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Near-death experiences: reports, measurement and explanations

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ES

Evgeny Smirnov

28 papers · 8 Must Read · 1975–2019

Last updated Nov 6, 2026

All papers in the expert’s recommended reading order. The full collection as the expert intended it.

Introduction

Some people who come close to death later report leaving their body, a tunnel, a bright light, meeting deceased relatives or a review of their life. This collection follows how psychology and medicine have studied these reports: from the first case collections (Moody, Ring) and the Greyson NDE Scale, through prospective studies of cardiac arrest survivors, to neurobiological, psychological and cultural explanations, distressing NDEs, and what changes in people's lives afterwards. What NDEs are is still debated, and the verdicts here are ours.

Terms:

  • NDE: near-death experience
  • OBE: out-of-body experience
  • WCEI: Ring's Weighted Core Experience Index, an early measure of NDE depth
1
Must Read
beginner
★ Essential

Life After Life: The Investigation of a Phenomenon — Survival of Bodily Death

Moody, Raymond A. · 1975

At a GlanceAI

The book that coined the term "near-death experience" and described its typical features from collected accounts.

SummaryAI

Moody gathered first-person accounts from people who had come close to death and described the recurring elements of these experiences. The book introduced the term "near-death experience" and set the agenda for the research that followed. It is a collection of cases rather than a study with a method, so it describes the phenomenon without testing anything about it.

The key book where it all started. Beautiful phenomenology, even if less scientific. Recommended.

— ES

Method:AI
Collection and thematic description of case accounts.
Background:AI
None.
2
Must Read
beginner

Life at Death: A Scientific Investigation of the Near-Death Experience

Ring, Kenneth · 1980 · Coward McCann & Geoghegan

At a GlanceAI

A systematic study of people who came close to death that defined the "core" NDE and the WCEI depth index.

SummaryAI

Ring interviewed a sample of people who had survived a close brush with death and described the core near-death experience and its stages. He introduced the Weighted Core Experience Index (WCEI), a weighted score of NDE elements that later studies, including the Dutch prospective study, used to measure depth. Greyson's NDE Scale was validated against it.

The first systematic study of NDEs specifically, with its own index (WCEI). Recommended.

— ES

Method:AI
Structured interviews of survivors and a weighted index of experience elements.
Background:AI
None.
3
Must Read
intermediate
★ Essential

The near-death experience scale: Construction, reliability, and validity

Greyson, Bruce · 1983 · Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease

At a GlanceAI

The 16-item Greyson NDE Scale: the instrument almost every later NDE study relies on.

SummaryAI

Starting from 80 typical NDE features, Greyson built a 33-item questionnaire, tested it on 74 experiences, and kept 16 items that formed clinically meaningful clusters. The resulting scale showed high internal consistency and test-retest reliability, correlated strongly with Ring's WCEI, and separated clear NDE claims from questionable ones. A score of 7 or more later became the standard cut-off for counting an experience as an NDE.

The scale that started quantitative academic research on NDEs. Pioneering work.

— ES

Method:AI
Questionnaire construction, item analysis, reliability and validity testing.
Background:AI
Basic psychometrics (reliability, validity).
4
Worth Reading
beginner

Culture, biology, and the near-death experience: A reappraisal

Kellehear, Allan · 1993 · Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease

At a GlanceAI

The tunnel and the life review look culture-bound, which weakens purely biological explanations of them.

SummaryAI

Kellehear reviews cross-cultural NDE reports and argues that the tunnel sensation and the life review appear mainly in societies shaped by historic religions. If so, biological theories built to explain these two features may be premature, and social and historical explanations fit the available evidence better.

An attempt to explain some elements of the phenomenology through culture. Answers a number of questions, but doesn't explain why people in other cultures describe similar experiences.

— ES

Method:AI
Narrative review of cross-cultural case material.
Background:AI
None.
5
Must Read
intermediate

A qualitative and quantitative study of the incidence, features and aetiology of near death experiences in cardiac arrest survivors

Parnia, Sam, Waller, D. G., Yeates, R. et al. · 2001 · Resuscitation

At a GlanceAI

A one-year prospective study of cardiac arrest survivors, with hidden targets to test out-of-body claims.

SummaryAI

All cardiac arrest survivors over one year were interviewed within a week about memories of their unconscious period, and the memories were scored with the Greyson NDE Scale. Of 63 survivors, 11.1% reported memories, most with NDE features and mostly pleasant. Physiological parameters did not differ between groups except for higher partial pressure of oxygen during the arrest in the NDE group. Hidden visual targets were placed to test out-of-body claims. The authors call for larger studies.

All survivors over one year interviewed within a week. Memories in 11% of 63, plus hidden targets to test "out-of-body" claims. Small sample.

— ES

Method:AI
Prospective interview study of consecutive survivors with medical record review.
Background:AI
Greyson NDE Scale.
6
Must Read
intermediate

Near-death experience in survivors of cardiac arrest: a prospective study in the Netherlands

van Lommel, Pim, van Wees, Ruud, Meyers, Vincent et al. · 2001 · The Lancet

At a GlanceAI

344 resuscitated cardiac patients in ten Dutch hospitals, 18% with NDEs, followed up at 2 and 8 years.

SummaryAI

Van Lommel and colleagues prospectively included 344 consecutive patients resuscitated after cardiac arrest. 62 (18%) reported an NDE and 41 (12%) a core experience. Occurrence was not linked to duration of arrest or unconsciousness, medication, or fear of death, and was more frequent in younger patients. Patients with an NDE were more likely to die within 30 days. Follow-up interviews after 2 and 8 years showed a slow transformation process that differed from survivors without an NDE. The authors argue that a purely physiological cause such as anoxia would make NDEs far more common among clinically dead patients.

A key paper in a prestigious journal that took NDE research to a new level. Careful design. Still, it leaves more questions than answers.

— ES

Method:AI
Prospective multicentre cohort with matched longitudinal follow-up and WCEI scoring.
Background:AI
Ring's WCEI; basic epidemiological study design.
7
Must Read
intermediate

Incidence and correlates of near-death experiences in a cardiac care unit

Greyson, Bruce · 2003 · General Hospital Psychiatry

At a GlanceAI

In 1595 cardiac inpatients, NDEs followed 10% of cardiac arrests and 1% of other admissions; objective closeness to death did not differ.

SummaryAI

Greyson surveyed a consecutive sample of 1595 patients on a cardiac inpatient service over 30 months and matched those who reported NDEs with comparison patients. NDEs were reported by 10% of patients with cardiac arrest and 1% of other cardiac patients. Experiencers were younger, more often lost consciousness and reported more prior paranormal experiences, but did not differ in cognitive function, degree of cardiac dysfunction or objective proximity to death.

1595 cardiac patients, matched controls. NDEs in 10% after cardiac arrest and 1% without it. And the groups do NOT differ in objective closeness to death!

— ES

Method:AI
Prospective survey of consecutive admissions with matched comparison group.
Background:AI
Greyson NDE Scale.
8
Worth Reading
beginner

Near-death experiences in cardiac arrest survivors

French, Christopher C. · 2005 · Progress in Brain Research

At a GlanceAI

A balanced review of spiritual, psychological and organic theories of NDEs and of the cardiac arrest studies.

SummaryAI

French surveys the main families of explanation: spiritual theories that consciousness can separate from the brain, psychological ones such as dissociation under extreme danger, and organic ones based on hypoxia, hypercarbia, neurotransmitters and temporal lobe activity. He then reviews the prospective cardiac arrest studies and what they imply for the mind-brain question. A good entry point before the primary studies.

The best entry point: spiritual, psychological and organic explanations in one review, plus a review of the cardiac arrest studies.

— ES

Method:AI
Narrative review.
Background:AI
None.
9
Niche
intermediate

Near-death experiences: A neurophysiologic explanatory model

Morse, Melvin L., Venecia, David, Milstein, Jerrold · 1989 · Journal of Near-Death Studies

At a GlanceAI

A serotonergic model of NDEs built by analogy with LSD, ketamine and hypercapnia.

SummaryAI

Morse and colleagues propose that the core NDE is genetically imprinted and triggered by serotonergic mechanisms, based on similarities between NDEs and hallucinations induced by LSD, ketamine and high carbon dioxide. The paper offers no new data; it is a hypothesis paper whose serotonergic idea was later tested experimentally with DMT.

A serotonin hypothesis by analogy with LSD and ketamine. No data, just analogy. Thirty years later it would be tested with DMT.

— ES

Method:AI
Theoretical model by analogy.
Background:AI
Basic psychopharmacology.
10
Worth Reading
intermediate

Dissociation in people who have near-death experiences: Out of their bodies or out of their minds?

Greyson, Bruce · 2000 · The Lancet

At a GlanceAI

NDE experiencers show more dissociative symptoms than controls, but at a non-pathological level.

SummaryAI

96 people with self-reported NDEs and 38 who had come close to death without one completed the NDE Scale and the Dissociative Experiences Scale. Experiencers reported more dissociative symptoms, and deeper NDEs went with more symptoms, but levels stayed well below those of pathological dissociative disorders. Greyson reads the pattern as a non-pathological response to stress, not a psychiatric disorder.

More dissociation in NDE experiencers than in controls, but far from pathology. A good answer to those who write NDEs off as psychiatry.

— ES

Method:AI
Mailed questionnaire survey with group comparison and rank correlation.
Background:AI
Greyson NDE Scale; basic idea of dissociation.
11
Worth Reading
intermediate

Near-death experiences in non-life-threatening events and coma of different etiologies

Charland-Verville, Vanessa, Jourdan, Jean-Pierre, Thonnard, Marie et al. · 2014 · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

At a GlanceAI

NDEs after non-life-threatening events look the same on the Greyson scale as those after coma.

SummaryAI

From 190 reports meeting NDE criteria, Charland-Verville and colleagues compared experiences after coma (140) with "NDE-like" experiences after non-life-threatening events (50). Intensity and content did not differ between the groups, nor across causes of coma. Peacefulness was the most common feature, and only 1% described a negative experience. Retrospective reports showed higher feature frequencies than published prospective data.

NDEs without any threat to life are indistinguishable from "real" ones on the Greyson scale. An inconvenient fact for those who tie NDEs to dying.

— ES

Method:AI
Retrospective survey of self-reported experiences scored with the Greyson NDE Scale.
Background:AI
Greyson NDE Scale.
12
Worth Reading
intermediate

Fantasy proneness correlates with the intensity of near-death experience

Martial, Charlotte, Cassol, Héléna, Charland-Verville, Vanessa et al. · 2018 · Frontiers in Psychiatry

At a GlanceAI

Fantasy proneness is higher in people with NDE-like experiences, not in those with classical NDEs.

SummaryAI

Martial and colleagues surveyed 228 people, including those with NDEs during a life threat, NDE-like experiences without one, and two control groups, using the Greyson NDE Scale and the Creative Experiences Questionnaire. People with NDE-like experiences scored higher on fantasy proneness than all other groups, while classical experiencers did not differ from controls. Intensity of the experience correlated positively with fantasy proneness.

Fantasy proneness is higher in those whose NDE happened without a threat to life. "Classical" experiencers are just like controls.

— ES

Method:AI
Cross-sectional survey comparing four groups on two questionnaires.
Background:AI
Greyson NDE Scale.
13
Must Read
intermediate
★ Essential

DMT models the near-death experience

Timmermann, Christopher, Roseman, Leor, Williams, Luke et al. · 2018 · Frontiers in Psychology

At a GlanceAI

DMT given under placebo control produces experiences that overlap with real NDEs on nearly every feature.

SummaryAI

Thirteen healthy volunteers received DMT and placebo and then completed the Greyson NDE Scale. DMT raised NDE scores significantly compared with placebo, and these scores tracked DMT-induced ego dissolution and mystical-type experience as well as baseline absorption and delusional ideation. Compared with a matched group of people who had actual NDEs, DMT experiences overlapped on nearly all NDE features. The authors call the similarity striking and in need of further study.

DMT produces experiences strikingly similar to NDEs: nearly all features on the Greyson scale overlap with those of actual experiencers. Looks like a beautiful biological explanation of what is going on.

— ES

Method:AI
Within-subjects placebo-controlled drug administration with standard NDE measure and matched comparison.
Background:AI
Greyson NDE Scale; basic psychopharmacology.
14
Must Read
beginner

Distressing near-death experiences

Greyson, Bruce, Bush, Nancy Evans · 1992 · Psychiatry

At a GlanceAI

The classification of distressing NDEs into inverse, void and hellish types, based on 50 accounts.

SummaryAI

Greyson and Bush examined 50 self-reported frightening near-death experiences and proposed three types: "inverse" experiences with the usual features but felt as unpleasant (the most common), experiences of an eternal void, and the rarest, hellish experiences with frightening landscapes and beings. The paper illustrates each type with first-person accounts but gives no counts per type. The classification is still the standard one; Cassol et al. (2019) confirmed it on a new sample.

Three types of distressing NDEs: "inverse", void and hellish. The classification still holds; Cassol et al. 2019 confirmed it.

— ES

Method:AI
Qualitative analysis of collected case accounts.
Background:AI
None.
15
Worth Reading
intermediate

A systematic analysis of distressing near-death experience accounts

Cassol, Helena, Martial, Charlotte, Annen, Jitka et al. · 2019 · Memory

At a GlanceAI

Distressing NDEs are 14% of 123 accounts, and their memories are as vivid as those of pleasant NDEs.

SummaryAI

Cassol and colleagues identified distressing experiences in 17 of 123 NDE accounts (14%) and had multiple coders classify them with the Greyson and Bush scheme: 8 inverse, 8 hellish, 1 void. Suicide survivors were overrepresented among distressing NDEs. Memories of distressing and classical NDEs were equally detailed, differing only in emotional valence. The authors note the figure is likely an underestimate, since people may be reluctant to share frightening experiences and standard NDE scales favour positive emotions.

Distressing NDEs are 14% of the sample, and this is clearly an underestimate: not everyone is ready to talk about them, and the scales are tuned to positive experiences.

— ES

Method:AI
Written narratives, multi-coder classification, frequentist and Bayesian group comparisons.
Background:AI
Greyson NDE Scale; Greyson and Bush (1992) classification.
16
Worth Reading
intermediate

Memories of near-death experiences: Are they self-defining?

Cassol, H., D'Argembeau, A., Charland-Verville, V. et al. · 2019 · Neuroscience of Consciousness

At a GlanceAI

NDE memories become central to identity, and richness of the experience matters more than whether life was at risk.

SummaryAI

Cassol and colleagues asked 71 people with NDEs, with or without a real threat to life, to describe their two main self-defining memories and rate how central each is to their identity. Those who chose the NDE rated it as more central than their other self-defining memories, and the richer the NDE, the more central it was. Real and NDE-like experiencers did not differ, which suggests the content of the experience, not its circumstances, makes it self-defining.

An NDE becomes one of the memories that define a person. And what matters is not whether life was threatened but how rich the experience was.

— ES

Method:AI
Self-defining memory task with the Centrality of Event Scale.
Background:AI
Basic autobiographical memory research.