Near-death experiences have been documented since antiquity; Plato describes one in the Republic. The modern clinical literature begins with Raymond Moody's Life After Life (1975). Since then, tens of thousands of cases have been documented, with remarkable cross-cultural consistency in the core phenomenology: the tunnel, the light, the life review, the encounter with beings or presences, and the choice or compulsion to return.
The research landscape
The International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS), founded in 1981, is the primary professional body for NDE research. The Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia has produced peer-reviewed research on NDEs and related phenomena for decades. Researchers including Pim van Lommel, Bruce Greyson, and Kenneth Ring have published longitudinal studies on aftereffects, the changes that experiencers undergo after returning.
The aftereffects
- Marked decrease in fear of death, materialism, and status-seeking
- Marked increase in compassion, altruism, and spiritual openness
- Frequent conflict with family, workplace, and religious community
- Occasional conflict with the medical establishment
- 75–78% of adult experiencers divorce
- Nearly all change careers
Five Minutes on the Low Road dramatizes these aftereffects, not just the experience itself.
Getting the NDE right
Most fictional portrayals of NDEs (in film, television, and theater) get the phenomenology wrong, or use the experience as a convenient plot device without engaging the research. This show is built differently. The NDE in the story follows the clinical literature: a structured life review, an encounter with a guide, an empathic replay of harm caused to others, and a genuine choice to return. The aftermath follows the longitudinal research on aftereffects.
The author’s engagement with the field
Charles T. Betz read Life After Life when it first came out and has been a spiritual seeker ever since. He has attended IANDS conferences and engaged directly with researchers and experiencers in developing the show’s dramatic and musical framework.
Join the advisory council
We’re forming a small advisory council of NDE researchers, IANDS-affiliated experts, experiencers, and hospice or palliative-care professionals to serve as a fidelity check as the show develops: reading drafts, hearing songs, and flagging where dramatic license has drifted from the documented phenomenology and aftereffect research.
The commitment is deliberately light: about 30 minutes of prep and a 30-minute conversation, twice a year. No fundraising ask, and no obligation beyond the two calls. Advisors are credited (or not, at their option) in the show’s materials.
Sources
Sources studied include:
- Life After Life by Raymond Moody (Mockingbird Books, 1975)
- The Big Book of Near-Death Experiences by P.M.H. Atwater (Hampton Roads Publishing, 2007)
- Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife by Eben Alexander (Simon & Schuster, 2012)
- Dying to Be Me: My Journey from Cancer, to Near Death, to True Healing by Anita Moorjani (Hay House, 2012)
- Foundations of Near-Death Research: A Conceptual and Phenomenological Map, edited by Alexander Batthyány (IANDS, 2018)
- Impressions of Near-Death Experiences: Quotations From Over 100 Experiencers by Robert Christophor Coppes (IANDS, 2023)
- Journal of Near-Death Studies (IANDS), various issues
- The online database of the Near Death Experience Research Foundation (www.nderf.org)
To hear where the research meets the music, start with our concept recordings.