An Analysis of the Awareness Arising from Near-Death Experience (NDE) in Life Improvement from the Perspective of Betty Eadie

The near-death experience (NDE) is a psycho-metaphysical phenomenon that raises new questions in religious and spiritual studies, often leading to a desire for spiritual transformation aimed at life improvement. Betty Eadie's thought centers on this approach. This paper asks: How valid is the awareness Eadie claims to have gained through her NDE, which underpins her life-improvement views? First, an interpretation of Eadie’s experience is presented, portraying the awareness from NDE as an expanded form of consciousness. This leads to a perspective on the link between awareness and healing—especially through her ontological views on “positive and negative energy” and “healing power,” both central to her thought. However, Eadie’s approach is questionable on two fronts. Methodologically, she interprets her lived experience within the New Age spirituality paradigm, which presents epistemological issues and blurs the boundary between personal and universal awareness. From a reasoning perspective, her view suffers from fallacies, especially the unjustified generalization of personal experience to universal human life. These critiques do not negate the significance of her account but invite a critical examination of its foundations. In sum, the paper explores both the promise and the limitations of Eadie’s awareness-based approach to life transformation through NDE.