The phenomenology of near-death experiences

Abstract

The authors studied retrospectively 78 reports of "near-death experiences using subjects narratives and questionnaires, interviews, and medical records. Prior experiences suggestive of transcendence of death were more common among these subjects than among control populations, but prior experiences suggestive of extrasensory phenomena were less common. Subsequent changes in attitudes were more common than among subjects in other studies who had had psychic experiences. The influence of cultural and psychological factors, sensory deprivation, and reflex adaptive responses to stress explain some but not all of the features of near-death experiences. Their potential value to our conceptualization of dying and to suicide prevention and the care of the terminally ill justifies further investigation.