Source: KieferPix/Shutterstock
In 1975, Raymond Moody introduced the world to the near-death experience (NDE). Since then, there has been considerable focus and research on the subject, although there are still many questions to be answered.
Jeff Long, M.D., founder of the Near Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF), has collected over 5,000 NDE accounts from all over the world. He teamed with Marjorie Woollacott, Ph.D, to further our understanding of the long-term impact of NDE-related changes. Long defines an NDE as a “lucid, organized experience during a life-threatening event so severe that there was unconsciousness or clinically apparent death.”
This current research is the largest study to date into the impact of NDEs.[1] Their study compared the pre-event and post-event responses of 42 people who had life-threatening experiences (LTEs) without having an NDE. Members of the LTE group were either unconscious or clinically dead, as indicated by the absence of a heartbeat during their life-threatening event. There were also 834 people included who had experienced an NDE. Long found that life-threatening events occurred in both groups. He notes that many of those in the LTE group believed they had an NDE because the event was life-threatening.
We still do not know why some people will experience an NDE and others do not. Both groups were administered the Life Changes Inventory (LCI) developed by Dr. Bruce Greyson[2] to measure pre and post-event changes. The LCI consists of 16 items that measure four different categories of changes: thought processes, emotional experience, and paranormal and transcendental experiences.
The data from the NDE group showed that a majority (88.5 percent) reported changes in their lives, with approximately 54.8 percent describing the changes as large, 22.4 percent of the respondents felt the change was moderate, and only 11.3 percent felt the change in their life was small. Given that the majority of respondents experienced changes, the researchers also examined the types of changes and identified areas in which they occurred:
Believing in the existence of God or a higher power
Comparing the NDE group to the LTE group found that the LTEs exhibited only minimal changes in their belief about God or a higher power (11.3 percent) while the NDE group showed a marked increase. Indeed, their belief in God or a higher power doubled, going from 37 percent pre-experience to 72 percent post-experience.
Believing in the existence of an afterlife
The LTE group had only minimal changes in their belief of an afterlife, going from 29 percent to 38 percent; the NDE group increased their belief from 25 percent to 84 percent.
Overcoming the fear of death
In the NDE group, their fear of death decreased from 77 percent to 13 percent.
Expressing compassion for others
As with the other areas, those who had an NDE exhibited an increase in compassion for others from 25 percent pre-NDE to 78 percent post-NDE.
Finding a spiritual connection to the world
Along with the increased compassion for others, these experiencers reported having deeper connections with nature and the universe as a whole. The NDE group rose from 27 percent pre-event to 78 percent after the experience. The LTE group increased from 26 percent pre-event to 50 percent after the experience.
Importance of religious and spiritual life
For those in the LTE group, post-event changes increased from 24 percent to 41 percent, while the NDE respondents increased from 18 percent to 69 percent. The data also indicated a trend toward a more spiritual and less organized religious affiliation.
In addition to identifying life changes from an NDE, the authors also wanted to assess whether these transformations were a function of having been close to death. They found that having an LTE and being close to death did not result in the life changes seen in someone who had experienced an NDE. The changes from an NDE were significantly different than an LTE without an NDE.
As we learn more about near-death experiences, there is still one outstanding question to be addressed: Why do some people have the experience when close to death while others do not? I look forward to the day when Dr. Long and the other researchers can bring us closer to an answer.
