How Different Faith Traditions Interpret Near-Death Experiences

Near-death experiences are reported by people of many religions and by people with none. Do believers in different faiths describe the same thing? And how do they understand it? This article summarizes what researchers have found. It describes research, not religious teaching, and has not been reviewed by faith leaders.

What is the same across cultures?

The core of the experience. A 2023 systematic review in Frontiers in Psychology analyzed 54 studies covering 465 people. It found that the basis and content of the patterns people describe are similar, and the differences are in the explanation and interpretation. Bruce Greyson of the University of Virginia writes that near-death experiences are largely the same across cultures, and that encounters with other beings and realms appear nearly universal.

What varies?

Some details. Greyson notes that the life review and the tunnel sensation are mainly reported in Christian and Buddhist cultures, and are rare among native populations in North America, Australia, and the Pacific. He adds that the expectations and circumstances of the brush with death influence the content of some experiences. The Frontiers review concludes that these experiences vary with the survivors’ cultural and religious background, and are almost always described in terms of the person’s own religious beliefs.

What about Muslim experiences?

They appear similar. A 2020 article in the Journal of Near-Death Studies, reporting on Iranian Shia Muslims, says that a 2014 survey of 20 Shiite Muslim experiencers found these experiences were common and similar in content to Western ones. It also notes that in 2010 researchers reported eight Muslim cases with content similar to Western ones.

How do people interpret them?

Through their own tradition. Greyson says most experiencers see their experience as spiritual and describe it in religious or spiritual terms. A 2025 article by a Nigerian scholar explains that across cultures, interpretations reflect prevailing religious and philosophical frameworks, whether Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Indigenous, or secular. They are seen variously as visions of heaven or hell, steps in reincarnation, or neurological events. The article says the core elements, such as out-of-body sensations, light, and life review, appear consistently.

Are all of them positive?

No. The Frontiers review notes that some experiences have been described as “hellish,” although some experiencers may be reluctant to share them. For what researchers say about the causes, see Scientific Theories Explaining Near-Death Experiences. For beliefs about what comes after death, see What Do Different Religions Believe Happens After We Die?. For what survivors report, see What Is a Near-Death Experience?.