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open access

The Acute Dying Experience

Description: Article discussing the acute dying experience (ADE), which incorporates peritraumatic dissociation and hyperarousal into an experiential continuum lasting seconds to minutes. It is instantly triggered by the sudden, clear perception of threat of significant injury and/or death and followed, at times, by physical trauma, physiological derangement, and loss of consciousness. Results from this and other studies show that paradoxically the more terrifying and traumatic an accident may appear, the m… more
Date: Spring 2008
Creator: Sabom, Michael B.
open access

Cases of the Reincarnation Type with Memories from the Intermission Between Lives

Description: Article analyzing reports from Burmese subjects which indicate that intermission memories can be broken down into three parts, and comparing these reports to reports of near-death experiences (NDEs), indicating that they show features similar to the transcendental component of Western NDEs and have significant areas of overlap with Asian NDEs.
Date: Winter 2004
Creator: Sharma, Poonam & Tucker, Jim B.
open access

Changes in Heart Transplant Recipients That Parallel the Personalities of Their Donors

Description: Study evaluating whether changes following heart transplant surgery parallel the history of the donors, based on the systemic memory hypothesis which predicts that all dynamical systems that contain recurrent feedback loops store information and energy to various degrees.
Date: Spring 2002
Creator: Pearsall, Paul; Schwartz, Gary E. R. & Russek, Linda G. S.
open access

A Comparison of Retrospective Accounts of Childhood Near-Death Experiences with Contemporary Pediatric Near-Death Experience Accounts

Description: Study comparing five childhood near-death experiences (NDEs) reported by adults and another five NDEs reported by minors, in terms of Ring's five NDE stages, Greyson's four NDE components, Moody and Perry's 12 NDE traits, Sabom's 16 general characteristics, and Gallup and Proctor's 10 basic positive experiences.
Date: Summer 1991
Creator: Serdahely, William J.
open access

A Contribution of Frankl's Logotherapy to the Interpretation of Near-Death Experiences

Description: Article discussing Viktor Frankl's logotherapy, which resolves potential conflicting sources of meaning by the application of the Laws of Dimensional Ontology, which validate apparently conflicting viewpoints. The application of these laws to the interpretation of near-death experiences (NDEs) resolves the conflict between the orthodox scientific view of NDEs as hallucination and the experiential view of them as experiences of the afterlife to come.
Date: Spring 1997
Creator: Crumbaugh, James C.
open access

A Contribution of Tipler's Omega Point Theory to Near-Death Studies

Description: Article presenting Frank Tipler's concepts and arguments, and highlighting the value of his orientation for near-death studies. Tipler's work takes the steam out of scientific rejection of religious, spiritual, or noetic phenomena, and makes it possible to accept these phenomena while maintaining a strictly scientific posture.
Date: Autumn 1999
Creator: Crumbaugh, James C.
open access

A Critique of Kellehear's Transcendent Society

Description: Article responding to Allen Kellehear's cultural analysis based on nine Mormon near-death experiences (NDEs) did not reflect the diversity of near-death visions from other cultures. It suggests that these Mormon NDEs were neither as utopian as Kellehear assumed nor representative of contemporary NDE reports, and that a more complete analysis would reveal a variety of NDEs and otherworld visions reflecting the experiencers' sociocultural background.
Date: Winter 1991
Creator: Mickel, Howard A.
open access

The Death Journey of a Hopi Indian: A Case Study

Description: Article presenting the case study of the "death journey" or near-death experience (NDE) of Don Talayesva, a Hopi Indian, whose experience occurred between 1900 and 1910. The article compares and contrasts his experience with 11 accounts of Native American NDEs reported by Jenny Wade, as well as with modern day NDEs.
Date: Summer 2008
Creator: Green, J. Timothy
open access

Death of a Gedanken Creature

Description: Paper describing a thought experiment in which a hypothetical creature created by a computer program inhabits a simple universe consisting of itself, food, and predators. As this creature "dies" it "internally" experiences these environmental features independent of their actual presence. More evolved hypothetical creatures generate novel forms of "inner" experiences as they "die." Applying these results to humans suggests an "internal" genesis of near-death experiences.
Date: Spring 1995
Creator: Thaler, Stephen L.
open access

Describing the Light: Attribution Theory as an Explanation of the Near-Death Experience

Description: Article exploring near-death experiences and attribution theory, which focuses on how information is used to create causal inferences and answer causal questions. The finding that near-death experiencers (NDErs) rarely describe unknown events, characters, or objects suggests that NDErs make attributions to answer why these experiences occurred. Examining various descriptions of NDEs demonstrates how attribution theory explains individuals' descriptions of their NDEs.
Date: Spring 1995
Creator: Norton, Max C. & Sahlman, James M.
open access

Disclosure Habits After Near-Death Experiences: Influences, Obstacles, and Listener Selection

Description: Article describing habits of disclosure regarding near-death experiences (NDEs). Major influences and obstacles to disclosure are discussed, as well as issues involved in listener selection. Finally, some comments about secrecy emphasize the importance of discerning between appropriate, nourishing choices of secrecy and choices of beneficial disclosure.
Date: Autumn 1995
Creator: Hoffman, Regina M.
open access

Disclosure Needs and Motives After a Near-Death Experience

Description: Article analyzing the communication processes used by 50 near-death experiencers and discussing their disclosure needs and motives, as well as influences and obstacles that affect disclosure habits. The findings suggest that disclosure needs evolve through stages after an experience, and reveal five distinct disclosure motives.
Date: Summer 1995
Creator: Hoffman, Regina M.
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