Accounts of the near-death experience tend to have certain common elements. Many people report: (a) Hearing the doctor declare them dead; (b) Feeling themselves go through a dark tunnel or tunnel- like passage; (c) Seeing an other-worldly light; (d) Meeting their deceased loved ones; (e) Seeing their lives pass before them; and (f) Being asked by the light if they have left something unfinished, and answering that they have.
Many people who have gone through near death experiences had never heard of such a thing before. Many were from remote parts of the world with little or no access to mass media reports of the phenomenon, many were not religious, and some were outright atheists. Most report the event changing their spiritual outlook profoundly.