The Near-Death Experience: Problems, Prospects, Perspectives.
Contemporary Sociology A Journal of Reviews July 1, 1985 Robert S. Fulton, Bruce Greyson, Charles P. Flynn 102 citations
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Bruce Greyson
Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences, University of Virginia Health System, Charlottesville, VA, USA.
20 papers in the library · 831 citations · publishing 1981-2026
Papers
Neurochemical models of near-death experiences: A large-scale study based on the semantic similarity of written reports.
Consciousness and cognition March 1, 2019 Charlotte Martial, Héléna Cassol, Vanessa Charland-Verville et al. 98 citations
Near-death experiences (NDEs) share consistent features across cultures, suggesting a common neurobiological basis. Analyzing semantic similarity between about 15,000 reports from 165 psychoactive substances and 625 NDE narratives, the NMDA receptor antagonist ketamine produced reports most similar to NDEs, followed by Salvia divinorum and serotonergic psychedelics like DMT. The similarity was driven by concepts of self and environmental consciousness, as well as therapeutic, ceremonial, and religious aspects of drug use. Ketamine may serve as a safe experimental model for NDE phenomenology, and endogenous NMDA antagonists might be released near death.
Implications of near-death experiences for a postmaterialist psychology.
Psychology of Religion and Spirituality February 1, 2010 Bruce Greyson 94 citations
Classical physics, based on materialist reductionism, explained everyday mechanics but failed at high speeds or small scales, leading to quantum physics, which incorporates consciousness. Similarly, materialist psychology, modeled on classical physics, describes normal mental functioning but cannot account for mentation under extreme conditions like near-death experiences, where enhanced cognition and memory occur despite brain impairment. Near-death phenomena include accurate out-of-body perceptions and visions of deceased persons unknown to the experiencer. Such complex consciousness during cardiac arrest or general anesthesia, when normal brain function is absent, demands a psychology grounded in 21st-century quantum physics that includes consciousness, rather than 19th-century classical physics.
Explanatory Models for Near-Death Experiences
January 1, 2009 Bruce Greyson, Emily Williams Kelly, Edward F. Kelly 88 citations
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Reduced death threat in near-death experiencers
Death Studies November 1, 1992 Bruce Greyson 58 citations
People who have had a near-death experience (NDE) report significantly less fear of death than those who came close to death without an NDE or who never came close to death. The deeper the NDE, the lower the death threat. The study measured death threat using the Threat Index and depth of NDE with a quantitative scale. Self-actualization did not relate to having or deepening an NDE.
The Psychodynamics of Near-Death Experiences
The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease June 1, 1983 Bruce Greyson 58 citations
Near-death experiences (NDEs) are profound transcendental events that occur near death and can be understood on multiple levels, including neurophysiological and eschatological. A psychological analysis reveals meaningful psychodynamic causes and consequences. The article discusses several psychological mechanisms that overdetermine the prototypical NDE and addresses objections to psychological interpretations. Further research into the psychological aspects of NDEs may lead to clinically useful techniques for suicide prevention and for treating terminally ill and bereaved patients.
Near‐Death Experiences and Attempted Suicide
Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior March 1, 1981 Bruce Greyson 55 citations
While attempted suicide generally increases the risk of later completed suicide, preliminary data and psychodynamic hypotheses suggest that serious suicide attempts followed by a transcendental near-death experience (NDE) may instead reduce subsequent overt suicide risk, even though NDEs can appear to romanticize death. The authors propose further studies on NDEs and their influence on suicidal ideation to better understand self-destructive urges and develop new suicide prevention strategies.
Near-Death Experiences and Antisuicidal Attitudes
OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying March 1, 1993 Bruce Greyson 49 citations
People who have had near-death experiences (NDEs) endorse more antisuicidal attitudes than those who came close to death without an NDE. The deeper the NDE, the more antisuicidal statements were endorsed. The attitudes most strongly linked to NDEs involve transpersonal or transcendental beliefs, suggesting that NDEs reduce suicide risk by fostering a sense of purpose in life.
Mystical experiences associated with seizures
Religion Brain & Behavior April 8, 2014 Bruce Greyson, Donna K. Broshek, Lori L. Derr et al. 45 citations
Alterations of consciousness are central to diagnosing epilepsy, and some patients report unusual experiences during seizures that might resemble spontaneous mystical states. This study used a validated Mysticism Scale to assess such experiences in 98 epilepsy patients, 86 of whom had EEG recordings. Fifty-five percent recalled some subjective experience during seizures, but none met criteria for a mystical experience. While some features, especially those of introvertive mysticism, were reported, they were not linked to any specific brain lobe or hemisphere. Mysticism Scale scores showed no significant association with demographics, medical history, seizure risk factors, or seizure characteristics.
Congruence Between Near-Death and Mystical Experience
International Journal for the Psychology of Religion October 1, 2013 Bruce Greyson 45 citations
Two thirds of people who had a near-death experience reported mystical features such as a sense of sacredness, divine union, timelessness, positive mood, noetic quality, and ineffability, whereas none of those who came close to death without such an experience did. Near-death experiencers scored higher on the Mysticism Scale than nonexperiencers, most often endorsing noetic quality, positive affect, and unity, and least often ego loss, timelessness, and ineffability. Depth of near-death experience correlated highly with mysticism scores, but factor analysis yielded two distinct factors representing mystical and near-death elements, indicating commonalities yet differentiation between the two.
Biological Aspects of Near-Death Experiences
Perspectives in biology and medicine September 1, 1998 Bruce Greyson 43 citations
Near-death experiences (NDEs) are profound psychological events with transcendental elements that occur to individuals close to death or in intense danger. Once considered meaningless hallucinations, NDEs are now studied seriously by medical researchers. They affect about a third of people who come close to death, or roughly 5 percent of the American population. Accounts of similar events appear across many cultures and historical periods. NDEs matter to physicians because they can occur in patients, lead to lasting aftereffects influencing health and treatment response, and may illuminate mind-body interaction, especially near death. Predisposing factors are not well understood; experiencers are psychologically healthy and similar to controls in age, gender, race, religion, and mental health, though they may be better hypnotic subjects, remember dreams more often, and report childhood trauma.
Near-Death Experiences and Posttraumatic Growth
The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease September 5, 2015 Surbhi Khanna, Bruce Greyson 37 citations
Near-death experiences are associated with greater posttraumatic growth—positive psychological change after a trauma—than close brushes with death without such an experience. Among 251 survivors, scores on the Near-Death Experience Scale significantly correlated with scores on the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory. Interpreting near-death experiences as spiritual events supports prior research that spiritual factors contribute to posttraumatic growth and aligns with the model that challenges to one's assumptive worldview stimulate such growth.
Daily spiritual experiences before and after near-death experiences.
Psychology of Religion and Spirituality August 18, 2014 Surbhi Khanna, Bruce Greyson 31 citations
People who have had near-death experiences (NDEs) report more frequent daily spiritual experiences afterward than those who came close to death without having an NDE. Among 229 individuals who had a close brush with death, those who described an NDE (204 people) scored higher on a measure of daily spiritual experiences after the event, while prior spiritual experience levels did not differ between the two groups. The depth of the NDE was positively linked to the frequency of later spiritual experiences. These findings align with other reported aftereffects of NDEs.
A consensus taxonomy of altered (nonordinary) states of consciousness: Bringing order to disarray.
Psychology of Consciousness Theory Research and Practice June 12, 2025 Etzel Cardeña, Aviva Berkovich‐ohana, Katja Valli et al. 11 citations
A multidisciplinary, international group used taxonomic principles and a modified Delphi method to create a taxonomy of altered states of consciousness based on central phenomenological features. They identified eight distinct states, some with subcategories: proto and transitional, delirium, minimal to no awareness, experiential detachment, enhanced physicality, altered identity, imaginary/fantasy/visionary, and unity/mystical. The authors hope this taxonomy will foster conceptual clarity and stimulate research across specializations, helping reveal what is common and different across triggers and antecedents of altered states, and encouraging phenomenological, psychological, cultural, and neuroscientific understanding.
Exploring the transformative potential of out-of-body experiences: A pathway to enhanced empathy.
Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews August 1, 2024 Marina Weiler, David J Acunzo, Philip J Cozzolino et al. 10 citations
Out-of-body experiences (OBEs), where individuals feel detached from their physical bodies, often lead to lasting increases in pro-social behaviors such as tolerance and empathy. This article proposes that these changes occur through ego dissolution—a sense of unity and interconnectedness similar to that induced by psychedelics. The authors examine potential brain mechanisms, focusing on the temporoparietal junction and the Default Mode Network, to explain how OBEs might enhance empathy. The work synthesizes existing ideas to illuminate the relationship between altered states of consciousness and empathic improvement.
Near-death experience during cardiac arrest and consciousness beyond the brain: a narrative review.
International review of psychiatry (Abingdon, England) January 1, 2025 Bruno Angeli-Faez, Bruce Greyson, Pim van Lommel 3 citations
Near-death experiences (NDEs) during cardiac arrest likely occur when the patient is unresponsive and the brain is severely compromised, not in early arrest or after resuscitation. There is no evidence that cortical electrical activity recorded during dying or CPR is linked to NDEs; such recordings may be artifacts. Cardiac arrest halts blood flow to the brain, causing loss of cortical electrical activity within 10–30 seconds. During CPR, brain activity may remain absent or severely disturbed. Because NDEs appear at the moment the brain is severely compromised, this may support the idea that consciousness can persist beyond the brain.
Animals and Near-Death Experiences
Journal of Near-Death Studies January 1, 2023 Bruce Greyson 3 citations
Consciousness in humans and animals is explored, with a focus on near-death experiences (NDEs) and how both species may psychologically and spiritually interact during moments close to death. The article suggests that animals, like humans, can have NDEs and that these experiences can create a shared, transcendent connection between them. This interaction is described as a mutual awareness or communication that occurs at the threshold of death, challenging purely materialist views of consciousness. The work argues for a broader understanding of consciousness that includes non-human animals and highlights the spiritual dimensions of dying.
Researchers’ and Experiencers’ Descriptions of Near-Death Experiences: In Search of a Conceptual Model
Journal of Near-Death Studies January 1, 2023 Bruce Greyson 1 citation
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.
Operationalizing near‑death experiences: Stability of the NDE Rasch hierarchy over two decades.
Consciousness and cognition January 18, 2026 Marieta Pehlivanova, Rense Lange, Bruce Greyson et al.
Two scales measuring the phenomenology of near-death experiences—the 16-item NDE Scale and the 20-item NDE-C—were compared in 705 self-identified experiencers. The scales correlate nearly perfectly (r = 0.98), indicating they measure the same underlying construct. However, Rasch analysis revealed problems with the NDE-C's category structure and five novel items. The original NDE Scale's item hierarchy replicated across samples, showing long-term stability. Based on parsimony and psychometric evidence, the original NDE Scale with Rasch scoring and a validated cut-off of 7 (out of 32) is recommended for future research.
Life Reviews in Near-Death Experiences and in Theosophy
Journal of Near-Death Studies January 1, 2024 Natasha Tassell-Matamua, Antti Savinainen, Bruce Greyson
The article examines accounts of life review found in the writings of the Theosophy movement from the 1800s and 1900s. It describes how these accounts present a retrospective examination of one's life, often occurring after death or in spiritual contexts, as part of the movement's broader metaphysical teachings. The Theosophical literature portrays life review as a process of moral and spiritual evaluation, where individuals confront their actions and their consequences. The article likely explores the origins, variations, and significance of these accounts within Theosophical thought, situating them within the movement's synthesis of Eastern and Western esoteric traditions.