Researchers mapping near-death experiences by asking 50 participants to draw their visual memories discovered that geometric shapes correlate strongly with specific colors.
Mapping Visual Memories of Near-Death Experiences
To capture what participants saw, a team led by neurophenomenology researcher France Lerner of the University of Haifa asked 50 people to reconstruct their memories using digital questionnaires and graphic reconstruction tasks.
Investigators at Israel’s University of Haifa tasked 50 individuals with mapping out their near-death episodes through geometric sketches as part of a 2026 research paper featured in Frontiers in Psychology. These virtual meetings addressed numerous details, ranging from the hues recalled by subjects to their exact locations within those environments.
While most studies rely on narrative accounts, little attention has been given to graphic representations as a complementary mode of investigation. This study employs a hybrid approach combining a semi-structured digital questionnaire with a graphic reconstruction task,
researchers explained in a study published in Frontiers in Psychology.
Geometric Patterns That Emerged From the Drawings
The geometric spaces reported by participants fell into four broad categories: conical spaces like tunnels, broad curved spaces like archways, flatter and more gently curving spaces, and round or oval spaces that surrounded the observer.
The team categorized the environments into four primary structures, comprising tunnels, wide arches, softer curves, and egg-like enclosed chambers.
Connecting Shapes to Colors
The analysis revealed a relationship between the shapes of the spaces and the colors recalled by the participants. Out of 28 conical spaces reconstructed during the sessions, 22 were perceived in black, white, gray, or light without discernible color.
Conversely, 27 of the 31 broad, curved spaces were perceived in bright colors.
Among 31 broad, curved spaces, 27 were remembered in color.
Those figures refer to reconstructed spaces, since some participants described several stages of an experience.
Researchers noted that these visual patterns share similarities with known neurological and perceptual phenomena, such as reduced oxygen restricting the field of view into tunnel vision or low-light conditions altering color sensitivity.
Reduced oxygen can cause tunnel vision, while low light makes it harder to distinguish colors.
Expert Views on the Findings
University of Virginia psychiatrist Bruce Greyson told UVA Today that between 10 percent and 20 percent of people who survive cardiac arrest report having an experience, as reported by VICE.
Authors of a recent commentary on the study noted that the research provides a framework for describing recurrent visuo-spatial characteristics rather than proving universal geometric invariants. Accordingly, the proposed framework should be understood as an exploratory methodological approach for systematically describing, reconstructing, and comparing recurrent visuo-spatial characteristics reported across NDEs, rather than as evidence for universal geometric invariants,
the study authors stated in findings detailed by ScienceAlert.