Having a near-death experience is no small or passive thing. These are profound events that will change your life in significant and meaningful ways. And while we try our very best here at IANDS to offer experiencers information and support, most are still faced with the same question in the wake of an NDE: what should I do now?
No two near-death experiences, or “NDEs”, are the same. They share a number of common features, and they generally get classified as either pleasurable or distressing experiences. But your NDE was yours and yours alone. You’re unique, and so too was your NDE. So please, don’t rush through this process. Take this all at your own pace, and on your own terms.
That said, let’s answer this question—what should I do now?—and offer you some great resources to find help along the way.
1. First, take care of your physical body
Don’t ignore your physical health or safety. You’re still alive for a reason. Getting better physically should always be the first step!
Most NDEs involve serious medical situations. Trauma, cardiac arrest, surgery, difficult childbirth, accidents … there’s a high probability you’ve gone through a dangerous, life-threatening experience prior to or during your NDE.
Take discharge instructions seriously. Follow up with your doctor. Seek urgent care if symptoms return. Rely on the support of loved ones for your medical wellbeing, even if you aren’t yet comfortable discussing your NDE with them.
2. No, you’re not ‘crazy’ and no, you’re not alone
You’re not alone. Far from it. And no, you aren’t crazy! Countless millions of other people have had near-death experiences similar to yours.
It’s not easy for someone to wrap their head around their near-death experience. NDEs are shocking. They feel incredibly real—some people have even described them as being more real than real life. And it often leaves experiencers wondering if they’re losing their minds.
No, you aren’t crazy. An NDE doesn’t mean you’ve had a mental health breakdown. We don’t yet know what causes NDEs (no, you can’t simply write them off as hallucinations). But we do know near-death experiences are widely reported, deeply meaningful to those who have them, and serious enough to deserve care, respect, and support.
You’re not alone, either. In fact, you’ll be surprised to learn just how common NDEs truly are. IANDS and Centiment conducted a large-scale survey in March of 2026 and found that 23 percent of American adults say they’ve had a near-death experience, described in the poll as an experience where the person “transitioned to another realm and then returned to human existence.”
3. Don’t rush the meaning-making process
You don’t need to explain everything or make every decision right away. This shouldn’t feel like a race. Take as much time with this as you need.
A lot can change for a person following a near-death experience. An NDE can reshape your entire worldview in what feels like an instant. Your priorities, relationships, values, sense of purpose, spirituality, fear of death—experiencers often see those things change with immediate effect, like flipping a light switch.
You may feel as though you need to immediately decide for yourself what your NDE means and how it should shape your life. You don’t need to rush anything, and you shouldn’t. This isn’t a race. Take your time with all of this. Give yourself a chance to process your NDE and let your understanding of it develop over time.
4. Write down what you remember from your NDE
Take a moment to write down everything you can remember from your NDE. And don’t worry too much about how you’re wording things.
Many experiencers struggle describing their NDE or articulating the experience. But it’s still important and practical to write down what you remember from your NDE, with as much detail as you can.
This doesn’t need to be some great work of literature that shares air with Sylvia Plath or Walt Whitman. Don’t worry if what you’re writing sounds strange. Don’t worry about grammar or polish, and don’t consider whether it’s scientifically explainable or even plausible. Just write it down, and include the dates of events when and where you can.
Creating this private, personal record can help you process your experience without immediately exposing it to the reactions of others. It can help you remember key dates, facts about your medical situation, and details regarding your NDE that might become less vivid over time.
5. Carefully choose who you’ll tell about your NDE
Talk about your NDE with someone you love and trust, but don’t rush into it. Take your time and figure out who will listen and how, not if, they’ll care.
Talking about your NDE with others is an important step toward navigating the experience. And it’s also important to understand that you don’t want your first experience sharing your NDE with another person to go poorly. And that has as much to do with how you communicate regarding your NDE as it does with how that person will take in and process what you’re saying.
The person you choose to share your NDE with should be someone you know well, trust, and has a proven record of listening, caring, and supporting. And it’s not about whether this person will care, so much as it’s a question of how they’ll care.
Will they listen intently and allow you to speak at a pace you’re personally comfortable with? Do they understand the medical situation you went through? Can they leave their own views and dogma at the door? All of that matters.
It’s also important to understand that the goal of your NDE disclosure isn’t to make this person believe you. You aren’t trying to convert them to your new worldview, however meaningful or transformative it may feel. You’re not doing this to prove yourself or convince them to join you. It’s not about them at all. This is about you.
Read more: Sharing your near-death experience with others
6. Read more about NDEs (and maybe ask someone else to learn with you)
IANDS.org offers lots of useful information about near-death experiences. And the person you’ve shared your NDE with may want to browse this site and its resources, too.
Many people will feel inclined to do this before they find support. And if you’ve already done this, that’s great! But after speaking with someone about your near-death experience, both of you may have a number of unanswered questions. It helps to read more about NDEs and related experiences, and it’s as important for those supporting you as it is for yourself.
We encourage you to explore our website and learn more about near-death experiences. If you run into any phrases you’re not yet familiar with, take a look at our IANDS Glossary. Our IANDS Q&A articles answer a lot of questions, too. And we also have fact sheets written by researchers offering deeper, more scientific insights.
If you’ve shared your NDE with loved ones, tell them to drop by IANDS.org as well. They might have their own questions, too, and they may want to learn more about near-death experiences so they can offer you better support.
7. Consider counseling, too
Speaking with a therapist can be incredibly helpful. But do note that not every therapist fully understands NDEs.
Talking with trusted loved ones can be more than enough support for some experiencers. But if you’re still feeling anxious, depressed, traumatized, isolated, confused, or unable to function after your near-death experience, you should also consider speaking with a licensed mental health professional.
The scientific study of NDEs is a relatively young field of research—serious efforts toward near-death studies didn’t begin until the 1970s, and this field hasn’t traditionally received high levels of institutional support.
As such, not many healthcare professionals have training or knowledge in NDEs. They may not understand how best to help you. So you’ll want to find a mental health provider who is respectful, open-minded, trauma-informed, or spiritually informed. And that can be challenging for some.
IANDS maintains a list of mental health providers who are knowledgeable about NDEs. We recommend starting with the providers listed there—they understand what you’re going through more than some other therapists might, and that can help quite a bit.
8. Consider joining sharing groups
Support doesn’t end with loved ones or professional therapy. Discussing your NDE with other experiencers can make a world of difference.
Even the most dedicated and well-intentioned loved ones and mental health providers can’t truly understand and appreciate your NDE quite like other experiencers can.
When you feel ready to share, we strongly recommend seeking out sharing groups, where you can discuss your NDE with others who’ve had very similar experiences. IANDS organizes and hosts sharing group events all over the world. It can help quite a bit to find one close to you or online, join, and chat with others who truly understand and appreciate what you’re going through.
9. Not every NDE is pleasurable
Distressing NDEs can be highly traumatizing. But they don’t mean you’re a bad person or that you deserve punishment.
Many near-death experiences are defined as “pleasurable.” But some are labeled as “distressing,” and those can be extremely traumatic, terrifying, and even seemingly hellish. And if you’ve experienced a distressing NDE, you may be trying to convince yourself that you’re a bad person or that you deserve punishment. And that is simply not true.
Your NDE is not proof that you’re bad, doomed, rejected, or unloved. And while some people experience a distressing NDE and think it means they need to change and be a better person, some convince themselves there’s no hope of changing course, and that is fundamentally untrue. Again, talk about your NDE. Seek support. You’re not alone, and you don’t need to be alone or feel alone, either!
If at any point you feel unsafe or find yourself considering self-harm, please dial 988 or contact emergency services immediately. At the very least, reach out to someone you know and trust.
10. Don’t make drastic life decisions just yet
Regardless of what lessons you’ve taken from your NDE, do not rush into making major life-changing decisions. Take your time to process your NDE, build support, and think things through.
A near-death experience can lead to radical transformations of a person’s views, tastes, spirituality, relationships, priorities, and purpose. And these changes may also be coupled with a sense of urgency—you may feel these things need to happen right away. It’s important to understand that they don’t.
As important as the lessons you’ve taken from your NDE are, they shouldn’t be taken on haphazardly. You need to slow down and take your time in understanding not only what these lessons truly mean, but what these major life decisions will mean as well. Not only for you, but for others who might be directly impacted by those decisions.
It’s important those offering you support do what they can to understand you. But you should try to understand them, too. Their lives are their own to live, and if your decisions might upend things for others, you should take care in considering how these life decisions may impact them.
That’s not to say those changes shouldn’t happen. It just means you need to take your time, talk things through with those who may be impacted, and try to understand their point of view as they try to understand yours.
Our biggest advice: Know yourself, and know your resources
As we’ve stated earlier, no two NDEs are exactly the same. And no two experiencers are the same, either. Some experiencers will benefit from following these steps verbatim, while others may need to move some things around. Some steps might be unnecessary for some, while others might still be wondering what’s next.
For many people, a near-death experience is a world-changing event. Your whole personality and worldview can change in what feels like an instant. So take the time to get to know your new self. Give yourself as much time as you need to process, to learn, and to grow into these changes.
IANDS is here to help you along the way with information, sharing groups, events, and more. Take your time. Explore your resources. And if you can’t find something, don’t hesitate to reach out to IANDS, and we’ll point you in the right direction. We’re here to help.
