Near Death Experiences 7:Death, and the Eternal Structure of Being

Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) are often interpreted as providing insight into what happens after death. Some take them as evidence of an afterlife, while others view them as the final hallucinations of a dying brain. Both perspectives assume that death marks a transition from one state to another, as if existence itself were subject to movement and change. However, if Being is eternal and necessary, then death cannot signify an end, nor can it be a passage into something that did not exist before.

NDEs, rather than revealing an “afterlife” in the conventional sense, expose the deeper misunderstanding underlying our notion of death. They do not demonstrate what happens after life but instead show that the assumption of an ending is itself illusory. Death, as commonly conceived, presupposes a rupture in Being—a notion that contradicts the necessity of what is.

What Do NDEs Reveal About Death?

Many who undergo NDEs report losing awareness of their physical body while retaining a clear sense of self. Some describe entering a realm of light and unity, while others experience a void or a review of their lives. These accounts are often taken as glimpses into what awaits beyond the moment of death. Yet, if Being is eternal, then death cannot be a threshold between existence and nonexistence. Instead, what NDEs reveal is a shift in how Being appears—not a transition from life to an afterlife but the necessary unfolding of what already is.

Rather than proving the survival of a personal soul or consciousness, NDEs demonstrate that experience is not confined to the bodily framework ordinarily assumed. The sense of continuity reported in NDEs is not evidence that something “leaves” the body and moves elsewhere but rather that the structure of reality is not reducible to the material conditions assumed by a nihilistic worldview. The common fear that death leads to nothingness is based on the mistaken belief that Being can cease to be. But what is, is—eternally.

The Fundamental Impossibility of Ceasing to Be

The very idea of death as an annihilation of existence is an impossibility. If Being is necessary, then nonexistence is not a state into which one can enter—it is simply an incoherent concept. The belief that death is an ending is rooted in the assumption that things come into and out of being, an assumption that NDEs implicitly challenge. If consciousness appears to persist beyond the body in an NDE, it is not because it has “escaped” death but because Being itself is not contingent on material conditions.

What ceases in death is not Being but the particular way in which it appears. Just as dreams, wakefulness, and deep sleep are shifts in experience rather than movements between different ontological states, so too is the moment of death a shift in the horizon of appearance. What does not appear to consciousness is not thereby annihilated—it simply does not manifest in that moment. The fundamental structure of Being remains untouched.

Does an NDE Prove an Afterlife?

Many take NDEs as proof that life continues after death, reinforcing the common religious notion of an afterlife. But this idea still operates within the framework of becoming—it assumes that one moves from one phase of existence to another, rather than recognizing the eternal necessity of what is. If Being is, then there is no need for a separate “afterlife” as an additional state of existence. Rather, what appears in NDEs is already part of the eternal; it does not signify a transition but a different way in which truth manifests.

The very idea of an afterlife as something distinct from life assumes that existence is fragmented into separate stages. Yet, just as birth does not bring Being into existence, death does not remove it. Instead of proving an afterlife, NDEs reveal that the fundamental error is in thinking that existence ever needed to be “continued” in the first place.

Conclusion

NDEs do not provide evidence for an afterlife in the sense of a separate realm entered after death. Instead, they reveal the impossibility of Being ceasing to be. The idea of death as an ending is based on a misunderstanding of necessity, and the notion of an afterlife as a separate stage still assumes a movement that contradicts the eternal. What NDEs demonstrate is not a passage from one state to another but the necessary unfolding of what always is. Death is not an entry or an exit—it is a shift in the way Being appears. Recognizing this allows us to see that fear of nonexistence is misplaced, for what is, is—eternally.