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open access

The Acute Dying Experience

Description: Article discussing the acute dying experience (ADE), which incorporates peritraumatic dissociation and hyperarousal into an experiential continuum lasting seconds to minutes. It is instantly triggered by the sudden, clear perception of threat of significant injury and/or death and followed, at times, by physical trauma, physiological derangement, and loss of consciousness. Results from this and other studies show that paradoxically the more terrifying and traumatic an accident may appear, the m… more
Date: Spring 2008
Creator: Sabom, Michael B.
open access

Adjustment and the Near-Death Experience: A Conceptual and Therapeutic Model

Description: Abstract: Most mental health practitioners, and counseling psychologists in particular, possess skills for helping near-death experiencers. What is needed is a conceptual framework that is both familiar to practitioners and highly relevant to that client group. Cross-cultural counseling in general, and the consideration of world views more specifically, are suggested. Using that framework, the world view assimilated during the near-death experience (NDE) is viewed as being in contrast to tha… more
Date: Autumn 1987
open access

Adults' Reports of the Role of Psychotherapy in Integrating Their Childhood Near-Death Experiences: A Preliminary Investigation

Description: Abstract: The Purpose of the exploratory research was to learn if adults who had childhood near-death experiences (NDEs) sometime between pre-birth to age 17 years had psychotherapy and if they believed it helped them achieve psychological integration of their NDEs. Participants completed three instruments: the NDE Scale (Greyson, 1990), the author-developed Childhood NDE and Psychotherapy Questionnaire, and the three Subjective and Psychological Well-Being Scales (Diener & Biswas-Diener, 2008)… more
Date: Spring 2013
Creator: Moores, Jenny R. & Ammen, Sue

After-Death Communication: A Typology of Therapeutic Benefits

Description: Using semi-structured interviews, the article assesses the nature of after-death communication (ADC) experience, how participants felt about it, and how it impacted their bereavement. Results revealed that participants were unanimous in believing ADC to be beneficial, and participants experienced three themes: comfort, personal and relational continuation, and personal development.
Date: Spring 2016
Creator: McCormick, B. M. E. & Tassell-Matamua, Natasha A.
open access

After-math: Counting the Aftereffects of Potentially Spiritually Transformative Experiences

Description: Abstract: This article provides a summary of current literature regarding the nature of spiritual development, types of potentially spiritually transformative experiences (pSTEs), and both short- and long-term aftereffects of pSTEs— biological, psychological, spiritual, and social. The author concludes that in the aftermath of pSTEs, experiencers, their intimates and associates, and their healthcare providers should be prepared to experience integration that can be manageable or be deeply chall… more
Date: Winter 2012
Creator: Holden, Janice Miner
open access

Afterlife Research and the Shamanic Turn

Description: Abstract: In Western culture, approaches to the afterlife have mutated throughout history, from shamanism and mythology to philosophy, spiritualism, and psychical research. For conceptual reasons, however, survival research seems to many to be languishing, despite some remarkable recent advances. I urge a return to a more experience-based approach, modeled after features of the near-death experience, for its practical benefits; I intend that approach to complement other forms of research, not… more
Date: Autumn 2001
Creator: Grosso, Michael
open access

Afterward: Making Meaning After a Frightening Near-Death Experience

Description: Abstract: The routes by which individuals attribute meaning to a near-death experience (NDE) appear to be similar, whether the experience was radiant or terrifying. This article explores three such avenues in relation to frightening experiences. I argue that resisting a terrifying NDE is likely to intensify fearfulness in an individual, and also that a similar effect occurs within society when this type of experience is resisted and misunderstood. The article concludes with an approach to sy… more
Date: Winter 2002
Creator: Bush, Nancy Evans

Am I Crazy or Spiritually Transforming? Beyond the Differentiation of Psychiatric and Spiritually Transformative Experiences

Description: Abstract: Spiritually transformative experiences (STEs) may sometimes present with the symptomatology of psychiatric disorders. Transformational crisis may even occur within the context of a psychiatric hospitalization. Such STEs are at odds with the medical model of Western psychiatry that emphasizes pathology. Yet a coherent approach yields no absolute differentiation between spiritual emergence and what health professionals diagnose as mental illness. A historical perspective begins with… more
Date: Winter 2016
Creator: Colli, Janet Elizabeth
open access

The Anatomy of a Transformation: An Analysis of the Psychological Structure of Four Near-Death Experiences

Description: Abstract: In this paper, I discuss the general psychological structure of four near-death experiences and the evolutionary nature of the mental processes that occur. I suggest that the transformational aspect of each near-death experience comes at the culmination of the mental processes through archetypal imagery drawn from the context of the experiencer's life.
Date: Spring 1997
Creator: White, Patti R.
open access

Angels in Near-Death Experiences

Description: Abstract: The literature on near-death experiences (NDEs) contains no substantive discussion of angels in NDEs, even though there are references to angels in several studies of these experiences. In this article I identify angels in NDEs and describe their functions in the NDE based on published NDE accounts. I conclude that angels are personages with whom the NDEr does not usually recall having previous acquaintance. Angels serve as guides, messengers, or escorts in the NDE.
Date: Autumn 1992
Creator: Lundahl, Craig R.
open access

An Anthropological Perspective on Near-Death-Like Experiences in Three Men's Pregnancy-Related Spiritual Crises

Description: Article bringing a transpersonal perinatal anthropological perspective to the study of three fathers' near-death-like experiences (NDEs) with the "spiritual emergencies" of three New Zealand men during their partners' pregnancies. It explores the seemingly anomalous male birth/death/rebirth experiences and draws some parallels with what some Western researchers have called "the shamanic crisis," and compares their stories with the symbolic reproductive maneuvers of shaman midwives.
Date: Summer 2006
Creator: Lahood, Gregg
open access

Assessing Psychologists' Knowledge and Attitudes Toward Near-Death Phenomena

Description: Abstract: Nina Thornburg's (1988) Near-Death Phenomena Knowledge and Attitudes Questionnaire was distributed to 326 randomly selected Illinois psychologists. Of 117 usable questionnaires received, the mean score for knowledge questions was 7.5 of a maximum score of 18. Respondents were most knowledgeable about near-death elements of peace, out-of-body transcendence, and tunnel/light phenomena. The mean score for the attitude portion of the instrument was 61.3 of a maximum score of 85 points … more
Date: Winter 1989
Creator: Walker, Barbara A. & Russell, Robert D.
open access

An Assessment of Physicians' Knowledge of and Attitudes Toward the Near-Death Experience

Description: Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate physicians' knowledge of and attitudes toward near-death experiences (NDEs). The study population consisted of 143 staff physicians in the Baptist Memorial Hospital System. Participants completed by mail a modified version of Thornburg's (1988) Near-Death Phenomena Knowledge and Attitudes Questionnaire. Less than one-fourth of the physicians had a well-grounded knowledge base regarding NDEs, while two-thirds had a positive attitude towar… more
Date: Winter 1994
Creator: Moore, Linda Hutton
open access

"Being One with God Is Something That Can Be Done Without Rules": Commentary on Allan Kellehear's "Near-Death Experiences and the Pursuit of the Ideal Society"

Description: Abstract: Allan Kellehear's article is a pioneering venture exploring features of the transcendent society and comparing it with J.C. Davis's typology of ideal societies. Kellehear assumed that in the life after life there is a sociocultural ordering that can be discussed via structural functional theory and concepts; and he also assumed internal and external validity, despite evidence tot he contrary in his article. I think both of these assumptions are incorrect. What we need are alternati… more
Date: Winter 1991
Creator: Weibust, Patricia S.
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