Fifty Who Glimpsed the Beyond Draw Maps; Tunnels Prove Colorless, Archways Colorful

HAIFA, ISRAEL — Researchers at the University of Haifa have taken an unusual approach to the near-death experience: they asked those who report one to draw it. According to a report by ScienceAlert, the study was led by neurophenomenology researcher France Lerner and published in Frontiers in Psychology.

Fifty people who described near-death experiences took part in guided online sessions. Using a catalog of geometric pictograms, they were asked to divide their memories into stages, show the shape of each space, mark where they stood within it, describe how they moved, and name the colors they recalled.

Four broad categories of space emerged, the report says: conical spaces, including the familiar tunnel; broad, curved spaces such as archways; flatter, gently curving spaces; and spaces enclosing the observer, like the inside of a sphere or oval.

The notable finding concerned color. Of 28 conical spaces, 22 were recalled as achromatic, in black, white, gray or colorless light. Of 31 broad, curved spaces, 27 were recalled in color. The other two categories showed a mixture.

The authors point to possible parallels in ordinary perception, according to the article. Tunnel vision can follow a disrupted oxygen supply to the eye or brain, and dim-light vision loses color. The expansive spaces resemble the Ganzfeld effect, in which a blank visual field can produce hallucinations.

The researchers stress, the report states, that these similarities do not establish a cause, and that the study was designed only to describe and compare the recalled spaces. They also acknowledge limits: a small, self-selected group, memories in some cases many years old, possible influence from the pictograms on offer, and the chance of bias from guided sessions. With no comparison group recalling other unusual experiences, they cannot say whether the patterns are unique to near-death experiences.