The Near-Death Experience Scale

The evolving self: finding meaning in near-death experiences using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

“…The majority of studies have profiled the experient as a healthy, well-adjusted individual (Greyson, 2000;Irwin, 1999), and delineated the occurrence of the NDE as one free from demographic differentiation (Greyson, 1996; K. Ring, 1980;Sabom, 1982) and as a mostly a positive, life-affirming experience (K Ring, 1993) that can happen at anytime during the lifespan (Atwater, 2003). Although not all NDEs are pleasant journeys; some have been reported to be quite frightening (Bush, 2002).…”

“…Whether or not tunnel phenomena are fundamental to the NDE has been disputed by some authors. For instance, Chari (1982), pointed out that tunnels are often perceived in a range of other experiences in altered states of consciousness, and during the development of his NDE Scale, Greyson (1983) removed items pertaining to tunnels as they did not statistically discriminate the experience in terms of its depth. Regarding the potential influence of religion, previous research has generally not been supportive of a direct relationship between the experient's religiosity and the NDE (Osis & Haraldsson, 1977;Sabom & Kreutziger, 1978).…”

Paving a New Frontier: Near-Death Experiences and the Unspoken Aspect of What Researchers Have Faced, and Continue to Face

“…Bruce Greyson, an eminent leader and pioneer in this field, has written extensively for the past ten years about several challenges and barriers to working with the NDE population (Greyson, 1996;1997;. Because many NDErs have not been believed when initially trying to share their experience with family, friends, or practitioners, this has led many to suppress the experience due to fears of being ridiculed, or labeled as "crazy."…”

“…Many other researchers have written about this and have provided some useful tips about how practitioners can initially respond to a patient who may be trying to talk about their experience (i.e., Atwater, 2007;Duffy and Olsen, 2007;James, 2004;Simpson, 2001). The general tips are to listen empathetically and non-judgmentally while NDErs try to put their experience into words, while resisting the temptation to try to explain, or "explain away" the occurrence of their experience as some type of hallucination or reaction to medicinal drugs (Duffy and Olson, 2007;Greyson, 1996;1997;James, 2004). Unfortunately though, this is not occurring in a lot of cases, and there are many documented cases in the literature, as well as in my personal observation, where NDErs are suffering undue harm due to many practitioners who are not aware of some of the common aftereffects of NDEs, and therefore initially invalidate the experience.…”

“…As for therapists who may be interested in working with NDErs, Greyson (1996Greyson ( , 1997Greyson ( , 2007 emphasizes that this is not a relationship that should be entered into lightly. For starters, many practitioners may not believe what the NDEr is sharing, which may very well challenge any previous spiritual or religious beliefs.…”