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1. Introduction to NDEs Triggered By Falling From Heights
A fall from a great height is usually described in terms of danger, impact, and survival. But for some people, the most striking part of the experience is what happens in the mind during those final seconds. Reports from individuals who have fallen from cliffs, buildings, or other heights often include vivid and unusual mental experiences that closely resemble near-death experiences (NDEs).
These accounts are not rare or isolated. As early as the late 19th century, the Swiss geologist Albert von St. Gallen Heim documented detailed reports from people who survived serious falls. He found that many described the same unexpected pattern: instead of panic, they experienced a sudden calm, a slowing or complete loss of time, and even a rapid review of their lives.
What makes NDEs from falling especially compelling is their timing. These experiences often unfold in just a few seconds – yet they feel extended, detailed, and deeply meaningful. People report clear thinking, heightened awareness, and powerful emotions at a moment when the body is under extreme stress and the outcome is uncertain. This creates a striking paradox: how can such rich and organized experiences occur during what should be a moment of chaos?
This article explores several well-documented cases of NDEs triggered by falls from height. By examining both historical and modern accounts, we can begin to see consistent patterns that raise important questions about consciousness, perception, and the human response to life-threatening events.
2. Albert Heim’s NDE and His NDE Research
a. Overview of Albert Heim
Albert von St. Gallen Heim (1849-1937) was a distinguished Zurich professor of geology. Heim had fallen while climbing in the Alps and experienced an NDE. Following his own experience, over a 25 year period he collected numerous similar accounts from people who had fallen or had similar accidents. He presented his findings before the Uto Section of the Swiss Alpine Club in February, 1892, and published them in German that same year. In so doing, Heim became the first person in modern history to publish a collection of what would later be referred to as NDEs. (His paper was later translated into English by Russell Noyes and Roy Kletti [1972].)
Among a number of interesting aspects reported by Heim himself, as well as many people he interviewed, was that as his body fell toward the ground below, “Time became greatly expanded” (Heim, quoted in Noyes and Kletti, 1972, p. 47). Said slightly differently, what Heim discovered was that people often reported that as they fell from a great height, time seemed to slow down or stop completely.
This is supported by modern research into NDEs. Kenneth Ring (1980) found that when asked about their sense of time during an NDE, only 2 percent of respondents experienced it as normal. Six percent said time seemed “extended,” and an overwhelming majority, 65 percent, said they experienced no sense of time at all during the episode.
A little known fact is that Heim happened to be one of Albert Einstein’s professors. There is evidence that Einstein’s ideas about time relativity was influenced by Heim’s NDE research. Read about it here: NDEs and Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.
b. Albert Heim’s NDE From Falling
Heim’s NDE occurred in 1871 while climbing the Säntis in the Swiss Alps. During the climb, he fell from a steep cliff – an accident that should have been fatal. Yet as he tumbled downward, something unexpected happened.
Instead of panic, Heim reported a sudden sense of calm and clarity. Time seemed to slow down dramatically. In what felt like an extended moment, he experienced a rapid and vivid review of his entire life. Every memory appeared sharply detailed and emotionally rich, yet there was no fear or confusion. He described this state as peaceful, even pleasant.
Heim survived the fall, and what struck him most was not just the physical survival – but the mental experience during it. He later wrote that the experience felt more real than ordinary waking life.
The following is Noyes and Kletti’s translation of Heim’s paper “Remarks on Fatal Falls” which provides a detailed description of Heim’s NDE.
“What I felt in five to ten seconds could not be described in ten times that length of time. All my thoughts and ideas were coherent and very clear, and in no way susceptible, as are dreams, to obliteration.
“First of all I took in the possibilities of my fate and said to myself: ‘The crag point over which I will soon be thrown evidently falls off below me as a steep wall since I have not been able to see the ground at the base of it. It matters a great deal whether or not snow is still lying at the base of the cliff wall. If this is the case, the snow will have melted from the wall and formed a border around the base. If I fall on the border of snow I may come out of this with my life, but if there is no more snow down there, I am certain to fall on rubble and at this velocity death will be quite inevitable.
“If, when I strike, I am not dead or unconscious I must instantly seize my small flask of spirits of vinegar and put some drops from it on my tongue. I do not want to let go of my alpenstock; perhaps it can still be of use to me.’ Hence I kept it tightly in my hand.
“I thought of taking off my glasses and throwing them away so that splinters from them might not injure my eyes, but I was so thrown and swung about that I could not muster the power to move my hands for this purpose. A set of thoughts and ideas then ensued concerning those left behind.
“I said to myself that upon landing below I ought, indifferent to whether or not I were seriously injured, to call immediately to my companions out of affection for them to say, ‘I’m all right!’ Then my brother and three friends could sufficiently recover from their shock so as to accomplish the fairly difficult descent to me. My next thought was that I would not be able to give my beginning university lecture that had been announced for five days later. I considered how the news of my death would arrive for my loved ones and I consoled them in my thoughts.
“Then I saw my whole past life take place in many images, as though on a stage at some distance from me. I saw myself as the chief character in the performance. Everything was transfigured as though by a heavenly light and everything was beautiful without grief, without anxiety and without pain.
“The memory of very tragic experiences I had had was clear but not saddening. I felt no conflict or strife; conflict had been transmuted into love.
“Elevated and harmonious thoughts dominated and united the individual images, and like magnificent music a divine calm swept through my soul. I became ever more surrounded by a splendid blue heaven with delicate roseate and violet cloudlets.
“I swept into it painlessly and softly and I saw that now I was falling freely through the air and that under me a snowfield lay waiting. Objective observations, thoughts, and subjective feelings were simultaneous. Then I heard a dull thud and my fall was over.”
c. Albert Heim’s NDE Research
After his own fall, Albert Heim became deeply interested in whether others had similar experiences. Instead of dismissing his experience as a hallucination, he approached it scientifically. He began collecting firsthand accounts from mountaineers who had fallen from great heights; soldiers in life-threatening situations; and workers involved in serious accidents.
In 1892, Heim published a landmark paper summarizing these reports. His findings showed striking patterns including (a) Time Distortion: many people reported that time slowed down or even seemed to stop during the event; (b) Life Review: a large number described a rapid replay of their lives, similar to Heim’s own experience; (c) Emotional Calm: instead of terror, many felt peace, detachment, or even mild euphoria; and (d) Heightened Clarity: people often reported extremely clear thinking and vivid perception, despite the danger.
Heim’s NDE research is important because it was one of the earliest systematic studies of NDEs – decades before modern researchers like Dr. Raymond Moody or Dr. Bruce Greyson began formal investigations. What makes Heim’s research stand out is that he compared many cases, not just his own. He also looked for common elements instead of isolated stories. He also treated the experiences as real psychological phenomena worth studying. His conclusions challenged a simple explanation that these experiences were just random brain activity. The consistency across many accounts suggested something deeper was happening.
Today, Heim’s observations still line up with modern reports of NDEs. Researchers continue to find the same core features he described over a century ago.
His work raises questions that are still being debated such as the following: Why do people report clear thinking when the brain is under extreme stress? How can complex experiences occur in moments of physical crisis? Are these experiences purely biological, or do they point to something more?
Heim’s careful observations remain one of the earliest and most compelling starting points for understanding NDEs.
d. Sources
(1) “Near-Death Experiences and Einstein’s Theory of Relativity” by Kevin Williams (2026).
(2) “The Experience of Dying from Falls” by Russell Noyes & Roy Kletti (1972).
(3) In his paper, “Near-Death Experiences and Spirituality“, Dr. Bruce Greyson confirmed Albert Heim’s work as the first clear scientific description of NDEs (2017).
(4) Andrew Chapman provides a historical account of Heim’s NDE and research in his article “Falling, 1871.“
(5) In Teodora C. Anghel and Anca Munteanu’s paper “Near Death Experiences – a Theoretical and Practical Approach,” they connect Albert Heim’s findings to modern NDE features including the life review, peace, and altered time perception.
3. Norman Paulsen’s NDE From Falling
a. Overview of Norman Paulsen
Norman Paulsen is the author of the book Sacred Science: Meditation, Transformation, Illumination. He is also author of Christ Consciousness in which he describes his NDE. His NDE led him to create concepts and a meditation offering a path to the pure Self within, and the Kingdom of Heaven. The path “leads the reader through meditation, conduct, study, speech, association, nourishment, work and recreation, and the vessel is virtue. To attempt to live the 12 virtues … loyalty, patience, honesty, perseverance, compassion, continence, equanimity, courage, humility, temperance, charity and faith, is to … plant positive seeds in the field of power around us.”
Paulsen was working as a lineman for a telephone company. He climbed a telephone pole and snapped his safety strap into place but because he was in a hurry, he made the mistake of not looking to see that his safety strap was securely in place. It wasn’t. When he leaned back on the tool belt, it came undone. The result is Paulsen’s NDE as described in his book, Christ Consciousness.
b. Norman Paulsen’s NDE
“I was falling backward. I could hardly believe what was happening. It was too late to grab the pole or anything with my hands.
“‘Oh God, this is it!’
“I was more than thirty feet above the ground, too high to survive this fall without injury. I watched the pole move quickly away from my field of vision as I plummeted earthward, head first.
“I tried to prepare myself for the shock that was about to come when I hit the ground. Instead, I felt nothing at all. There was a bright flash of light, like the sun shining in my face and then silence.
“I am standing stationary in the air, high above the familiar coastline of Santa Barbara. There, far below, waves on the surface of the ocean are moving inward toward the shore. My memory is beginning to reveal what has happened. My physical body has suffered a bad fall; it is lying somewhere down below.
“I have been pulled forth from the physical body by the dual forces of Christ. My physical body may be dead or badly injured. The all-pervading sounds of Hum and Om fill the sea of life surrounding me. To the northwest a vision of unparalleled magnificence confronts me; the astral world is suspended rainbow-like on the horizon.
“I am moving northward now, impelled by silent motion, my arms outstretched before me. I am flying higher and higher without effort. There below me is the whole coastline of California! The soft, astral colors surrounding the Earth hang like a perpetual aurora borealis in every direction. My thoughts now reveal facts long known from deep within my soul. To leave the Earth in my present form, I must exit through the north polar vortex. Here, there is a door.
“Moving northward, my thoughts remind me of all my earthly commitments left behind. There below is San Luis Obispo on the west coast. An astral image of a meditating Buddha – it must be representing Dad! I have not said goodbye to him. This really troubles me; now the image is slowly disappearing like a fog.
“A distant memory reminds me of my destination out there through the north polar vortex. Here the moving currents meet, creating an aperture in the magnetic field. The Northern Hemisphere is spread out beneath me now; how fantastic! Large portions of it are visible through the haze of astral clouds; the colors are more magnificent than any I have ever seen. Again my thoughts reveal facts long known from deep within my soul.
“Mother Earth is operated by two master forces of vortex, one descending through the Earth’s core at the North Pole, and one ascending through and around the surface at the South Pole. The movement of astral and physical energies from the South Pole to North Pole swings the needle of the compass perpetually toward the magnetic North Pole. Mother Earth, with her forces of nature, spins on divine time amidst the forces of vortex, her original creators. Dead worlds, such as our moon, cease to spin, as the forces of vortex are removed.
“The physical body of man is similar to Mother Earth. Both are created and operated by the actions of vortex, masculine and feminine, the right and left hands of God. The crown of our head at birth, and for months thereafter, is soft and throbbing with each heartbeat. It is here that we find the long lost door to Divine Spirit and the gateway to the kingdom of heaven, at the magnetic north pole of man. It is also through this door on the crown of the head, that the divine masculine creative force enters into the tree of life, our spinal column. It moves downward in a counterclockwise vortex. The magnetic south pole of man is the lower end of the spine. Here the divine feminine force enters, moving upward in a clockwise vortex. It is from the movements of these sacred dual forces of life and consciousness that Divine Spirit spun and wove the creation and all the images contained therein into visible form. The motion of these sacred forces of vortex, and the understanding thereof, provides the key to the hidden door, which opens into the timeless existence of Divine Spirit, Mother-Father God, I Am That I Am.
“Our Divine Parents hold the expanding spheres of creation in Their right and left hands of vortex, producing duality in the creation. All visible forms are the production and the reproduction of the sacred forces of vortex moving on invisible arcs to themes reflecting the golden proportions of 1.618.
“The physical bodies of man and woman on Earth evolved forth from the mud of the waters and did not have immortal life. Humanity today can receive the gift of immortality (Christ consciousness) only when we allow the angels to descend with the masculine and feminine sacred forces of vortex, bringing about the anointment and the Baptism of Fire! These dual and divine forces of Christ can unite within us and bring about the conception and birth of the divine spiritual embryo, the Christ child, within our heart centers. Human beings, as the sons and daughters of man, existing in simple and self-conscious states, have little present knowledge of the sacred forces of vortex administered by the angels. They are unaware of their predestined bonding and union within (the birth of Christ consciousness around the divine spiritual embryo). Because these divine forces find it very difficult to enter humanity on Earth at this time, humankind ceases to spin or move on God’s time. Human beings find themselves out of harmony with the garden of the world and all its creatures, including their own brothers and sisters, with whom they are constantly at war. The family of man unfortunately, with the exception of a small minority, has become a dead world unto itself, like our moon. Ceasing to spin on God’s time, man is always too early or too late.
“These things passed before me as I observed the fantastic blue orb of Mother Earth beneath me, surely the only perfect poem. Magnificent are the divine images of Your creation, Father-Mother! Oh, let me be with You always, just as a humble son. I truly love You, and all I see and know of You, my heavenly Father and Mother.
“I reflected again on the image of my earthly father. I must somehow say goodbye to him before I leave. Turning, I observed a swirling white mass of light particles moving downward beneath me like a sparkling spiral stairway. Yes, a stairway to heaven does exist. I am now moving downward within the brilliant white fiery substance.
“There is my body lying at the foot of the telephone pole, covered with blankets. Without sensation, I enter it again. My eyes open to see concerned faces looking down upon me.”
4. Conclusion
The NDE stories in this article – from Albert von St. Gallen Heim in the 1800s to the modern experience of Norman Paulsen – show a clear pattern. Even though these people lived in different times, places, and cultures, they describe very similar elements. Many NDErs say time seemed to slow down or even stop. Their thinking became very clear. They felt calm instead of afraid. Some also felt a deep sense of meaning or a bigger awareness of everything around them.
What makes these NDEs so interesting is when they happen. They occur during moments of extreme danger, when you would expect the brain to be full of fear and stress. But instead of confusion, many people say they felt clear-headed. Instead of panic, they felt peaceful. This goes against what we would normally expect. It suggests that the human mind may react to life-threatening situations in ways we do not fully understand yet.
Heim’s early research has shown that these NDEs are not just random or rare events. He found that they followed a pattern that could happen again and again. More than a hundred years later, modern reports still show the same main elements he described. This strong similarity over time makes a good case that these kinds of NDEs are real and worth studying carefully.
