SDEs are highly individual, but SCRI researchers have identified recurring features and typologies. Peters has identified two typologies for classifying SDEs. The first Basic SDE Typology posits two general kinds of SDEs: remote and bedside. The remote and bedside SDEs were explained above. There are two sub types of the Basic Typology. The first sub type relates to the element of time variation and the second sub type pertains to the number of experiencers for a particular death. The time variation accounts for the 23% of SDEs that occurred before or after the medically determined time of death. SCRI found that 9% of SDEs occurred some minutes, hours, or, in rare cases, a day or so in advance of the death, while 14% of SDEs occurred a few minutes, hours, or, in some cases, a day or so after the death.  In 4% of SDEs, SCRI found that the visionary state of the Shared Death Experience occurred gradually, seemingly ending at some point then returning sometime later to the experiencer. The gradual SDE could take place over a few days or in a minority of accounts transpiring over weeks or even months. The second sub type of the Basic SDE Typology accounts for the number of experiencers who participate in the SDE at the time of an individual’s death. SCRI found that 11% of SDEs reported two or more people participating in an individual death.

The second SDE typology, Modes of Participation, refers to the manner in which the experiencer participates in the SDE. The four modes are non-exclusive in that experiencers may participate in more than one of each of the modes. Remotely Sensing a Death, the first Mode of Participation, occurred in about 20% of SDEs analyzed by SCRI and is characterized by brief thoughts, feelings, or sense of presence around the time of death. 

“I was driving my daughter to school when all of sudden the face of my friend, Daisy, appeared in front of me and elevated. She had a huge smile on her face and said, ‘Thank you for caring for me…I love you! I am going on now! Good-bye!’ The most sublime feelings rushed over me and I wept tears of joy. Thirty minutes later a friend called to inform me that Daisy had just died.”

Witnessing Unusual Phenomena Attributed to a Death is the second Mode of Participation that occurs in 88% of SCRI accounts and is defined by phenomena that the experiencer attributed to the event of death. These included visions of the dying (51%), appearance of transcendent light (25%), sensing energy (20%), alterations in time and space (19%), encounters with elevated spirit beings (16%), seeing the spirit leave the body of the deceased (15%), the appearance of previously deceased loved ones (13%), visions of heavenly realms (12%), and the appearance of tunnels and gateways (9%).

“I was holding my father’s hand as he laid in his bed laboring to breathe. I thought to myself, ‘why is he still here?’ Then I noticed to my left elevated above his feet my deceased grandmother and aunt dressed in old Irish attire. And to the right of them was my grandfather, who I never met but I know it was him, dressed in a three-piece suit. I then saw a stairway of light coming down from them to just above my father’s legs. I asked my grandmother, ‘why are you not taking him (my father)?’ She averted her eyes to an area just above my father’s heart. When I moved my attention to this area, I seemed to connect energetically with a force. Although I could not see this force, I knew it was a strong, wise, powerful being that was in charge of managing my father’s transition from his human body to the realm of spirits. I wept in awe of the grandeur I was experiencing.”

Accompanying the Dying in a Visionary Realm is the third Mode of Participation, transpiring in 15% of SCRI accounts and occurring when the experiencer reported accompanying the dying person at some point in their transition to post-mortem existence. According to these reports, participants suddenly found themselves out-of-body and/or in a visionary realm together with the dying (and sometimes with other deceased loved ones and/or unknown entities). These realms were most often described as gardens, castles, otherworldly regions, or a void. Participants stated that while in these realms they had knowledge about reality that was otherwise inaccessible or indescribable. One feature that appeared in 11% of accounts was a border or boundary that participants encountered and said they were not able or “permitted” to go beyond, upon which they suddenly found themselves back in daily life. One participant shared an experience she had at the time of her mother’s death, which had occurred in a hospice across town:

“I woke up and the room was just filled with this extreme light. I could feel that my mother was close and was coming to say good-bye. She was in the room, but not with a body. It sounds impossible, but she was there, and she was telling me that she loved me but there were no words said. It was like it was all telepathic communication. Time didn’t exist in this realm. I say ‘realm’ because suddenly the walls and the ceiling and everything was crooked or somehow off. The law of physics didn’t abide. She slowly went upwards into the so-called ceiling. Behind her, I could see this being of light that was making the whole room shine. My mom invited me up to this being that was complete love, complete knowledge, complete compassion. It was all those things. I acknowledged that it must be a divine being of some kind. We went to this black void. There I felt the presence of other souls. The strangest thing! We were floating around in this realm, and every question I ever had was answered in some strange way. What was also extremely strange was that I felt connected with the souls around me and this divine being and my mother. I felt like we were one. I didn’t want to leave but I understood that my mother was going further. I couldn’t go with her. I was just visiting, and I had to go back. The next thing I remember is being woken up the next morning from the phone call from hospice telling me my mother had died, which I was perfectly aware of.”

Assisting the Dying in Transitioning is the fourth Mode of Participation that occurs in 9% of SCRI accounts, when the experiencer assumed an active role in assisting a loved one in the process of transitioning. These experiences were similar to those in which people accompanied the dying in a visionary realm but included individuals feeling that their attention, presence, and assistance was required by the dying to successfully transition.  One experiencer reported assisting his father while reclining in the passenger seat of a truck as his father was dying in a hospital 1,500 miles away:

“I was dozing off in the passenger seat of my friend’s truck when suddenly I saw my father looking confused and lost. I immediately knew that my father had died and that he was confused and needed assistance. I said, ‘Dad you died!’ He did not respond so I picked him up and carried him upwards when suddenly his mother and brother came out of a beautiful archway of light. My father stepped out from my arms and embraced them. He loved his mother and I had not seen my father so happy in my entire life. Then they went into the light of the archway and disappeared. I returned to the passenger seat as we pulled into my home. The next morning I received a phone call from my brother informing me that our father had died last night. I responded, ‘I know!’”