Using computational linguistics to understand near-death experiences: Concurrent validity for the Near Death Experience Scale.

Near-death experiences (NDEs) have a consistent structure that appears in both standardized scales and people's own verbal accounts. Analyzing a large dataset of NDE narratives with latent semantic analysis, researchers found that accounts from people who scored above the median on Greyson's NDE Scale contained seven distinct linguistic clusters. Four of these clusters involved transcendent or paranormal themes, while three focused on physiological or environmental details. The results confirm that the intensity of an NDE correlates with the content of the verbal report, supporting the concurrent validity of Greyson's NDE Scale. This approach demonstrates how computational text analysis can reveal structure in qualitative data relevant to consciousness studies.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Latent semantic analysis—a technique to quantify qualitative data—was used on a large dataset of near death experience (NDE) accounts for which a sizable portion also had scores on Greyson’s NDE Scale. Given previous research with the NDE Scale showing there is a “core NDE” comprised of a probabilistic hierarchy of cognitive, affective, transcendental, and paranormal components, we hypothesized that there would be a similar hierarchy of experiential components reflected in NDErs’ verbal accounts as evidenced by a significant relation between NDE intensity and NDE content. Predictions were largely confirmed. The verbal accounts associated with True NDEs, defined by above median scores on the NDE Scale, stood out as highly structured episodes with a clear framework comprised of seven major linguistic clusters of descriptors. Four of the linguistic factors included transcendent or paranormal themes, whereas the remaining three factors tended to focus on both vague and specific references to physiological or environmental elements. The results are argued to support concurrent validity issues with Greyson’s NDE Scale and illustrate how latent semantic analysis (LSA) and related approaches can be used to study qualitative information across topics relevant to the many facets of theory-building in consciousness studies.