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World of the Body:

near-death experiences

People who come close to death and survive often report remarkable experiences. Feelings of peace, happiness, and even joy are common, which seems paradoxical in the circumstances. Many survivors report having rushed down a dark tunnel towards a bright light — although the tunnel itself can look like anything from tiny stars or spirals of light, to the inside of a sewer pipe or an underground cave. In one study, about a third of near-death survivors reported out of body experiences, in which they seemed to leave their body and were able to watch what was happening from a distance, as though as an impartial observer. Less often they recalled leaving the scene of (near) death and travelling elsewhere. Finally, some people report wonderful heavenly scenes, peopled with angels, spiritual beings, or deceased friends and relatives. Less commonly they arrive at some kind of barrier and have to decide to return, or not. A small proportion report a ‘life review’ in which scenes from their life flash before their inner eyes, often all at once, or with no sense of passing time. This life review is sometimes remembered as an ordeal, with religious figures making judgements in a great book, but it can be purely personal, leading to calm acceptance and a re-evaluation of one's life and deeds.

After a near-death experience many people report that their whole attitude to life is changed. They are less concerned with material things and more interested in helping others. Research confirms these changes but it is not clear whether they are a consequence of the experience itself or just of having been so close to death.

Not all near-death experiences are blissful, and recent research has discovered an increasing number of hellish experiences — although just how many is hard to estimate, since people may be less likely to report them, and more anxious to forget. In many religions suicide is treated as a sin, so believers might expect those who attempt suicide to be especially likely to have hellish experiences. In fact they mostly report blissful or peaceful feelings, and the effect, far from encouraging another suicide attempt, seems to be a renewed enthusiasm for life.

The term ‘near-death experience’ became popular only after Raymond Moody's best-selling collection of accounts in 1975. However, similar reports had previously been collected from people who subsequently did die (i.e. deathbed experiences). In fact, reports of such experiences are widespread in many ages and cultures, and in literature, art, and film. Plato describes one in the Republic, Tibetan Buddhist literature includes the ‘returned from the dead’ writings, and there are myths from as far apart as ancient Greece, nineteenth-century native Americans, and Lithuanian folklore. In contemporary research, similar reports have been collected from Iceland, Britain, America, and India. In these accounts the basic features tend to be similar (including tunnels, lights, out-of-body excursions, and visions) but the details vary. For example, religious figures are often seen, but usually of the person's own religion. No Hindu is known to have seen Jesus, nor any Christian to have seen Hindu gods.

A few sceptics attribute the experiences either to wishful thinking or to taking drugs. This seems most unlikely, given the cross-cultural findings, and research showing that most drugs tend to reduce the clarity and complexity of near-death experiences. The important question is therefore why these experiences occur in a similar form all across the world.

The main contenders are either that near-death experiences are a glimpse of life after death, or that they are the effect of changes in an almost dying brain. The after-death hypothesis cannot be proven. If there is life after death, these experiences may tell us what it is like, but since none of the people concerned actually died we can never be sure. The closest we come to evidence is the claim that, during the experience, some people were able to see events at a distance that they could not possibly have known about or guessed. These claims are few, and none is substantiated by independent witnesses or physical evidence, although the best examples are probably those in which patients were able to describe complex medical procedures that occurred while they were comatose or even clinically dead.

There are several theories to explain how coming close to death can give rise to near-death experiences. Lack of oxygen is often implicated, although many near-death experiences occur when people are not deprived of oxygen, as in falls from mountains, during suicide attempts by jumping from heights, or after accidents. In such situations, however, the production and actions of various hormones and neurotransmitters may be affected. There are theories based on stimulation of receptors in nerve cell membranes called NMDA receptors, on the effects of the neurotransmitter serotonin, and on the level of endorphins (the brain's own morphine-like chemicals). Endorphins are known to produce positive emotions and reduction of pain, and may be responsible for the blissful feelings in the midst of pain and fear. Disruption of the brain's neurotransmitters can produce random or excessive firing of neurons and this, depending on where it occurs, may produce the other experiences. For example, electrical stimulation of the temporal lobe of the cerebral hemispheres can produce life reviews and sensations of floating or flying, while random firing in the parts of the visual cortex (which also occurs with drugs such as LSD) causes the perception of lights, tunnels, and spirals.

These physiological explanations can account for much of near-death experiences, and may in time provide a complete account. Even so, they can never disprove the possibility of life after death. Some people may still prefer to believe that the experience is a glimpse of the next world rather than the product of the dying brain.

— Susan Blackmore

Bibliography

  • Bailey, L. W. and Yates, J. (ed.) (1996). The near-death experience: a reader. Routledge, New York and London.
  • Blackmore, S. J. (1993). Dying to live: science and the near death experience. Prometheus, Buffalo, NY.
  • Moody, R. A. (1975). Life after life. Mockingbird, Atlanta, GA
 
 
Dental Dictionary: near-death experience

n

The subjective observation of someone who has either been close to clinical death or who may have recovered after having been declared dead. Many claim to have witnessed similar episodes of passing through a tunnel toward a bright light and encountering people who have preceded them in death.

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: near-death experience

Mystical or transcendent experience reported by people who have been on the threshold of death. The near-death experience varies with each individual, but characteristics frequently include hearing oneself declared dead, feelings of peacefulness, the sense of leaving one's body, the sense of moving through a dark tunnel toward a bright light, a life review, the crossing of a border, and meetings with other spiritual beings, often deceased friends and relatives. Near-death experiences are reported by about one-third of those who come close to death. Cultural and physiological explanations have been offered, but the causes remain uncertain. Typical aftereffects include greater spirituality and decreased fear of death.

For more information on near-death experience, visit Britannica.com.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: near-death experience,
phenomenon reported by some people who have been clinically dead, then returned to life. Descriptions of the experience differ slightly in detail from person to person, but usually share some basic elements: a feeling of being outside one's body, a sensation of sliding down a long tunnel, and the appearance of a bright light at the end of that tunnel. The light is sometimes described as a benevolent “being of light” who directs the person in a review of his or her life so far and ultimately prevents the person from crossing some sort of boundary that signifies death. Most people who have had a near-death experience report that it strongly influences their subsequent lives, relieving anxiety about death and increasing their sense of purpose and their sensitivity to others.

Research into the near-death experience was pioneered by Raymond Moody, who published Life After Life in 1975 after studying 150 people who had had such experiences. He and other scientists, such as cardiologist Michael Sabom, found that possible physiological and psychological causes for the phenomenon, including lack of oxygen to the brain, the influence of anesthetics, disruptions in neurotransmitter release, and prior expectations, could not sufficiently account for the experiences these people described. Their findings and a belief in a spiritual explanation for the phenomenon have been supported by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, who pioneered the study of death and dying in the United States beginning in the late 1960s.

Near-death experience is an emotional issue, believed to be a profound spiritual experience by some and criticized as wish fulfillment by others. Many skeptical scientists believe that it is a simple physiological event misconstrued by people who have a compelling psychological need or who are comforted by interpreting the experience in terms of their religious or spiritual beliefs.

Bibliography

See R. Moody, Life After Life (1975); K. Ring, Life at Death: a Scientific Investigation of the Near Death Experience (1980); M. B. Sabom, Recollections of Death: a Medical Investigation (1982); M. Morse, Closer to the Light (1990); B. J. Eadie, Embraced by the Light (1992); E. Kübler-Ross, On Life After Death (1994).

 
Occultism & Parapsychology Encyclopedia: Near-Death Experiences

Individuals who have shown many of the characteristics of death (stopped heart, flat brain scan, etc.) but have survived and been brought back to consciousness often report experiences that seem to have a bearing on the questions of individual survival of death and the possible existence of a human soul or surviving individual consciousness. Such experiences have been studied in modern times under the category of "near-death experiences."

Common to many such experiences is the powerful sensation of rushing through a long dark tunnel with a bright light at the end. This light brings an ecstatic feeling of joy, peace, and freedom from the body. Often the tunnel experience is preceded by a detached awareness in which some higher reality is interfused with perception of the physical environment surrounding the body, which may be perceived from a detached viewpoint, in which the self can look down on its own body, as in out-of-the-body travel. [Crucial to understanding the accounts of such experiences is separating the elements of the experience from the interpretation placed upon it by the person who has had the experience.]

Psychologists and doctors who have studied near-death experiences have also examined reports of out-of-the-body experiences, and have found enough commonalities to suggest that they are varieties of the same experience, the near-death experience often being distinguished by its intensity, its vividness, and its impact upon the person having the experience. For example, tunnel experiences are common to both, and as is the experience of viewing the physical body from a perspective outside of it. Many individuals find that such experiences are a powerful vindication of religious beliefs such as the existence of a soul as a separate entity from the body and the possibility of the continuation of the soul beyond the experience of bodily death. Clergy who undergo the experience are likely to change their views and teachings.

Various mundane theories have been offered to account for near-death and out-of-the-body experiences in terms of hallucination. For example, the tunnel sensations might be a reliving of the powerful experience of passing through the birth canal, since the baby usually emerges head first. Another psychological explanation centers upon the behavior of cells in the visual cortex when the brain is hyperactive through lack of oxygen. For a thoughtful examination of psychological theories, see the 1989 article, "Down the Tunnel" by Susan Blackmore. Blackmore has studied out-of-body experiences as a psychological phenomenon, but unlike most psychologists who theorize about such experiences, she has actually had such an experience herself. She rightly draws attention to the fact that skeptical explanations ignore the intense insightful and spiritual aspects of such experiences.

Investigators from different disciplines will emphasize their own bias. Allan Kellehear, who comes from a sociological perspective, compares the experience to crisis situations that happen to those lost at sea or trapped in a mine. Melvin Morse is a pioneer working with children who have NDEs and he finds that experiencers in this group to be contaminated by the life experiences that adults have accumulated.

Since 1981, research on the near-death experience has been focused by the International Association for Near-Death Studies founded in 1981 and headed by Kenneth Ring. It published a monumental study of the phenomenon in 1980 and has an active presence on the web. Whether the phenomenon is completely understood or not it has become increasingly important because half the recipients of medical procedures are likely to have a near-death experience.

Sources:

Atwater, P. M. H. Coming Back to Life: The After Effects of the Near-death Experience. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1988.

Blackmore, Susan J. Beyond the Body. London: Heinemann, 1982.

——. "Down the Tunnel." British and Irish Skeptic 3, no. 3 (May/June 1989).

——. Dying to live: Near-death experiences. Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1993.

Crookall, Robert. Out-of-the-Body Experiences: A Fourth Analysis. New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1970.

——. The Techniques of Astral Projection: Denouement After Fifty Years. London: Aquarian Press, 1964.

Gallup, George, Jr., with William Proctor. Adventures in Immortality. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1982. London: Souvenir Press, 1983.

Greyson, Bruce. "The Near-Death Experience as a Focus of Clinical Attention." Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 185, no. 5 (May 1997).

Groth-Marnat, G. and J. Schumaker. "The Near-Death Experience: A Review and Critique." Journal of Humanistic Psychology 29, no. 1 (January 1989).

International Association for Near-Death Studies. http://www.iands.org. April 10, 2000.

Kellehear, Allan. Experiences Near Death: Beyond Medicine and Religion. New York: Oxford Univ Press, 1996.

Kübler-Ross, Elisabeth. On Death and Dying. New York: MacMillan, 1969.

Moody, Raymond. Life After Life. New York: Bantam Books, 1975.

Morse, Melvin. Closer to the Light. New York: Villard, 1990.

Near-Death Experiences and the Afterlife. http://www.neardeath.com. April 10, 2000.

Ring, Kenneth. Life at Death: A Scientific Investigation of the Near-Death Experience. New York: William Morrow, 1980.

——, and Evelyn E. Valarino. Lessons from the Light: What We Can Learn from the Near-Death Experience. New York: Insight Books/Plenum Press, 1998.

SpiritWeb: NDE, Near Death Experiences. http://www.spiritweb.org/Spirit/nde.html. April 10, 2000.

Wilson, Ian. The After Death Experience. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1987.

Zaleski, Carol G. Otherworld Journeys: Accounts of Near-Death Experiences in Medieval and Modern Times. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.

 
Wikipedia: near-death experience
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A near-death experience (NDE) is a personal experience that encompasses multiple sensations of detachment from the body, levitation, an ambiance of security and warmth, and the presence of an all-loving being of light, sometimes interpreted as God. Many cultures revere NDEs as a paranormal and spiritual glimpse into the afterlife.

Such cases are usually reported after an individual has been pronounced clinically dead, or otherwise very close to death, hence the entitlement near-death experience. With recent developments in cardiac resuscitation techniques, the number of NDEs reported is continually increasing. The scientific community is very divided on the issue of NDEs, however. Skeptical scientists regard such experiences as hallucinatory: [1] paranormal scientists claim them to be evidence of an after life.[2][3] The debate continues.

Popular interest in near-death experiences was initially sparked by Raymond Moody, Jr's 1975 book "Life After Life" and the founding of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) in 1978. According to a Gallup poll, approximately eight million Americans claim to have had a near-death experience.[4] NDEs are among the phenomena studied in the fields of parapsychology, psychology, psychiatry,[5] and hospital medicine.[6] [7]

Characteristics

The phenomenology of an NDE usually includes physiological, psychological and alleged transcendental aspects.[8] Typically, the experience follows a distinct progression: [9] [10] [11]

  1. a very unpleasant sound/noise is the first sensory impression to be noticed (R. Moody: Life after Life);
  2. a sense of being dead;
  3. pleasant emotions; calmness and serenity;
  4. an out-of-body experience; a sensation of floating above one's own body and seeing the surrounding area;
  5. a sensation of moving upwards through a bright tunnel or narrow passageway;
  6. meeting deceased relatives or spiritual figures;
  7. encountering a being of light, or a light (often interpreted as being the Christian God or another divine figure);
  8. being given a life review;
  9. reaching a border or boundary;
  10. a feeling of being returned to the body, often accompanied by a reluctance.

However, some people have also experienced extremely distressing NDEs, which can manifest in forewarning of a "Hell" or a sense of dread towards the cessation of their life in its current state.

According to the Rasch Scale, a "core" near-death experience encompasses peace, joy, and harmony, followed by insight and mystical or religious experiences.[12] The most intense NDEs are reported to have an envolvment and awareness of things occurring in a different place or time, and some of these observations are said to have been evidential.

Clinical circumstances that are thought to lead to a NDE include conditions such as: cardiac arrest, shock in postpartum loss of blood or in perioperative complications, septic or anaphylactic shock, electrocution, coma, intracerebral haemorrhage or cerebral infarction, attempted suicide, near-drowning or asphyxia, apnoea, and serious depression.[11] Many NDEs occur after a crucial experience (e.g. when a patient can hear that he or she is declared to be dead by a doctor or nurse), or when a person has the subjective impression to be in a fatal situation (e.g. during a near-miss automobile accident). In contrast to common belief, attempted suicides do not lead more often to unpleasant NDEs than unintended near-death situations.[13]

Research

Interest in the NDE was originally spurred by the research of such pioneers as Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, George Ritchie, and Raymond Moody Jr. Moody's book Life After Life, which was released in 1975, and brought a great deal of attention to the topic of NDEs.[14] This was soon followed by the establishment of the International Association for Near-death Studies (IANDS), founded in 1978, in order to meet the needs of early researchers and those with NDE experiences within this field of research. Today the association includes researchers, health care professionals, NDE-experiencers and people close to experiencers, as well as other interested people. One of its main goals is to promote responsible and multi-disciplinary investigation of near-death and similar experiences.

Later researchers, such as Bruce Greyson, Kenneth Ring and Michael Sabom, introduced the study of near-death experiences to the academic setting. The medical community has been somewhat reluctant to address the phenomenon of NDEs, and money granted for research has been relatively scarce.[14] However, although the research was not always welcomed by the general academic community, both Greyson and Ring made significant contributions in order to increase the respectability of near-death research.[15] Major contributions to the field include the construction of a Weighted Core Experience Index[16] in order to measure the depth of the near-death experience, and the construction of the near-death experience scale,[17] in order to differentiate between subjects that are more or less likely to have experienced a classical NDE. The NDE-scale also aims to differentiate between what the field claims are "true" NDEs and syndromes or stress responses that are not related to an NDE, such as the similar incidents experienced by sufferers of epilepsy. Greyson's NDE-scale was later found to fit the Rasch rating scale model.[18]

Other contributors to the research on near-death experiences come from the disciplines of medicine, psychology and psychiatry. Greyson (1997) has also brought attention to the near-death experience as a focus of clinical attention, while Morse et al. (1985; 1986) have investigated near-death experiences in a pediatric population.

Neuro-biological factors in the experience have been investigated by researchers within the field of medical science and psychiatry (Mayank and Mukesh, 2004; Jansen, 1995; Thomas, 2004). Among the researchers and commentators who tend to emphasize a naturalistic and neurological base, for the experience, are the British psychologist Susan Blackmore (1993) and the founding publisher of Skeptic magazine, Michael Shermer (1998).

Among the scientific and academic journals that have published, or are regularly publishing new research on the subject of NDEs, are: Journal of Near-Death Studies, Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, British Journal of Psychology, American Journal of Disease of Children, Resuscitation, The Lancet, Death Studies, and the Journal of Advanced Nursing.

Variance in NDE Studies

The prevalence of NDEs has been variable in the studies that have been performed. According to the Gallup and Proctor survey in 1980-1981, of a representative sample of the American population, data showed that 15% had an NDE.[19] Though, Knoblauch in 2001 performed a more selective study in Germany and found that 4% of the sample population had experienced an NDE.[20] However, the information gathered from these studies may be subjected to the broad timeframe and location of the investigation.

Perera et al in 2005 conducted a telephone survey of a representative sample of the Australian population, as part of the Roy Morgan Catibus Survey, and concluded that 8.9% of the population had experienced an NDE.[21] In a more clinical setting, van Lommel et al (2001), a cardiologist from Netherlands, studied a group of patients who had suffered cardiac arrests and who were successfully revived. They found that 18% of these patients had an NDE, with 12% of those being core experiences.

According to Martens (1994), the only satisfying method to address the NDE-issue would be an international multicentric data collection within the framework for standardized reporting of cardiac arrest events. The use of cardiac-arrest criteria as a basis for NDE research has been a common approach among the European branch of the research field.[22]

Biological Analysis and Theories

In the 1990s, Dr. Rick Strassman conducted research on the psychedelic drug Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) at the University of New Mexico. Strassman advanced the theory that a massive release of DMT from the pineal gland prior to death or near-death was the cause of the near-death experience phenomenon. Only two of his test subjects reported NDE-like aural or visual hallucinations, although many reported feeling as though they had entered a state similar to the classical NDE. His explanation for this was the possible lack of panic involved in the clinical setting and possible dosage differences between those administered and those encountered in actual NDE cases. All subjects in the study were also very experienced users of DMT and/or other psychedelic/entheogenic agents. Some speculators consider that if subjects without prior knowledge on the effects of DMT been used during the experiment, that it is possible more volunteers would have reported feeling as though they had experienced an NDE.

Critics have argued that neurobiological models often fail to explain NDEs that result from close brushes with death, where the brain does not actually suffer physical trauma, such as a near-miss automobile accident. Such events may however have neurobiological effects caused by stress.

In a new theory devised by Kinseher in 2006, the knowledge of the Sensory Autonomic System is applied in the NDE phenomenon. His theory states that the experience of looming death is an extremely strange paradox to a living organism - and therefore it will start the NDE: during the NDE, the individual becomes capable of "seeing" the brain performing a scan of the whole episodic memory (even prenatal experiences), in order to find a stored experience which is comparable to the input information of death. All these scanned and retrieved bits of information are permanently evaluated by the actual mind, as it is searching for a coping mechanism out of the potentially fatal situation. Kinseher feels this is the reason why a near-death experience is so unusual.

The theory also states that out-of-body experiences, accompanied with NDEs, are an attempt by the brain to create a mental overview of the situation and the surrounding world. The brain then transforms the input from sense organs and stored experience (knowledge) into a dream-like idea about oneself and the surrounding area.

Whether or not these experiences are hallucinatory, they do have a profound impact on the observer. Many psychologists not necessarily pursuing the paranormal, such as Susan Blackmore, have recognized this. These scientists are not trying to debunk the experience, so much so as searching for biological reasons that cause an NDE.[23]

Effects

Main article: Effects of near-death experiences

Near-death experiences can have tremendous effects on the people who have them, their families, and medical workers.

Spiritual Viewpoints

Some view the NDE the precursor to an afterlife experience, claiming that the NDE cannot be completely explained by physiological or psychological causes, and that consciousness can function independently of brain activity.[24] Many NDE-accounts seem to include elements which, according to several theorists, can only be explained by an out-of-body consciousness. For example, in one account, a woman accurately described a surgical instrument she had not seen previously, as well as a conversation that occurred while she was under general anesthesia.[25] In another account, from a proactive Dutch NDE study [2], a nurse removed the dentures of an unconscious heart attack victim, and was asked by him after his recovery to return them. It might be difficult to explain in conventional terms how an unconscious patient could later have recognized the nurse.[26]

Dr. Michael Sabom reports a case about a woman who underwent surgery for an aneurysm. The woman reported an out-of-body experience that she claimed continued through a brief period of the absence of any EEG activity. If true, this would seem to challenge the belief by many that consciousness is situated entirely within the brain.[27]

A majority of individuals who experience an NDE see it as a verification of the existence of an afterlife.[28] This includes those with agnostic/atheist inclinations before the experience. Many former atheists, such as the Reverend Howard Storm[29][30] have adopted a more spiritual viewpoint after their NDEs. Howard Storm's NDE might also be characterized as a distressing near-death experience. The distressing aspects of some NDE's are discussed more closely by Greyson & Bush (1992).

Greyson claims that "No one physiological or psychological model by itself explains all the common features of NDE. The paradoxical occurrence of heightened, lucid awareness and logical thought processes during a period of impaired cerebral perfusion raises particular perplexing questions for our current understanding of consciousness and its relation to brain function. A clear sensorium and complex perceptual processes during a period of apparent clinical death challenge the concept that consciousness is localized exclusively in the brain."[31]

Research on NDEs occurring in the blind have also hinted that consciousness survives bodily death. Dr. Kenneth Ring claims in the book "Mindsight: Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences in the Blind" that up to 80% of his sample studied reported some visual awareness during their NDE or out of body experience.[32]Skeptics however question the accuracy of their visual awareness [33]

Religious and Physiological Views


Main article: Religious and physiological views of near-death experiences

There are many religious and physiological views about NDEs, such as the Tibetan belief of bardo; a transpersonal dimension that houses souls awaiting reincarnation.

See also

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ Blackmore, Susan:Dying to Live: Near-Death Experiences (1993). London, Grafton.
  2. ^ Grossman, Neil (Indiana University and University of Illinois), Who's Afraid of Life After Death? Why NDE Evidence is Ignored, Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), 2002
  3. ^ Fontana, David (Cardiff University and Liverpool John Moores University), Does Mind Survive Physical Death?, 2003
  4. ^ Mauro, James (1992) Bright lights, big mystery. Psychology Today, July 1992.
  5. ^ Greyson, Bruce (2003), "Near-Death Experiences in a Psychiatric Outpatient Clinic Population", Psychiatric Services, Dec., Vol. 54 No. 12. The American Psychiatric Association.
  6. ^ van Lommel, Pim (Hospital Rijnstate), "Near-death experience in survivors of cardiac arrest: a prospective study in the Netherlands" in The Lancet, 2001.
  7. ^ van Lommel, Pim (Hospital Rijnstate),"A Reply to Shermer: Medical Evidence for NDEs" in Skeptical Investigations, 2003.
  8. ^ Parnia, Waller, Yeates & Fenwick, 2001.
  9. ^ Mauro, James (1992). "Bright lights, big mystery", Psychology Today, July 1992.
  10. ^ Morse, Conner & Tyler, 1985; Morse & Perry, 1992.
  11. ^ a b van Lommel P, van Wees R, Meyers V, Elfferich I. (2001) "Near-Death Experience in Survivors of Cardiac Arrest: A prospective Study in the Netherlands", Lancet, December 15; 358(9298):2039-45.
  12. ^ Lange, Greyson & Houran, 2004.
  13. ^ Ring, Kenneth: "Heading toward Omega. In search of the Meaning of Near-Death Experience", 1984.
  14. ^ a b Mauro, James. "Bright lights, big mystery", Psychology Today, July 1992.
  15. ^ IANDS, printable brochure.
  16. ^ Ring, K. "Life at death. A scientific investigation of the near-death experience." 1980, New York: Coward McCann and Geoghenan.
  17. ^ Greyson, 1983.
  18. ^ Lange, Greyson & Houran, 2004.
  19. ^ Gallup, G., and Proctor, W. (1982). Adventures in immortality: a look beyond the threshold of death. New York, McGraw Hill.
  20. ^ Knoblauch, H., Schmied, I. and Schnettler, B. (2001). "Different kinds of Near-Death Experience: a report on a survey of near-death experiences in Germany", Journal of Near-Death Studies, 20, 15-29.
  21. ^ Perera, M., Padmasekara, G. and Belanti, J. (2005), "Prevalence of Near Death Experiences in Australia", Journal of Near-Death Studies, 24(2), 109-116.
  22. ^ Parnia, Waller, Yeates & Fenwick, 2001; van Lommel, van Wees, Meyers & Elfferich, 2001.
  23. ^ Bruce Greyson, Kevin Nelson, Susan Blackmore, webpage: News-wdeath11-2006-04.
  24. ^ Rivas, 2003
  25. ^ Sabom, Michael. Light & Death: One Doctor's Fascinating Account of Near-Death Experiences. 1998. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House
  26. ^ van Lommel P, van Wees R, Meyers V, Elfferich I. (2001) Near-Death Experience in Survivors of Cardiac Arrest: A prospective Study in the Netherlands. Lancet, December 15;358(9298):2039-45.
  27. ^ Sabom, Michael. Light & Death: One Doctor's Fascinating Account of Near-Death Experiences. 1998. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House
  28. ^ Kelly, 2001
  29. ^ Rodrigues, 2004
  30. ^ [1]
  31. ^ Greyson, 2001
  32. ^ Ring, Cooper, 1999
  33. ^ Hallucinatory Near-Death Experiences (2003) (Revised 2006)
  34. ^ Commentary

Further reading

  • American Psychiatric Association (1994) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition. Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Association (Code V62.89, Religious or Spiritual Problem).
  • Blackmore, Susan (1993) Dying to live: Science and Near-Death Experiences. London: Harper Collins.
  • Blanke, Olaf; Ortigue, Stéphanie; Landis, Theodor; Seeck, Margitta (2002) Stimulating illusory own-body perceptions. The part of the brain that can induce out-of-body experiences has been located. Nature, Vol. 419, 19 September 2002
  • Britton WB & Bootzin RR. (2004) Near-death experiences and the temporal lobe. Psychol Sci. Apr;15(4):254-8. PubMed abstract PMID 15043643
  • Carey, Stephen S. (2004) A Beginner's Guide to Scientific Method. Third Edition. Toronto: Thomson Wadsworth
  • Cowan, J. D. (1982) Spontaneous symmetry breaking in large-scale nervous activity. International Journal of Quantum Chemistry, 22, 1059-1082.
  • Father Rose, Seraphim (1980) The Soul after Death. Saint Herman Press, ISBN 0-938635-14-X
  • Greyson, B. (1983) The Near-Death Experience Scale: Construction, reliability, and validity. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 171, 369-375.
  • Greyson, Bruce (1983) The near-death experience scale. Construction, reliability, and validity. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, Jun;171(6):369-75.
  • Greyson B. (1997) The near-death experience as a focus of clinical attention. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. May;185(5):327-34. PubMed abstract PMID 9171810
  • Greyson, B. (2000) Some neuropsychological correlates of the physio-kundalini syndrome. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 32, 123-134.
  • Greyson, Bruce (2003) Near-Death Experiences in a Psychiatric Outpatient Clinic Population. Psychiatric Services, December, Vol. 54 No. 12. The American Psychiatric Association
  • Greyson, Bruce & Bush, Nancy E. (1992) Distressing near-death experiences. Psychiatry, Feb;55(1):95-110.
  • IANDS. IANDS: The International Association for Near-Death Studies. Printable Brochure. Available at www.iands.org
  • Jansen, Karl L. R. (1995) Using ketamine to induce the near-death experience: mechanism of action and therapeutic potential. Yearbook for Ethnomedicine and the Study of Consciousness (Jahrbuch furr Ethnomedizin und Bewubtseinsforschung) Issue 4 pp55-81.
  • Jansen, Karl L. R. (1997) The Ketamine Model of the Near Death Experience: A central role for the NMDA Receptor. Journal of Near-Death Studies Vol. 16, No.1
  • Kelly EW. (2001) Near-death experiences with reports of meeting deceased people. Death Stud. Apr-May;25(3):229-49
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Personal experiences

  • Return from Tomorrow by George G. Ritchie, M.D. with Elizabeth Sherrill (1978). George G. Ritchie, M.D. has held positions as president of the Richmond Academy of General Practice; chairman of the Department of Psychiatry of Towers Hospital; and founder and president of the Universal Youth Corps, Inc. He lives in Virginia. At the age of twenty, George Ritchie died in an army hospital. Nine minutes later he returned to life. What happened to him during those minutes was so compelling, it changed his life forever. In "Return from Tomorrow," he tells of his out-of-the-body encounter with other beings, his travel through different dimensions of time and space, and ultimately, his transforming meeting with the Light of the world, the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

Ritchie's amazing experience not only altered his view of eternity---it has since directed and governed his entire life. One of the most startling and hopeful descriptions of the realm beyond.

It was Dr. George G. Ritchie's story that first inspired Dr. Raymond Moody, PhD (who was studying at the University of Virginia, as an undergraduate in Philosophy, at the time) to first come in contact with NDEs. This led Dr. Moody to investigate over 150 cases of Near Death Experiences, in his book "Life after Life," and his two other books that followed.

  • Saved by the Light by Dannion Brinkley. Brinkley's experience documents one of the most complete near death experiences, in terms of core experience and additional phenomena from the NDE scale. Brinkley was clinically dead for 28 minutes and taken to a hospital morgue.
  • Placebo by Howard Pittman (1980). A detailed record of Mr. Pittman's near-death experience.
  • The Darkness of God by John Wren-Lewis (1985), Bulletin of the Australian Institute for Psychical Research No 5. An account of the far-reaching effects of his NDE after going through the death process several times in one night.
  • Anita Moorjani, an ethnic Indian woman from Hong Kong experienced a truly remarkable NDE which has been documented on the Near Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF) website as one of the most exceptional accounts on their archives. She had end-stage cancer and on February 2, 2006, doctors told her family that she only had a few hours to live. Following her NDE, Anita experienced a remarkable total recovery of her health. Her full story can be read at www.nderf.org titled "Anita M's NDE".
  • Goldie Hawn, while giving a speech at the Buell Theater in Denver, Colorado, reflected upon her near-death experience. When she was younger, and starting out as an actress, she and a group of friends were in a severe car crash together. While she was unconscious, she remembers looking over herself while the paramedics were trying to revive her. She also mentioned seeing a bright light and being told it was not her time soon before she awoke.

Fiction

  • In Passage, a 2001 novel by Connie Willis, the principal storyline centers around a researcher who has developed a technique for inducing an experience very much like a natural NDE. By studying the effects and comparing them with real NDEs, she hopes to find a biological basis for NDEs.
  • In the end of Scorpia, 5th installment in the Alex Rider series, Alex Rider, the protagonist, is shot near the heart by a sniper, collapses and sees his deceased parents appear before him in bright light, before losing consciousness.
  • The novel Fearless (1993) by Rafael Yglesias is about an architect that survives a planecrash. His near-death experience starts a period of fearlessness and existential concerns which puts him in conflict with both his family and the surrounding culture. The book was later adapted to the screen by director Peter Weir, starring Jeff Bridges as the main character, Max Klein. See Fearless (film).
  • The French novel Les Thanatonautes by Bernard Werber is about a group of scientists trying to study life after death by using drugs to throw them into cardiac arrest. It is the beginning of a successful trilogy including L'Empire des Anges and Nous, Les Dieux.
  • Another French novel, "Le Serment des Limbes" by Jean Christophe Grangé, deals with negative NDE and its impact on devil worshipping.
  • The movie Flatliners (1990) is about a group of medical students who want to study the near-death experience. They volunteer to clinically die and be revived by their fellow students. However, their experiment begins to go awry.
  • In the movie Stay (2005) the character of Henry (Ryan Gosling) has a NDE that lasts throughout the entire film. As he lies dying after a car crash that killed the rest of his family his mind wanders between life and death. Henry's final minutes of his life extended into a dream that lasts several days in his mind. He sees the illusion through the eyes of the man who is trying to keep him alive (Ewan McGregor).
  • In the Christian film Escape from Hell, a man attempts to prove Heaven's existence by purposefully placing himself in cardiac arrest. However, he finds himself in a completely different place: Hell.
  • At the end of the computer animated film Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, the saber-toothed squirrel character Scrat, in perpetual sisyphean pursuit of an acorn, dies and goes on to a shimmering ethereal place abundant with acorns surrounding one very large one, as if in final reward for his patience, but just as he is about to sink his teeth into it, he is pulled out of the place back to earth where he has been revived by the character Sid, who is baffled at his anger instead of gratitude at finding himself back alive.

External links

As an afterlife experience

Neutral

As a physiological and psychological experience

Death and related topics
In medicine Autopsy · Brain death · Clinical death · Euthanasia · Persistent vegetative state · Terminal illness
Lists Causes of death by rate · People by cause of death
Mortality Immortality · Infant mortality · Legal death · Maternal death · Mortality rate
After death Afterlife · Burial · Cremation · Decomposition · Funeral · Grief · Mourning · Promession · Resomation · Séance · Customs
Fields of research Cryonics · Near-death experience · Near-death studies · Reincarnation research
Other Genocide  · Fascination with death · Martyrdom · Sacrifices (Human · Animal) · Suicide · War

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