Explore (New York, N.Y.)
January 1, 2023
Marjorie Woollacott, Anne Shumway-Cook
18 citations
Scientists and academics who have had a spiritually transformative experience (STE) describe it as a mystical event involving feelings of expansion, energy rising up the spine, and a sense of being enveloped in light, love, or a unified energetic field. Triggers include concentrating on spiritual matters, the presence of a spiritually developed person, and intense meditation or prayer. Afterward, participants report increased sensory sensitivity, creativity, and shifts in beliefs, including a desire to serve others and a sense of unity. Career effects range from incorporating new insights into existing work to radically changing careers to explore consciousness. Many hesitate to share their experiences due to fear of ridicule.
Explore (New York, N.Y.)
January 1, 2024
Jeffrey Long, Marjorie Woollacott
17 citations
People who have had a near-death experience (NDE) undergo a lasting spiritual awakening and shift in life priorities that goes beyond what is seen after other life-threatening events. In a comparison of 834 individuals who had NDEs with 42 who faced life-threatening situations without an NDE, those with NDEs reported a stronger belief in divinity and the afterlife, a decreased fear of death, greater compassion, and a heightened sense that life is meaningful. Their values reoriented toward spiritual and religious life. The findings indicate that the transformation is specific to the NDE itself, not merely a response to nearly dying.
Explore (New York, N.Y.)
January 1, 2024
Marjorie Woollacott, Justin Riddle, Niffe Hermansson et al.
5 citations
An intensive meditation practice called Fire Kasina can induce mystical experiences comparable to those produced by high-dose psychedelics. Six individuals completed a retreat and reported experiences they described as the most intense of their lives. Mean scores on the Revised Mystical Experience Questionnaire reached 85%, similar to prior observations with high-dose psilocybin and stronger than moderate-dose psilocybin. Scores on the Hood Mystical Experience Scale averaged 93%, exceeding levels reported for near-death experiences (74%) and high-dose psilocybin (77%). Participants also described substantial shifts in worldview following the retreat.
Frontiers in Psychology
October 16, 2025
Bruce Greyson, Jeffrey D. Long, Janice Miner Holden et al.
3 citations
A new scale, the veridical Near-Death Experience Scale (vNDE Scale), was developed to assess how strong the evidence is for perceptions reported during near-death experiences. Thirteen experts used a Delphi method to agree on eight criteria, including timing of investigation, medical conditions, third-party verification, and the number and quality of perceptions, scored on a four-level Likert scale. The scale was then tested on 17 cases of potentially veridical NDEs by 11 human raters and three artificial raters using large language models. In 14 of the 17 cases (82.3%), human and artificial raters agreed at over 75% when considering two adjacent evidence levels, such as moderate plus strong or low plus very low. The scale offers a practical way to evaluate the evidential strength of reported NDE perceptions.
International review of psychiatry (Abingdon, England)
January 1, 2025
Marjorie Woollacott, Marina Weiler
3 citations
Consciousness is normally constrained by neural filters—sensory receptors, the ascending reticular activating system, the thalamus, the default mode network, and left hemisphere language centers—that restrict perception to a narrow range of energy frequencies, structure space and time, and prioritize internal narratives. When activity in these filters is reduced or absent, as in near-death experiences, deep meditation, or psychedelic use, people may access wider awareness, transcend time and space, and experience ego dissolution. This expanded state might allow the mind to access intuitive, nonlocal information beyond the five senses, suggesting vast untapped potential for human awareness.
Explore (New York, N.Y.)
January 1, 2024
Marjorie Woollacott
3 citations
About 10-12% of patients who survive cardiac arrest report core near-death experiences (NDEs), but the low percentage may reflect memory impairment rather than absence of experience. A detailed case study of a 41-year-old woman who had an NDE during childbirth cardiac arrest supports three hypotheses: NDEs may occur during cardiac arrest but remain unrecalled until hypnotic regression reveals verifiable details not perceivable through the five senses; precognition of the events leading to cardiac arrest can occur; and NDEs fundamentally transform an individual's understanding of consciousness, meaning, purpose, concern for others, and appreciation of life.
EXPLORE
July 1, 2026
Marjorie Woollacott, Joan Walton, Laurel Waterman
The article argues that the materialist worldview underlying most educational systems, which treats consciousness as a product of brain activity, is scientifically no more valid than an alternative worldview where consciousness is the ground of reality and matter arises from it. Adopting this non-materialist perspective in education could create a more creative, nurturing, and transformative environment for students and teachers. Preliminary findings from a collaborative inquiry project on teaching non-materialist views of consciousness suggest that such education may shift learners' worldviews, improve wellbeing, and enhance feelings of interconnectedness.
Psychology of Consciousness Theory Research and Practice
February 26, 2026
Natasha Tassell-Matamua, Karalee Kothe, Michael Nahm et al.
Terminal lucidity—unexpected mental clarity shortly before death—has been reported across cultures and eras, but its characteristics in children had not been systematically studied. Using a 42-item online survey, this study collected case reports of terminal lucidity in 11 children aged 16 years and under. Terminal lucidity typically occurred within the final hours to minutes before death and manifested as notable changes in mental abilities, behavior, and emotions. It was not preceded by any changes in medical regime and often happened despite children being semi- or comatose just before the episode. These results suggest a surge of mental clarity in terminally ill children occurs contrary to medical expectations, which may inform end-of-life care and understanding of consciousness at the end of life.
July 26, 2025
Bruce Greyson, Jeffrey Long, Janice Holden et al.
preprint
A new scale, the veridical Near-Death Experience Scale (vNDE Scale), was developed to assess how strong the evidence is for perceptions reported during near-death experiences. Experts in near-death experiences reached consensus on eight criteria covering timing, medical conditions, third-party verification, and the type and quality of perceptions, scored on a four-level Likert scale. When 11 human raters and three artificial raters using large language models applied the scale to 17 cases, overall agreement between human and artificial judges exceeded 75% in 14 of the 17 cases (82.3%), considering adjacent levels of evidence strength. The scale offers a practical way to evaluate the evidential strength of such perceptions.
Journal of anomalistics
July 24, 2025
James Houran, Debra Katz, J C Williamson et al.
A case study of a woman called Nell, who reported four experiences of being physically transported to other realms, was analyzed using AI-assisted content analysis and expert evaluation. The experiences were compared against explanations including kundalini awakenings, physical mediumship, bilocation, and electromagnetic field (EMF) effects. The findings aligned most strongly with EMF-related activity and, to some extent, bilocation phenomena. Post-hoc accounts from family members in the same area suggested possible environmental influences or behavioral contagion. The authors introduce a continuum model of bilocation integrating psychology, neuroscience, and parapsychology. No evidence was found that Nell physically moved, pointing instead to an interplay of boundary-thinness, altered states, and environmental factors in her anomalous cognitions.
Explore (New York, N.Y.)
January 1, 2025
Jeb Barton, Marjorie Woollacott
Drawing on teachings from enlightened masters, this essay presents eight insights about consciousness, awareness, and experience. It explains how these insights can help evaluate the usefulness of personal values and beliefs, which shape responses to life experiences. The essay emphasizes that cultivating and refining one's own awareness is crucial because the level of awareness governs the flow of creativity and experience into and out of one's life.