Researchers’ and Experiencers’ Descriptions of Near-Death Experiences: In Search of a Conceptual Model

Summary

Near-death experiences (NDEs) have been studied for 50 years, yet no simple, widely accepted definition existed. This study surveyed 100 near-death researchers and 100 near-death experiencers to identify a brief, consensual description. Both groups agreed on the most common physical circumstances, features, and aftereffects of NDEs, leading to a proposed model conceptual description.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Near-death experiences (NDEs) have been known for millennia and studied rigorously for the past 50 years.In that time, scholars have developed comprehensive tabulations of NDEs' commonly associated physical circumstances, phenomenological features, and aftereffects, as well as quantitative scales to measure the occurrence and depth of NDEs.Yet despite this extensive research literature, no one has proposed a simple, widely acceptable conceptual description of what an NDE is.Consequently, when asked by interviewers or members of a lay audience for a brief statement as to what NDEs are, researchers have had no consensually agreed-upon answer.In this study, I sought to identify an acceptable conceptual description of NDEs by surveying 100 neardeath researchers recruited from academic indexing databases and 100 neardeath experiencers recruited primarily from a vetted experiencer database, as to how they would characterize NDEs in a brief, "sound-bite" statement.Researchers and experiencers agreed on the most common NDE associated physical circumstances, phenomenological features, and aftereffects, from which I propose a model brief conceptual description.