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

Ring, Kenneth (1980)

Published
Jan 1, 1980
Publisher
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.

Method SnapshotAI

Structured interviews of survivors and a weighted index of experience elements.

BackgroundAI

None.

In Collections

Psychology28 papers

Near-death experiences: reports, measurement and explanations

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

ES
Evgeny Smirnov

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

— ES