A recent article in The Christian Century, "Scientists probe brief brushes with the afterlife", features recent NDE research from Jeffrey Long, Pim van Lommel and Kevin Nelson. IANDS President Diane Corcoran is also interviewed.

Wanda Colie vividly remembers what she saw in 1984 when, at age 28, a condition that produced blood in her lungs nearly killed her. The pain vanished and a crowd of familiar faces came to welcome her in a light-drenched valley.

For more than two decades, Colie kept her experience secret. But she's recently joined hundreds of others who've started going public with their near-death experiences, or NDEs.

"For a long time, I couldn't talk about this stuff because it was just stuff you didn't talk about," said Colie, a housecleaner who lives in Rougemont, N.C. "I had to deal with it myself, (and now) I can't explain the relief to know that I'm OK. I'm not going crazy or anything."