On this webpage is a chart giving various statistics concerning fifty of these NDEs. For my research, I have defined twenty-one characteristics in which to analyze these NDEs. I have classified the fifty NDEs into five distinct categories. They are: (1) Christian NDEs (2) Non-Christian NDEs (3) New Age NDEs (4) Atheist NDEs and (5) Non-religious NDEs. These categories reflect the religious background of the experiencer before their NDE. As an example, the category of "Non-Christian NDEs" refers to those NDErs who, before their NDE, had a religious background other than Christian excluding a New Age backgrounds. "New Age NDEs" refers to those NDErs who, before their NDE, were open to all religious backgrounds but excluding NDErs with a specific religious background. I also categorize "Atheist NDEs" experiences separate from "Non-Religious" because I want to distinguish those who held an atheistic belief system as opposed to those who held no belief system.

A person may ask why categorize NDEs according to the religious background prior to the NDE? The reason for this is to see how a person’s prior belief system influences their NDE, if at all. It helps in quantifying correlations between a person’s prior belief system and the person’s NDE.