Overview
A study of 50 people who reported near-death experiences (NDEs) has identified a possible relationship between the shapes of perceived spaces and the colors associated with them. Rather than relying solely on written questionnaires, researchers asked participants to reconstruct their experiences visually, creating maps of the environments they remembered encountering during moments close to death.
The findings, published in Frontiers in Psychology, suggest that NDEs may contain recurring spatial patterns despite their highly personal and culturally varied descriptions. Researchers say the results could offer new clues about how the brain organizes perception under extreme physiological conditions, although they do not establish that NDEs represent an experience beyond the brain.
Mapping an Intangible Experience
NDEs are difficult to investigate because they are typically recalled as intensely emotional, vivid and sometimes spiritual events. Standard surveys can record features such as feelings of peace, encounters with light, out-of-body sensations or movement through a tunnel, but they provide limited information about how participants experienced space and movement.
To address that gap, neurophenomenology researcher France Lerner of the University of Haifa in Israel and colleagues conducted guided online sessions with the participants. Using a catalog of geometric pictograms, volunteers divided their experiences into stages and represented the shape of each environment they remembered. They also indicated where they believed they were located, how they moved and which colors they associated with each setting.
The researchers then assembled the reconstructions into a database, comparing the spatial forms and sensory qualities reported across accounts. The method was intended to capture aspects of NDEs that may be difficult to express through language alone.
Four Recurring Spatial Forms
The reconstructions appeared to cluster around four broad geometric categories. Some participants described conical spaces, including the familiar tunnel leading toward a bright opening. Others reported broad, curved environments resembling archways, flatter spaces with gentle curves, or settings that seemed to surround them completely, like the interior of a sphere or oval.
The most notable reported pattern was an association between these geometries and particular colors. The study’s results indicate that color was not distributed randomly across the reconstructed environments, suggesting that visual qualities and spatial organization may be linked within participants’ memories of their experiences.
The researchers interpret this relationship cautiously. It may reflect the way the brain constructs visual scenes during altered states, or how memories of unusual perceptual events are later organized. Because the participants were recalling experiences after the fact, the findings cannot determine whether the perceived spaces existed independently of brain activity.
Context and Limitations
The study adds detail to a body of research documenting recurring NDE features, including tunnels, luminous surroundings, curved horizons and sensations of leaving the body. At the same time, the accounts vary considerably: not everyone describes a tunnel or a journey toward light, and some people report expansive or all-encompassing spaces instead.
An excerpt from a book examining more than 300 NDE reports similarly emphasizes both the recurrence of certain elements across cultures and the deeply individual character of each account. That combination presents a continuing challenge for researchers: common motifs may point to shared features of human perception, while personal beliefs, expectations and cultural background may influence how the experience is understood and remembered.
The sample size was modest, and participants were self-selected based on their reports of NDEs. The visual mapping process also depended on memory and interpretation. Further research, involving larger and more diverse groups as well as clinical information about the circumstances surrounding each event, will be needed to determine how reliably the shape-color relationship appears.
