Near-death Studies - NDE (near-death Experience)

NDE (near-death Experience)

The NDE is an experience reported by people who have come close to dying in a medical or non-medical setting. According to sources it is estimated that near-death experiences are reported by five percent of the adult American population. According to IANDS, surveys (conducted in USA, Australia and Germany) suggest that 4 to 15% of the population have had NDEs. Some researchers try to study the postulated role of physiological, psychological and transcendental factors associated with the NDE. These factors come together to form an overall pattern when numerous NDE reports are considered together. It is this pattern that is one of the main objects of interest for Near-Death studies.

Among the general characteristics of an NDE we find: subjective impressions of being outside the physical body; visions of deceased relatives and religious figures; transcendence of ego and spatiotemporal boundaries. Similar traits have been mentioned by other researchers, and are also described in an analysis of 613 near-death experiences, gathered by the Near Death Research Foundation.

Researcher Melvin Morse lists nine traits that he believes are characteristic of the Near-death experience:

• 1) a sense of being dead
• 2) a feeling of peace and painlessness
• 3) an out-of-body experience
• 4) a tunnel experience (the sense of moving up or through a narrow passageway)
• 5) encountering "People of Light"
• 6) encountering a "Being of Light", a "force", or a similar figure
• 7) being given a "life review"
• 8) a reluctance to return to life
• 9) The experience may also involve after-effects, such as: personality transformation, loss of the fear of death, greater spiritualism, and greater ecological sensitivity.

Many of the after-effects are 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. 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.

NDE-researchers have also found that the NDE may not be a uniquely western experience. The core experience seems to be similar across cultures, but the details of the experience (figures, beings, scenery), and the interpretation of the experience, varies a lot from culture to culture, and from individual to individual.