Abstract
Background: After an occurrence of a Near-Death Experience (NDE), Near-Death Experiencers (NDErs) usually report extremely rich and detailed narratives. Phenomenologically, a NDE can be described as a set of distinguishable features. Some authors have proposed regular patterns of NDEs, however, the actual temporality sequence of NDE core features remains a little explored area.Objectives: The aim of the present study was to investigate the frequency distribution of these features (globally and according to the position of features in narratives) as well as the most frequently reported temporality sequences of features.Methods: We collected 154 French freely expressed written NDE narratives (i.e., Greyson NDE scale total score ≥ 7/32). A text analysis was conducted on all narratives in order to infer temporal ordering and frequency distribution of NDE features.Results: Our analyses highlighted the following most frequently reported sequence of consecutive NDE features: Out-of-Body Experience, Experiencing a tunnel, Seeing a bright light, Feeling of peace. Yet, this sequence was encountered in a very limited number of NDErs.Conclusion: These findings may suggest that NDEs temporality sequences can vary across NDErs. Exploring associations and relationships among features encountered during NDEs may complete the rigorous definition and scientific comprehension of the phenomenon.
Highlights
While the Near-Death Experience (NDE) phenomenon is still, at present, not fully understood, many ancient accounts and representations of these experiences date back to Plato’s Republic (Plato, 1937) and to the 15th century in Hieronymus Bosch’s paintings
The most frequently encountered NDE features were Feeling of peacefulness (80%) and Seeing a bright light (69%)
of-Body Experience (OBE) is here recorded in 53% of the testimonies while it is usually reported in the literature as the second most commonly encountered feature in NDEs
Summary
While the Near-Death Experience (NDE) phenomenon is still, at present, not fully understood, many ancient accounts and representations of these experiences date back to Plato’s Republic (Plato, 1937) and to the 15th century in Hieronymus Bosch’s paintings. At that time, these descriptions were, not designated as such. Recent studies conducted among the general public of Australia (Perera et al, 2005) and Germany (Knoblauch et al, 2001) have estimated a prevalence of 4 to 8% It appears that 12 to 18% of cardiac arrest survivors have experienced NDEs –or at least some NDEs features (van Lommel et al, 2001; Greyson, 2003). Some authors have proposed regular patterns of NDEs, the actual temporality sequence of NDE core features remains a little explored area
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