1.3.7 Emotional feelings
In Sabom’s study all who reported a near-death experience were asked to describe their emotions during the experience. The predominant picture was one of calm, peace and tranquillity, in marked contrast to the physical pain and suffering felt before or after the event. Some spoke of sadness at seeing the efforts and distress of others trying to bring them back to life, and one woman spoke of being very happy until she remembered she was leaving her children behind. A few referred to a sense of loneliness or darkness, though for some this was followed by a movement towards light. Sometimes this darkness was described as entering a vast, black space or a tunnel through which one moves at great speed. ‘I was in what felt like outer space. It was absolutely black out there and I felt like I was being drawn towards an opening like at the end of a tunnel. I knew this because I could see a light at the end’.