View source for Near-Death Clairvoyance

{{trope}}
A character who is dead or having a [[Near Death Experience]] steps out of his body and observes what is happening with other characters in the story at that time. The events so observed are shown one way or another to be real and not the fantasy of a dying brain. Alternately, the character gets to review key events in his life, providing the justification for a [[Clip Show]]. Either variant can turn into yet another version of [[Yet Another Christmas Carol]] or [[Wonderful Life]].

The sequence usually ends with dead characters moving on to the Afterlife, and [[Convenient Coma|comatose ones]] waking up (occasionally as a [[Mistimed Revival]]). Reawakened and revived characters rarely remember the experience as more than a [[Dream Sequence|blurry dream,]] although specific recollections are sometimes allowed for punchlines or [[An Aesop]].

Compare [[Fever Dream Episode]].
{{examples|Examples}}

==  Anime and Manga  ==

* ''[[Giant Robo]]'' uses the narration version of this trope to pull off [[Anyone Can Die]].  {{spoiler|Ginrei narrates the beginning of the first episode as if she's flashing back after the end of the story. After she dies in the last episode, her disembodied spirit says a few lines in a post-credits epilogue.}}
* Ash and Pikachu go through this in the ''[[Pokémon]]'' episode in which the team goes to Lavender Town in order to catch a Ghost Pokemon(which he does...kind of). [[Hilarity Ensues]] with Misty and Brock.
* The protagonist of ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'' spends the first four episodes of the show as a ghost while trying desperately to get back into his body. (The arc is extended in the manga, but generally goes the same way.)
* In the manga version of ''[[Chrono Crusade]]'', {{spoiler|Rosette}} dies and has a vision (or perhaps goes to the story's version of the afterlife) of being on a train. While there, {{spoiler|she looks into the glass of [[Iconic Item|her watch]]}} to see {{spoiler|Chrono}} saying that he still has hope for her to return. {{spoiler|She does, and uses the surprise of her revival to shoot Aion's sword and destroy it.}}
* In ''[[Ranma One Half]]'', an old man named Harumaki has a foot in the grave already, and he can leave his agonizing body temporarily to go and annoy female-Ranma. He takes advantage of his ghostly form (and wispy, snake-like lower "body") by floating everywhere and trailing spirals around her.
* Another [[Rumiko Takahashi]] story, the one-shot ''1 Or W'', shows the protagonist's girlfriend watching him mourn over her body after a nasty accident caused by his kendo team captain. Just as she's about to reenter her body and come back to life, ''the spirit of the kendo team captain'' outraces her and [[Grand Theft Me|possesses her body]], leaving her to [[Wall Glower|fume angrily as a ghost for the rest of the story]] --unless the protagonist can defeat the captain in a match.
* [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]] in ''[[Zatch Bell]]'': {{spoiler|Kiyomaro}} ''[[Back From the Dead|returns from the dead]]'' with clairvoyance-like [[Psychic Powers]].
* Erza in [[Fairy Tail]], after she attempts to sacrifice herself to stop the Etherion from killing Natsu.

==  Film  ==

* ''[[The Sixth Sense]]'' has a child who can see all sorts of Dead Men Walking.  {{spoiler|Including the protagonist, who is totally unaware he's dead.}} It's so old now as to have become a [[It Was His Sled|catch-phrase]], but hey, a spoiler is a spoiler.
* According to director commentary on ''[[The Abyss]]'', the sequence where Ed Harris's character tries to revive his love interest was shot with camera angles meant to evoke the "hovering over your body" idea.
* Lester (not a spoiler, he states that he's dead in the opening scene) in ''[[American Beauty]]''.
* In ''What Dreams May Come'', the plot pretty much revolves around what happens in the afterlife. After {{spoiler|Robin William's character dies,}} he's shown what happens in the real world after his death.
* In ''[[The Orphanage]]'', {{spoiler|people who are close to death can see ghosts, and the main character can see ghosts because she is dying of cancer.}}

==  Literature  ==

* ''[[Anansi Boys (Literature)|Anansi Boys]]'', by Neil Gaiman, which contains a subplot of the ghost of Maeve Livingstone watching the investigations of her own murder.
* Setup of ''[[The Lovely Bones]]''.
* The [[Christopher Pike]] novel ''Remember Me'' is about a girl who wakes up as a ghost after she is killed by {{spoiler|one of her friends.}} She sees her family finding out about her death, her funeral, and then spends the rest of the book trying to figure out who killed her. After her murder is solved, she proceedes to the afterlife.
* This troper read a book about a kid who was murdered, but his ghost didn't realize it. He went through an entire school day wondering why nobody could see him or hear him, and then he found out about his murder. The rest of the book was spent with him observing the investigation of his murder and how those he knew reacted to his death. It took place in Canada, this troper thinks. Anybody know what this troper's talking about?
* In ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Moving Pictures|Moving Pictures]]'', Gaspode is having one when rescued.


==  Live Action TV  ==

* An entire episode of ''[[MASH|M*A*S*H]]'' is told from the point of view of a soldier's ghost, seen by Klinger while the latter [[Fever Dream Episode|recovers from a high fever]].
* ''[[Desperate Housewives]]'' manages to kill off its [[Narrator]] at the start of the first episode. She continues narrating, giving us glimpses into the personal lives of her still-living friends that they don't get to see in each other. She actually appears to Lynnette in one episode.
* [[MacGyver]] spends an episode in spiritual limbo after the bad guys first put him into a coma, and then try to poison his bed-ridden body. He escapes through the aid of a recently-deceased relative.
* The last episode of season five of ''[[Curb Your Enthusiasm]]'' has Larry David (playing himself) dying and going to Heaven. He eventually proves so annoying that his guardian angels send him back into his body, much to the disappointment of his friends and family.
* ''[[Mr. Belvedere]]'' had the titular character experiencing this; at first, it seems that everything's going comedically wrong without him, but it turns out that life goes on.
* The [[Darker and Edgier|bleak]] ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' spinoff ''[[Torchwood (TV)|Torchwood]]'' tried [[Something Completely Different]] with the more lighthearted, sentimental episode "Random Shoes", in which a recently deceased character observes (and subconsciously influences) the protagonist Gwen as she investigates his death.
* Subverted in an episode of ''[[Scrubs]]'': as various doctors are around a man's body (masking it from view) and finally saying that they lost him, a man walks up and begins to talk about how seeing himself die like that was strange. He even starts giving a speech about death itself...until J.D. comes up and angrily reminds him that he's not dead, just insane.
** However, there is also an episode that plays it straight: J.D. gets sick and has to undergo surgery where he has an out-of-body experience looking over Turk's shoulder as he's operating. Turk asks him (though "the ghost" isn't seen) to go away because he can't concentrate.
* The season two episode "Epiphanies" gave ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'''s on-the-brink-of-death Laura Roslin the chance to remember [[The End of the World As We Know It]]. It was the day she got told she had terminal breast cancer, got dumped ''and'' fired by the former President, stopped a union crisis, listened as the Cylons nuked her homeworld, got sworn in as the new President, and left a whole bunch of people in the hands of the Cylons. Oh, and she figured out Gaius Baltar betrayed everyone because he was making out with a known Cylon. 'Cept she can't prove it.  {{spoiler|Luckily, she said [[Screw Destiny]] and woke the heck up due to some hybrid blood from the extra-special baby Sharon was carrying.}}
* Dean of ''[[Supernatural]]'' did this while in a coma in the season 2 premiere, and his brother used a Ouija board to communicate with him.
* In ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', episode "Meridian", Dr. Jackson lies dying of radiation poisoning. While the other characters take turns sitting at his bedside, he is in deep conversation with [[Energy Beings|Oma Desala]] about whether he is satisfied with the life he led or not. Eventually, he makes himself visible to Jack to tell him to let him die. Then he walks through the active Stargate and [[Ascend to A Higher Plane of Existence|ascends.]]
* An episode of ''[[House (TV)|House]]'' (''Three Stories'') involves him almost dying and having flashes of the other two patients he was talking about, as well as their eventual fates in regards to the legs they were worried about losing. Interestingly, he then claims that it certainly didn't make him believe in anything like God or the afterlife or even life flashing before his eye, just that his mind was creating a hallucination as he died to make him feel better.
* In ''Kingdom Hospital'', Stephen King's [[Author Avatar]] spends nearly the whole series slipping in and out of a ghostly duplicate of the hospital, halfway between life and true death, while his body lies comatose.

==  Tabletop Games  ==

* [[Geist: The Sin Eaters (Tabletop Game)|Sin-Eaters]] who bear one of the [[Elemental Powers|Elemental Keys]] and the Oracle Manifestation get a fun variant of this -- they're able to undergo an out-of-body experience and travel wherever they wish. Thing is, to do so, they must take damage in one form or another. Depending on the Key in question, this may involve being buried alive, setting yourself on fire, getting strangled, or drowning yourself in the bathtub. Mind you, if you successfully pull it off, you're healed of all damage once you "snap back."
* Similarly, ''[[Orpheus]]'' split the "Laments" between actual ghosts and living people who were able to project their soul out of their body. Skimmers could do it through meditation, but Sleepers required cryogenic tanks to bring their body to a state of "death" that would allow them to "vacate the premises." In fact, that's how Orpheus got into the "post-life management" business -- they were doing extensive research into cryogenics, and discovered an interesting side effect... 

==  Webcomics  ==

* A routine event for the titular character in [[Nodwick]].

==  Western Animation  ==

* In ''[[Family Guy]]'', Peter is struck by lightning and has a [[Near Death Experience]]. He proceeds to steal money from his own wallet and later tries to reenter his body through the mouth, having about as much success as a flesh-and-blood fat man would have trying to climb inside an unconscious person. [[Grim Reaper|Death (a recurring character)]] shows up to hang out with him for a while as part of his [[Near Death Experience]], and when Peter asks when he's really going to die, he's told it'll be a few years after Lois divorces him. Peter tries convincing Death that'll never happen, and leads him through a bunch of flashbacks depicting their courtship, showing how deeply in love they were. In the process, Peter realizes that he's been taking Lois for granted lately, and has the epiphany necessary to save his marriage.

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[[Category:Narrative Devices]]
[[Category:Near Death Clairvoyance]]
[[Category:Trope]]