Reports Of Near-death Experiences Research Articles

Neuro-functional modeling of near-death experiences in contexts of altered states of consciousness.

Near-death experiences (NDEs) including out-of-body experiences (OBEs) have been fascinating phenomena of perception both for affected persons and for communities in science and medicine. Modern progress in the recording of changing brain functions during the time between clinical death and brain death opened the perspective to address and understand the generation of NDEs in brain states of altered consciousness. Changes of consciousness can experimentally be induced in well-controlled clinical or laboratory settings. Reports of the persons having experienced the changes can inform about the similarity of the experiences with those from original NDEs. Thus, we collected neuro-functional models of NDEs including OBEs with experimental backgrounds of drug consumption, epilepsy, brain stimulation, and ischemic stress, and included so far largely unappreciated data from fighter pilot tests under gravitational stress generating cephalic nervous system ischemia. Since we found a large overlap of NDE themes or topics from original NDE reports with those from neuro-functional NDE models, we can state that, collectively, the models offer scientifically appropriate causal explanations for the occurrence of NDEs. The generation of OBEs, one of the NDE themes, can be localized in the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) of the brain, a multimodal association area. The evaluated literature suggests that NDEs may emerge as hallucination-like phenomena from a brain in altered states of consciousness (ASCs).

Narrando a própria morte: os relatos de experiências de quase-morte como narrativas de sentido

A morte é um fenômeno que revela importantes aspectos socioculturais. As ciências sociais, em especial a antropologia, já demonstraram o potencial desse fenômeno para além dos seus aspectos biológicos. Neste artigo, a morte serve de tema para a reflexão sobre experiências, narrativas e sentidos. Com base emrelatos de Experiências de Quase-Morte (EQM), o autor descreve como são construídas narrativas de sentidos, como novos arranjos emocionais e cognitivos são expressos narrativamente e como muito da cultura é compartilhada pelo que se diz. Nesse sentido, o argumento central deste artigo consiste em compreender como um fenômeno biológico, no presente caso, a morte, é ressignificado, ganhando novos contornos e aspectos essencialmente culturais. Evidencia-se ao fim, que as narrativas de quase-morte sãorelatos que guardam relações importantes com as concepções cosmológicas, envolvendo aspectos como memória, percepção simbólica e padrões emocionais. Entrevistas em profundidade compõem o material teórico do artigo.

University Professor Lecture: Near-Death Experiences: The Stories They Tell

I argue that we can interpret the stories told by near-death experiences (NDEs) in a naturalistic way. Thus, the profound significance of NDEs need not come from a supernaturalistic conception of them, according to which in an NDE the individual is in touch with a heavenly realm. We can respect the sincerity of NDE reports, but we can capture their meaning in a naturalistic framework.

再論瀕死經驗的可信性——探索一些常見的質疑

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.筆者在2016 年撰文探討瀕死經驗 (Near-death Experience-NDE) 的可信性，指出還沒有充分證據支持「醫學科學或心理學的理論能充分和全面解釋NDE 的現象」這觀點，我也認為「NDE 的存在是不能抹殺的，而且NDE 似乎提供了某程度證據顯示，心靈的存在能獨立於身體存在，所以死後生命的可能性是不能輕率否定的。」但我從未說過我能絕對證明NDE 的可信性，也肯定「學術的爭辯還會繼續，更多的研究也須進行」。劉彥方與冼偉林對我作出回應，且基本上採取批判的態度，及偏向懷疑瀕死經驗的可信性。我在此文對他們作出回應，一方面指出他們對我的一些誤解，另一方面繼續探討他們對瀕死經驗的質疑，例如瀕死經驗個案的可靠性、對瀕死經驗的科學解釋以及一些方法論問題等等。我再次重申，我並沒有宣稱我能絕對證明NDE 的可信性，但認為「相信最少有一些NDE 是可靠的」，是一個合理的信念(reasonable belief) ，而劉彥方與冼偉林的批判，並未能推翻這點。The author argued for the credibility of at least some near-death experiences (NDEs) in a previous paper (Kwan 2016), pointing out the lack of sufficient evidence to support the claim that physiological or psychological theories had already fully explained the entire NDE phenomenon. The author proposes that we should not dismiss the existence of NDEs, and states that they seem to offer some support for the ability of the soul to exist independently of the body. Thus, we should not dismiss the possibility of life after death. However, the author has never claimed that he can absolutely demonstrate the veridicality of NDE, and he has explicitly stated that the academic debate will continue and more research should be conducted.In their previous writings, Dr. Joe Lau and Dr. William Sin doubted the credibility of NDEs.In this paper, the author responds to their criticisms, clarifying some of their misunderstandings and further exploring their doubts about NDE, such as the reliability of NDE reports, the scientific explanations of NDE, and some methodological issues.DOWNLOAD HISTORY | This article has been downloaded 177 times in Digital Commons before migrating into this platform.

Book Review: Transformed by the Light: The Powerful Effect of Near-Death Experiences on People's Lives

Review of the book "Transformed by the Light: The Powerful Effect of Near-Death Experiences on People's Lives" by Dr. Melvin Morse with Paul Perry, about reports of near-death experiences.

The Elias Project: Using the Near-Death Experience Potential in Therapy

Article describing the therapeutic usefulness of near-death experiences (NDEs). The fundamental hypothesis is that reports of NDEs together with relevant research can be understood to be a modern book of death and dying, one that is not only useful but also applicable to therapeutic purposes.

瀕死經驗與靈魂——回應關啟文

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract in English only.Do near-death experiences (NDEs) show that the soul exists? This paper argues that it is premature to draw such a conclusion, even if current science cannot fully explain all features of NDEs. Clear and univocal evidence is needed, but many reports of NDEs are problematic and subject to conflicting interpretations. In addition, many cases of NDEs took place in circumstances where residual neural activities could not be ruled out. Progress can be made with better experimental designs and brain imaging techniques. The paper concludes with a discussion of physicalism and its logical connections to out-of-body experiences.DOWNLOAD HISTORY | This article has been downloaded 151 times in Digital Commons before migrating into this platform.

Complex visual imagery and cognition during near-death experiences.

Abstract: Near-death experiences (NDEs) entail complex and structured conscious experience during conditions known to coincide with rapid loss of consciousness often associated with decline or disruption of the neurological correlates currently held to be causative factors of visual imagery and cognition. In this study, 653 NDE reports of cardiac and/or respiratory arrest patients were analyzed for unprompted, spontaneous references to quality of conscious visual imagery and mentation during an NDE. Results indicate that in a majority of NDEs, both figurative and abstract mentation are either preserved or markedly improved during unconsciousness and unresponsiveness in the context of respiratory and cardiac arrests. These findings underscore the call to further study the mechanisms behind the 'outliving' of a conscious sense of selfhood and complex, structured visual imagery and cognition during severely deteriorating physiological function -- and perhaps especially during clinical death.

Three Ancient Reports of Near-Death Experiences: Bremmer Revisited

Abstract: In the modern literature, the so-called 'vision of Er,' told by Plato, and the 'vision of Thespesius,' recorded by Plutarch, have sometimes been cited as examples of ancient near-death experiences (NDEs). However, in a recent study, classicist Jan Bremmer (2002) impugned this interpretation. In this article, I offer a fresh analysis of these two texts that challenges Bremmer's stance and that vindicates the similarity between the ancient reports and modern NDEs. The vision of Er emerges as the oldest known direct account of an NDE. I add to these cases Plutarch's description of the 'vision of Timarchus' as an example of an ancient NDE provoked by extreme isolation. Comparison of these reports of NDEs from antiquity with modern analogues suggests a few additional characteristic traits of NDEs.

Essential Features of Eight Published Muslim Near-Death Experiences: An Addendum to Joel Ibrahim Krep's "The Search for Muslim Near-Death Experiences"

Abstract: Among other authors, Joel Ibrahim Kreps (2009) has recently published accounts of Muslim near-death experiences (NDEs). With the present paper, we aim to contribute to the growing number of non-Western NDE reports by providing summaries of eight additional Muslim NDEs, seven translated from the original Italian source (Giovetta, 2007) and one from an English source (Lerma, 2009), and to provide references for further reading. In addition, we highlighted noteworthy features of these eight summarized NDE accounts. Although the documentation standard of the available cases is generally low, these accounts indicate that the structure and contents of NDEs from many non-Western Muslim communities are largely similar to those reported in the Western NDE literature. In his report, Kreps concluded that Muslim NDEs are rare and that Muslims have fewer NDEs than do non-Muslim Westerners and non-Muslim non-Westerners such as the Chinese. However, we found that the number of Muslim NDE accounts available today seem to indicate that Muslim NDEs are not as rare as Kreps concluded.

Four Ostensible Near-Death Experiences of Roman Times with Peculiar Features: Mistake Cases, Correction Cases, Xenoglossy, and Prediction

Abstract: In this paper, I present four apparent near-death experiences (NDEs) reported in Roman times. Despite their uncertain reliability, they contain features deserving attention. Three reports involve taking the wrong person to the realm of death by mistake ("mistake cases"), and even include the claim that the correct person had died after the NDEr revived ("correction cases"). Though common in Asia, such cases are absent in contemporary Western NDE reports. The fourth report contains an alleged correct future prediction and xenoglossy, the latter being a novum to NDE research. After introducing the four cases, I discuss their peculiar features and some related aspects of near-death states with a focus on their relevance for future NDE research.

Characteristics of Near-Death Experiences Memories as Compared to Real and Imagined Events Memories

Since the dawn of time, Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) have intrigued and, nowadays, are still not fully explained. Since reports of NDEs are proposed to be imagined events, and since memories of imagined events have, on average, fewer phenomenological characteristics than real events memories, we here compared phenomenological characteristics of NDEs reports with memories of imagined and real events. We included three groups of coma survivors (8 patients with NDE as defined by the Greyson NDE scale, 6 patients without NDE but with memories of their coma, 7 patients without memories of their coma) and a group of 18 age-matched healthy volunteers. Five types of memories were assessed using Memory Characteristics Questionnaire (MCQ – Johnson et al., 1988): target memories (NDE for NDE memory group, coma memory for coma memory group, and first childhood memory for no memory and control groups), old and recent real event memories and old and recent imagined event memories. Since NDEs are known to have high emotional content, participants were requested to choose the most emotionally salient memories for both real and imagined recent and old event memories. Results showed that, in NDE memories group, NDE memories have more characteristics than memories of imagined and real events (p<0.02). NDE memories contain more self-referential and emotional information and have better clarity than memories of coma (all ps<0.02). The present study showed that NDE memories contained more characteristics than real event memories and coma memories. Thus, this suggests that they cannot be considered as imagined event memories. On the contrary, their physiological origins could lead them to be really perceived although not lived in the reality. Further work is needed to better understand this phenomenon.

Near-Death Experiences and the Possibility of Disembodied Consciousness: Challenges to Prevailing Neurobiological and Psychosocial Theories

Claims from those having near-death experiences (NDEs), as well as those sympathetic to such claims, challenge the prevailing assumption that consciousness is dependent on a functioning brain. Extant theories, both neurobiological and psychosocial, that attempt to explain NDEs are examined and found unable to adequately account for the full range of NDE reports, especially electromagnetic after-effects and out-of-body experiences with veridical perception. As a result, many leading NDE researchers have proposed that a new model is needed to explain how consciousness could possibly exist independently of the brain, mainly relying on theories from quantum physics. Our paper critically evaluates a range of extant neurobiological and psychosocial theories of NDEs, as well as examines theories that might offer more promise in fully explaining NDEs, especially those using insights derived from quantum physics. We conclude that the “hard problem” of consciousness is not yet solved, but that NDEs provide an important avenue for exploring the relationship between consciousness and brain, as well as possibly understanding a disembodied concept of consciousness.

Essential features of eight published Muslim near-death experiences: An addendum to Joel Ibrahim Kreps’s “The search for Muslim near-death experiences”.

Among other authors, Joel Ibrahim Kreps (2009) has recently published accounts of Muslim near-death experiences (NDEs). With the present paper, we aim to contribute to the growing number of non-Western NDE reports by providing summaries of eight additional Muslim NDEs, seven translated from the original Italian source (Giovetta, 2007) and one from an English source (Lerma, 2009), and to provide references for further reading. In addition, we highlighted noteworthy features of these eight summarized NDE accounts. Although the documentation standard of the available cases is generally low, these accounts indicate that the structure and contents of NDEs from many non-Western Muslim communities are largely similar to those reported in the Western NDE literature. In his report, Kreps concluded that Muslim NDEs are rare and that Muslims have fewer NDEs than do non-Muslim Westerners and non-Muslim non-Westerners such as the Chinese. However, we found that the number of Muslim NDE accounts available today seem to indicate that Muslim NDEs are not as rare as Kreps concluded.

Hypercapnia and hypokalemia in near-death experiences

Klemenc-Ketis and colleagues’ novel report of hyper capnia and hypokalemia associated with near-death experiences (NDEs) [1] was somewhat surprising, as Sabom [2] had previously reported lower than normal carbon dioxide levels measured at the time of a patient’s NDE, and Parnia and colleagues, in a prospective study of 63 cardiac arrest survivors, had found no signifi cant association of either potassium or carbon dioxide with NDEs [3]. Klemenc-Ketis and colleagues’ conclusion that hypercapnia plays a role in provoking NDEs is one possible interpretation of the correlation they found. It is also plausible that hypercapnia is simply an indicator of another factor that may be linked causally to NDE reports. For example, the authors noted that hypercapnia indicates better cardiac output and perfusion pressure, which would reduce the amnesia that is usually seen in cardiac arrest, so that patients would be more likely to remember what happened during the arrest. Th e association between NDEs and hypercapnia may thus indicate simply that patients who are able to recall more of their cardiac arrest also report more NDEs. Gliksman and Kellehear reviewed studies showing that levels of carbon dioxide in the blood are not necessarily accurate estimates of levels in the brain [4], which further complicates the interpretation of the current fi ndings. Th e small sample size of this study, the contradictory evidence from other studies, and the unclear association between levels of carbon dioxide in the blood and in the brain suggest caution in interpreting the fi ndings and suggest the need for further research.

Three ancient reports of near-death experiences: Bremmer revisited.

In the modern literature, the so-called 'vision of Er,' told by Plato, and the 'vision of Thespesius,' recorded by Plutarch, have sometimes been cited as examples of ancient near-death experiences (NDEs). However, in a recent study, classicist Jan Bremmer (2002) impugned this interpretation. In this article, I offer a fresh analysis of these two texts that challenges Bremmer's stance and that vindicates the similarity between the ancient reports and modern NDEs. The vision of Er emerges as the oldest known direct account of an NDE. I add to these cases Plutarch's description of the 'vision of Timarchus' as an example of an ancient NDE provoked by extreme isolation. Comparison of these reports of NDEs from antiquity with modern analogues suggests a few additional characteristic traits of NDEs.

The Elias project: Using the near-death experience potential in therapy

Article describing the therapeutic usefulness of near-death experiences (NDEs). The fundamental hypothesis is that reports of NDEs together with relevant research can be understood to be a modern book of death and dying, one that is not only useful but also applicable to therapeutic purposes.

A comparison of retrospective accounts of childhood near-death experiences with contemporary pediatric near-death experience accounts

I compared five childhood near-death experiences (NDEs) reported by adults and another five NDEs reported by minors, in terms of Ring's five NDE stages, Greyson's four NDE components, Moody and Perry's 12 NDE traits, Sabom's 16 general characteristics, and Gallup and Proctor's 10 basic positive experiences. In this combined pool of 47 NDE characteristics (which were interdependent), only two relating to time sense showed significant differences between the adults' retrospective reports of childhood NDEs and the children's contemporary NDE reports, and that number of differences would be expected by chance. This study therefore supports the claims of previous researchers that adults' retrospective reports of childhood NDEs are not embellished or distorted.

Near-death experiences in patients undergoing cardiopulmonary resuscitation

The purposes of this two-phase descriptive study were to document the frequency of near-death experiences (NDEs) in a nonprobability convenience sample of patients undergoing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), to describe the types of NDE experienced most commonly during CPR, and to describe patients' views of helpful nursing responses to reports of NDEs. In Phase I a nurse read to subjects Greyson's (1983a) NDE scale. In Phase II, we used an open-ended interview designed to elicit patients' perception of helpful nursing responses to NDE reports. Results have implications for broadening the groups of persons offering patients an opportunity to discuss NDEs after CPR.

A critique of Kellehear's transcendent society

Allan Kellehear argued that the otherworld society envisioned in near-death experiences (NDEs) is similar to utopian societies. However, his cultural analysis, based on 9 Mormon NDEs, did not reflect the diversity of near-death visions from other cultures. I suggest that these Mormon NDEs were neither as utopian as Kellehear assumed nor representative of contemporary NDE reports, and that a more complete analysis would reveal a variety of NDEs and otherworld visions reflecting the experiencers' sociocultural back-ground. Robert Bellah's model of religious evolution provides a model for charting the NDE's change over time and cultures, and allows us to differentiate the perennial features of the NDE from the transient culturally-determined ones — a first step in understanding the role of NDEs in the quest for an ideal society.