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Editor's Foreword
In my first Editor's Foreword of this Journal (2008, 27[1]), I initiated
a "Brief Reports" section designed for researchers to "report studies
in which the methodology and/or results may not warrant the more
in-depth treatment of a full-length article." I estimated that Brief Re-
port authors might submit manuscripts of no more than 1,500 words.
This past summer, with nearly two years having passed since birth
of the Brief Reports format but no use of it, I wondered whether I
had miscalculated the need for it. Then this issue came together with
not one but two opportunities to use it. Though the article length in
both cases actually ended up about double my original designation,
the principle behind the format held up: Research deserved publi-
cation that, notwithstanding substantial methodological limitations,
had yielded provocative findings with valuable implications for fur-
ther investigation.
But I get ahead of myself.
This issue begins with an article that serves valuably to orient and
remind current researchers and contemplators of near-death phe-
nomena about the historical roots of the field of near-death studies.
In it, Carlos S. Alvarado, Ph.D., Scholar in Residence at Atlantic Uni-
versity, first presents a particularly touching dying apparition case
first published in 1691. He then proceeds to trace how authors over
the past 300 years have cited it to argue both for and against the
hypothesis that "something" leaves the human body at death. Dr. Al-
varado's scholarship clarifies an important aspect of the foundation
upon which the contemporary field of near-death studies is built.
In the next two contributions to this issue, authors respond to a
recent Guest Editorial by Joel Ibrahim Kreps, M.D. (2009, 28[2]),
in which Dr. Kreps concluded that Muslim near-death experiences
(NDEs) "appear to be quite rare in fact" (p. 84). First, German biolo-
gist Michael Nahm, Ph.D., and philosopher Joachim Nicolay, Ph.D.,
collaborated to report in English about eight Muslim NDE cases pub-
lished until now only in Italian. Based on physician Giorgio Fonzo's
work in various Muslim countries between 1958 and 1964, he re-
ported these cases to Paola Giovetti, which she published first in 1981
and again in 2007. Drs. Nahm and Nicolay recount the cases and,
Journal of Near-Death Studies, 29(1), Fall 2010 C 2010 IANDS
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