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Near-death experience

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Ascent in the Empyrean (Hieronymous Bosch)

A near-death experience (NDE) is an experience reported by a person who nearly died, or who experienced clinical death and then revived. Some people believe it can be explained by hallucinations produced by the brain as it dies, while others believe that such an explanation cannot account for all the evidence.[1] The experience has become more common in recent times, especially since the development of cardiac resuscitation techniques. Popular interest in near-death experiences was 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.[2] NDEs are among the phenomena studied in the field of parapsychology.

Near-death experience characteristics

The phenomenology of an NDE usually includes physiological, psychological and transcendental aspects.[3] Typically the experience follows a distinct progression:[4][5][6]

  1. A sense of being dead.
  2. An out-of-body experience. A sensation of floating above one's body and seeing the surrounding area.
  3. Pleasant feelings, calmness. A sense of overwhelming love and peace.
  4. A sensation of moving upwards through a tunnel or narrow passageway.
  5. Meeting deceased relatives or spiritual figures.
  6. Encountering a being of light, or a light (possibly a religious or divine figure).
  7. Being given a life review.
  8. Reaching a border or boundary.
  9. A feeling of being returned to the body, often accompanied by a reluctance.

Some people have also experienced extremely distressing NDEs. A 'core' near-death experience reflects — as intensity increases according to the Rasch scale — peace, joy and harmony, followed by insight and mystical or religious experiences.[7] The most intense NDEs involve an awareness of things occurring in a different place or time, and some of these observations are said to have been evidential.

Among the clinical circumstances that are thought to lead to an NDE we find such factors 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.[8]

Near-death 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, brought a great deal of attention to the topic of NDEs.[9] 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 experiencers 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 NDE's and grant money for research has been scarce.[10] 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.[11] Major contributions to the field include the construction of a Weighted Core Experience Index.[12] in order to measure the depth of the Near-death experience, and the construction of the Near-death experience scale.[13] 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 a true NDE and syndromes or stress responses that are not related to a NDE. Greysons NDE-scale was later found to fit the Rasch rating scale model.[14]

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.

A significant amount of the research on near-death experiences is co-ordinated through the field of Near-death studies. Among the pioneers of Near-death studies is Dr. Raymond Moody, who has chronicled and studied many of these experiences in several books (Moody, 1975;1977;1999), and Dr. Kenneth Ring, co-founder and past President of the International Association for Near-death studies (IANDS). Major contributions to the field include the construction of a Weighted Core Experience Index (Ring, 1980) in order to measure the depth of the Near-Death experience, and the construction of the Near-Death Experience Scale (Greyson, 1983) in order to differentiate between subjects that are more or less likely to have experienced a genuine NDE. These approaches include criteria for deciding what is to be considered a classical or authentic NDE. Among the researchers associated with the field of Near-Death Studies are Bruce Greyson, Michael Sabom, Melvin Morse, PMH Atwater, Yvonne Kason and Peter Fenwick. Most of these researchers tend to emphasize the interpretative and phenomenological dimension of the experience.

Other contributors to the research on Near-death experiences come from the disciplines of medicine, psychology and psychiatry. 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 we find the British psychologist Susan Blackmore (1993), and 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 NDE's we find: 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.

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.[15]

Dr. Rick Strassman, while conducting DMT research in the 1990s at the University of New Mexico, advanced the theory that a massive release of Dimethyltryptamine 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 realm similar to the bardo, or a transpersonal dimension that houses souls awaiting reincarnation. 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. It is also important to take into account that all of the subjects in the study were very experienced users of DMT and/or other psychedelic/entheogenic agents. Had subjects without prior knowledge on the effects of DMT been used during the experiment, it is possible that more volunteers would have reported feeling as though they had died or had a 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.

As an afterlife experience

Some see the NDE as an afterlife experience. They believe that the NDE cannot be completely explained by physiological or psychological causes, and that consciousness can function independently of brain activity.[16] 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.[17] 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.[18]

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 abscence of any EEG activity. If true, this would seem to challenge the belief by many that consciousness is situated entirely within the brain.[19]

A majority of individuals who experience an NDE see it as a verification of the existence of an afterlife.[20] This includes those with agnostic/atheist inclinations before the experience. Many former atheists, such as the Reverend Howard Storm[21][22] have adopted a more spiritual view 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).

As Greyson notes: "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."[23]

Research on NDEs occurring in the blind have also hinted that consciousness survives bodily death. Dr. Kenneth Ring notes 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.[24]

In infrequent instances there is ambiguity between medical and spiritual facts. There exist reports about connections between deceased persons and persons who have had an NDE. Ken Mullens (1992;1995), who was clinically dead for more than 20 minutes, reported spiritual encounters in his life after his NDE. As he reported, deceased persons he communicated with were often unknown to him, but were connected to people he met at a later point. While such reports are discredited by skeptics, they remain a mystery. Since they have no apparent medical or physical explanation they are said to belong to the interpretative and phenomenological dimension of the NDE, as investigated by the field of Near-death studies.

NDE's can also lead to long-lasting spiritual effects (as evidenced by the many studies which confirm the experience as having taken place during clinical death). The mathematician John Wren-Lewis (1985), after his NDE, felt himself in a more or less permanent state of equanimity, feeling contact with the void and with no separate existence from the whole.

Religious and physiological view of near-death experiences

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

There are many religous and physiological views about what NDEs are.

Effects of near-death experiences

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.

See also

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ van Lommel, 2004
  2. ^ Mauro, James (1992) Bright lights, big mystery. Psychology Today, July 1992
  3. ^ Parnia, Waller, Yeates & Fenwick, 2001
  4. ^ Mauro, James (1992) Bright lights, big mystery. Psychology Today, July 1992
  5. ^ Morse, Conner & Tyler, 1985; Morse & Perry, 1992
  6. ^ 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, Dec 15;358(9298):2039-45.
  7. ^ Lange, Greyson & Houran, 2004
  8. ^ 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, Dec 15;358(9298):2039-45.
  9. ^ Mauro, James. Bright lights, big mystery. Psychology Today, July 1992
  10. ^ Mauro, James. Bright lights, big mystery. Psychology Today, July 1992
  11. ^ IANDS, printable brochure
  12. ^ Ring K. Life at death. A scientific investigation of the near- death experience. 1980 New York: Coward McCann and Geoghenan
  13. ^ Greyson, 1983
  14. ^ Lange, Greyson & Houran, 2004
  15. ^ Parnia, Waller, Yeates & Fenwick, 2001; van Lommel, van Wees, Meyers & Elfferich, 2001
  16. ^ Rivas, 2003
  17. ^ Sabom, Michael. Light & Death: One Doctor's Fascinating Account of Near-Death Experiences. 1998. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House
  18. ^ 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, Dec 15;358(9298):2039-45.
  19. ^ Sabom, Michael. Light & Death: One Doctor's Fascinating Account of Near-Death Experiences. 1998. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House
  20. ^ Kelly, 2001
  21. ^ Rodrigues, 2004
  22. ^ [1]
  23. ^ Greyson, 2001
  24. ^ Ring, Cooper, 1999

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.
  • 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
  • Lange R, Greyson B, Houran J. (2004) A Rasch scaling validation of a 'core' near-death experience. British Journal of Psychology, Volume: 95 Part: 2 Page: 161-177
  • Lukoff, David, Lu, Francis G. & Turner, Robert P. (1998) From Spiritual Emergency to Spiritual Problem - The Transpersonal Roots of the New DSM-IV Category. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 38(2), 21-50
  • Martens PR. (1994) Near-death-experiences in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survivors. Meaningful phenomena or just fantasy of death? Resuscitation. Mar;27(2):171-5. PubMed abstract PMID 8029538
  • Morse M, Castillo P, Venecia D, Milstein J, Tyler DC. (1986) Childhood near-death experiences. American Journal of Diseases of Children, Nov;140(11):1110-4.
  • Morse M., Conner D. and Tyler D. (1985) Near-Death Experiences in a pediatric population. A preliminary report, American Journal of Disease of Children, n. 139 PubMed abstract PMID 4003364
  • Morse, Melvin (1990) Closer to the Light: Learning From the Near-Death Experiences of Children. New York: Villard books
  • Morse, Melvin & Perry, Paul (1992) Transformed by the Light. New York: Villard books
  • Moody, R. (1975) Life After Life: The Investigation of a Phenomenon - Survival of Bodily Death. New York: Bantam
  • Moody, R. (1977) Reflections on Life After Life: More Important Discoveries In The Ongoing Investigation Of Survival Of Life After Bodily Death. New York: Bantam
  • Moody, R. (1999) The Last Laugh: A New Philosophy of Near-Death Experiences, Apparitions, and the Paranormal. Hampton Roads Publishing Company
  • Mullens, K. (1992) Returned From The Other Side. Publ. Kenneth G. Mullens
  • Mullens, K. (1995) Visions From The Other Side. Publ. Kenneth G. Mullens
  • Orne RM. (1995) The meaning of survival: the early aftermath of a near-death experience. Research in Nursing & Health. 1995 Jun;18(3):239-47. PubMed abstract PMID 7754094
  • Parnia S, Waller DG, Yeates R, Fenwick P (2001) A qualitative and quantitative study of the incidence, features and aetiology of near death experiences in cardiac arrest survivors. Resuscitation. Feb;48(2):149-56. PubMed abstract PMID 11426476
  • Peake, Anthony (2006) "Is There Life After Death?" (Chartwell Books in USA & Arcturus in UK)
  • Pinchbeck, Daniel (2002) Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism. Broadway Books, trade paperback, 322 pages
  • Pravda (2004) Reanimators try to grasp the afterlife mystery. Pravda article 21.12.2004. (Article translated by: Maria Gousseva)
  • Raaby et al. (2005) Beyond the Deathbed.
  • Rivas T. (2003). The Survivalist Interpretation of Recent Studies into the Near-Death Experience. Journal of Religion and Psychical Research, 26, 1, 27-31.
  • Rodrigues, Linda Andrade (2004) Ex-atheist describes near-death experience. Standard Times, Page C4, January 31, 2004
  • Sabom, Michael (1998) Light & Death: One Doctor's Fascinating Account of Near-Death Experiences. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House
  • Simpson SM. (2001) Near death experience: a concept analysis as applied to nursing. Journal of Advanced Nursing. Nov;36(4):520-6. PubMed abstract PMID 11703546
  • Rick Strassman, DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences, 320 pages, Park Street Press, 2001, ISBN 0-89281-927-8
  • Thomas, Shawn (2004) Agmatine and Near-Death Experiences. Article published at www.neurotransmitter.net

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 Virgina. 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.
  • 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".

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.
  • 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).

Advocacy

Neutral

Skeptical

  1. ^ Commentary
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