Near Death Experiences are the most common of all mystical experiences, with some 13 million American adults having experienced them. Since Americans represent 5% of the world’s population, that means some 247 million people have experienced them. The following format has been used for NDE/IDL research interviews. We will link to that research when it is published. If you or someone you know has had a NDE, Dr. Dillard is currently offering a complementary NDE/IDL research interview via Skype. To set up such an interview, contact him at Joseph.Dillard@Gmail.Com. If you use this or any other IDL interviewing format with others or in published material, please reference Dr. Dillard as a source.

 

What are three fundamental life issues that you are dealing with now in your life?

 

 

 

Tell me about your near death experience…

 

 

 

Why do you think that you had this NDE?

 

 

 

These are the characters, forms, and objects in the NDE, beside yourself…

 

 

 

If one character had something especially important to tell you, what would it be?

 

 

 

Now remember how as a child you liked to pretend you were a teacher or a doctor?  It’s easy and fun for you to imagine that you are this or that character in your NDE and answer some questions I ask, saying the first thing that comes to your mind.  If you wait too long to answer, that’s not the character answering – that’s YOU trying to figure out the right thing to say!

 

____, are you a character in ______’s NDE, yes?

 

 

_____, would you please tell me about yourself and what you are doing?

 

 

 

 

What do you like most about yourself? What are your strengths?

 

 

What do you dislike most about yourself? Do you have weaknesses?  What are they?

 

 

______, what aspect of ____ do you represent or most closely personify?

 

 

______, if you could be anywhere you wanted to be and take any form you desired, would you change?  If so, how?

 

 

(Continue, answering as the transformed object, if it chose to change.)

_______, how would you score yourself 0-10, in confidence, compassion, wisdom, acceptance, peace of mind, and witnessing?  Why?

 

Confidence:

Compassion:

Wisdom:

Acceptance:

Inner Peace:

Witnessing:

 

______, if you scored tens in all six of these qualities, would you be different?  If so, how?

 

 

How would _____’s life be different if s/he naturally scored like you do in all six of these qualities all the time?

 

 

If you could live ______’s life for her/him, how would you live it differently?

 

 

If you could live _____’s waking life for her/him today, would you handle her/his three life issues differently?  If so, how?

 

1.

2.

3.

 

What three life issues would you focus on if you were in charge of her/his life?

 

1.

2.

3.

 

In what life situations would it be most beneficial for ______ to imagine that s/he is you and act as you would?

 

 

Why do you think that you are in ______’s life?

 

 

How is _______ most likely to ignore what you are saying to him/her?

 

 

What would you recommend that s/he do about that?

 

 

I think ______ had this dream because

 

 

I think this dream event happened or (some character) was in the dream because…

 

 

What have you heard yourself say?

 

 

 

Do you think this interview saved you any time in your life? If so, how much?

 

 

 

If this experience were a wake-up call from the most central part of who you are, what do you think it would be saying to you?