Near-Death Experiences and Spirituality

Bruce Greyson

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Abstract. Some individuals when they come close to death report having experiences that they interpret as spiritual or religious. These so-called near-death experiences (N.D.E's) often include a sense of separation from the physical body and encounters with religious figures and a mystical or divine presence. They share with mystical experiences a sense of cosmic unity or oneness, transcendence of time and space, deeply felt positive mood, sense of sacredness, noetic quality or intuitive illumination, paradoxicality, ineffability, transiency, and persistent positive aftereffects. Although there is no relationship between N.D.E's and religious belief prior to the experience, there are strong associations between depth of N.D.E and religious change after the experience. N.D.E's often change experiencers' values, decreasing their fear of death and giving their lives new meaning. N.D.E's lead to a shift from ego-centered to other-centered consciousness, disposition to love unconditionally, heightened empathy, decreased interest in status symbols and material possessions, reduced fear of death, and deepened spiritual consciousness. Many experiencers become more empathic and spiritually oriented and express the beliefs that death is not fearsome, that life continues beyond, that love is more important than material possessions, and that everything happens for a reason. These changes meet the definition of spiritual transformation as "a dramatic change in religious belief, attitude, and behavior that occurs over a relatively short period of time." N.D.E's do not necessarily promote any one particular religious or spiritual tradition over others, but they do foster general spiritual growth both in the experiencers themselves and in human society at large.

Some individuals report having unusual experiences that they interpret as spiritual or religious when they come close to death. These profound experiences, called near-death experiences (N.D.E's), often include a sense of separation from the physical body, cosmic unity, divine revelation, ineffability, a sense that the experience transcends personal ego, and encounters with religious figures and a mystical or divine presence. Raymond Moody, the psychiatrist who coined the term near-death experience in 1975, defined them as “profound spiritual events that happen, uninvited, to some individuals at the point of death”.

Once regarded as meaningless hallucinations, N.D.E's have become the subject of serious study by medical and other researchers in recent years. Once thought to be rare, the N.D.E has been estimated to occur to a third of people who come close to death, or about five percent of the United States population, although a recent reassessment suggests that that estimate may be inflated. Although the term near-death experience and its acronym N.D.E were not coined until 1975, accounts of similar events can be found in the folklore and writings of European, Middle Eastern, African, Indian, East Asian, Pacific, and Native American cultures. The phenomenon was first described as a discrete syndrome in 1892, when geologist Albert von St. Gallen Heim published a collection (translated into English by Russell Noyes and Roy Kletti in 1972) of the subjective observations of mountain climbers who had fallen in the Alps (as he himself had), soldiers wounded in war, workers who had fallen from scaffolds, and individuals who had nearly died in accidents and near-drownings.

N.D.E's are reported by individuals who had been pronounced clinically dead but then were resuscitated; by individuals who actually died but were able to describe their experiences in their final moments ("deathbed visions"); and by individuals who, in the course of accidents or illnesses, feared that they were near death. Although all elements of the N.D.E can be reported by individuals who merely perceive themselves to be near death, certain features, such as an encounter with a brilliant light, enhanced cognitive function, and positive emotions, are more common among individuals whose closeness to death can be corroborated by medical records. Closeness to death may be an even more significant factor among children: In one study, although N.D.E's were recounted by up to half of those children who survived critical illnesses, they were not recounted by children who suffered serious illnesses that were not potentially fatal.

Bruce Greyson is the Chester F. Carlson Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia Health System, P.O. Box 800152, Charlottesville, VA 22908-0152; e-mail cbg4d@virginia.edu. He serves as Editor of the Journal of Near-Death Studies.

[Zygon, vol. 41, no. 2 (June 2006).]

© 2006 by the Joint Publication Board of Zygon. ISSN 0591-2385

Phenomenology of Near-Death Experiences

In coining the term near-death experience, Moody identified fifteen elements that seemed to recur in N.D.E reports: ineffability, hearing oneself pronounced dead, feelings of peace, hearing unusual noises, seeing a dark tunnel, being out of the body, meeting spiritual beings, encountering a bright light or “being of light,” panoramic life review, a realm where all knowledge exists, cities of light, a realm of bewildered spirits, supernatural rescue, border or limit, and coming back into the body. He later added four recurrent aftereffects: frustration upon relating the experience to others, broadened or deepened appreciation of life, elimination of fear of death, and corroboration of out-of-body visions.

Moody noted that no two N.D.E accounts were precisely the same, that no experience in his collection included more than twelve of the original fifteen elements, that no one element appeared in every narrative, and that the order in which elements appeared varied from one experience to another (1975). He warned that his list was intended as a rough theoretical model rather than a fixed definition (1977). Children's N.D.E's are similar to those of adults, except that they tend not to include a life review or meetings with deceased friends and relatives—two differences that might be expected, in light of children's brief experience with life.

The most common features of N.D.E's can be grouped into four components: cognitive, affective, paranormal, and transcendental features. Most N.D.E's include features from all four, although many experiences are dominated by one or more component. The first, cognitive features reflecting changes in thought processes, includes distortions in the sense of time, acceleration of thought processes, a life review or panoramic memory, and a sense of revelation or sudden understanding. A 21-year-old woman described the following experience, dominated by cognitive features, that occurred during a bicycle accident:

I was riding my bike and failed to see a car coming towards me until I realized it would hit me, regardless of any maneuver I might make. That realization seemed to take forever as time slowed way down, and I consciously decided to let go of the handlebars, cover my head with my hands, and scream. During the next few seconds, or fractions thereof, while the car hit my thigh and the bike (at least), I was unaware of any bodily sensations, but rather"saw" my life flash before me in a series of typical scenes. I felt very peaceful, and the thought,"Well, if I die, that's all right; I've had a good life," came very clearly into my mind. I felt apart from my body at this time.

The second component, affective features reflecting changes in emotional state, includes a sense of peace and well-being, feelings of joy, a sense of cosmic unity, and an encounter with a brilliant light that seems to radiate unconditional love. A 31-year-old woman described the following experience, dominated by affective features, that occurred during open-heart surgery:

I found myself elevated. There was nothing underneath. I was in a dark place except there were patches of mist. I never saw myself below....

I wasn't frightened. I had no pain. And I think I was wondering, "Why aren't I afraid?" But I wasn't afraid. It felt natural.

I felt this feeling of love. It was like all of a sudden I could feel this whole feeling of love and joy. It was all around me. My eyes were automatically drawn to the side and I saw this circle of light off in the distance. I'll never forget it. And I could feel this love just coming from that light.

It was all around me. It wasn't a beam. It was just the feeling of it coming from that light. It was so beautiful! I could never explain it in a million years. And I went towards that light with my arms extended.

I just wanted to embrace it. And as I did this I started to move. I wasn't walking. But I could feel the vibrations, the air as I was going along, I could absolutely feel it. It didn't bother me and it was perfectly natural.

And as I was getting closer to the light, I was having an argument with myself. And I was saying,"Don't you think you should go back and take care of your children?" I remember I said,"No!" I love my children. And I loved them up there. But it was a different kind of love. This is the hardest part for me to explain. It's a true love, a pure love, free of earthly worries. Absolute pure love!

The third component, {paranormal} features reflecting apparent psychic phenomena, includes extraordinarily vivid physical sensations, apparent extrasensory perception, precognitive visions, and a sense of being out of the physical body. A 26-year-old woman described the following experience, dominated by paranormal features, that occurred during a pulmonary embolism:

I (the real me, the soul, the spirit, or whatever) drifted out of the body and hovered near the ceiling. I viewed the activity in the room from this vantage point. The hospital room was to my right and below me. It confused me that the doctors and nurses were so concerned about the body they had lifted to the bed.

I looked at my body and it meant nothing to me. I tried to tell them I was not in the body. Obviously, they did not hear me. One of the most outstanding things about this experience is that my hearing became extremely acute. I heard many things about the gravity of my situation, some of these from the nurses' station many yards away.

I watched the hospital personnel work. I listened to their comments, and I began to feel sorry that they were working so hard, when I felt so happy and feeling no pain where I was.

The fourth component, transcendental features reflecting apparent other-worldly phenomena, includes apparent travel to a mystical or unearthly realm or dimension, an encounter with a mystical being or presence, visible spirits of deceased or religious figures, and a border beyond which one cannot return to earthly life. A 26-year-old woman described the following experience, dominated by transcendental features, that occurred during an emergency caesarean section:

I heard my doctor say, "I've lost her; she's gone!" Then four angels were carrying me through a great, huge auditorium. The two large doors of the auditorium opened, and we went out and up, through space.

I saw a beautiful white city, with a wall around it and a set of gates facing me. I was so excited, because I wanted to go through those gates. There was a beautiful bright light over the city. I could not go through the gates into the city, but found myself back on the operating table. My doctor said,"I'm so glad you are back; your husband will be so glad you are back." I was crying as if my heart would break, telling him that I did not want to come back. I begged him to let me go again, it was so beautiful! It was the saddest time of my life, and yet it was the most beautiful!

Explanatory Models for Near-Death Experiences

How can these phenomena best be understood? No variables that have yet been studied, such as age, gender, race, or history of mental illness, predict either the occurrence or type of N.D.E. There has been ample speculation about the cause of N.D.E's but very little data bearing on the question.

One plausible physiological model attributes N.D.E's to decreased oxygen (hypoxia) or to complete lack of oxygen (anoxia), because that appears to be the final common pathway to death. However, hypoxia or anoxia generally produces idiosyncratic, frightening hallucinations and leads to agitation and belligerence, quite unlike the peaceful N.D.E with consistent, universal features. Furthermore, studies of persons near death have shown that those who have N.D.E's do not have lower oxygen levels than those who do not have N.D.E's.

Another frequently cited physiological model attributes N.D.E's to medications given to dying persons. However, although some drugs may on occasion induce experiences that bear superficial similarities to N.D.E, comparative studies show that patients who receive medications in fact report fewer N.D.E's than do patients who receive no medication.

N.D.E's have also been speculatively attributed to a number of neurotransmitters in the brain, most frequently endorphins, although other models implicate serotonin, adrenaline, vasopressin, and glutamate. N.D.E's have been speculatively linked to a number of anatomic locations in the brain, most often the right temporal lobe or the left temporal lobe, although other neuroscientists have argued for involvement of the frontal lobe attention area, the parietal lobe orientation area, the thalamus, the hypothalamus, the amygdala, and the hippocampus. These putative neurological mechanisms, for which there is little if any empirical evidence, may suggest brain pathways through which N.D.E's are expressed or interpreted, but they do not necessarily imply causal mechanisms.

Psychological models also have been proposed attributing N.D.E's to psychological defense mechanisms, depersonalization, wishful thinking, retroactive confabulation, and expectation. While plausible, none of these psychological models is supported by empirical evidence.

Expectations likely influence an experiencer's interpretation of certain features of the N.D.E, but they do not appear to influence the experience itself: Children who are too young to have internalized expectations of death or of an afterlife describe the same N.D.E features as do adults, cross-cultural studies show few differences in N.D.E content from differing societies, and N.D.E descriptions are not affected by the experiencer's prior knowledge of N.D.E's or expectations of the dying process or of an afterlife.

The enhancement of mental functioning at a time when the brain is physiologically impaired, as well as the paranormal and otherworldly experiences, are not easily explained by materialistic models. In evaluating proposed explanations for N.D.E's, it is necessary to consider those features of N.D.E's that are similar to those of mystical experiences.

Near-Death Experiences as Mystical Experiences

Four years before Moody coined the term near-death experience, psychiatrist noted that altered states of consciousness in people as they approached death often have mystical, transcendental, cosmic, or religious features. He included in those features ineffability, transcendence of time and space, sense of truth, loss of control, intensified emotion, and disordered perception.

Many of the experiential features of mystical experiences in general are similar to those of N.D.E's. The feelings of peace and joy, the ineffability of the experience, the sense of being in the presence of something larger than or transcendent to oneself, and the experience of a bright light or “being of light” are features common to both N.D.E's and mystical experiences. Protestant theologian has compared typical N.D.E phenomenology and aftereffects to the lifelong mystical experiences of medieval Roman Catholic mystics St. Theresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross and concludes that they shared ecstatic out-of-body travel, visions of God, clairvoyance, loss of fear of death, and healing transformations. She notes that, in the nearness to death has always played a role in the spiritual path and that, for Saints Theresa and John, mysticism was a preparation for death.

She points out that, unlike mystics, near-death experiencers are thrust suddenly into spiritual consciousness without any preparation and then returned to a community in which such experiences are not valued. British theologian Paul Badham also concludes that the N.D.E “shares many of the characteristics of the deepest religious experiences known to humanity” and that modern resuscitation techniques have made available to ordinary people mystical enlightenment that formerly was available to people only on rare occasions.

Just as with N.D.E's, the onset of a mystical experience often is signaled by overwhelming feelings of joy, happiness, and peace. Individuals sometimes describe a feeling of sudden release in a mystical experience, and, although some may mean that figuratively, others definitively describe literal out-of-body experiences. As one of psychologist James Leuba's subjects in a study of religious phenomena more than a hundred years ago said,"Indeed I cannot tell you whether I was'in the body or out of the body' but O! the light came, —it was almost too much for me. I cannot express how I felt". This claim is reminiscent of the experience described by St. Paul about which he said"whether in the body or out of the body I do not know". Many people also report enhanced mental functioning or heightened perception in mystical experiences, just as in N.D.E's. Sometimes the"senses are much more acute," such that details of the experience and of one's physical surroundings at the time"are frequently recalled with great minuteness". One of psychologist William James's informants said that"my memory became exceedingly clear".

A sensory phenomenon that is particularly common to both N.D.E's and mystical experiences is the sense of seeing a bright light of unusual quality. Typical in mystical experiences are descriptions of “a strange light which seemed to light up the whole room (for it was dark) ”. Some seem to be using the phrase “seeing the light” in a figurative sense, but others are clearly referring to what was for them a real and vivid sensory phenomenon.

Walter Pahnke, who was both a minister and a psychiatrist, and William Richards, a theologian and psychologist, delineated nine aspects of mystical experience, based on the previous work of James (1902) and British philosopher: a sense of cosmic unity or oneness, transcendence of time and space, deeply felt positive mood, sense of sacredness, noetic quality or intuitive illumination, paradoxicality, ineffability, transiency, and persistent positive aftereffects. All nine of these features are commonly reported as part of the N.D.E.

Perhaps the most important feature common to both mystical experiences and N.D.E's, however, is the transformative impact of the experience. N.D.E's generally have a profound and apparently lasting impact on many people who experience them, often precipitating a significant change in values and attitude toward death and a new sense of purpose or meaning in life. Similarly, mystical experiences have been recognized for more than a century as leading to sudden and lasting changes in character and values, including changes in the person's relationship with God, perception and appreciation of nature, attitude toward self, and, perhaps most significantly, attitude toward other people. As one of James's informants described the transformation,"I was very selfish... now I desired the welfare of all mankind".

This transformative aspect of N.D.E's is never reported in connection with the various fragmentary experiences that are sometimes equated with N.D.E's, such as the “dreamlets” induced by hypoxia or other abnormalities of blood-gas concentrations or experiences reported by patients receiving temporal-lobe stimulation. Moreover, the transformative features associated with N.D.E's differ from those associated with simply coming close to death but not having an N.D.E. Clearly, the profound transformative aspect of N.D.E's suggests that we need some explanation that goes beyond the physiological models we have so far and even beyond the psychological experience associated with coming near death.

Before discussing the transformative effects of N.D.E's, however, we first review the question of religiosity and spirituality prior to the N.D.E and the role they may play in the experience.

Religiosity/Spirituality Before the Near-Death Experience

Because religion addresses fundamental human concerns such as death and dying, one might speculate that there is some relationship between religious orientation and N.D.E's. Is religiousness, or religious affiliation or belief, a determinant or correlate of the N.D.E? Are persons with different religious beliefs more or less likely to have N.D.E's or to have specific types of N.D.E? One skeptical view of the N.D.E is that it represents essentially a religiously inspired illusion: The crisis of impending death triggers a series of hallucinations in keeping with an individual's religious belief system and expectations concerning an afterlife. As psychologist Kenneth Ring put this hypothesis,"Believing is seeing".

Several studies have searched in vain for associations between religion or religiosity and subsequent N.D.E's. In a cross-cultural study in the United States and India, psychologists did not find any straightforward relationship between religiousness and deathbed visions, although they did find that an individual's belief system influenced the interpretation of the experience. Cardiologist Michael Sabom and social worker, in a study of 107 survivors of cardiac arrest, also found no relationship between N.D.E's and extent of prior religious involvement.

Ring (1980a) interviewed 102 survivors of near-death crises, asking a number of questions that collectively provided an overall index of religiousness, including questions about degree of religiosity, strength of belief in God, degree of certainty about life after death, and belief in heaven and hell. He too found no association whatsoever between prior religiousness and quantitative measures of the N.D.E. He concluded that neither the likelihood nor the depth of a near-death experience was systematically related to individual religiousness. Non-religious people—including self-professed atheists—were just as likely to have Moody-type experiences as were the conventionally devout. Similarly, there was no obvious relationship between religious affiliation and near-death experiences among my respondents.

However, Ring found, as did Osis and Haraldsson (1977),

that the interpretation that was placed on the experience by the individual was markedly influenced by his religious belief system. An atheist or agnostic, for instance, does not typically arrive at a Christian interpretation of his experience (although this does happen occasionally).... Also, one's emotional reaction to the experience may be affected by one's prior belief system, as one would expect.

Psychologist Steven McLaughlin and H. Newton Malony, who is both a minister and a psychologist, speculated that intrinsically oriented religious persons, who tend to have more positive views of death and hope in an afterlife of reward, might be more likely to have deeper N.D.E's and that people who have a vital relationship with God might be more receptive to an N.D.E. They interviewed forty N.D.E's, including Protestants, Roman Catholics, Jews, and followers of the Baha'i faith, and others with no religious affiliation. They administered to their participants a standardized measure of religious orientation that included three basic religious attitudes: compliance to religion for personal gain (extrinsic religious orientation), identification with religion for support (consensual religious orientation), and internalization of religion for its own intrinsic value (intrinsic religious orientation). They found no significant relationship between depth of N.D.E and various measures of religious orientation or other religious measures.

Finally, in a study of N.D.E's occurring in the course of attempted suicide, I found that N.D.E's were associated neither with religious preference or religiosity nor with prior expectations of death, dying, or postmortem survival.

Religiosity/Spirituality After the Near-Death Experience

If N.D.E's are not influenced by prior religious belief or religiosity, do the experiences themselves affect subsequent religious preference, religiosity, or spirituality? Do people become more or less religious or spiritual following an N.D.E? If so, how is that effect manifested?

Several studies have documented that, for many, an N.D.E permanently and dramatically alters the person's attitudes, beliefs, and values, often leading to beneficial personal transformations. Near-death experiencers tend to see themselves as integral parts of a benevolent and purposeful universe in which personal gain, particularly at others' expense, is no longer relevant. Aftereffects most often reported include increases in spirituality, concern for others, and appreciation of life; a heightened sense of purpose; and decreases in fear of death, in materialistic attitudes, and in competitiveness (Bauer 1985; Flynn 1982; 1986; Grey 1985; Greyson 1983a; 1992; McLaughlin and Malony 1984; Noyes 1980; Ring 1980b; 1984; Sabom 1982; 1998). These changes that often follow N.D.E's meet the definition of spiritual transformation as “a dramatic change in religious belief, attitude, and behavior that occurs over a relatively short period of time” (Schwartz 2000, 4).

Observations of spiritual transformation after N.D.E's are not new. In 1865, British surgeon Sir Benjamin Brodie wrote of a sailor who was rescued from near drowning and then proclaimed on his recovery that he had been in heaven—and complained bitterly about being restored to life. Brodie wrote that the sailor had previously been regarded as a worthless fellow but that after the rescue his moral character was changed, and he became one of the best-behaved sailors on the ship.

In studies comparing N.D.E.r's attitudes before and after their experiences, Noyes (1980) found that they reported a reduced fear of death, a sense of relative invulnerability, a feeling of special importance or destiny, and a strengthened belief in postmortem existence. Ring (1980b; 1984) found that N.D.E.r.s reported a greater appreciation for life, a renewed sense of purpose, greater confidence and flexibility in coping with life's vicissitudes, increased value of love and service, greater compassion for others, a heightened sense of spiritual purpose, decreased concern with personal status and material possessions, and a greatly reduced fear of death.

In Ring's interviews with 102 survivors of near-death crises (1980a), he collected information on any systematic religious aftereffects of the experience. He found that N.D.E.r.s did describe themselves as more religious than they were before. By contrast, near-death survivors who reported no N.D.E did not report any change in their religiousness as a result of their close encounter with death. Ring found that N.D.E's did not attend church more often than they had prior to their experiences or participate in other modes of formal religious worship:

Rather, there is a heightened inward religious feeling that is often indicated which does not seem to require a conventional religious format for it to be manifested. Instead, near-death survivors will describe themselves as feeling closer to God, as more inwardly prayerful, or as having a greater awareness of God's presence. This personal sense of God is sometimes so strong that conventional religious observances seem irrelevant or unnecessary. (1980a, 4)

Ring also found that, even though N.D.E.r.s expressed indifference toward organized religion, they also described an overall tolerance for all ways of religious worship. From this point of view, there is no one religion or religious denomination which is superior or “true”; rather, all religions are expression of a single truth. It is the smug sectarian quality of some religious groups to which experiencers tend to object, not to the basics of religious worship itself. (p. 4)

In summarizing these changes, Ring concludes that N.D.E.r.s emphasize the humanitarian and ethical teachings of the great religions: respondents will stress the importance of love, caring and compassion for others. In fact, if there was a single value which seemed to epitomize the comments of near-death survivors in this respect, it was their increased emphasis on the need for unconditional love or acceptance for others ... near-death experiencers emerge from their confrontation with death convinced, as a group, that there is a life to come and that it will be beautiful, peaceful and joyous. This is a striking effect statistically, and, again, it is found chiefly for experiencers; near-death survivors who do not have an experience tend to show no change in their belief patterns here. (p. 4)

Ring focused his second book on N.D.E's (1984) on the radical reorientation in spiritual values and life directions that often follow N.D.E's. Unlike many authors who based their conclusions on subjective testimonies of experiencers, Ring included a number of objective measures of psycho-spiritual changes to bolster his arguments. His most recent book on N.D.E's focuses on the spiritual meaning and “soul-making” significance of N.D.E's.

Sociologist Charles Flynn (1982) found that N.D.E's reported a greatly increased concern for others, increased belief in an afterlife, increased religious interest and feeling, decreased fear of death, and lessened desire for material success and approval of others. Subsequently, Flynn (1986) described the life-transforming nature of N.D.E's, changing experiencers' values, decreasing their fear of death, and giving their lives new meaning. He argued that N.D.E's produce the same aftereffects as religious conversion experiences: those who face death return with a love of the divine light that transforms their own lives and a mission to bring that love to others. He concluded that N.D.E's lead to a shift from ego-centered to other-centered consciousness, disposition to love unconditionally, heightened empathy, decreased interest in status symbols and material possessions, reduced fear of death, and deepened spiritual consciousness.

McLaughlin and Malony (1984) measured religious orientation and religious change as a result of the N.D.E in forty experiencers who were interviewed in depth and completed a series of questionnaires. They found strong associations between depth of N.D.E and various measures of religious change after the experience. Near-death experiencers placed greater importance on religion afterward and became more active in their religion, and the strength of those changes was positively associated with the depth of their N.D.E. For many experiencers, the N.D.E was an experiential reaffirmation of the reality of the spiritual realm they had believed in previously and served to intensify their relationship with God. This increase in religious activity contradicted Ring's finding that N.D.E's led to inward spiritual change but no change in religious activity. McLaughlin and Malony concluded that N.D.E's are spiritual interventions in the lives of people regardless of their religious orientations or beliefs beforehand. They found that the N.D.E reaffirmed religious faith for some experiencers, had no effect on beliefs of others, and led still others to abandon their prior belief systems:

Thus, on an individual level the N.D.E can have a variety of effects upon a person's religion, ranging from conversion or reaffirmation of belief all the way to disillusionment or a change away from conventional religion. Only when the subject group is examined as a whole is there evidence that N.D.E's result in an increase in the importance of religion and an increase in religious activity.

, using an instrument based on Austrian psychiatrist logotherapy, found that N.D.E's led to significant positive changes in the purpose and meaning of life and in death acceptance.

British philosopher presented N.D.E's, and particularly the moral assessment that takes place in the life review, as providing an experiential basis for moral order based on “empathic resonance” with other people, meaning the direct perception of an intrinsic interconnectedness and interdependence of all living beings. He argued that in the life review one experiences first-hand, with compassionate and empathic understanding, how one's thoughts, feelings, and actions affect others. This experience, he reported, leads to a new appreciation of the Golden Rule—“whatever you wish that men would do unto you, do so to them” —as not just a prescription for moral conduct but also an accurate description of the interconnectedness of the universe. Lorimer concluded that the ego-shattering effect of N.D.E's reveals the illusion of separate individual egos by inducing direct experience of cosmic unity.

Australian sociologist Cherie Sutherland interviewed fifty N.D.E's and specifically asked them to differentiate changes in their spirituality from changes in their religiosity. Her subjects largely rejected describing themselves as “religious,” often vehemently, but did describe themselves as “spiritual.” They reported “dramatic change in religious affiliation, especially from organized religion, of whatever denomination, to no religion”. Following their N.D.E's, 76 percent of her interviewees described themselves as “spiritual,” an increase from 16 percent prior to their N.D.E's, whereas 6 percent described themselves as “religious,” a decrease from 24 percent prior to their N.D.E's. None of her subjects described the N.D.E as a religious experience, but 70 percent described it as a spiritual experience. Asked an open-ended question about the most significant change resulting from the N.D.E, the single most common response (31 percent of respondents) was “spirituality” or “spiritual growth.”

In studies comparing the attitudes of N.D.E.r.s with those of other groups, including persons who had come close to death but not had N.D.E's, I found that experiencers placed significantly lower value on social status, professional and material success, and fame and found death less threatening. Although a less fearful attitude toward death has been associated with an increase in suicidal thoughts (Shneidman 1971), N.D.E.r.s paradoxically express stronger objections to suicide than do comparison samples, primarily on the basis of increased transpersonal or transcendental beliefs. These profound changes in attitudes and in behavior have been corroborated in long-term studies of N.D.E.r.s and in interviews with their significant others.

Transpersonal counselor surveyed fifty-one N.D.E's about changes in their attitudes, beliefs, and behavior. She found that the vast majority of her respondents claimed that since the N.D.E they were more helpful toward others (82 percent), more compassionate or understanding (82 percent), more open-minded in general (82 percent), more spiritually or religiously open (80 percent), more intuitive (78 percent), more aware of guidance by a higher power (75 percent), more appreciative of life (73 percent), emotionally stronger (69 percent), more purposeful (65 percent), and less fearful of life (51 percent). Absolute belief in God increased from 24 percent before the N.D.E to 82 percent after it; definite belief in an afterlife increased from 22 percent to 92 percent; 89 percent reported a decreased fear of death; 88 percent reported a positive change in spirituality. In general, a sense of spirituality or inner connection to God gained in the N.D.E took precedence over subscribing to religious doctrine. Those believing that there was more than one path to God increased from 28 percent before the N.D.E to 65 percent after it; 77 percent claimed that their lives had changed dramatically as a result of the N.D.E; and 73 percent reported that the N.D.E led them to discover their life purpose.

, after completing a rigorous study of 116 N.D.E's and then observing N.D.E's and their aftereffects in his own patients over twenty years as a cardiologist, found that N.D.E's produced a stronger faith and a higher level of commitment to traditional religious practice, which he thought, in turn, affected their medical outcome. Although he originally had approached the study of N.D.E's as a skeptical medical scientist, expecting to find that these experiences were misfirings of a dying brain, he eventually concluded that they were instead powerful spiritual experiences whose underlying message was consistent with divine revelation from more traditional sources.

A large study of N.D.E's among survivors of cardiac arrest showed that, after both a two-year and an eight-year follow-up interval, people who had N.D.E's in connection with the cardiac arrest had a significant decrease in their fear of death and a significant increase in their belief in survival after death, whereas those who had not had an N.D.E tended not to believe in such survival. More specifically (and seemingly paradoxically, given the positive nature of most experiences and the reluctance of many experiencers to return to the body), those who experienced an N.D.E as the result of a suicide attempt rarely attempted suicide again, in contrast to most suicide attempters. This effect may be the result of an increased sense of purpose and appreciation for life.

Implications of Near-Death Experiences for Others

Mainstream theologians have had little to say about near-death experiences. British religious scholar speculates on the reasons for what he calls this “deafening silence.” He suggests that perhaps some theologians regard N.D.E's as so expected at the point of death that they do not merit discussion, whereas others ignore the phenomenon out of general academic distrust of any paranormal phenomena. Religious scholar suggests that many theologians feel more comfortable regarding N.D.E's as metaphors or literary motifs rather than actual encounters with the divine.

Religious historian places N.D.E's within a continuing cross-cultural tradition of fantastic accounts of otherworld journeys. Indeed, the Buddhist perspective on visions of the dying, as described in The Tibetan Book of the Dead, is that they occur in the mind of the experiencer. Roman Catholic theologian Hans Küng regards N.D.E's as psychological experiences of dying that have no bearing on what happens after death.

Whatever the reason for the disinterest in N.D.E's among theologians, the result is that most of what has been written about the implications of N.D.E's, discussed below, has come from psychologists who argue that N.D.E's should have relevance to theology. Ring, for example, writes, “When an individual knows with a sense of unshakable certitude that he can exist outside of his own body, he intuitively understands that physical death is not an end.... Such a view does not logically require a religious interpretation of the afterlife, but, in practice, it is usually put that way”. He further notes that those experiencers who see visions of deceased loved ones in their N.D.E's become convinced that life beyond death is more than “a vague emotional yearning”. Fox has opined that “many of the claims that near-death experiencers (N.D.E.r.s) have made in the last quarter-century are such that they may well be said to demand a response which goes to the very heart of the West's understanding of what it is to be human, and what it is for human beings to die”.

Adherents to various religions have claimed N.D.E's as empirical support of their particular doctrines. It has been argued that N.D.E's provide striking parallels to the teachings of the Hindu Upanishads and to early Babylonian, Egyptian, and Zoroastrian texts, to shamanism, to Taoism, to Sino-Japanese Pure Land Buddhism, to Tibetan Buddhism, to Gnostic Christianity of the second through fourth centuries, to medieval Christian religious treatises, to Mormon doctrine, to Christian Universalism, to Bishop John Shelby Spong's New Christianity, and to New Age spirituality. Regarding these"religious wars" over N.D.E's, Ring expresses regret that"the body of the N.D.E, like some sort of sacred relic or corrupted corpse, is fought over by warring parties either for rights of possession or unceremonious burial".

Ring found beliefs common among N.D.E's that seemed consistent with a Judaeo-Christian worldview (1980b). He reports that more than half of his sample of N.D.E's reached a point where a decision was made either by or for them as to whether they would return to physical life, and 40 percent of them described an encounter with a presence (not always seen) that included an auditory or telepathic conversation. Sometimes the presence would describe specific consequences of the decision whether or not to return, including information about what would occur if the experience chose to return to life. This often was accompanied by a life review, and sometime a preview of events to come, in which the experience evaluated his or her life. Most experiencers interpret this sequence of events as a direct encounter with God and with God's unconditional love.

Ring himself interprets this sequence of events as an encounter not with an external deity but rather with the experiencer's "higher self," of which the individual personality is only a fragment. This higher self seems to have divine aspects and is clearly omniscient with respect to the personality; Ring speculates that experiences of this encounter may give rise to the Christian concept of the guardian angel.

Ring later documents further psychological effects in N.D.E.r.s evidencing changes in attitude and belief that are consistent with the dominant Western Judaeo-Christian heritage. He argues that N.D.E's lead directly to the Golden Rule and to Jesus' admonition that"as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me". In fact, Ring argues, in concert with Lorimer (1990), that for N.D.E.r.s the Golden Rule is no longer just a commandment one is taught to obey but rather an indisputable law of nature, as inevitable as gravity. They know it is the way the universe works because they have experienced it first-hand in suffering directly the effects of their actions upon others. Though they do not feel punished or judged for their misdeeds, they do receive back as part of their life review everything they have ever given out, measure for measure.

Some Christian theologians have corroborated this view of N.D.E's as consistent with their teachings. Johann Christophe Hampe, a German Lutheran minister, conducted a study of dying persons' experiences before Moody coined the term near-death experience. Working independently of Moody, he reported a similar phenomenon and concluded that the expansion of consciousness at death implied separation of the soul from the body and that the continued fellowship with God reported by many N.D.E's reinforced New Testament teachings. That conclusion is shared by British theologians:"What appears to happen is that the soul leaves the body and begins to move on to another mode of existence."

However, whereas some religious scholars view N.D.E's as proof of spiritual capacities in humans and of divine grace, others see them as Satanic deceptions that contradict Christian teachings. The conflicting and often negative views of psychic phenomena held by many religious people extend to their interpretations of N.D.E's.

Fox (2003) points out ways that N.D.E's appear to contradict traditional Christian beliefs in the afterlife. First, N.D.E's suggest a separation of a disembodied soul from the physical body at the point of death, which seems to contradict the Christian belief in resurrection of an embodied soul. Second, N.D.E's imply that survival of death is a universal human birthright rather than a gift of grace. Third, a judgment at the time of death appears to contradict belief in a far-off judgment day when Christ returns. (However, Fox did note that there is a belief going back at least to the third century in two judgments: first a “friendly warning” at death and later the earth-shattering finality of the judgment day.) Fourth, the divine being of light is often encountered by non-Christians, who do not identify it as Christ. Finally, all N.D.E's seem to go to the same place after death, regardless of whether or not they were “saved,” “born again,” or baptized.

Fox reconciles these discrepancies by invoking the traditional Christian belief that death ushers in a type of sleep that lasts until the judgment day, but that that sleep is accompanied by a dream, which we have come to call an N.D.E. Others suggest that apparent insights from N.D.E's cannot challenge traditional concepts of death because “near-death experiences may be too brief an experience of the dying process to reveal much knowledge about the ultimate nature of death. The person may not have entered deeply enough into the dying process to experience the ultimate nature of death”.

Some Christians have claimed that N.D.E's not only contradict biblical religion but furthermore foster an anti-Christian “New Age” moral code. Although the interpretation of N.D.E's as deceptions perpetrated by “fallen spirits” has been espoused by Eastern Orthodox theologian Fr., this perspective has been put forward primarily by Fundamentalist Protestant authors, who argue that N.D.E's must have a Satanic rather than divine source because they present death as a benign event in which the Grim Reaper is replaced by a nonjudgmental Being of Light who extends unconditional love to all souls, regardless of whether or not they are born-again Christians:

If we are to take the teachings of Jesus seriously, we must also take Satan and his forces seriously....

Paul warns us that Satan's emissaries regularly disguise themselves, and that Satan himself appears as an “angel of light” (Two Corinthians 11:14)....

Death is ultimately an expression of the fall (Genesis 3), which was the result of sinful disobedience. Death is pre-eminently the sign of that fall, and the symbol of God's rejection of sin....

Death is not regarded biblically as a normal and benign complement to the process of life, but as something alien and abnormal....

For those who accept the values of contemporary death researchers... there is little if any need for the basic biblical doctrines of the fall, redemption, and repentance before God. The atoning death... of Jesus Christ is not only unnecessary, it is meaningless and altogether irrelevant.

Fox (2003) argues that this view implies that Satan's deception is more powerful than God's grace. Noting that millions of people now look forward to meeting a loving, accepting being of light when they die, he asks: If this being is actually Satan pulling off an appalling deception, where is the Christian God of grace and truth, the real Light? Psychologist Ken Vincent likewise dismisses the idea that N.D.E.r's Being of Light could be a demonic deception:"Satan may be a neon sign, but God is the Light of the Universe".

Ring counters the argument that a Being of Light who seems to love both devout Christians and sinners unconditionally must be Satanic rather than divine by appealing to Jesus' dictum"you will know them by their fruits". By that criterion, Ring argues, N.D.E's should be judged by their fruits of increased compassion, humility, honesty, and altruism.

Regarding the question of whether unconditional love renders the atonizing death of Christ irrelevant, Vincent argues that N.D.E's are compatible theologically with Christian Universalism—the doctrine of universal salvation—a classical Christian position that was declared heretical at one point but has been espoused by a large number of theologians from Origen in the third century to Karl Barth in the twentieth. This belief postulates that God, despite his wrathfulness and judgment, wills the eventual redemption of all people rather than condemnation to eternal hell, which would be inconsistent with the nature of God as loving. Vincent notes that virtually all major religions include some kind of belief in universal salvation but that Christian Universalism allows for a temporary hellish state to “shape up” if necessary before the ultimate reward. He argues that there is more biblical support for the doctrine of universal salvation than for the belief in salvation for only the born again, and he cites biblical passages favoring the doctrines that Jesus saves everyone, that humanity can be saved by good works, and that hell is not permanent.

Other religious writers have decried N.D.E's for holding out the false promise of “cheap grace,” which they define as the unconditional forgiveness of sins without any required contrition. The promise of cheap grace so defined may well be part of the popular image of N.D.E's, but it does not seem to play a role in the actual experience.

In fact, Ring argues, the unconditional love N.D.E.r.s report in their experiences does not gloss over their sins or excuse their future behavior. Quite to the contrary, N.D.E.r.s experience first-hand in their N.D.E's the painful consequences of their sinful behavior and return to earthly life as confirmed disciples who understand from their experience that their behavior does indeed matter far more than they could have imagined. N.D.E's do not come back with a sense that they are perfect beings as they are now, but they are rather committed to work toward perfection and to carry out the work of a higher power, often at great emotional as well as material sacrifice. Far from encouraging indiscriminate behavior, the unconditional love N.D.E's experience confers on them the self-esteem, courage, and self-knowledge to bring about the kind of life changes demanded of disciples. Values and beliefs are changed, but N.D.E's still struggle to change their behaviors.

Cressy points out that N.D.E's differ from many other mystical experiences in that they do not occur in the context of a conscious search for meaning or resolution of spiritual crisis; one encounter with mystical consciousness may start a near-death experience on a spiritual path, but the N.D.E by itself does not confer sainthood. As Cressy warns, “One mystical experience does not make a mystic”. The empirical data support her view that all N.D.E's do not lead to immediate transformation; but, whereas all N.D.E's do not lead to radical changes, those that do transform do so through a process that is characteristic of other spiritual encounters.

Expanding on this theme of the N.D.E as a mere taste of mystical consciousness, Ring (1984) develops a hypothesis of N.D.E's as “spiritual catalysts” fostering spiritual awakening and development. He argues that this spiritual catalysis is linked particularly to the later stages of N.D.E's in which one transcends space and time, communes with a divine light, and is overcome with peace and joy.

Furthermore, N.D.E's may have significant moral impact even on people who do not experience them but encounter them indirectly. Flynn (1986) describes a project in which his college students practiced unconditional love, after having studied the message of N.D.E's, and were themselves transformed by the exercise. More recently, Ring has described the spiritual meaning and “soulmaking” significance of N.D.E's. Like Flynn, he reports that his students, having studied N.D.E's, also became more empathic and spiritually oriented through applying the lessons of N.D.E's: that death is not fearsome, that life continues beyond, that love is more important than material possessions, and that everything happens for a reason.

There are suggestions that N.D.E's may have more widespread spiritual implications. Twentieth-century social critics as diverse as British historian Arnold Toynbee, Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, and German theologian and medical missionary Albert Schweitzer have written that “nothing short of a worldwide spiritual revolution will suffice” to save human civilization. Ring suggests “that the N.D.E can be viewed as an evolutionary device to bring about this transformation” and that N.D.E's and similar mystical experiences may point the way toward unlocking humankind's dormant spiritual potential.

Ring speculates that, with increasing resuscitation technology enabling more and more individuals to return from the brink of death, the cumulative impact of their uplifting testimonies may foster the spiritual evolution of the collective consciousness of humanity. The title of his book on N.D.E aftereffects, Heading toward Omega (1984), comes from French Jesuit philosopher and scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's notion of the"Omega point," a hypothetical end point in human history representing an evolutionary culmination in the highest strivings of human culture.

Badham argues that N.D.E's revitalize society's belief in God and hope for an afterlife. Fox concludes,"N.D.E's cannot unambiguously be used as apologetic tools for the propagation of any one particular religious or spiritual tradition or be somehow fitted into any one tradition to the exclusion of all others". But these experiences should foster spiritual growth by leading us to question some of our basic assumptions about mind and brain, about our relationship to the divine, and about the universe and our role in it. This may prove to be their primary relevance to theology. As Zaleski (1987) points out, theology has a rich tradition of investigating the symbols, stories, and themes of the human religious imagination and in that regard may have a distinctive contribution to make in our understanding of the meaning for humanity of near-death experiences.

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