Near-Death Experiences May Sometimes Have Orbs, But More Commonly Have Telepathy

 A recent study on near-death experiences ("Architecture of Near-Death Experience Space")  has appeared in pre-print form. Its methodology seems rather objectionable. The authors were trying to be able to classify something like shapes or fields-of-view during near-death experiences. They have given 48 reporting near-death experiences some survey designed to elicit reports about shapes or fields-of-view. This seems like a case of asking leading questions designed to extract particular types of reports, which may be a flaw in methodology. 

But at least the study does have rather interesting quotes from those who had these experiences. One subject states, "I was standing in the middle of a 360 degree sphere with a white, milky border." Another subject (subject 38) reports this observation of orbs:

"I encountered floating spheres glowing blue and white. They were gently floating around me, fading in and out of view. They did not seem to be moving.”

The authors of the study seem to have made the mistake of trying to extract reports about shapes, fields of view or geometry from the people having the near-death experiences, rather than letting these people speak for themselves, and reporting on the most salient features of their reports.  The authors make no mention of one of the most common features of the reports they have received: the claim by a person that during his near-death experience there was telepathy going on. 

I will quote all of the subjects who referred to telepathy:

• Subject 3: "They were communicating with me through thoughts and feelings."
• Subject 6: "She was wearing a dress, with dark hair and we were having an ongoing conversation telepathically....I spoke telepathically with the two beings I met.... We interacted with each other via telepathy.”
• Subject 8: " I encountered (in my thoughts) a god-entity that I had a negotiation in my thoughts."
• Subject 10: "Messages are telepathic but so strong as if it's a voice, was very specific on some topics general on others."
• Subject 21: "The entity first appear as the perfect human as it came closer it kind of morphed a little bit more a light fluid being entity. . . telepathic communication with the being."
• Subject 24: " I heard my boyfriends thoughts saying 'what am I going to tell her family ' over and over again. and when I asked him about it days later he said yes he was thinking that. I was telepathic."
• Subject 26: "There was a telepathic communication with my angel that I was in a place of what would be where my spirit will first go after I leave my earthly body, it was telepathically said 'it wasn’t my time.' ”
• Subject 28: "I was in a room made of light with beings that were also made of light. We communicated telepathically, without words"
• Subject 35: "So I could read their mind and see their whole life story."
• Subject 39: "I also felt/sensed that I was in a telepathic communication like a negotiation of deciding to return."
• Subject 44: "I could hear him talk in my mind, telepathically.”

So of the people reporting near-death experiences,  11 out of 48 have described telepathy occurring, about 23%. But strangely the study authors have failed to mention telepathy as something commonly reported in the 48 experiences they were studying.