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4521
qualitative
journal
DenBesten, Larry. "The Dying Experience." The Reformed Journal 28, no. 11 (November 1978): 17-21.
The Reformed Journal, Volume 28, Number 11, Pages 17-21, November 1978
1931
1978
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M
In August 1931, five-year-old Larry DenBesten faced a life-threatening challenge on his family farm in South Dakota. His brothers often dared each other to swim through a covered cattle watering tank, entering at one end and emerging at the other. Shamed into attempting this dangerous feat, young Larry entered the tank but quickly became disoriented in the dark, water-filled space. For what seemed like an eternity, he struggled frantically, banging his head and hands against the sides and top of the tank as his lungs felt ready to explode.
Suddenly, the entire perception transformed. A tremendous sense of pleasant calm swept through him, replacing the terror with an unexpected peace. He clearly remembers thinking "I'm drowning" but felt no fear. What followed was an extraordinary series of experiences that seemed to span hours. Everything he had ever done, both good and bad, passed before him in leisurely but complete detail - a comprehensive life review at age five. He spent what felt like extended time contemplating what his life might have become had he lived, imagining himself as a minister or doctor. Most remarkably, Larry witnessed his own funeral in vivid, almost tedious detail. He saw himself lying in the coffin in the farmhouse, observed his parents weeping quietly, and felt deep sadness for them. He watched as the hearse backed to the door and his brothers carried the closed casket out of the house to the church. He saw the procession of ruddy farm folk passing by his casket, experiencing the entire ceremony from this unusual vantage point. The experience ended abruptly when Larry became aware he was being held by his feet, his head pounding terribly as he coughed up water. His brothers had pulled him from the tank just in time. For 47 years afterward, as a professor of surgery at UCLA, Dr. DenBesten reflected on these vivid memories, recognizing them as a classic near-death experience that provided him unique insights into the dying process.
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Other
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10
20
Suggestive Evidence
5
Drowning incident without medical monitoring or documentation, recalled from childhood memory decades later
Detailed vision of own funeral with specific sequential observations, comprehensive life review experience
written_account
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Covered cattle watering tank created sensory isolation
7/23/2025
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