Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences (18 page)

1.
Personal communication from Raymond Moody, MD, to Paul Perry.

2.
J. A. Long, “Life Review, Changed Beliefs, Universal Order and Purpose, and the Near-Death Experience: Part 4, Soulmates,” Near-Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF), http://www.nderf.org/ purpose_lifereview.htm.

3.
S. Blackmore,
Dying to Live: Near-Death Experiences
(New York: Prometheus, 1993).

4.
S. Blackmore, “Near-Death Experiences: In or Out of the Body?”
Skeptical Inquirer
16 (1991): 34—45, available at Susan Blackmore’s website, http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk/Articles/si91nde.html.

5.
E. W. Kelly, B. Greyson, and E. F. Kelly, “Unusual Experiences Near Death and Related Phenomena,” in E. F. Kelly, E. W. Kelly, A. Crab- tree, A. Gauld, M. Grosso, and B. Greyson,
Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century
(Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007), 382.

6.
Kelly, Greyson, and Kelly, “Unusual Experiences,” 382.

7.
O. Blanke, S. Ortigue, T. Landis, and M. Seeck, “Stimulating Illusory Own Body Perceptions,”
Nature
419 (2002): 269–70.

8.
O. Blanke, T. Landis, L. Spinelli, and M. Seeck, “Out-of-Body Experience and Autoscopy of Neurological Origin,”
Brain
127 (2004): 243–58.

9.
J. Holden, J. Long, and J. MacLurg, “Out-of-Body Experiences: All in the Brain?”
Journal of Near-Death Studies
25, no. 2 (2006): 99–107.

10.
E. Rodin, “Comments on ‘A Neurobiological Model for Near-Death Experiences,’”
Journal of Near-Death Studies
7 (1989): 256.

11.
Studies document that experiences associated with electrical brain stimulation and seizures are unlike NDEs: P. Gloor, A. Olivier, L. F. Quesney, F. Andermann, and S. Horowitz, “The Role of the Limbic System in Experiential Phenomena of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy,”
Annals of Neurology
12 (1982): 129–44; O. Devinsky, E. Feldmann, K. Burrowes, and E. Bromfield, “Autoscopic Phenomena with Seizures,”
Archives of Neurology
46 (1989): 1080–88.

1.
E. W. Kelly, “Near-Death Experiences with Reports of Meeting Deceased People,”
Death Studies
25 (2001): 229–49.

2.
In a large number of NDEs in the NDERF study, the NDEr encounters a being during the NDE that may seem familiar but that she or he does not recognize. The NDEr may later recognize the being they encountered as a deceased family member, often when looking at old family pictures after the NDE. This has been described by other NDE researchers: P. van Lommel, “About the Continuity of Our Consciousness,” in
Brain Death and Disorders of Consciousness,
ed. C. Machado and D. A. Shewmon (New York: Springer, 2004), 115–32; E. F. Kelly, E. W. Kelly, A. Crabtree, A. Gauld, M. Grosso, and B. Greyson,
Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century
(Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007), 391.

3.
In hallucinations, living people are more likely to be seen than deceased individuals: K. Osis and E. Haraldsson,
At the Hour of Death
(New York: Avon, 1977).

1.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Afterlife,” http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/afterlife/.

2.
Robert T. Carroll, “Near-Death Experience (NDE),”
The Skeptic’s Dictionary:
http://www.skepdic.com/nde.html.

3.
C. Sutherland, ‘ “Trailing Clouds of Glory’: The Near-Death Experiences of Western Children and Teens,” in
The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences: Thirty Years of Investigation,
ed. J. Holden, B. Greyson, and D. James (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2009), 92, 93.

4.
Other studies found that childhood NDEs are far more similar to adult NDEs than dissimilar: International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS), “Children’s Near-Death Experiences,” http://www.iands.org/nde_index/ndes/child.html; J. Holden, J. Long, and J. MacLurg, “Characteristics of Western Near-Death Experiencers,” in
The Handbook Of Near-Death Experiences: Thirty Years of Investigation,
ed. J. Holden, B. Greyson, and D. James (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2009).

5.
Holden, Long, and MacLurg, “Characteristics of Western Near-Death Experiencers,” 114.

6.
W. J. Serdahely, “A Comparison of Retrospective Accounts of Childhood Near-Death Experiences with Contemporary Pediatric Near- Death Experience Accounts,”
Journal of Near-Death Studies
9 (1991): 219.

7.
B. Greyson, “Consistency of Near-Death Experience Accounts over Two Decades: Are Reports Embellished over Time?”
Resuscitation
73 (2007): 407–11.

8.
P. van Lommel, R. van Wees, V. Meyers, and I. Elfferich, “Near-Death Experience in Survivors of Cardiac Arrest: A Prospective Study in the Netherlands,”
Lancet
358 (2001): 2039–45.

9.
M. L. Morse and P. Perry,
Transformed by the Light: The Powerful Effect of Near-Death Experiences on People’s Lives
(New York: Villard Books, 1992).

1.
The distinction between Western and non-Western countries pertinent to the study of NDEs is presented here: J. Holden, J. Long, and J. Mac- Lurg, “Characteristics of Western Near-Death Experiencers,” in
The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences: Thirty Years of Investigation,
ed. J. Holden, B. Greyson, and D. James (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2009), 110.

2.
For an overview of prior non-Western NDE research and some of the methodological problems of studying non-Western NDEs, see A. Kelle- hear, “Census of Non-Western Near-Death Experiences to 2005: Observations and Critical Reflections,” in
Handbook of Near-Death Experiences,
ed. Holden, Greyson, and James.

3.
Additional results and a more detailed discussion of the methodology from the NDERF cross-cultural study may be found at the link at http://www.nderf.org/evidence.

4.
Kellehear, “Census of Non-Western Near-Death Experiences,” 150.

5.
B. Greyson, E. W. Kelly, and E. F. Kelly, “Explanatory Models for Near-Death Experiences,” in
Handbook of Near-Death Experiences,
ed. Holden, Greyson, and James, 215.

6.
Holden, Long, and MacLurg, “Characteristics of Western Near-Death Experiencers,” 132.

7.
It is worth emphasizing how important further research will be in studying non-Western NDEs and for the cross-cultural study of NDEs in general. There is a need for further high-quality research that includes publication of representative cross-cultural NDE narratives. In addition, there needs to be standard questions about NDE content, such as the NDE Scale, with the questions carefully translated into a variety of non-English languages, as NDERF has done. There also needs to be an effort to determine if there was a life-threatening event at the time of the experience. I hope that future cross-cultural NDE studies will be able to access NDErs in a variety of ways to help assure that the NDErs studied are reasonably representative of all NDErs in a particular culture. And, of course, we need to study many more non-Western NDErs, prospectively if possible, to include specific non-Western countries and subcultures. Finding non-Western NDErs in societies that have little contact with other cultures will be especially challenging but also especially important.

8.
The archive of non-Western NDEs at NDERF that were shared in English or translated into English is found at http://www.nderf.org/ non_western_ndes.htm.

1.
P. M. H. Atwater, The Big Book of Near-Death Experiences: The Ultimate Guide to What Happens When We Die (Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads Publishing, 2007), 372.

2.
One of the earliest studies of NDE aftereffects was by K. Ring,
Heading Toward Omega: In Search of the Meaning of the Near-Death Experience
(New York: William Morrow, 1984).

3.
Two prospective studies of NDE in cardiac arrest survivors that assessed aftereffects were P. van Lommel, R. van Wees, V. Meyers, and I. Elfferich, “Near-Death Experience in Survivors of Cardiac Arrest: A Prospective Study in the Netherlands,”
Lancet
358 (2001): 2039–45; J. Schwaninger, P. Eisenberg, K. Schechtman, and A. Weiss, “A Prospective Analysis of Near Death Experiences in Cardiac Arrest Patients,”
Journal of Near-Death Studies
20 (2002): 215–32.

4.
Three studies found an increase in aftereffects among NDErs whose experiences included more detailed content, or “depth.” In addition to van Lommel et al., “Survivors of Cardiac Arrest,” and Schwaninger et al., “Cardiac Arrest Patients,” see G. Groth-Marnat and R. Summers, “Altered Beliefs, Attitudes, and Behaviors Following Near-Death Experiences,”
Journal of Humanistic Psychology
38, no. 3 (1998): 110–25.

5.
P. van Lommel, “About the Continuity of Our Consciousness,” in
Brain Death and Disorders of Consciousness,
ed. C. Machado and D. A. Shewmon (New York: Springer, 2004), 118.

6.
B. Greyson, “Near-Death Experiences and Anti-suicidal Attitudes,”
Omega
26 (1992–93): 81–89.

7.
D. H. Rosen, “Suicide Survivors: A Follow-Up Study of Persons Who Survived Jumping from the Golden Gate and San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridges,”
Western Journal of Medicine
122 (1975): 291.

8.
P. Sartori, P. Badham, and P. Fenwick, “A Prospectively Studied Near-Death Experience with Corroborated Out-of-Body Perceptions and Unexplained Healing,”
Journal of Near-Death Studies
25 (2006): 69–84.

9.
Scholarly literature discussing psychic NDE aftereffects includes R. L. Kohr, “Near-Death Experience and Its Relationship to Psi and Various Altered States,”
Theta
10 (1982): 50–53; R. L. Kohr, “Near-Death Experiences, Altered States, and Psi Sensitivity,”
Anabiosis: The Journal for Near-Death Studies
3 (1983): 157–76; B. Greyson, “Increase in Psychic Phenomena Following Near-Death Experiences,”
Theta
11 (1983): 269; C. Sutherland, “Psychic Pheomena Following Near-Death Experiences: An Australian Study,”
Journal of Near-Death Studies
8 (1989): 93–102.

10.
Personal communication from anonymous near-death experiencer to Paul Perry.

11.
Some of the studies that found NDErs have a decreased fear of death include R. Moody,
Life After Life: The Investigation of a Phenomenon; The Survival of Bodily Death
(Atlanta: Mockingbird Books, 1975); B. Greyson, “Reduced Death Threat in Near-Death Experiencers,”
Death Studies
16 (1992): 523—36; and P. van Lommel, R. van Wees, V. Meyers, and I. Elfferich, “Near-Death Experience in Survivors of Cardiac Arrest: A Prospective Study in the Netherlands,”
Lancet
358 (2001): 2039–45.

A
nationally recognized expert whose work has been featured in
Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal,
and
Coast to Coast,
JEFFREY LONG, MD,
is a radiation oncologist in Houma, Louisiana. Long has served on the board of directors of The International Association for Near-Death Studies and is actively involved in NDE research. Dr. Long and his wife, Jody, established the nonprofit Near Death Experience Research Foundation and a website as a forum for people to share their NDEs and to collect scientific data on this phenomenon. Visit the author online at www.nderf.org.

EVIDENCE OF THE AFTERLIFE:
The Science of Near-Death Experiences.
Copyright © 2010 by Jeffrey Long. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

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FIRST EDITION

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
    Long, Jeffrey, M.D.

         Evidence of the afterlife: the science of near-death experiences / by Jeffrey Long, with Paul Perry. —1st ed.

              p.  cm.

         ISBN 978-0-061-88773-4

         1. Near-death experiences. 2. Future life. I. Perry, Paul. II. Title.

         BF1045.N4L66 2010

         133.901’3—dc22        2009021251

         10 11 12 13 14
RRD(H)
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1