Near-death experience

Ascent in the Empyrean (Hieronymus Bosch)

A near-death experience (NDE) is the event of maintaining consciousness after having been declared clinically dead, and being resuscitated to reflect on what was experienced. Such events often include a white light; encounters with angels, ancestors, or other members of the deceased; out-of-body experiences; and a life review. Many are fascinated with the prospect of NDEs being a glimpse into the afterlife, while others are highly skeptical that they are anything beyond fabrication.

With recent developments in cardiac resuscitation techniques, the number of NDEs reported continually increases. The scientific community is very divided on the issue of NDEs, with skeptical scientists believing there to be a biological explanation for the phenomena while more paranormally inclined scientists claim these experiences to be evidence of a spiritual world.

According to a Gallup poll, approximately eight million Americans claim to have had a near-death experience. NDEs are among the phenomena studied in the fields of parapsychology, psychology, psychiatry, and hospital medicine. Testimonies from these individuals have given comfort to those seeking evidence of a life after death, as well as clues to the curious regarding the descriptions of this reality.

History

Popular interest in near-death experiences was initially sparked by Raymond Moody, Jr's 1975 book "Life After Life" and the subsequent formation of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) in 1978.

Characteristics

The phenomenology of an NDE usually includes physiological, psychological and alleged transcendental aspects. Typically, the experience follows a distinct progression:

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. 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. 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.

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. 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. 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. Major contributions to the field include the construction of a Weighted Core Experience Index in order to measure the depth of the near-death experience, and the construction of the near-death experience scale, 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.

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 percent had an NDE. Though, Knoblauch in 2001 performed a more selective study in Germany and found that 4 percent of the sample population had experienced an NDE. 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 percnet of the population had experienced an NDE. 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 percent of these patients had an NDE, with 12 percent 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.

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.

Effects

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. 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. In another account, from a proactive Dutch NDE study , 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.

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.

A majority of individuals who experience an NDE see it as a verification of the existence of an afterlife. This includes those with agnostic/atheist inclinations before the experience. Many former atheists, such as the Reverend Howard Storm 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."

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 percent of his sample studied reported some visual awareness during their NDE or out of body experience.Skeptics however question the accuracy of their visual awareness

Religious and Physiological Views

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

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.

• Embraced by the Light by Betty Eadie (1992). One of the most detailed near-death experiences on record.

• 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.

• Bahá'í Reinee Pasarow has presented her experiences and an extended talk which was filmed Part 1,Part2, with a partial transcript, and analyzed from a religious point of view in a Commentary and analyzed as part of the paper The Exploration of Life After Death. Pasarow was interviewed by Dr. Kenneth Ring.

• 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 Final Destination 2, Kimberly Corman has a life review before dying. Later she is saved by Ellen Kallarjian.

• 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 game Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Naked Snake undergoes a NDE after falling into the river, almost drowning in the process.

• In the movie White Noise: The Light (2007), the sequel of White Noise (2005), the main character Abe Dale (Nathan Fillion) has a NDE after his suicide attempt. His spirit separates from his body. His consciousness then floats through a grey tunnel at the end of which there is a bright light to be found. It shines upon his murdered wife and child who are already expecting him. His astral body is pulled back into his physical body after a successful resuscitation.

• 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.

See also

• Out-of-body experience
• Near-Death Studies
• Alister Hardy
• Beyond and Back
• Form constant
• Sheol
• Lobsang Rampa
• Lazarus phenomenon
• Suspended animation
• Premature burial
• Near-birth experience

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

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• Blackmore, Susan. Dying to live: Science and Near-Death Experiences. London: Harper Collins, 1993. ISBN 0879758708 ISBN 9780879758707
• Blanke, Olaf; Ortigue, Stéphanie; Landis, Theodor; Seeck, Margitta "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
• WB Britton & Bootzin RR. Near-death experiences and the temporal lobe. Psychol Sci. (2004) Apr;15(4):254-8. PubMed abstract
• Carey, Stephen S. (2004) A Beginner's Guide to Scientific Method. Third Edition. Toronto: Thomson Wadsworth
• Cowan, J. D. "Spontaneous symmetry breaking in large-scale nervous activity." International Journal of Quantum Chemistry, 22, 1059-1082.
• Father Rose, Seraphim. The Soul after Death. Saint Herman Press, 1980. ISBN 093863514X
• Greyson, B. "The Near-Death Experience Scale: Construction, reliability, and validity." Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 1983. 171, 369-375.
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• Greyson, B. "Some neuropsychological correlates of the physio-kundalini syndrome." Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 2000. 32, 123-134.
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External links

As an afterlife experience

All links retrieved October 21, 2007.

• International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) - iands.org
• Near-Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF) - nderf.org
• Press release: A Near Death Experience - University of Wales, Lampeter
• Explaining Neath-death Experiences - SpiritualTravel
• Near-Death Experiences and the Afterlife - Near-Death.com
• High Gravity Causes of NDE - Near-Death.com
• Near-death experience in survivors of cardiac arrest: a prospective study in the Netherlands - The Lancet
• A Reply to Shermer: Medical Evidence for NDEs - Skeptical Investigations
• Does Mind Survive Physical Death? - Fontana, Cardiff University and Liverpool John Moores University
• Who's Afraid of Life After Death? Why NDE Evidence is Ignored - Grossman, Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS)
• Near Death Experience - How Stuff Works
• BBC Documentary about Near Death Experience - Google Video
• News for the Soul, Archived Webradio Interview with P.M.H. Atwater and Dannion Brinkley on NDE research
• With Good Reason by VFH Radio with Bruce Greyson, November 2006
• The Near Death Chronicles Part 1 - Google Video
• The Near Death Chronicles Part 2 - Google Video
• The Near Death Chronicles Part 3 - Google Video
• The Near Death Chronicles Part 4 - Google Video
• The Near Death Chronicles Part 5 - Google Video
• The Near Death Chronicles Part 6 - Google Video
• Thoughtful Living, a study of near death experiences - aleroy.com

Neutral

All links retrieved October 21, 2007.

• Scientists find proof of near-death experiences - News Monster
• humorous webcomic about a super hero - Near Death Experience Man
• Using Ketamine to Induce the Near-Death Experience:Mechanism of Action and Therapeutic Potential - Dr. Karl L. R. Jansen MD, PhD, MRCPsych
• Division of Personality Studies - University of Virginia Health System

As a physiological and psychological experience

All links retrieved October 21, 2007.

• A Special Report: What Is Betty Eadie Hiding? - Christian Research Institute Journal
• Near Death Experiences - The Skeptic's Dictionary
• Near-Death Experiences: In or out of the body? by Susan Blackmore, Published in Skeptical Inquirer 1991, 16, 34-45
• The Ketamine Model of the Near Death Experience:A Central Role for the NMDA Receptor - Dr. Karl L. R. Jansen MD, PhD, MRCPsych

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