Near-death studies is a field of research that studies the near-death experience (NDE). The field was originally associated with a distinct group of North American researchers that followed up on the initial work of Raymond Moody, and who later established the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) and the Journal of Near-Death Studies. Since then the field has expanded, and now includes contributions from a wide range of researchers and commentators worldwide. Research on near-death experiences is mainly limited to the disciplines of medicine, psychology, and psychiatry.
Research – history and background
Precursors
According to Janice Holden, Bruce Greyson and Debbie James in the Handbook of Near-Death Experiences, the term near-death experience was coined by Raymond Moody in his 1975 book Life After Life. Moody noted that mentions of the near-death experience can be located in ancient texts, such as Plato's Dialogues, the Egyptian Book of the Dead and the Tibetan Book of the Dead. During the 1880s and 1890s, near-death phenomena were part of the investigation of paranormal phenomena.Walker, Barbara & Serdahely, William. Historical Perspectives on Near-Death Phenomena. Journal of Near-Death Studies, 9(2) Winter 1990, pp. 105-121 Precursors to the field of near-death studies include the work of paranormal investigators, such as William Crookes and Frederick W.H. Myers, and the work of parapsychological societies, such as the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in England, and its American counterpart. The work attracted skepticism from contemporary branches of science. Also in the 1800s, two efforts moved beyond studying individual cases—one privately done by Mormons and one in Switzerland. According to Russell Noyes and Donald J. Slymen in 1972, the first academic note on a near-death experience was reported by Albert von St. Gallen Heim in 1892.
The early 1900s was a period of disinterest in the topic, only marked by occasional contributions, including the commentaries of Gardner Murphy and the research of Donald West. In 1948, West investigated the occurrence of psi-phenomena in a small sample of the British population. He found that "14 percent of his sample had undergone a hallucinatory experience and 9 percent had reported seeing apparitions of the dead". During the 1970s, the work of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross attracted attention and she addressed the topic publicly.Noble, Holcomb B. "Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, 78, Dies; Psychiatrist Revolutionized Care of the Terminally Ill." New York Times, August 26, 2004 Interest in the topic was also spurred by autobiographical accounts, such as the books of George G. Ritchie.Slayton, Jeremy. "Death Notice: George Gordon Ritchie Jr dies". Richmond Times Dispatch, online, October 31, 2007
Formative period – early profiles
Commentators note that the launch of the field of near-death studies started with work of Raymond Moody.Loseu, Saharnaz et al. The Field of Near-Death Studies Through 2011: An Updated Analysis of the Scholarly Periodical Literature. Journal of Near-Death Studies, 31(4), Summer 2013 Moody got interested in the subject of near-death experiences at the start of his career. In the mid-1970s, while doing his medical residency as a psychiatrist at the University of Virginia, he conducted interviews with near-death experiencers.Graves, Lee. Altered States. Scientists analyze the near-death experience. The University of Virginia Magazine, Summer 2007 Feature He later published these findings in the book Life After Life (1976).Moody Raymond A. (1976). Life after life : the investigation of a phenomenon – survival of bodily death. Harrisburg, Pa. : Stackpole Books. In the book Moody outlines the different elements of the NDE. These features were picked up by later researchers, and the book brought public attention to the topic of NDEs.Mauro, James. Bright lights, big mystery. Psychology Today, July 1992 Early contributions to the field of near-death studies also include the work of Russell Noyes, who collected NDE stories from personal accounts and medical records. According to commentators, his work signalled the first big shift in perspective within the field, pulling the methodology away from parapsychology and towards the principles of medicine. In the 1970s,Noyes and Kletti reported on the phenomenon of depersonalization related to life-threatening danger. According to literature, Noyes and Kletti's 1977-article, "Depersonalization in Response to Life-threatening Danger", is the most cited article in the field of Near-death studies as of 2011.
In 1977, a group researchers met in Charlottesville, Virginia, in order to prepare further investigations of the NDE-phenomenon. The late 1970s saw the establishment of the Association for the Scientific Study of Near-Death Phenomena (ASSNDP), an initial group of academic researchers, including John Audette, Raymond Moody, Bruce Greyson, Kenneth Ring, and Michael Sabom, who laid the foundations for the field of near-death studies, and carried out some of the first NDE research in the wake of Moody's work.Blasdel, Alex. The new science of death: 'There's something happening in the brain that makes no sense'. www.theguardian.com, Tue 2 Apr 2024. Retrieved July 3, 2025. The ASSNDP was a forerunner to the International Association for Near-death Studies (IANDS), which was founded in the early 1980s and which established its headquarters at the University of Connecticut, Storrs.New York Times staff. Connecticut Guide; Near-death Symposium. New York Times, April 25, 1982 One of the first publications associated with this group of researchers was a treatment of several NDE case-reports originally collected by Fred Schoonmaker. The treatment was carried out and published by John Audette in 1979. This group of researchers, but especially Ring, was responsible for launching Anabiosis, the first peer-reviewed journal within the field. The journal later became Journal of Near-Death Studies.
Even though NDEs were introduced to the academic setting, the subject was often met with academic disbelief,Bush, Nancy Evans. "Is Ten Years a Life Review?" Journal of Near-Death Studies, 10(1) Fall 1991 or regarded as taboo. The medical community has been reluctant to address the phenomenon of NDEs, and funding for research has been limited; however, both Ring and Sabom made contributions that were influential for the newly established field. Ring published a book in 1980 called Life at Death: A Scientific Investigation of the Near-Death Experience.Ring, K. (1980a). Life at death: A scientific investigation of the near-death experience. New York, NY: Coward, McCann and Geoghegan.Asher, Catherine G. Book review: Ring, Kenneth. Life at Death: a scientific investigation of the near-death experience. Library Journal, September 15, 1980, page 1870 In the book Ring identified the core near-death experience, with its corresponding stages.Hamby, Warren C. Reviewed Work(s): Life at Death: A Scientific Investigation of the Near-Death Experience by Kenneth Ring. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 21, No. 3 (Sep., 1982), pp. 289-290 This early research was followed in 1984 by Ring's book Heading Toward Omega: In Search of the Meaning of the Near-Death Experience,Ring, K. (1984). Heading toward omega: In search of the meaning of the near-death experience.New York, NY: William Morrow. where he described the mystical and transcendent features of the NDE, and the futuristic visions described by near-death experiencers.Buehler, David A. Book review: Ring, Kenneth. Heading Toward Omega: is search of the meaning of the near-death experience. Library Journal, August 1984, page 1455 The early work of Michael Sabom also brought attention within the academic community. Besides contributing material to academic journals,Sabom, M. B. The near-death experience. JAMA 1980 Jul 4;244(1): 29–30. he wrote a book called Recollections of Death (1982),Sabom, M. (1982). Recollections of death: A medical investigation. New York, NY: Harper and Row. which is considered to be a significant publication in the launching of the field.
Some of the early retrospective work was being carried out by Greyson and Stevenson who published their findings in the American Journal of Psychiatry in 1980. The authors used questionnaires, interviews, and medical records in order to study the phenomenology of NDEs and suggested that social and psychological factors explained some, but not all, components of the NDE. Greyson has also addressed different aspects of the NDE, such as the psychodynamics of the experience, the typology of NDEs, the varieties of NDEs, and the biology of NDEs.Greyson B. "Biological aspects of near-death experiences". Perspect Biol Med. 1998 Autumn;42(1): 14–32. In addition, he brought attention to the NDE as a focus of clinical attention, suggesting that the aftermath of the NDE, in some cases, can lead to psychological problems. As research in the field progressed, both Greyson and Ring developed measurement tools that can be used in a clinical setting.Ring, Kenneth. (1980) Life at death. A scientific investigation of the near-death experience. New York: Coward McCann and Geoghenan. According to Kinsella, no other researcher, besides Moody, has done more to "influence public opinion on the subject of NDEs" than Ring.
The 1980s also introduced the research of Melvin Morse, who profiled near-death studies.Maryles, Daisy. Behind the bestsellers. Publishers Weekly. 240.20 (May 17, 1993): p. 17. From Literature Resource Center. Morse and colleagues investigated NDEs in a pediatric population. They found that children reported NDEs that were similar to those described by adults.Morse M, Conner D, Tyler D. "Near-death experiences in a pediatric population. A preliminary report". American Journal of Diseases of Children, Jun;139(6): 595–600, 1985Morse M, Castillo P, Venecia D, Milstein J, Tyler DC. "Childhood near-death experiences". American Journal of Diseases of Children, Nov;140(11): 1110–14, 1986 Morse later published two books, co-authored with Paul Perry, that were aimed at a general audience: Closer to the Light: Learning from Children's Near-Death Experiences (1990),Morse, Melvin (with Paul Perry) (1990) Closer to the light : learning from children's near-death experiences. New York : Villard Books followed by Transformed by The Light: The Powerful Effect of Near-Death Experiences on People's Lives (1992).Morse, Melvin (with Paul Perry) (1992) Transformed by the light : the powerful effect of near-death experiences on people's lives. New York : Villard Books British neuropsychiatrist Peter Fenwick started to collect NDE stories in the 1980s, following their appearances in television programs.Fenwick, Peter & Mensel, Lars. I'm no longer afraid of death. The European, 10.03.2013, www.theeuropean.de, retrieved January 5, 2023 The responses from near-death experiencers later served as the basis for his book published in 1997, The Truth in the light, co-authored with his wife Elizabeth Fenwick.Fenwick, Peter and Fenwick, Elizabeth (1997). The truth in the light: an investigation of over 300 near-death experiences. New York : Berkley Books In the book, the authors investigated more than 300 NDEs and concluded that the "subjective experience" is the key to understanding the phenomenon of NDEs.
Co-operating with other researchers, such as Sam Parnia, Fenwick has reviewed, as well as researched, the potential relationship between near-death experiences and cardiac arrest.Parnia S, Waller DG, Yeates R, Fenwick P: A qualitative and quantitative study