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'' ( Hieronymus Bosch )]] A near-death experience ('''NDE''') is a .Grossman, Neil (Indiana University and University of Illinois), ''Who's Afraid of Life After Death? Why NDE Evidence is Ignored'', Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), 2002Fontana, David (Cardiff University and Liverpool John Moores University), ''Does Mind Survive Physical Death?'', 2003 The experience has been reported more frequently in recent times since the development of , 2001van Lommel, Pim (Hospital Rijnstate), ''A Reply to Shermer: Medical Evidence for NDEs'', in Skeptical Investigations, 2003 CHARACTERISTICS The Phenomenology of an NDE usually includes physiological, psychological and alleged transcendental aspects.Parnia, Waller, Yeates & Fenwick, 2001 Typically the experience follows a distinct progression:Mauro, James (1992) Bright lights, big mystery. Psychology Today, July 1992Morse, Conner & Tyler, 1985; Morse & Perry, 1992van Lommel P, van Wees R, Meyers V, Elfferich I. (2001) Near-Death Experience in Survivors of Cardiac Arrest: A prospective Study in the Netherlands. Lancet, December 15;358(9298):2039-45. # A sense of being dead. # An Out-of-body Experience . A sensation of floating above one's body and seeing the surrounding area. # Pleasant feelings, calmness. A sense of overwhelming love and peace. # A very unpleasant sound/noise is the first sensory impression to be noticed (R. Moody: Life after Life) #A sensation of moving upwards through a tunnel or narrow passageway. # Meeting deceased relatives or spiritual figures. # Encountering a being of light, or a light (often interpreted as being God or another Religious /divine figure). # Being given a Life Review . # Reaching a border or boundary. # A feeling of being returned to the body, often accompanied by a reluctance. Some people have also experienced extremely distressing NDEs. A 'core' near-death experience reflects — as intensity increases according to the Rasch Scale — Peace , Joy and Harmony , followed by insight and Mystical or Religious experiences.Lange, Greyson & Houran, 2004 The most intense NDEs involve an awareness of things occurring in a different place or time, and some of these observations are said to have been Evidential . 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 .van Lommel P, van Wees R, Meyers V, Elfferich I. (2001) Near-Death Experience in Survivors of Cardiac Arrest: A prospective Study in the Netherlands. Lancet, December 15;358(9298):2039-45. Evidence exists of a correlation between the cause of near-death situations (i.e. heart attack, accident, attempted suicide etc.) and an individual's experience of an NDE. For example, people who become aware of being in a dangerous and potentially fatal situation sometimes experience an NDE, while others may have no experience of this at all. Many NDEs occur after a crucial experience, e.g. when a patient can hear, that he 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.Ring, Kenneth: Heading toward Omega. In search of the Meaning of Near-Death Experience, 1984 RESEARCH Interest in the NDE was originally spurred by the research of such pioneers as Elisabeth Kübler-Ross , George Ritchie , and Raymond Moody Jr. Moody's book '' Life After Life '', which was released in 1975, brought a great deal of attention to the topic of NDEs.Mauro, James. ''Bright lights, big mystery''. Psychology Today, July 1992 This was soon followed by the establishment of the International Association for Near-death Studies ( IANDS ) founded in 1978 in order to meet the needs of early researchers and experiencers within this field of research. Today the association includes researchers, health care professionals, NDE-experiencers and people close to experiencers, as well as other interested people. One of its main goals is to promote responsible and multi-disciplinary investigation of near-death and similar experiences. Later researchers, such as Bruce Greyson , Kenneth Ring and Michael Sabom , introduced the study of Near-death experiences to the academic setting. The medical community has been somewhat reluctant to address the phenomenon of NDE's and grant money for research has been scarce.Mauro, James. ''Bright lights, big mystery''. Psychology Today, July 1992 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.IANDS, printable brochure Major contributions to the field include the construction of a Weighted Core Experience Index.Ring K. ''Life at death. A scientific investigation of the near- death experience.'' 1980 New York: Coward McCann and Geoghenan in order to measure the depth of the Near-death experience, and the construction of the Near-death experience scaleGreyson, 1983 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" NDE and syndromes or stress responses that are not related to a NDE. Greyson's NDE-scale was later found to fit the Rasch rating scale model.Lange, Greyson & Houran, 2004 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 we find the British Psychologist Susan Blackmore (1993), and founding publisher of Skeptic Magazine , Michael Shermer (1998). Among the scientific and academic journals that have published, or are regularly publishing new research on the subject of NDE's we find: '' Journal Of Near-Death Studies ,'' '' Journal Of Nervous And Mental Disease ,'' ''British Journal of Psychology,'' ''American Journal of Disease of Children,'' ''Resuscitation,'' '' The Lancet ,'' ''Death Studies,'' and the ''Journal of Advanced Nursing.'' The prevalence of NDEs has been variable in the few studies that have been performed. Gallup and Proctor in 1980-1981 surveyed a representative sample of the American population and found that 15% had NDEs.Gallup, G., and Proctor, W. (1982). Adventures in immortality: a look beyond the threshold of death. New York, McGraw Hill However, this analysis was part of a larger study on death and dying and was poorly controlled for assessing the prevalence of NDEs. Knolbach in 2001 performed a more rigorous study in Germany and found that 4% of the sample population had experienced a NDE. Knoblauch, H., Schmied, I. and Schnettler, B. (2001). Different kinds of Near-Death Experience: a report on a survey of near-death experiences in Germany. Journal of Near-Death Studies, 20, 15-29 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 a NDE. Perera, M., Padmasekara, G. and Belanti, J. (2005)Prevalence of Near Death Experiences in Australia. Journal of Near-Death Studies, 24(2), 109-116 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% of these patients had a NDE with 12% 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 Europe an branch of the research field.Parnia, Waller, Yeates & Fenwick, 2001; van Lommel, van Wees, Meyers & Elfferich, 2001 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 realm similar to the Bardo , or a transpersonal dimension that houses souls awaiting reincarnation. His explanation for this was the possible lack of panic involved in the clinical setting and possible dosage differences between those administered and those encountered in actual NDE cases. It is also important to take into account that all of the subjects in the study were very experienced users of DMT and/or other psychedelic/ Entheogenic agents. Had subjects without prior knowledge on the effects of DMT been used during the experiment, it is possible that more volunteers would have reported feeling as though they had died or had 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 (Kinseher, 2006) the Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) are seen as the result of a single brain function: The human body is a very complex system, which is regulated and controlled by a very effective feedback control unit - the brain. All new sensual impressions are combined and compared with information (experiences) from our memory. The brain permanently has to deliver a suitable prediction of how a person should react at the actual situation. These proposals of the brain are under constant feedback change; therefore a person is always able to react immediately. The experience ´I am dead/I will die´ is an extremely strange paradox to a living organism - and therefore it will start the NDE. During the NDE a person can ´see´ 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 ´I am dead´. All these scanned and retrieved bits of information are permanently evaluated by the actual mind - it tries to give them a useful meaning. This is the reason why a Near-Death Experience is so unusual. The ´Out of the Body Experience´ is an attempt by the brain to create a mental overview of the situation and the surrounding world. The brain transforms the input from sense organs and stored experience (knowledge) into a dream-like idea about oneself and the surrounding area. There have been many skeptics of NDEs who have been spiritualists. In addition, a good scientist will answer the 'how' and 'what' questions, which are also questions that have not been answered about human consciousness (Pim van Lommel). This gives believers room for believing in the 'why' questions. (Jasen), (bbc.org), (bruce greyson) AS AN AFTERLIFE EXPERIENCE Some see the NDE as an 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.van Lommel P, van Wees R, Meyers V, Elfferich I. (2001) Near-Death Experience in Survivors of Cardiac Arrest: A prospective Study in the Netherlands. Lancet, December 15;358(9298):2039-45. 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.Sabom, Michael. ''Light & Death: One Doctor's Fascinating Account of Near-Death Experiences''. 1998. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House A majority of individuals who experience an NDE see it as a verification of the existence of an afterlife.Kelly, 2001 This includes those with agnostic/atheist inclinations before the experience. Many former Atheist s, such as the Reverend Howard Storm Rodrigues, 2004 {Link without Title} have adopted a more spiritual view after their NDEs. Howard Storm's NDE might also be characterized as a distressing near-death experience. The distressing aspects of some NDE's are discussed more closely by Greyson & Bush (1992). 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."Greyson, 2001 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% of his sample studied reported some visual awareness during their NDE or out of body experience.Ring, Cooper, 1999Skeptics however question the accuracy of their visual awareness Hallucinatory Near-Death Experiences (2003) (Revised 2006) RELIGIOUS AND PHYSIOLOGICAL VIEWS See Also: Religious and physiological views of near-death experiences There are many religious and physiological views about what NDEs are. EFFECTS See Also: Effects of near-death experiences Near-death experiences can have tremendous effects on the people who have them, their families, and medical workers. SEE ALSO
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Personal experiences
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.
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