- "NDE" redirects here. For other uses, see NDE (disambiguation). "Near-death" redirects here. For other uses, see Near-death (disambiguation).
A
near-death experience (
NDE) refers to a broad range of personal experiences associated with impending
deathDeath is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....
, encompassing multiple possible sensations including detachment from the body; feelings of levitation; extreme fear; total serenity, security, or warmth; the experience of absolute dissolution; and the presence of a light.
These phenomena are usually reported after an individual has been pronounced
clinically deadClinical death is the medical term for cessation of blood circulation and breathing, the two necessary criteria to sustain life. It occurs when the heart stops beating in a regular rhythm, a condition called cardiac arrest. The term is also sometimes used in resuscitation research.Stopped blood...
or otherwise very close to death, hence the term
near-death experience. Many NDE reports, however, originate from events that are not life-threatening. With recent developments in cardiac resuscitation techniques, the number of reported NDEs has increased. Many in the scientific community regard such experiences as
hallucinatoryA hallucination, in the broadest sense of the word, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus. In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid,...
, while
paranormalParanormal is a general term that designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation" or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure...
specialists and some mainstream scientists regard them to be evidence of an
afterlifeThe afterlife is the belief that a part of, or essence of, or soul of an individual, which carries with it and confers personal identity, survives the death of the body of this world and this lifetime, by natural or supernatural means, in contrast to the belief in eternal...
.
Popular interest in near-death experiences was initially sparked by
Raymond MoodyRaymond Moody is a psychologist and medical doctor. He is most famous as an author of books about life after death and near-death experiences , a term that he coined in 1975. His best-selling title is Life After Life.-Life:...
's 1975 book
Life After LifeLife After Life is a 1975 book written by psychiatrist Raymond Moody. It is a report on a qualitative study in which Moody interviewed 150 people who had undergone near-death experiences . The book presents the author's composite account of what it is like to die...
and the founding of the
International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS)The International Association for Near-Death Studies is an organization for studying and disseminating information on the phenomena of the near death experience . IANDS was founded in the USA in 1981. Today it has grown into an international organization, which includes a network of more than 50...
in 1981. According to a Gallup poll, approximately eight million Americans claim to have had a near-death experience. Some commentators, such as Simpson, claim that the number of near-death experiencers may be underestimated. People who have had a near-death experience may not be comfortable discussing the experience with others, especially when the NDE is understood as a paranormal incident.
NDEs are among the phenomena studied in the fields of
parapsychologyThe term parapsychology was coined in or around 1889 by philosopher Max Dessoir, and originates from para meaning "alongside", and psychology. The term was adopted by J.B. Rhine in the 1930s as a replacement for the term psychical research...
,
psychologyPsychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
,
psychiatryPsychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
, and
hospital medicineHospital medicine in the United States is the discipline concerned with the medical care of acutely ill hospitalized patients. Physicians whose primary professional focus is hospital medicine are called hospitalists; this type of medical practice has extended beyond the US into Canada...
.
Characteristics
The earliest accounts of NDE can be traced to the
Myth of ErThe Myth of Er is an eschatological legend that concludes Plato's The Republic . The story includes an account of the cosmos and the afterlife that for many centuries greatly influenced religious, philosophical and scientific thought....
, recorded by
Plato'sPlato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
The Republic (10.614-10.621). In this story, Plato describes a mythical soldier telling of his near-death experiences about an
afterlifeThe afterlife is the belief that a part of, or essence of, or soul of an individual, which carries with it and confers personal identity, survives the death of the body of this world and this lifetime, by natural or supernatural means, in contrast to the belief in eternal...
and
reincarnationReincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
.
Researchers have identified the common elements that define near-death experiences.
Bruce Greyson Bruce Greyson, M.D. , is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia. He is co-author of Irreducible Mind and co-editor of The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences...
argues that the general features of the experience include impressions of being outside one's physical body, visions of deceased relatives and religious figures, and transcendence of ego and spatiotemporal boundaries. The experience may also follow a distinct progression, as illustrated below.
The traits of a classical NDE are as follows:
- A sense/awareness of being dead.
- A sense of peace, well-being and painlessness. Positive emotions. A feeling of being removed from the world.
- An out-of-body experience
An out-of-body experience is an experience that typically involves a sensation of floating outside of one's body and, in some cases, perceiving one's physical body from a place outside one's body ....
. A perception of one's body from an outside position. Sometimes observing doctors and nurses performing medical resuscitation efforts.
- A "tunnel experience". A sense of moving up, or through, a passageway or staircase.
- A rapid movement toward and/or sudden immersion in a powerful light. Communication with the light.
- An intense feeling of unconditional love.
- Encountering "Beings of Light", "Beings dressed in white", or other spiritual beings. Also, the possibility of being reunited with deceased loved ones.
- Being given a life review
A life review is a phenomenon widely reported as occurring during near-death experiences, in which a person rapidly sees much or the totality of his or her life history in chronological sequence and in extreme detail. It is often referred to by people having experienced this phenomenon as having...
.
- Being given a "life preview" in the cases of George Ritchie and Betty Eadie which Ring calls an NDE "Flash Forward".
- Being presented with knowledge about one's life and the nature of the universe.
- A decision by oneself or others to return to one's body, often accompanied by a reluctance to return.
- Approaching a border.
- The notice of a very unpleasant sound or noise (Claimed by R. Moody).
- There also seems to be a link between the cultural and spiritual beliefs where one lives. These seem to dictate what is experienced in the NDE or how it is interpreted afterwards (Holden, Janice Miner. Handbook of Near-Death Experiences. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publishing Data, 2009.).
Kenneth RingKenneth Ring is Professor Emeritus of psychology at the University of Connecticut, and a researcher within the field of near-death studies...
(1980) subdivided the NDE on a five-stage
continuumContinuum theories or models explain variation as involving a gradual quantitative transition without abrupt changes or discontinuities. It can be contrasted with 'categorical' models which propose qualitatively different states.-In physics:...
. He stated that 60% experienced stage 1 (feelings of peace and contentment), but only 10% experienced stage 5 ("entering the light").
Clinical circumstances associated with near-death experiences include
cardiac arrestCardiac arrest, is the cessation of normal circulation of the blood due to failure of the heart to contract effectively...
in
myocardial infarctionMyocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
(
clinical deathClinical death is the medical term for cessation of blood circulation and breathing, the two necessary criteria to sustain life. It occurs when the heart stops beating in a regular rhythm, a condition called cardiac arrest. The term is also sometimes used in resuscitation research.Stopped blood...
), shock in postpartum loss of blood or in perioperative complications, septic or anaphylactic shock, electrocution,
comaIn medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...
resulting from traumatic brain damage, intracerebral hemorrhage or cerebral infarction, attempted suicide, near-drowning or asphyxia, apnea, and serious depression. In contrast to common belief, Kenneth Ring argues that attempted suicides do not lead more often to unpleasant NDEs than unintended near-death situations.
The distressing aspects of some NDEs are discussed more closely by Greyson and Bush. Karlis Osis and his colleague
Erlendur HaraldssonErlendur Haraldsson is a Professor emeritus of psychology at the Faculty of social science at the University of Iceland who, despite having retired from his former post at the University of Iceland, continues to be an active academic. He has published work in various parapsychology journals, and...
argued that the content of near death experiences does not vary by culture, except for the identity of the personages and religious figures seen during the experiences; however Yoshi Hata and his team reported NDEs with substantially different contents than those described above.
Research
Contributions to the research on near-death experiences have come from several academic disciplines, among these the disciplines of medicine, psychology and psychiatry. Interest in this field of study was originally spurred by the research of such pioneers as
Elisabeth Kübler-RossElisabeth Kübler-Ross, M.D. was a Swiss American psychiatrist, a pioneer in Near-death studies and the author of the groundbreaking book On Death and Dying , where she first discussed what is now known as the Kübler-Ross model.She is a 2007 inductee into the American National Women's Hall of Fame...
, George Ritchie, and Raymond Moody Jr. Moody's book
Life After LifeLife After Life is a 1975 book written by psychiatrist Raymond Moody. It is a report on a qualitative study in which Moody interviewed 150 people who had undergone near-death experiences . The book presents the author's composite account of what it is like to die...
, which was released in 1975, brought a lot of attention to the topic of NDEs. This was soon to be followed by the establishment of the International Association for Near-death Studies (
IANDSThe International Association for Near-Death Studies is an organization for studying and disseminating information on the phenomena of the near death experience . IANDS was founded in the USA in 1981. Today it has grown into an international organization, which includes a network of more than 50...
) in 1981. IANDS is an international organization that encourages scientific research and education on the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual nature and ramifications of near-death experiences. Among its publications are the peer-reviewed
Journal of Near-Death StudiesThe Journal of Near-Death Studies is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering near-death studies that is published by the International Association for Near-Death Studies. The journal's founding editor-in-chief was Kenneth Ring...
and the quarterly newsletter
Vital Signs.
Later researchers, such as Bruce Greyson, Kenneth Ring, and Michael Sabom, helped to launch the field of
Near-Death StudiesNear-death studies is a school of psychology and psychiatry that studies the phenomenology and after-effects of a Near-death experience .-NDE :...
and 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 grant money for research has been scarce. However, both Greyson and Ring developed tools that can be used in a clinical setting. Major contributions to the field include Ring's construction of a "Weighted Core Experience Index" to measure the depth of the near-death experience, and Greyson's construction of the "Near-death experience scale" to differentiate between subjects that are more or less likely to have experienced an NDE. The latter scale is also, according to its author, clinically useful in differentiating NDEs from organic brain syndromes and nonspecific stress responses. The NDE-scale was later found to fit the Rasch rating scale model. Greyson has also brought attention to the near-death experience as a focus of clinical attention, while Morse and colleagues have investigated near-death experiences in a pediatric population.
Neurobiological factors in the experience have been investigated by researchers in the field of medical science and psychiatry. Among the researchers and commentators who tend to emphasize a naturalistic and neurological base for the experience are the
BritishGreat Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
psychologistPsychologist is a professional or academic title used by individuals who are either:* Clinical professionals who work with patients in a variety of therapeutic contexts .* Scientists conducting psychological research or teaching psychology in a college...
Susan BlackmoreSusan Jane Blackmore is an English freelance writer, lecturer, and broadcaster on psychology and the paranormal, perhaps best known for her book The Meme Machine.-Career:...
(1993), with her "dying brain hypothesis", and the founding publisher of
SkepticSkeptic is a quarterly science education and science advocacy magazine published internationally by The Skeptics Society, a nonprofit organization devoted to promoting scientific skepticism and resisting the spread of pseudoscience, superstition, and irrational beliefs...
magazine,
Michael ShermerMichael Brant Shermer is an American science writer, historian of science, founder of The Skeptics Society, and Editor in Chief of its magazine Skeptic, which is largely devoted to investigating pseudoscientific and supernatural claims. The Skeptics Society currently has over 55,000 members...
(1998). More recently, cognitive neuroscientists Jason Braithwaite (2008) from the
University of BirminghamThe University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...
and Sebastian Dieguez (2008) and Olaf Blanke (2009) from the
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de LausanneThe École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne is one of the two Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology and is located in Lausanne, Switzerland.The school was founded by the Swiss Federal Government with the stated mission to:...
, Switzerland have published accounts presenting evidence for the brain-based nature of near death experiences.
In September 2008, it was announced that 25 UK and US hospitals will examine
near-death studiesNear-death studies is a school of psychology and psychiatry that studies the phenomenology and after-effects of a Near-death experience .-NDE :...
in 1,500 heart attack patient-survivors. The three-year study, coordinated by Dr. Sam Parnia at Southampton University, hopes to determine if people without
heartbeatThe cardiac cycle is a term referring to all or any of the events related to the flow or blood pressure that occurs from the beginning of one heartbeat to the beginning of the next. The frequency of the cardiac cycle is described by the heart rate. Each beat of the heart involves five major stages...
or brain activity can have an
out-of-body experienceAn out-of-body experience is an experience that typically involves a sensation of floating outside of one's body and, in some cases, perceiving one's physical body from a place outside one's body ....
with veridical visual perceptions. This study follows on from an earlier 18-month pilot project. On a July 28, 2010 interview about a recent lecture at Goldsmiths, Parnia asserts that "evidence is now suggesting that mental and cognitive processes may continue for a period of time after a death has started" and describes the process of death as "essentially a global stroke of the brain. Therefore like any stroke process one would not expect the entity of mind / consciousness to be lost immediately". He also expresses his disagreement with the term 'near death experiences' because "the patients that we study are not near death, they have actually died and more over it conjures up a lot of imprecise scientific notions, due to the fact that itself is a very imprecise term".
Researcher Lakhmir Chawla
George Washington UniversityThe George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...
medical centre in Washington DC argues that near-death experiences are caused by a surge of electrical activity as the brain runs out of oxygen before death. Levels were similar to those seen in fully conscious people, even though blood pressure was so low as to be undetectable, and could generate vivid images and feelings. The gradual tailing off of brain activity had occurred in the hour or so, before death, and was interrupted by a brief spurt of action, lasting from 30 seconds to three minutes. Sam Parnia refuted this explanation, claiming that Lakhmir Chawla had not provided proof that the electrical surges he recorded were linked to near death experiences, saying: "Since all the patients died, we cannot tell what they were experiencing."
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 StudiesThe Journal of Near-Death Studies is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering near-death studies that is published by the International Association for Near-Death Studies. The journal's founding editor-in-chief was Kenneth Ring...
,
Journal of Nervous and Mental DiseaseThe Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease is a scholarly journal on psychopathology.Founded in 1874, it is the world's oldest independent scientific monthly in the field of human behavior. Articles cover theory, etiology, therapy, social impact of illness, and research methods.Editors:*1874-1881:...
,
British Journal of Psychology,
American Journal of Disease of Children,
Resuscitation,
The LancetThe Lancet is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal. It is one of the world's best known, oldest, and most respected general medical journals...
,
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. Knoblauch in 2001 performed a more selective study in Germany and found that 4% 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% 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 62 patients (18%) had an NDE, of whom 41 (12%, or 66% of those who had an NDE) described a core experience.
According to Martens 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
The first formal neurobiological model for NDE was presented in 1987 by chilean scientists Juan Sebastián Gómez-Jeria and Juan Carlos Saavedra-Aguilar from the University of Chile. In the 1990s, Dr.
Rick StrassmanDr. Rick Strassman is a medical doctor specialized in psychiatry with a fellowship in clinical psychopharmacology research. Strassman was the first person in the United States after twenty years of intermission to embark in human research with psychedelic, hallucinogenic, or entheogenic substances...
conducted research on the
psychedelicThe term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...
drug
DimethyltryptamineN,N-Dimethyltryptamine is a naturally occurring psychedelic compound of the tryptamine family. DMT is found in several plants, and also in trace amounts in humans and other mammals, where it is originally derived from the essential amino acid tryptophan, and ultimately produced by the enzyme INMT...
(DMT) at the
University of New MexicoThe University of New Mexico at Albuquerque is a public research university located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the United States. It is the state's flagship research institution...
. Strassman advanced the theory that a massive release of DMT from the
pineal glandThe pineal gland is a small endocrine gland in the vertebrate brain. It produces the serotonin derivative melatonin, a hormone that affects the modulation of wake/sleep patterns and seasonal functions...
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/
entheogenAn entheogen , in the strict sense, is a psychoactive substance used in a religious, shamanic, or spiritual context. Historically, entheogens were mostly derived from plant sources and have been used in a variety of traditional religious contexts...
ic agents. Some speculators consider that if subjects without prior knowledge on the effects of DMT had been used during the experiment, 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
stressStress is a term in psychology and biology, borrowed from physics and engineering and first used in the biological context in the 1930s, which has in more recent decades become commonly used in popular parlance...
.
In a new theory devised by Richard 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. Because people who experience NDEs report the experience of memories long considered lost, this theory necessarily depends upon a theory of memory in which all memories are indefinitely retained.
The theory also states that
out-of-body experienceAn out-of-body experience is an experience that typically involves a sensation of floating outside of one's body and, in some cases, perceiving one's physical body from a place outside one's body ....
s, accompanied by 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 BlackmoreSusan Jane Blackmore is an English freelance writer, lecturer, and broadcaster on psychology and the paranormal, perhaps best known for her book The Meme Machine.-Career:...
, have recognized this. These scientists are not trying to debunk the experience, but are instead searching for biological causes of NDEs.
According to Engmann, near-death experiences of people who are clinically dead are psychopathological symptoms caused by a severe malfunction of the brain resulting from the cessation of cerebral blood circulation. An important question is whether it is possible to "translate" the bloomy experiences of the reanimated survivors into psychopathologically basic phenomena, e.g. acoasms, central narrowing of the visual field,
autoscopiaAutoscopy is the experience in which the individual while believing himself to be awake sees his or her body position outside of his body. Autoscopy comes from the ancient Greek αὐτός and σκοπός ....
, visual hallucinations, activation of limbic and memory structures according to Moody's stages. The symptoms suppose a primary affliction of the
occipitalThe word occipital, in zoology, pertains to the occiput .Occipital is a descriptor for several areas of animal & human anatomy.*External occipital protuberance* Internal occipital crest* Greater occipital nerve...
and
temporalThe temporal lobe is a region of the cerebral cortex that is located beneath the Sylvian fissure on both cerebral hemispheres of the mammalian brain....
cortices under clinical death. This basis could be congruent with the thesis of pathoclisis—the inclination of special parts of the brain to be the first to be damaged in case of disease, lack of oxygen, or malnutrition—established eighty years ago by C. and O. Vogt. According to that thesis, the basic phenomena should be similar in all patients with near-death experiences. But a crucial problem is to distinguish these basic psychopathological symptoms from the secondary mental associated experiences which may result from a reprocessing of the basic symptoms under the influence of the person's cultural and religious views.
Research released in 2010 by University of Maribor, Slovenia had put near-death experiences down to high levels of carbon dioxide in the blood altering the chemical balance of the brain and tricking it into 'seeing' things. Of the 52 patients, 11 reported NDEs.
An article by Netherlands researchers
Pim van LommelPim van Lommel is a Dutch cardiologist and scientist. He is best known for his scientific work on the subjects of near-death experiences and consciousness, including the famous prospective study published in the medical journal The Lancet...
et al., argues, "With a purely physiological explanation such as cerebral anoxia for the experience, most patients who have been clinically dead should report one." Accordingly, a lack of predictable experiences should cast doubt on wholesale explanations of NDEs. According to Southampton University researcher Dr. Sam Parnia, "Death starts when the heart stops beating, but we can intervene and bring people back to life, sometimes even after three to four hours when they are kept very cold. It could be that a far higher proportion of people have near-death experiences but don't remember them."
REM state
It is suggested that the extreme stress caused by a life threatening situation triggers brain states similar to REM sleep and that part of the near death experience is a state similar to dreaming while awake. People who have experienced times when their brains behaved as if they were dreaming while awake are more likely to develop the near death experience. Further stimulation of the
Vagus nerveThe vagus nerve , also called pneumogastric nerve or cranial nerve X, is the tenth of twelve paired cranial nerves...
during the physical and/or psychological stress of a life threatening situation, or the product of the imperiled brain, and may trigger brain conditions where the person is in a dream-like state while awake.
Lucid dreaming
Some sleep researchers, such as Timothy J. Green, Lynne Levitan and
Stephen LaBergeStephen LaBerge is a psychophysiologist and a leader in the scientific study of lucid dreaming. In 1967 he received his Bachelor's Degree in mathematics. He began researching lucid dreaming for his Ph.D. in Psychophysiology at Stanford University, which he received in 1980...
, have noted that NDE experiences are similar to many of the experiences reported during lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming occurs when the individual becomes lucid and realizes he is in a dream. Often these states are so realistic as to be barely distinguishable from reality, even including the ability to feel very realistic textures.
In a study of fourteen lucid dreamers performed in 1991, people who perform wake-initiated lucid dreams operation (WILD) reported experiences consistent with aspects of out-of-body experiences such as floating above their beds and the feeling of leaving their bodies. Due to the
phenomenologicalPhenomenology is an approach to psychological subject matter that has its roots in the philosophical work of Edmund Husserl. Early phenomenologists such as Husserl, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty conducted their own psychological investigations in the early 20th century...
overlap between lucid dreams, near death experiences, and
out-of-body experienceAn out-of-body experience is an experience that typically involves a sensation of floating outside of one's body and, in some cases, perceiving one's physical body from a place outside one's body ....
s, researchers say they believe a protocol could be developed to induce a lucid dream similar to a near-death experience in the laboratory.
Other similarities include seeing oneself from the outside (an out of body experience), floating or flying, heightened awareness, and feelings of joy or peace. Some researchers believe this is caused when the mind is deprived of the majority of its main five senses and relies on the expectational processing. In this regard one experiences what one would expect to happen in their current circumstance. This could explain experiences caused by mental trauma such as a near miss accident in which the mind may close itself off at least partially to the senses and ones caused by physical trauma in which again the mind closes itself off to the world. At present, there exists no clear physiological or psychological basis for any relationship between lucid dreaming and NDEs.
Computational psychology
Modeling of NDEs using artificial neural networks has shown that some aspects of the core near death experience can be achieved through simulated neuron death. In the course of such simulations, the essential features of the NDE, life review, novel scenarios (i.e., heaven or hell), and OBE are observed through the generation of confabulations or false memories, as discussed in
Confabulation (neural networks)A confabulation, also known as a false, degraded, or corrupted memory, is a stable pattern of activation in a neural network or neural assembly that does not correspond to any previously learned patterns...
. The key feature contributing to the generation of such confabulatory states are a neural network's inability to differentiate dead from silent neurons. Memories, whether related to direct experience, or not, can be seeded upon arrays of such inactive brain cells.
Effects
Near-death experiences can have a major impact on the people who have them, and they may produce a variety of after-effects. NDE subjects have increased activity in the left
temporal lobeThe temporal lobe is a region of the cerebral cortex that is located beneath the Sylvian fissure on both cerebral hemispheres of the mammalian brain....
. NDEs are also associated with changes in personality and outlook on life. Kenneth Ring has identified a consistent set of value and belief changes associated with people who have had a near-death experience. Among these changes one finds a greater appreciation for life, higher self-esteem, greater compassion for others, a heightened sense of purpose and self-understanding, desire to learn, elevated spirituality, greater ecological sensitivity and planetary concern, and a feeling of being more intuitive. Changes may also include increased physical sensitivity; diminished tolerance to light, alcohol, and drugs; a feeling that the brain has been "altered" to encompass more; and a feeling that one is now using the "whole brain" rather than just a small part. However, not all after-effects are beneficial and Greyson describes circumstances where changes in attitudes and behavior can lead to psychosocial and psychospiritual problems. Often the problems have to do with the adjustment to ordinary life in the wake of the NDE.
Afterlife viewpoints
Many view the NDE as the precursor to an
afterlifeThe afterlife is the belief that a part of, or essence of, or soul of an individual, which carries with it and confers personal identity, survives the death of the body of this world and this lifetime, by natural or supernatural means, in contrast to the belief in eternal...
experience, claiming that the NDE cannot be adequately explained by physiological or psychological causes, and that the phenomenon conclusively demonstrates that human 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-bodyAn out-of-body experience is an experience that typically involves a sensation of floating outside of one's body and, in some cases, perceiving one's physical body from a place outside one's body ....
consciousness. For example, Michael Sabom states that one of his contacts 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 prospective Dutch NDE study, a nurse removed the
denturesDentures are prosthetic devices constructed to replace missing teeth, and which are supported by surrounding soft and hard tissues of the oral cavity. Conventional dentures are removable, however there are many different denture designs, some which rely on bonding or clasping onto teeth or dental...
of an unconscious
heart attackMyocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
victim, and was identified after his recovery as the one who removed them. This surprised him, as that patient had been in a deep coma and undergoing cardio-pulmonary resuscitation at the time.
Dr. Michael Sabom reports
a case about a womanPam Reynolds Lowery from Atlanta, Georgia was an American singer-songwriter. In 1991, at the age of 35, she claims to have had a near-death experience during a brain operation. Her claim of NDE is one of the most notable and best documented in NDE research because of the unusual circumstances...
who underwent surgery for an
aneurysmAn aneurysm or aneurism is a localized, blood-filled balloon-like bulge in the wall of a blood vessel. Aneurysms can commonly occur in arteries at the base of the brain and an aortic aneurysm occurs in the main artery carrying blood from the left ventricle of the heart...
. The woman reported an out-of-body experience that she claimed continued through a brief period of the absence of any
EEGElectroencephalography is the recording of electrical activity along the scalp. EEG measures voltage fluctuations resulting from ionic current flows within the neurons of the brain...
activity. If true, this would seem to challenge the belief held by many that consciousness is situated entirely within the brain.
Many 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. There are examples of ex-atheists, such as the Reverend
Howard StormHoward Storm is a former atheist and art professor and chairman of the art department at Northern Kentucky University, best known as the author of the book My Descent Into Death about his near-death experience...
, adopting a more spiritual viewpoint after their NDEs. Storm's NDE may also be characterized as a distressing near-death experience.
Likewise, individuals who do not experience an NDE after going into cardiac arrest frequently lose any preexisting belief in an afterlife. Both processes, like most of the psychological transformations associated with a close brush with death, take place gradually over several years.
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."
Another account by a student nurse named Jeanette Atkinson from Eastbourne, who experienced a near-death experience, says that, "There is no doubt in my mind that there’s life after death because I’ve seen the other side. I don’t believe in a benevolent God. I’ve seen too much suffering for that but I’m very spiritual." A recent study by Dr. Sam Parnia, shows that such patients are "effectively dead", with their brains shut down and no thoughts or feelings possible for the complex brain activity required for dreaming or hallucinating; additionally, to rule out the possibility that near-death experiences resulted from hallucinations after the brain had collapsed through lack of oxygen, Parnia rigorously monitored the concentrations of the vital gas in the patients’ blood, and found that none of those who underwent the experiences had low levels of oxygen. He was also able to rule out claims that unusual combinations of drugs were to blame because the resuscitation procedure was the same in every case, regardless of whether they had a near-death experience or not. According to Parnia, "Arch sceptics will always attack our work. I’m content with that. That’s how science progresses. What is clear is that something profound is happening. The mind – the thing that is ‘you’ – your ‘soul’ if you will - carries on after conventional science says it should have drifted into nothingness."
A few people feel that research on NDEs occurring in the blind can be interpreted to support an argument 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.
There are many religious and physiological views of near-death experiences. The NDE is often cited as evidence for the existence of the human
soulA soul in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions is the incorporeal essence of a person or living thing or object. Many philosophical and spiritual systems teach that humans have souls, and others teach that all living things and even inanimate objects have souls. The...
, the
afterlifeThe afterlife is the belief that a part of, or essence of, or soul of an individual, which carries with it and confers personal identity, survives the death of the body of this world and this lifetime, by natural or supernatural means, in contrast to the belief in eternal...
, and
heavenHeaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...
and
hellIn many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
, ideas that appear in many religious traditions. On the other hand, skeptical commentators view NDEs as purely neurological and chemical phenomena occurring in the brain. From this perspective, NDEs are the result of purely physiological and neurobiological mechanisms. The imagery in the experiences also varies within cultures.
There has been recent research into afterlife conceptions across cultures by religious studies scholar Dr. Gregory Shushan. The study analyzes the afterlife beliefs of five ancient civilizations (Old and Middle Kingdom Egypt, Sumerian and Old Babylonian Mesopotamia, Vedic India, pre-Buddhist China, and pre-Columbian Mesoamerica) in light of historical and contemporary reports of near-death experiences, and
shamanShamanism is an anthropological term referencing a range of beliefs and practices regarding communication with the spiritual world. To quote Eliade: "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = technique of ecstasy." Shamanism encompasses the...
ic afterlife "journeys". It was found that despite numerous culture-specific differences, the nine most frequently recurring NDE elements also recur on a general structural level cross-culturally. This suggests that the authors of these ancient religious texts were familiar with NDE or something similar (e.g. shamanic-type experiences). Cross-cultural similarity, however, can be used to support both religious and physiological theories, for both rely on demonstrating that the phenomenon is universal. Others dispute that there are cultural similarities.
Personal experiences
- Return from Tomorrow
Return From Tomorrow is a book by Dr. George G. Ritchie describing his near-death experience in an Army hospital at the age of 20.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...
by George G. RitchieDr. George G. Ritchie, M.D. 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. for almost 20 years...
, MD with Elizabeth Sherrill (1978). George G. Ritchie, MD 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 lived in Virginia. At the age of twenty, George Ritchie died in an army hospital. Nine minutes later he returned to life. Ritchie's story was the first contact Dr. Raymond MoodyRaymond Moody is a psychologist and medical doctor. He is most famous as an author of books about life after death and near-death experiences , a term that he coined in 1975. His best-selling title is Life After Life.-Life:...
, PhD (who was studying at the University of Virginia, as an undergraduate in Philosophy, at the time) had with NDEs. It inspired Moody to investigate over 150 cases of near-death experiences, in his book Life After LifeLife After Life is a 1975 book written by psychiatrist Raymond Moody. It is a report on a qualitative study in which Moody interviewed 150 people who had undergone near-death experiences . The book presents the author's composite account of what it is like to die...
, and two other books that followed.
- Embraced by the Light by Betty Eadie
Betty Eadie is a prominent American author of several books on near-death experiences . Her best-known book is the #1 New York Times bestselling book, Embraced by the Light . It describes her near-death experience. It is arguably the most detailed near-death account on record...
(1992). One of the most detailed near-death experiences on record.
- Saved by the Light
Saved by the Light is a book by Dannion Brinkley describing his near-death experience . Brinkley was struck by lightning and was clinically dead for approximately twenty-eight minutes...
by Dannion BrinkleyDannion Brinkley is an American author who described two near death experiences in his 1994 book Saved by the Light. He is also a hospice volunteer, speaker, and prominent figure in the New Age and New Thought Movement....
. 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 claims to have been clinically dead for 28 minutes and taken to a hospital morgue, but that claim and other claims by him are disputed.
- Placebo
An obsolete usage of the word placebo was to mean someone who came to a funeral, claiming a connection with the deceased to try to get a share of any food and/or drink being handed out...
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
The Bahá'í Faith is a monotheistic religion founded by Bahá'u'lláh in 19th-century Persia, emphasizing the spiritual unity of all humankind. There are an estimated five to six million Bahá'ís around the world in more than 200 countries and territories....
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 RingKenneth Ring is Professor Emeritus of psychology at the University of Connecticut, and a researcher within the field of near-death studies...
.
- 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.
- Goldie Hawn
Goldie Jeanne Hawn is an American actress, film director, producer, and occasional singer. Hawn is known for her roles in Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Private Benjamin, Foul Play, Overboard, Bird on a Wire, Death Becomes Her, The First Wives Club, and Cactus Flower, for which she won the 1969...
, 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.
- Kiki Carter
Kiki Carter born Kimberli Wilson is an environmental activist, organizer, musician, songwriter, and columnist.-Personal life:...
, a.k.a. Kimberli Wilson, an environmental activist and singer/songwriter, reported a near-death experience in 1983. The day after the experience, her mother, Priscilla Greenwood, encouraged her to write it down. Priscilla Greenwood published the story in September 1983 in a local metaphysical journal. For 24 hours after the experience, Kimberli had an aftervision which was a catalyst for her interest in quantum physics and holograms.
- 90 Minutes in Heaven
90 Minutes in Heaven is a 2004 best selling non-fiction Christian book written by Don Piper with Cecil Murphey. The book documents the author's near death experience and purported visit to Heaven in 1989.-Summary:...
by Don Piper, is Piper's account of his own near-death experience. EMTs on the scene determined Piper had been killed instantly after a tractor-trailer had swerved into his lane, crushing his car. Piper survived, however, and later claimed that he saw loved ones and friends as well as magnificent light; he felt a sense of pure peace. Piper had a very difficult and painful recovery, undergoing 34 surgeries.
- Heaven is For Real
Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back is a 2010 best selling Christian book written by Todd Burpo and Lynn Vincent...
by Todd Burpo, is a father's account of his son, Colton, and Colton's trip to heaven and back. After discovering that Colton's appendix has ruptured, he was rushed to the hospital. Unconscious, Colton alleges to have met Jesus, God, his great-grandfather whom he had never met, and his older sister lost in a miscarriage.
- Parallel Universes, a Memoir from the Edges of Space and Time
Parallel Universes, A Memoir from the Edges of Space and Time is a non-fiction Christian book and a personal and science memoir written by Linda Morabito Meyer, the NASA discoverer of the volcanic activity on Jupiter's Io...
by Linda Morabito Meyer is a NASA scientist's account of several near death experiences at the hands of her parents and William Franklin Mosley of the Temple of the More Abundant Life in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The author claimed that during these experiences, she visited Heaven, saw Jesus, and was in the presence of God.
See also
- After-death communication
- Beyond and Back
Beyond And Back is a 1978 documentary and "death-sploitation flick" released by Sunn Classic Pictures that deals with the subject of near death experiences.-Production notes:...
- Embraced by the Light
- Flatliners
Flatliners is a 1990 American thriller film starring Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, Kevin Bacon, William Baldwin and Oliver Platt as medical students using physical science in an attempt to find out if there's anything out there beyond death by conducting clandestine experiments with near-death...
- Form constant
A form constant is one of several geometric patterns which are recurringly observed during hallucinations and altered states of consciousness.-History:...
- Hereafter
Hereafter is a 2010 American drama film directed by Clint Eastwood, from a screenplay by Peter Morgan and produced by Steven Spielberg. The film tells three parallel stories about three people affected by death in similar ways - all three have issues of communicating with the dead; Matt Damon plays...
- Induced after-death communication
Induced After-Death Communication is a therapeutic technique based on EMDR for helping the bereaved to process and overcome suffering for the death of a loved one...
- Lazarus phenomenon
- Near-birth experience
A near-birth experience most commonly refers to a parental encounter which involves some form of intelligent communication with an offspring not yet born, either during the pregnancy or before conception...
- Near-death studies
Near-death studies is a school of psychology and psychiatry that studies the phenomenology and after-effects of a Near-death experience .-NDE :...
- Neurotheology
Neurotheology, also known as spiritual neuroscience, is the study of correlations of neural phenomena with subjective experiences of spirituality and hypotheses to explain these phenomena....
- Premature burial
Premature burial, also known as live burial, burial alive, or vivisepulture, means to be buried while still alive. Animals or humans may be buried alive accidentally or intentionally...
- Pseudoscience
Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...
- Resurrection
Resurrection refers to the literal coming back to life of the biologically dead. It is used both with respect to particular individuals or the belief in a General Resurrection of the dead at the end of the world. The General Resurrection is featured prominently in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim...
- Sheol
Sheol |Hebrew]] Šʾôl) is the "grave", "pit", or "abyss" in Hebrew. She'ol is the earliest conception of the afterlife in the Jewish scriptures. It is a place of darkness to which all dead go, regardless of the moral choices made in life, and where they are "removed from the light of God"...
- Suspended animation
Suspended animation is the slowing of life processes by external means without termination. Breathing, heartbeat, and other involuntary functions may still occur, but they can only be detected by artificial means. Extreme cold can be used to precipitate the slowing of an individual's functions; use...
- Third Man factor
External links