People describe near-death experiences in an eerily similar way. They've convinced some researchers that an afterlife exists.

• Researchers who study near-death experiences say they believe in a consciousness beyond our physical reality.
• People often encounter death in similar ways, two University of Virginia professors said at a South by Southwest panel.
• Many people describe floating above their bodies and encountering a beam of light.

Jim Tucker and Jennifer Kim Penberthy spend a lot of time thinking about the afterlife.

They're psychiatry professors at the University of Virginia. Tucker studies near-death experiences and young children who report memories of a past life. Penberthy studies both near-death experiences and after-death communications, or people who say they were visited by a deceased loved one.

Their research has convinced them there's a consciousness beyond our physical reality, they said at a South by Southwest panel in Austin, Texas, in 2022.

"There is more than the idea that we just live in this body and die and that's it," Penberthy said.

The researchers don't make sweeping claims about heaven or reincarnation. Instead, their work consists mostly of listening to people's stories, determining whether those experiences are credible, and looking for scientific patterns.

In his 2013 book, "Return to Life," Tucker described a young boy named Ryan Hammons, who reported that he had been a Hollywood agent in a previous life. Tucker determined that 55 of Hammons' claims matched the real-life experiences of Marty Martyn, a Hollywood agent who died in 1964.

Stories like that deserve an explanation, Tucker said at SXSW.

Penberthy said she's waiting for their field of research to become mainstream, the same way meditation research — once dismissed as pseudoscience — has gained credibility over time.

"Science is an evolution and it's changing," she said, adding, "In my world, I see it changing to include more expansive approaches to things."

People with near-death experiences describe floating above their bodies and encountering a beam of light

Both Tucker and Penberthy have identified distinct patterns in the way people encounter death.

People often report having visions of deceased loved ones when they're falling asleep or starting to wake up, Penberthy said.

Tucker said around 70% of the young children he's studied who say they have memories of a past life are able to describe how they died. Often, those deaths seem to have happened traumatically. Many of these kids also grieve being away from their previous families, Tucker said, and around 20% of them say they have memories of an intermediate time between death and their next life.

Many people with near-death experiences also report having the same visions as one another.

"Often when somebody has a heart attack or something that briefly causes their brain to shut down, many of them will describe floating above their bodies," Tucker said.

From there, people with near-death experiences describe traveling through a dark passage, Tucker said. Some report seeing their deceased loved ones and encountering a beam of light. Many say they were either given a choice to return to their physical body or were instructed to do so, he added.

Other studies have shown that people tend to take stock of their entire lives before death. One recent study from the University of Louisville that analyzed brain scans, suggests that a dying man's life flashed before his eyes.

While it's difficult to verify these accounts, it's also difficult to explain them away, Tucker said.

Critics often argue that dying people's brains play tricks on them, creating fantasies or hallucinations. But a near-death event compromises a person's brain function, whereas hallucinations are usually the result of an overactive sensory cortex (the part of the brain that receives and interprets sensory information). That would make it hard for a dying person to hallucinate, Tucker said. 

Encounters with death often make people less fearful of dying

People who've had brushes with death generally view these events as positive, both Tucker and Penberthy said. 

A near-death experience can make a person less materialistic, more caring, or less ambitious. 

"This experience is completely transformative for them," Tucker said, adding, "They say they have lost fear of death, because they know that life continues."

Children who report having a past life often grow up to become well-adjusted adults, and their memories tend to fade with time, he added. 

Penberthy said encountering a deceased loved one can be "restorative" and "reassuring" for people. One woman she studied had the distinct sensation of her deceased mother stroking her cheek. The experience made it easier for the woman to let go of her grief, Penberthy said.

People often become more spiritual, but not necessarily more religious, after these encounters, she said, adding, "They certainly increase their beliefs that we live on after the death of our body."

This story was originally published in March 2022.