In nearly four decades of working with dying patients, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1926–2004) studied thousands of near-death experiences. Here she offers a glimpse into her astonishing and seldom shared research into what happens in the soul’s journey after life.

When we leave the physical body, we experience a physical wholeness in our ‘ethereal body.’ This temporary body that we have when we observe the scene of our own death has no pain and no handicaps—if we have been amputees, we will have our limbs again; if we have been deaf, we can hear.

It is very easy to evaluate whether this is a projection or wishful thinking, as some have suggested, or something else. Some of our patients are blind, who do not have light perception. We asked them to share with us what it was like when they had their near-death experiences. If it was just dream fulfillment, these people would not be able to tell us the color of a sweater, the design of a tie, or minute details of shapes, colors, or designs of people’s clothing.

When we have questioned several totally blind people who have had near-death experiences, not only were they able to tell us who came into the room first and who worked on the resuscitation, but they were able to give minute details of the attire and the clothes of all the people present—something a totally blind person would never be able to do!