Many people who die (or almost die) and come back to life have a memorable, tangible and often life altering experience. The experiences have many common elements. The following list highlights some of the most common elements of near death experiences.

1 Feeling that the "self" has left the body and is hovering overhead. The person may later be able to describe who was where and what happened, sometimes in detail.

2 Moving through a dark space or tunnel.

3 Experiencing intensely powerful emotions, ranging from bliss to extreme distress.

4 Encountering a light. It is usually described as golden or white, and as being magnetic and loving.

5 Receiving some variant of the message "It is not yet your time."

6 Meeting others: may be deceased loved ones, recognized from life or not; sacred beings; unidentified entities and/or "beings of light" sometimes symbols from one's own or other religious traditions.

7 A life review, seeing and re-experiencing major and trivial events of one's life, sometimes from the perspective of the other people involved, and coming to some conclusion about the adequacy of that life and what changes are needed.

8 Having a sense of understanding everything, of knowing how the universe works.

9 Reaching a boundary, a cliff, fence, water, some kind of barrier that may not be crossed if one is to return to life.

10 In some cases, entering a city or library.

11 Receiving previously unknown information about one's life, e.g., adoption or hidden parentage, deceased siblings,

12 Glimpses into future events.

13 Decision to return may be voluntary or involuntary. If voluntary, usually associated with unfinished service to loved ones.

14 Returning to the body.

Many see near death experiences as an experience of the afterlife. This implies the view that the neardeath experience can not be explained by physiological or psychological causes and that consciousness, in some instances, might function independently of the brain. Some near death -accounts include elements which, according to some theorists, are most simply explained by an out-of-body consciousness.

For example, in one account, a woman accurately described a surgical instrument she had not seen previously, as well as a conversation that occurred while she was understood to be clinically dead. In another account, from a proactive Dutch near death study, a nurse removed the dentures of an unconscious heart attack victim, and was asked by him after his recovery to return them

Many people who experience a near death event tend to see it as a verification of the existence of an afterlife in particular they tend to be convinced of the reality of the experience as an intimation of the afterlife. This includes those with agnostic/atheist inclinations before the experience.

There exist reports about, what appears to be, connections between deceased persons and persons who have had an NDE. These visualizations happen over a long period after the near death experience. Ken Mullens , who was clinically dead for more than 20 minutes, reported spiritual encounters in his life after his NDE. As he reported, deceased persons he communicated with were often unknown to him, but were connected to people he met at a later point. While many such reports are criticized and discredited by the scientific field they remain a mystery. Since they have no apparent medical or physical explanation they might be said to belong the interpretative and phenomenological dimension of the NDE, as investigated by the field of Near-death studies.