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Studies and Classifications Early studies Dr. Moody was the first to collect personal accounts and attempt to describe and classify NDEs. In his book Life after Life, Moody discusses the fifteen elements to an NDE. These include: “hearing the news” that you’re dead, feelings of peace and quiet, hearing unusual noises such as buzzing, ringing, or roaring, the dark tunnel, out of body experience, meeting others, the light, life review, a border or limit, and finally coming back. Dr. Kenneth Ring, a psychology professor, conducted the “Connecticut Study” which involved 102 people’s accounts of an NDE. From this study, Ring described certain “core experiences” as the vital elements of an NDE. These experiences include feelings of peace, sense of separation from the body, moving toward a bright light, a life review and a decision to return to the body. From these core experiences he proposed a “weighted core experience index” to judge the depth of the experience. So, certain “core experiences” were assigned a score based on their presence and intensity within a particular NDE. An individual’s score could range from zero to 29. Also, Ring proposed five stages of an NDE which are: peace and quiet, separation from the body, entering the darkness, seeing the light, and entering the light. Cardiologist Michael Sabom conducted a study of 116 near death victims in 1982. Sabom defined NDEs as any experience undergone during an episode of unconsciousness associated with physical near-death. Sabom also classified NDEs in two categories: the autoscopic (viewing oneself during an out of body experience) and the transcendental or otherworldly. He noted that some have elements of both of these categories. Neurologist Bruce Greyson, in a 1983 essay, proposed his NDE Scale based on results of a questionnaire. His scale grouped NDE in four clusters: cognitive component, affective component, paranormal component, and transcendental component. There have been many studies involving children’s accounts of NDEs. Children’s accounts are viewed as important due to a child’s lack of cultural sophistication. Most children at a young age do not yet completely identify themselves with a certain religion or a certain set of values. One such study was conducted by P. M. H. Atwater. In her study, the majority of the 277 child NDErs did not have deep NDEs with hellish or heavenly dimensions, but only had the initial elements, such as out-of-body awareness or a sense of deep peace.
Recent Studies Some recent studies have looked at the physiology of NDE and out of body experiences. One such article titled Visualizing Out-of-body Experience by Brain by De Ridder et. Al. was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in November of 2007. The article presents a case of a patient who while being treated with brain electrodes for refractory tinnitus, experienced repeated out of body experiences when a certain area of his brain was stimulated. A PET scan was performed while the patient was having an out of body experience in order to localize the areas of increased activity. After mapping these regions, the researchers determined that the areas of increased activity were those that when activated could alter the vestibular-somatosensory integration of the body in space, and alter spatial self perception. Another study written in 2008 discusses the correlation in the experience of an NDE compared to the experience had when one consumes ibogaine (a psychoactive indole alkaloid extracted from the iboga shrub). This article discusses the nuero-protective mechanisms that may be occurring during a NDE. These mechanisms may cause the brain to switch to certain neurological structures and brain waves which allow parapsychological abilities to be present in the absence of cortical dominance. The study also discussed the after effects of an NDE saying that the experience may be integrated into one’s personality and induces a newly learned peaceful state of vagal and subcortical dominance.
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