Scientists studied the dreams of people who nearly died. What they found is incredible.

IN some ways, the human brain remains deeply mysterious. Scientists have mapped its synapses and neurons in extraordinary detail, yet subjective consciousness—the felt experience of being you—still defies efforts at a full explanation. However, researchers do have one fascinating window into that inner world: near-death experiences, or NDEs.

As the name suggests, near-death experiences are altered states of consciousness reported by upwards of one-fifth of people who experience a life-threatening medical emergency.

While these descriptions can vary (especially by age), some common traits of NDEs have emerged over nearly 50 years of research: intense emotions of peace and joy, out-of-body experiences (OBEs), encounters with dead relatives, altered perceptions of time, and elevated lucidity, among others. Interestingly, these accounts from people who’ve nearly died appear to contradict what scientists expect to occur in the brain as its regions begin to shut down one by one.

Nicole Lindsay of Massey University in New Zealand has been studying NDEs since 2018, and in two new studies, Lindsay and her team delve deep into the profound effects NDEs can have on individuals throughout their lives, particularly in the realm of dreaming. In the first study, published in journal Dreaming, the researchers interviewed 138 people who’ve experienced an NDE, 45 people who came close to death but didn’t experience an NDE, and 129 people who’ve experienced neither. Using the Mannheim Dream Questionnaire, or MADRE, a well-known psychological tool used to assess aspects of dreams such as recall, emotional intensity, and lucidity, Lindsay’s team discovered that people who experienced NDEs have greater dream recall and intensity and, interestingly, more positive dreams compared to the non-NDE groups.

“I have always been interested in unusual states of consciousness from a very young age, having experienced a number of exceptional or extended conscious states myself,” Lindsay, lead author of the study, told the website PsyPost. “Near-death experiences (NDEs) provide insight into how consciousness operates under extreme conditions, including, potentially, in the absence of a functioning physical body.”

Now, in a new qualitative study published in the journal Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice, Lindsay and her colleagues reveal details of how individuals’ dreams changed drastically following an NDE.

In one example, a participant named Basil said he could confidently recall one dream every week or two, but after his near-death experience, that recall became a nightly occurrence. Others reported that dreams become intensely vivid after an NDE and that the separation between dreaming and waking was much more ambiguous than it was before.

The article goes on to explore reports of extreme incidences of lucid dreaming, OBEs, past-life dreams, and even, in some cases, precognition.

“The changes described by participants reflected broader shifts in personal identity, spirituality, and perceptions of reality—a process seemingly initiated by the NDE itself and then maintained and enhanced through dream states,” the authors write. “Dreams, therefore, may potentially serve as a continuation or extension of the state of consciousness accessed during the NDE.”

However, in these studies the authors were unable to identify the exact mechanism making dreams appear to be fundamentally altered following an NDE. In other words, it’s another mystery of the mind that remains unsolved.