Alvarado, C. S. (2010). “The Dying Mother:” Historical Citations of Mary Goffe’s Seventeenth-Century Near-Death Apparition Journal of Near-Death Studies, 29(1) 241-253.

Abstract: Traditionally, certain cases have been of particular importance to students of near-death phenomena. Such cases are more than mere examples or research data; they are resources that are generally used to defend particular theoretical ideas, such as the projection of the spirit or of some subtle body from the physical body around the time of death. One such case was that of Mary Goffe, a seventeenth-century apparition of a dying woman that Richard Baxter reported in his book The Certainty of the Worlds of Spirits (1691). This paper includes a reprint of the original case report and a discussion of how later writers used the case to defend the idea that something may leave the body during near-death states.

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Link: http://www.iands.org

Topics:
Historical Perspectives on NDEs
Nearing Death and NDEs—Deathbed Visions
Nearing Death and NDEs NOS

Alvarado, C. S. (2011). Panoramic Memory, Affect, and Sensations of Detachment in the Dying: Discussions Published in France 1889-1903 Journal of Near-Death Studies, 30(2) 65-82.

Abstract: Between 1889 and 1903, several authors published papers in the French journal Revue Philosophique de la France et de l’Étranger and in a few other publications in which they discussed panoramic memory, changes of affect, and a sense of detachment from the body in dying persons. With a few exceptions these publications have been ignored in modern discussion of the phenomena of the dying. Whereas philosopher Victor Egger postulated the psychological explanation that panoramic memory results from the dying person’s thoughts of imminent death, physicians Paul Sollier and Charles Féré and psychologist Henri Piéron proposed that it, as well as changes in affect, result from physiological changes in the body sensibility and in the brain. Like many authors today who speculate about near-death experiences, the authors in question did not have much evidence for their explanations. These ideas, and their physiological aspects, were part of a general interest in unusual phenomena and states of consciousness during the 19th century.

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Link: http://www.iands.org

Topics:
Characteristics of NDEs—Life Review
Explanations of NDEs—Physiological NOS
Explanations of NDEs—Psychological
Historical Perspectives on NDEs
Mental Processes and NDEs
Nearing Death and NDEs NOS

Athappilly, G. K., Greyson, B., & Stevenson, I. (2006). Do prevailing societal models of influence reports of near-death experiences? A comparison of accounts reported before and after 1975 Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 194(3) 218-222.

Abstract: Transcendental near-death experiences show some crosscultural variation that suggests they may be influenced by societal beliefs. The prevailing Western model of near-death experiences was defined by Moody’s description of the phenomenon in 1975. To explore the influence of this cultural model, we compared near-death experience accounts collected before and after 1975. We compared the frequency of 15 phenomenological features Moody defined as characteristic of near-death experiences in 24 accounts collected before 1975 and in 24 more recent accounts matched on relevant demographic and situational variables. Near-death experience accounts collected after 1975 differed from those collected earlier only in increased frequency of tunnel phenomena, which other research has suggested may not be integral to the experience, and not in any of the remaining 14 features defined by Moody as characteristic of near-death experiences. These data challenge the hypothesis that near-death experience accounts are substantially influenced by prevailing cultural models.

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Topics:
Aftereffects of NDEs—Orientation to Death
Aftereffects of NDEs—Orientation to Life
Afterlife, Belief in
Characteristics of NDErs—Age, Adults
Characteristics of NDErs—Education Level
Characteristics of NDErs—Gender
Characteristics of NDErs—Marital Status
Characteristics of NDErs—Religious Affiliations
Characteristics of NDErs NOS
Characteristics of NDEs—Autoscopy, Out-of-Body
Characteristics of NDEs—Emotions, Pleasurable
Characteristics of NDEs—Encountering Beings, Deceased or Living
Characteristics of NDEs—Encountering Beings, Spiritual
Characteristics of NDEs—Increased Knowledge, Thoughts
Characteristics of NDEs—Life Review
Characteristics of NDEs—Light, Mystical
Characteristics of NDEs—Otherworldly Environments
Characteristics of NDEs—Parapsychological Phenomena, ESP
Characteristics of NDEs—Parapsychological Phenomena, Precognition
Characteristics of NDEs—Return, Involuntary
Characteristics of NDEs—Return, Voluntary
Characteristics of NDEs—Return NOS
Characteristics of NDEs—Sensory, Sound, Music
Characteristics of NDEs—Tunnel Experiences
Characteristics of NDEs NOS
Circumstances of NDEs—Accident
Circumstances of NDEs—Hospital
Circumstances of NDEs—Illness
Circumstances of NDEs NOS
Cultural, Social Influences on NDEs
Disclosure of NDEs
Interpretations of NDEs
Language and NDEs
Methodology in NDE Research
Non-NDErs’ Attitudes toward NDEs
Veridical Perception during NDEs

Atwater, P. M. H. (2009). Guest Editorial: A Perspective on Contradictory Revelations of Near-Death Experiencers Journal of Near-Death Studies, 27(4) 205-209.

Abstract: In this editorial, I express my views on how to understand and reconcile contradictory revelations among near-death experiencers (NDErs). I address the issue of an NDEr proselytizing one’s own unique interpretations in response to life’s deepest questions.

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Link: http://www.iands.org

Topics:
Interpretations of NDEs
Media Treatment of NDEs

Atwater, P. M. H. (2011). NDE as a Threshold Experience Journal of Near-Death Studies, 29(4) 439-449.

Abstract: My investigation has shown me that near-death experiences (NDEs) are not some kind of anomaly but, rather, are part of the larger genre of transformations of consciousness. The clue I believe most researchers have missed is stress—specifically, the intensity that comes from that stress (known in shamanism as “high stress”). I believe the entire pattern of aftereffects and the degree to which people change can be traced to that factor. It’s the intensity that shifts experiencers into what I call a “threshold experience”—one that straddles the boundary between this world and other worlds, between brain and that which lies beyond what the brain can access, between reality and miracles, mind and spirit, life and death, heaven and hell, sanity and insanity. Once we humans understand this shift, we can begin to unravel how the transformational process works. At the threshold of who we think we are and what lies beyond body and brain is the core of ancient mysteries. We are transformed by the Oneness we find there.

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Link: http://www.iands.org

Topics:
Aftereffects of NDEs—Emotional
Aftereffects of NDEs—Orientation to Life
Aftereffects of NDEs—Paranormal Phenomena
Aftereffects of NDEs—Physical Changes
Aftereffects of NDEs—Religion
Aftereffects of NDEs—Sense of Self, Psychological and Physical
Altered States and NDEs
Circumstances of NDEs—Stress
Circumstances of NDEs NOS
Explanations of NDEs—Psychological
Explanations of NDEs NOS
Related Experiences—NDE-Like
Shamanism and NDEs
Spirituality and NDEs