Experiences that Go Against Ones Beliefs

Experiences often conflict with the expectations and cultural-religious background of experiencers

An early twentieth-century Zuni Native American NDE, for example, included encounters with deceased relatives and bright light – motifs that are inconsistent with Zuni afterlife conceptions. Medieval Chinese, Japanese, and European NDE narratives often conflicted with the theological conventions of their times and places, and atheists have NDEs generally consistent with those of theists.

Conversely, certain themes that we might expect to find in the NDEs of religious individuals are rarely reported, regardless of their religion. For example, neither salvation, physical resurrection, nor reincarnation commonly feature in NDE reports at all, whether from Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews, or Muslims.

NDEs can conflict with the expectations even of those with prior knowledge of the phenomenon, who may wonder, for example, why they did not go through a tunnel, have a life review, or meet the relative or deity they’d hoped to meet.

People often change their beliefs following their own NDE notably, that includes atheists.