer and the author of three books on distressing near-death experiences. For almost forty years I have also been a researcher on this topic, working with the International Association for Near-Death Studies and publishing in their peer-reviewed, scholarly journal. My work bridges the gulfs between social science research, secularism and religious beliefs, and the often loony world of public opinion. To the best of my knowledge, my work is as close as anyone has come to offering a body of substantial scholarship about the distressing end of the near-death spectrum.
Dancing Past the Dark: Distressing Near-Death Experiences is available both as a paperback and an ebook for Kindle, Nook, and other e-readers. I hope all my books and this website will be the source of the kind of solid, trustworthy information that was not available after my own traumatizing NDE.
I also hope you will keep coming back to see what new posts, articles, and links have been added. If you have recommendations, please let me know (except, please, no conventional religious claims or quotes from scripture, as those are already in abundant supply, and no rants or abusiveness, which are also in overabundance elsewhere).
You are very welcome here.
Nancy Evans Bush