This article reports the results of an investigation into near-death and out-of-body experiences in 31 blind respondents. The study sought to address three main questions: (1) whether blind individuals have near-death experiences (NDEs) and, if so, whether they are the same as or different from those of sighted persons; (2) whether blind persons ever claim to see during NDEs and out-of-body...
Previously (Ring, 1994a, 1994b) I had speculated that the "meaningless void" type of frightening near-death experience (NDE), in which the individual finds him- or herself in a situation of existential nullity in which life itself is understood to be an illusion or a cruel joke, indicating that nothing has any inherent meaning or reality, tends to occur following the use of anesthetics, and is...
This paper illustrates the apparently providential timing and the healing character of near-death experiences (NDEs) and NDE-like episodes, through four case histories of persons whose lives, prior to their experiences, were marked by deep anguish and a sense of hopelessness. Spiritually, such case histories suggest the intervention of a guiding intelligence that confers a form of “amazing...
Article discussing Osirian temple rites of ancient Egypt, which may have involved ceremonial procedures deliberately calculated to induce an experience that was functionally identical to modern near-death experiences.