Bruce Greyson

The Near-Death Experience Scale: Construction, Reliability, and Validity

Near-death experiences (NDEs) have been described consistently since antiquity and more rigorously in recent years. Investigation into their mechanisms and effects has been impeded by the lack of quantitative measures of the NDE and its components. From an initial pool of 80 manifestations characteristic of NDEs, a 33-item scaled-response preliminary questionnaire was developed, which was completed by knowledgeable subjects describing their 74 NDEs. Items with significant item-total score correlations that could be grouped into clinically meaningful clusters constituted the final 16-item NDE Scale. The scale was found to have high internal consistency, split-half reliability, and test-retest reliability; was highly correlated with Rings Weighted Core Experience Index; and differentiated those who unequivocally claimed to have had NDEs from those with qualified or questionable claims. This reliable, valid, and easily administered scale is clinically useful in differentiating NDEs from organic brain syndromes and nonspecific stress responses, and can standardize further research into mechanisms and effects of NDEs.

Distressing Near-Death Experiences.

Most reported near-death experiences include profound feelings of peace, joy, and cosmic unity. Less familiar are the reports following close brushes with death of experiences that are partially or entirely unpleasant, frightening, or frankly hellish. While little is known about the antecedents or aftereffects of these distressing experiences, there appear to be three distinct types, involving (1) phenomenology similar to peaceful near-death experiences but interpreted as unpleasant, (2) a sense of nonexistence or eternal void, or (3) graphic hellish landscapes and entities. While the first type may eventually convert to a typical peaceful experience, the relationship of all three types to prototypical near-death experiences merits further study. The effect of the distressing experience in the lives of individuals deserves exploration, as the psychological impact may be profound and long-lasting.

Incidence and correlates of near-death experiences in a cardiac care unit

Near-death experiences, unusual experiences during a close brush with death, may precipitate pervasive attitudinal and behavior changes. The incidence and psychological correlates of such experiences, and their association with proximity to death, are unclear. We conducted a 30-month survey to identify near-death experiences in a tertiary care center cardiac inpatient service. In a consecutive sample of 1595 patients admitted to the cardiac inpatient service (mean age 63 years, 61% male), of whom 7% were admitted with cardiac arrest, patients who described near-death experiences were matched with comparison patients on diagnosis, gender, and age. Near-death experiences were reported by 10% of patients with cardiac arrest and 1% of other cardiac patients (P<.001). Near-death experiencers were younger than other patients (P=.001), were more likely to have lost consciousness (P<.001) and to report prior purportedly paranormal experiences (P=.009), and had greater approach-oriented death acceptance (P=.01). Near-death experiencers and comparison patients did not differ in sociodemographic variables, social support, quality of life, acceptance of their illness, cognitive function, capacity for physical activities, degree of cardiac dysfunction, objective proximity to death, or coronary prognosis.

The near-death experience as a focus of clinical attention.

Near-death experiences (NDEs) often produce profound changes in attitudes and behavior that can lead to psychosocial and psychospiritual problems. The diagnostic label of religious or spiritual problem, included in DSM-IV under the category of other conditions that may be a focus of clinical attention, was originally proposed to encompass NDEs and their aftereffects. Four cases are discussed in which patients presented with NDE-related problems, and differential diagnosis and current treatment strategies are reviewed. The inclusion of this new diagnostic category in the DSM-IV permits differentiation of NDEs and similar experiences from mental disorders and may lead to research into more effective treatment strategies.

Dissociative and Psychotic Experiences in Brazilian Spiritist Mediums

Spiritism is a French offshoot of the spiritualistic movement that developed in the 19th century. In Brazil it is the fourth largest religion and its practices are deeply connected to mediumistic activity. This is not reimbursed but considered charitable voluntary work [8]. We examined the socio-demographic profile, social adjustment and mental health in Spiritist mediums as well as the clinical and socio-demographic characteristics that help distinguish the dissociative and psychotic experiences of a pathological from a non-pathological character. One hundred and fifteen mediums were randomly selected from different Kardecist Spiritist centers in São Paulo, Brazil. In the early phase of the study, all participants signed a consent form and completed socio-demographic and mediumistic activity questionnaires, the Self-Report Psychiatric Screening Questionnaire (SRQ) [9] as well as the Social Adjustment Scale (SAS) [10]. Those mediums identified by the SRQ as probably having MD (n = 12) and a control group (12 subjects randomly selected among the remaining 103 mediums) were interviewed using the Disso-ciative Disorders Interview Schedule [11] and the Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry [12]. The types of mediumship were coded according to the Spirit-ist classification: embodiment/incorporation (the medium says that the spirit controls his/her whole body), psychophony (a feeling that the mediums speech has an external origin, considered to be a disembodied spirit), hearing (hear the spirits), seeing (seeing the spirits) and psychography (the spirit writes through the mediums hand) [13]. The t test for independent samples, ␹ 2 for categorical variables and the Pearson test for correlation coefficients were used. The main results are presented in table 1. The sample had a high educational level, low unemployment rate and was predominantly female; a profile similar to other samples of mediums [14, 15]. The average SAS score was within the range of the general population and better than psychiatric patients [10]. SRQ results suggest a low prevalence of common mental disorders in the sample , lower than in other Brazilian studies using SRQ in non-clinical populations [16, 17]. Unlike patients with dissociative and psychotic disorders [2, 18] , these mediums had not experienced a high prevalence of childhood abuse. Incorporation was linked to better scores of social adjustment and fewer psychiatric symptoms; hearing and psychography were also associated with better social adjustment. Surveys performed over the last decade have shown that dissociative, hallucinatory and purported extrasensory experiences are common in the general population and often not associated with MD …

Near-Death Encounters With and Without Near-Death Experiences: Comparative NDE Scale Profiles

In a retrospective study contrasting the near-death encounters of 183 persons who reported near-death experiences and 63 persons who reported no near-death experience, the two groups did not differ in age, gender, or time elapsed since the near-death encounter. Near-death experiencers reported all 16 items of the NDE Scale significantly more often than did nonexperiencers.

The psychodynamics of near-death experiences.

Near-death experiences (NDEs), profound transcendental events experienced on the threshold of death, may be interpreted on several levels from the neurophysiological to the eschatological. Independent of other levels of interpretation, a psychological analysis of NDEs produces meaningful and researchable psychodynamic precipitants and sequelae. A number of psychological mechanisms are discussed, which overdetermine the prototypical NDE, and objections to psychological interpretations of the phenomenon are considered. Further exploration of the psychological aspects of NDEs may yield clinically useful techniques in suicide prevention and in the treatment of terminal and bereaved patients.

Do prevailing societal models influence reports of near-death experiences? : A comparison of accounts reported before and after 1975

Transcendental near-death experiences show some cross-cultural variation that suggests they may be influenced by societal beliefs. The prevailing Western model of near-death experiences was defined by Moodys description of the phenomenon in 1975. To explore the influence of this cultural model, we compared near-death experience accounts collected before and after 1975. We compared the frequency of 15 phenomenological features Moody defined as characteristic of near-death experiences in 24 accounts collected before 1975 and in 24 more recent accounts matched on relevant demographic and situational variables. Near-death experience accounts collected after 1975 differed from those collected earlier only in increased frequency of tunnel phenomena, which other research has suggested may not be integral to the experience, and not in any of the remaining 14 features defined by Moody as characteristic of near-death experiences. These data challenge the hypothesis that near-death experience accounts are substantially influenced by prevailing cultural models.

Reduced death threat in near-death experiencers

Abstract Near-death experiences (NDEs), profound mystical or transcendental experiences occurring on the threshold of death, have been reported to reduce fear of death and death anxiety. This study compared responses to the Threat Index, a widely used measure of the threat implied by ones personal death, of (a) 135 near-death experiences, (b) 43 individuals who had come close to death but not had an NDE, and (c) 112 individuals who had never come close to death. Death threat was significantly lower among those with near-death experiences than among the two comparison groups, and degree of death threat was inversely correlated with depth of NDE as measured by the quantitative NDE Scale. Self/ideal self discrepancy or, inversely, actualization, was not related to occurrence or depth of NDEs.

Clinical approaches to the near-death experiencer

The literature on near-death experiences (NDEs) and their aftereffects has focused on the positive personality transformations and spiritual development that often follow an NDE, while it has neglected the emotional and interpersonal problems sometimes precipitated by the experience. We report general guidelines and specific interventions, developed at an interdisciplinary conference, to assist NDErs in coping with psychological difficulties following their experiences.