 | Near-death experience: Encyclopedia II - Near-death experience - Near-Death Research
Near-death experience - Near-Death Research
Among the pioneers of Near-Death Studies and research we find Dr. Raymond Moody, who has chronicled and studied many of these experiences in several books (Moody, 1975;1977;1999), and Dr. Kenneth Ring, co-founder and past President of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS).
Major contributions to the field include the construction of a Weighted Core Experience Index (Ring, 1980) in order to measure the depth of the Near-Death experience, and the construction of the Near-Death Experience Scale (Greyson, 1983) in order to differentiate between subjects that are more or less likely to have experienced a genuine NDE. These approaches include criteria for deciding what is to be considered a classical or authentic NDE. Neurological and biological factors in the experience has been investigated by researchers within the field of medical science. Among these studies we find the work of Britton & Bootzin (2004) who has suggested that the NDE might be a result of altered temporal lobe functioning and altered sleep patterns. Related to this perspective we find the work Strassman (2001) who induced near death experiences (in addition to some different naturally-occurring altered states of being) in a clinical setting by injecting subjects with DMT, a powerful psychedelic tryptamine. This is significant because DMT is produced endogenously in the human pineal gland and may be the chemical that causes natural NDE's (and other mystical, religious, entity contact and transpersonal experiences).
Well-known researchers in the field who support a moderate view, or sympathize with aspects of the after-life view are Kevin Williams, Bruce Greyson, Michael Sabom, Melvin Morse, PMH Atwater, Yvonne Kason, Sam Parnia, Peter Fenwick, Jody A. Long and Jeffrey P. Long. Much of this research is co-ordinated through the field of Near-Death Studies. Among the researchers who support a naturalistic and neurological base for the experience we find the British psychologist Susan Blackmore (1993), and founding publisher of Skeptic magazine, Michael Shermer (1998).
According to Martens (1994), the only satisfying method to address the NDE-issue would be an international multicentric data collection within the framework for standardized reporting of cardiac arrest events. The use of cardiac arrest-criteria as a basis for NDE-research has been a common approach among the European branch of the research field (Parnia, Waller, Yeates & Fenwick, 2001; van Lommel, van Wees, Meyers & Elfferich, 2001).
Other related archives1983, 1994, 1997, 2001, 2004, Alister Hardy, Beyond and Back, British, Carl Jung, DMT, DSM-IV, Daniel Pinchbeck, Dutch, European, Form constant, Ken Wilber, Kenneth Ring, Ketamine, Michael Shermer, NMDA, Nature, Near-Death Studies, Nicholas Humphrey, Raymond Moody, Russian, Skeptic magazine, Stanislav Grof, Strassman, Susan Blackmore, Swiss, U.S., Vietnam War, afterlife, agmatine, anesthetic, atheists, brain, cardiac resuscitation, clinical death, dead, dentures, dream, epilepsy, etiology, glutamate, harmony, heart attack, humans, joy, kundalini, mystical, neurotransmitter, out-of-body, out-of-body experience, out-of-body experiences, pathology, peace, phenomenology, phenomenon, psychologist, religious, side-effects, soldiers, subjective
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Near-Death Research", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
