Reverend John W. Price (book link) has been a priest of the Episcopal Church since 1965. He serves as a spiritual director and is also a member of the Near-Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF). After hearing over two hundred accounts of near-death experiences, Rev. Price shared some of the cases, and how they correlate with religious teachings. Referring to those who experience NDEs as "returnees," he related an early case that he heard when he was stationed in the National Guard. The returnee said his NDE occurred after a drug overdose, and he was told "it was not his time." During his "life review" he was shown that he was throwing away the gifts that God had given him. Once revived, "that man...got up and walked away cold turkey from drug addiction,"-- the NDE absolutely turned his life around, he said. Price has heard of four different ways people exit the body during an NDE-- the tunnel of light happens in only about 40% of the cases. The medical idea that a brain deprived of oxygen explains the tunnel effect, doesn't account for why during the NDE, people report a joyous reunion, a life review, and instruction, and then when they come back they're a different person, he contended. Suicide, Price has learned from the accounts, is not a good escape option. Though people aren't punished for it, they are still aware of all the problems they had in their life, as well as the grief they caused their loved ones. When people were resuscitated from their suicide attempt, they came back with the knowledge that they had to deal with their problems, he said. Regarding hellish NDEs, Price shared a man's NDE account of being attacked by the claws of a T-Rex type creature. He would be healed only to be torn apart over and over again. When the man yelled "help me Lord," he woke up back in the hospital, and was subsequently able to turn his life around. Price also cited the case of Howard Storm's hellish near-death-experience, and how help finally came when he called on the Lord. For more NDE accounts, visit the International Association for Near-Death Studies. Biography: Reverend John W. Price has been a priest of the Episcopal Church since 1965. He serves as a spiritual director and was a chaplain at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital in Houston. He also is a member of the Near-Death Experience Research Foundation, which has the largest near-death experience website in the world. A near-death experience (NDE) refers to personal experiences associated with impending death, encompassing multiple possible sensations including detachment from the body, feelings of levitation, total serenity, security, warmth, the experience of absolute dissolution, and the presence of a light. These phenomena are usually reported after an individual has been pronounced clinically dead or very close to death. Many NDE reports, however, originate from events that are not life-threatening. With recent developments in cardiac resuscitation techniques, the number of reported NDEs has increased. The experiences have been described in medical journals as having the characteristics of hallucinations, while parapsychologists, religious believers and some scientists have pointed to them as evidence of an afterlife and mind-body dualism. According to the 2013 PLOS ONE article by Thonnard et al., "near-death experiences cannot be considered as imagined event memories. On the contrary, their physiological origins could lead them to be really perceived although not lived in the reality." Popular interest in near-death experiences was initially sparked by Weiss's 1972 The Vestibule[citation needed], followed by Raymond Moody's 1975 book Life After Life and the founding of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) in 1981. According to a Gallup poll, approximately eight million Americans claim to have had a near-death experience. Some commentators, such as Simpson, claim that the number of near-death experiencers may be underestimated. People who have had a near-death experience may not be comfortable discussing the experience with others, especially when the NDE is understood as a paranormal incident. NDEs are among the phenomena studied in the fields of psychology, psychiatry, and hospital medicine

• published: 09 Sep 2013
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