Ian Stevenson

Features of "near-death experience" in relation to whether or not patients were near death.

The medical records of 58 patients, most of whom believed they were near death during an illness or after an injury and all of whom later remembered unusual experiences occurring at the time, were examined. 28 patients were judged to have been so close to death that they would have died without medical intervention; the other 30 patients were not in danger of dying although most of them thought they were. Patients of both groups reported closely similar experiences but patients who really were close to death were more likely than those who were not to report an enhanced perception of light and enhanced cognitive powers. The claim of enhancement of cognitive functions despite the likelihood that brain function had probably become disturbed and possibly diminished, deserves further investigation.

Near-Death Experiences in India: A Preliminary Report

The authors report some features of 16 cases of near-death experiences that they investigated in India. After presenting brief accounts of four such experiences, the authors describe and discuss features in which the Indian cases differ from a larger sample of American cases. They note that some of these features seem to be culture-bound, but they caution against accepting this observation as adequate evidence that the cases derive only from culture-bound beliefs. Some differences may derive from the effects of a persons beliefs on what actually does happen after death, and some different features may, on closer examination, be found to be basically similar in nature if not in detail.

Life situations, emotions, and extrasystoles.

The occurrence of cardiac arrhythmias in association with emotional stress is a common clinical observation (2,6,8,13,14). To explore the validity of the inference that such extrasystoles occur as part of the organisms reaction to life situations, a systematic study was made of 12 unselected patients displaying extrasystoles. In most of these patients palpitation was the presenting complaint; in a few it was an incidental finding. In 5 of the subjects other arrhythmias occurred as well. In all instances a detailed history was obtained; a complete physical examination and indicated laboratory precedures were performed to determine the presence and nature of any functional or structural heart disease or other abnormality. A series of interviews was conducted over varying lengths of time up to one year and totalling up to forty hours, during which a life history and personality study were obtained. An evaluation was also made of the current life situation and the emotional responses thereto. As the patient was followed detailed inquiries were made into the circumstances of each episode of arrhythmia. Among these, such factors as exercise, infection, tobacco, alcohol, and coffee were carefully noted as well as attitudes, feeling states, and life situations. Every effort was made to distinguish the influence of the former group of factors from that of the latter group.

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.

The explanatory value of the idea of reincarnation.

The idea of reincarnation is presented as having considerable explanatory value for several features of human personality and biology that currently accepted theories do not adequately clarify. Reincarnation is not offered as a substitute for present knowledge derived from genetics and understanding of environmental influences; it may, however, usefully supplement such knowledge. The present paper does not present evidence from cases suggestive of reincarnation. It does, however, cite cases of subjects who have claimed to remember previous lives, most of whose statements have been verified in the course of detailed investigations. For each case, a reference is provided to a detailed published case report furnishing the evidence in that case. The idea of reincarnation may contribute to an improved understanding of such diverse matters as: phobias and philias of childhood; skills not learned in early life; abnormalities of child-parent relationships; vendettas and bellicose nationalism; childhood sexuality and gender identity confusion; birthmarks, congenital deformities, and internal diseases; differences between members of monozygotic twin pairs; and abnormal appetites during pregnancy. Empirical studies of cases of the reincarnation type have so far not provided any evidence that justifies using reincarnation as an explanation for the occurrence of child prodigies or the large inequities in socioeconomic conditions of humans at birth.

American children who claim to remember previous lives.

An unknown number of American children claim to remember previous lives. In this paper data of 79 such children are analyzed and compared with data from a larger number of cases in India. Few American children of these cases make verifiable statements, and those who do nearly always speak about the lives of deceased members of their own families. In this feature, American cases differ from Indian ones, in which the children usually speak of the lives of deceased persons in another family and often in another community. Indian children also frequently make verifiable statements about the lives of such persons. In some other respects, however, such as the age of first speaking about the previous lives, the content of the statements they make, and related unusual behavior, American subjects closely resemble ones in India. Although many of the American cases may derive from fantasies, a wish-fulfilling motive or obvious gain for the child is not discernible in most of them. Nor do the cases resemble in their form fantasies of imaginary playmates. Some American cases of this type occur in families already believing in reincarnation, but many others do not. In these families the childs statements about a previous life are often puzzling and even alarming to his or her parents. The child is sometimes involved in conflict over the apparent memories with members of his or her family. In turn, the family members immediately involved often fear that other members of the family or other persons in the community will consider the child abnormal. Many American cases are first reported years after the childs first speaking about a previous life; and it seems probable that many other cases are never reported. One purpose of this paper is to alert psychiatrists and pediatricians to the occurrence of such cases and to encourage their reporting them for further study.

Involuntary memories during severe physical illness or injury.

This paper reports an analysis of the features of 122 cases of persons who became ill or even came close to death, but who survived and afterward reported that during the experience they recalled memories of earlier events in their lives. The life review varied widely in its form; the number of memories recalled ranged from only one or two to the subjects entire life. Moreover, few of the subjects reported seeing earlier events of their life “all at once,” which makes the popular phrase “panoramic memory” a misnomer. One group of 54 cases was compared with a group of 54 other cases in which the feature of the life review did not occur. There were no significant differences between the two groups with regard to nine common features. The life review occurs as one feature among several others of equal or greater importance in the total experience. Its function, if any, remains to be elucidated by further research.

Research into the evidence of man's survival after death: a historical and critical survey with a summary of recent developments.

Scientific research on the question of whether human personality survives physical death has been conducted for almost a century. The present article offers a summary of this research and accounts of some new developments in the field that have occurred within the past 15 years. The historical review is divided into three periods which, although not sharply separated, were characterized by different understandings and approaches both to the theoretical issues and to related empirical investigations. In the first period, extending from the 1880s to the 1930s, the investigators mainly engaged in collecting, classifying, and analyzing spontaneous experiences of persons who saw apparitions of deceased persons or had other experiences that suggested to them some communication from a discarnate personality. This period also saw the beginning of the scientific investigation of persons (usually called mediums) who claim they can bring messages from deceased persons. Considerable experimentation during this period, including studies of extrasensory communication between living persons, gradually led some investigators to conclude that all, or nearly all, of the evidence seeming to arise from a discarnate personality could be explained more easily on the basis of telepathy between living persons or some far ranging power of clairvoyance on the part of a person who seemed to receive a communication from a deceased person. In the second period, extending from the 1930s to about 1960, most parapsy-chologists neglected the question of the possibility of mans survival after physical death. They judged it wiser to defer a direct attack on the problem until after a more complete understanding had been achieved of the power and range of extrasensory perception on the part of living persons. During these years, nevertheless, some advances were made in the form of new types of empirical investigation and further efforts to clarify theoretical issues. In the third period of investigation, dating from approximately 1960, proportionately more parapsychologists have entered this field of research; and they have tried to devise experiments that would exclude extrasensory perception between living persons (or on the part of a single living person) as a counterexplanation for communications apparently coming from deceased persons. In addition, some of them have exploited the distinction between cognitive information and skills. They have argued that, although there may be no limits to the transmission by extrasensory perception of cognitive information, skills cannot be transmitted either normally or by extrasensory perception. Thus, persons exhibiting a skill not learned normally may provide evidence of having acquired this skill either in a previous incarnation or through the influence of a discarnate person who, during his terrestrial life, had demonstrated the skill.

Life Situations, Emotions, and Paroxysmal Auricular Arrhythmias

PAROXYSMAL cardiac arrhythmias have been frequently thought to be related to emotional disturbances (4, 5, 8, 9, 13, 23). In order to investigate this relationship a detailed study was made of 26 unselected cases of paroxysmal arrhythmias. The patients included in this study showed paroxysmal auricular tachycardia, auriculoventricular nodal tachycardia, or auricular fibrillation; some had various arrhythmias at different times. Five who also showed frequent extrasystoles have been reported in detail elsewhere (18).

Can Experiences Near Death Furnish Evidence of Life after Death

Most people who have a near-death experience (NDE) say that the experience convinced them that they will survive death. People who have not had such an experience, however, may not share this conviction. Although all features of NDEs, when looked at alone, might be explained in ways other than survival, there are three features in particular that we believe suggest the possibility of survival, especially when they all occur in the same experience. These features are: enhanced mental processes at a time when physiological functioning is seriously impaired; the experience of being out of the body and viewing events going on around it as from a position above; and the awareness of remote events not accessible to the persons ordinary senses. We briefly report one such case, and we also briefly describe two additional such cases in which the remote events apparently seen were verified by other persons.