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Editor's Foreword
In this issue, authors explore the nature of consciousness after a
near-death experience (NDE) and after death. It is the second of a few
transition issues between Dr. Greyson's editorship and my own,
comprised of material for which Dr. Greyson oversaw the peer review
process, that he accepted, and that I endorsed and edited. Through the
material in this issue, we address the broad mission of the
International Association for Near-Death Studies that includes
attention to NDEs as well as to related phenomena.
In the lead article, novice NDE researcher Farnoosh Nouri and I
report the findings from her doctoral dissertation at the University of
North Texas. In response to publication of numerous anecdotes and
some informal studies of electromagnetic aftereffects of NDEs, in
which electrical devices are reportedly much more prone to malfunc-
tion in the vicinity of near-death experiencers (NDErs), we conducted
a systematic survey. Our results lent support to the notion that such
effects are, indeed, greater in the aftermath of NDEs and led us to
question how future researchers might measure such effects objec-
tively.
For the next article, veteran NDE researcher Kenneth Ring felt
compelled to emerge briefly out of retirement to describe events in the
aftermath of the death of a dear friend and veteran NDEr, Tom
Sawyer. These events involved after-death communication that
strongly suggested the ongoing existence and purposeful activities of
Tom's consciousness.
Finally, in an exchange of Letters to the Editor, Brian Miller and
Denis Purcell discuss the nature of the relationship between
consciousness and electromagnetic phenomena as well as the potential
to measure the latter. Their exchange furthers discussion from Dr.
Nouri's and my article and applies as well to Dr. Ring's, addressing the
implications of positive results from such measurements for the
hypothesis that consciousness survives physical death.
Janice Miner Holden, Ed.D.
jan.holden@unt.edu
Journal of Near-Death Studies, 27(2), Winter 2008 2008 lANDS
81
