Death Studies
February 23, 2005
Bruce Greyson
11 citations
Some persons who claim to have had near-death experiences (NDEs) fail research criteria for having had NDEs ("false positives"); others who deny having had NDEs do meet research criteria for having had NDEs ("false negatives"). The author evaluated false positive claims and false negative denials in an organization that promotes near-death research and in psychiatric outpatients. The frequency...
American Psychological Association eBooks
October 27, 2004
Bruce Greyson
133 citations
Near-death experiences (NDEs), profound events reported by people who have been close to death, often include feelings of peace, a sense of being outside the physical body, a life review, and meeting apparent nonphysical beings and environments; and they often precipitate profound changes in attitudes and values. Research on NDEs has focused on their epidemiology, psychophysiological...
Journal of Humanistic Psychology
May 31, 2004
Bruce Greyson, Mitchell B. Liester
24 citations
Among persons who reported having had near-death experiences, 80% also reported subsequent auditory hallucinations. Experiencers’ attitudes toward these hallucinations were over-whelmingly positive, as contrasted with the overwhelmingly negative attitudes of patients with schizophrenia toward their auditory hallucinations. Auditory hallucinations not related to disease processes are common and...
British Journal of Psychology
May 1, 2004
Rense Lange, Bruce Greyson, James Houran
98 citations
For those with true near-death experiences (NDEs), Greyson's (1983, 1990) NDE Scale satisfactorily fits the Rasch rating scale model, thus yielding a unidimensional measure with interval-level scaling properties. With increasing intensity, NDEs reflect peace, joy and harmony, followed by insight and mystical or religious experiences, while the most intense NDEs involve an awareness of things...
The Journal of near-death studies
2004
Bruce Greyson, Kenneth Ring
17 citations
Article presenting the Life Changes Inventory-Revised, a standardized version of the scale that embodies the accumulated knowledge culled from previous drafts of the LCI administered to disparate samples and from qualitative research into attitudinal changes reported by near-death experiencers.
Psychiatric Services
November 26, 2003
Bruce Greyson
44 citations
Near-death experiences, or mystical experiences during encounters with death, are reported to have beneficial effects despite their phenomenologic similarity to pathological states. This study explored the prevalence of near-death experiences and associated psychological distress by using a cross-sectional survey of 832 psychiatric outpatients. Standardized measures of near-death experiences...
General Hospital Psychiatry
July 1, 2003
Bruce Greyson
195 citations
Near-death experiences, unusual experiences during a close brush with death, may precipitate pervasive attitudinal and behavior changes. The incidence and psychological correlates of such experiences, and their association with proximity to death, are unclear. We conducted a 30-month survey to identify near-death experiences in a tertiary care center cardiac inpatient service. In a consecutive...
American Journal of Orthopsychiatry
2001
Bruce Greyson
71 citations
Persons who report "near-death experiences" (NDEs) acknowledge more intrusive symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than those who came close to death without NDEs, but not more avoidance symptoms, suggesting a nonspecific stress response. Although dissociation generally increases vulnerability to PTSD, the positive affect that distinguishes NDEs from other dissociative experiences...
OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying
June 1, 2000
Emily Williams Kelly, Bruce Greyson, Ian Stevenson
26 citations
Most people who have a near-death experience (NDE) say that the experience convinced them that they will survive death. People who have not had such an experience, however, may not share this conviction. Although all features of NDEs, when looked at alone, might be explained in ways other than survival, there are three features in particular that we believe suggest the possibility of survival,...
The Lancet
February 1, 2000
Bruce Greyson
149 citations
BackgroundSome people who come close to death report having experiences in which they transcend the boundaries of the ego and the confines of time and space. Such near-death experiences (NDEs) share some features with the phenomenon of dissociation, in which a person's self identity becomes detached from bodily sensation. This study explored the frequency of dissociative symptoms in people who...
Mortality
1999
Bruce Greyson
42 citations
Researchers have failed to distinguish definitions of near-death experiences (NDEs), criteria for identifying them and tests of those criteria. Few researchers specify criteria or apply standard tests; those who do often use those tests inappropriately. Tests of NDEs may either describe their common features, measure their depth, or 'diagnose' their occurrence; all three have been used to...
Perspectives in biology and medicine
September 1, 1998
Bruce Greyson
43 citations
BIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES BRUCE GREYSON* Near-death experiences (NDEs) are profound psychological events with transcendental or mystical elements typically occurring to individuals close to death or in situations of intense physical or emotional danger. Such experiences, once regarded as meaningless hallucinations, have become the subject of serious study by medical and other...
The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease
May 1, 1997
Bruce Greyson
92 citations
Near-death experiences (NDEs) often produce profound changes in attitudes and behavior that can lead to psychosocial and psychospiritual problems. The diagnostic label of religious or spiritual problem, included in DSM-IV under the category of other conditions that may be a focus of clinical attention, was originally proposed to encompass NDEs and their aftereffects. Four cases are discussed in...
The Journal of near-death studies
1997
Bruce Greyson
Review of the book "After the Light: What I Discovered on the Other Side of Life That Can Change Your World" by former Northwest Regional Coordinator of the International Association for Near-Death Studies Kimberly Clark Sharp discussing her own near-death experience and its effect on her life.
The Journal of near-death studies
1996
Bruce Greyson
To the Editor:I appreciate Karlis Osis' interest in NDErs' satisfaction with life, and his insights into possible sampling bias in my work.Osis, a pioneer in the research of out-of-body experiences and deathbed visions, questioned whether the similar ratings of my three study groups-NDErs, individuals who had some close to death without NDEs, and individuals who had never come close to...
The Journal of near-death studies
1996
M. L. Morse, Karlis Osis, Bruce Greyson
I have read with amusement the banter between Kenneth Ring and various corresponents concerning his supposed retirement from research.Ring's impact on the field of near-death studies precludes and transcends any retirement on his part.His work continues to inspire and challenge virtually everyone in the fled, from Buddhist parapsychologist Susan Blackmore to mainstream medical scientists such...
The Journal of near-death studies
1996
Bruce Greyson
Interna tional Poetry Associations of UNESCO, he has written 27 poetry vol umes and 22 prose nonfiction works, six of them in Japanese.Their content ranges from the effect of the 1956 Hungarian uprising on Asian nations to critical biographies of Plato, Ch'u Yuan, and Bela Bart6k.In Near-Death Experiences in Antiquity, this prolific and mul tifaceted author provides his own English translations...
The Journal of near-death studies
1996
Bruce Greyson
Review of the book "Near-Death Experiences in Antiquity" by poet and author Jeno Platthy.
The Journal of near-death studies
1994
Bruce Greyson
17 citations
Article discussing the relationship between near-death experiences (NDEs) and positive changes in attitudes, beliefs, and values that might be expected to enhance the experiencers' satisfaction with life.
Psychiatry
November 1, 1993
Bruce Greyson
52 citations
Near-death experiences are profound subjective events frequently reported by individuals who have come close to death. They are of importance to mental health professionals, not only because they often happen to patients under our care, but because they have been reported to produce widespread and long-lasting changes in values, beliefs, and behavior that dramatically affect the experiencers'...
OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying
March 1, 1993
Bruce Greyson
49 citations
Near-death experiences (NDEs) have been reported to decrease fear of death and foster a “romanticized” view of death, yet also promote antisuicidal attitudes. This study was an empirical investigation of psychodynamic hypotheses suggested to explain that paradoxical effect, using a thirty-six-item questionnaire constructed for this purpose. One hundred-fifty near-death experiencers (NDErs) and...
Journal of Religion and Health
1993
Bruce Greyson
33 citations
Near-death experiences (NDEs), transcendental experiences on the threshold of death with profound implications for both patient care and religious belief, have been hypothesized to be related to the awakening of a biological process known in Eastern traditions as kundalini. In a test of this proposed association between kundalini and NDEs, a sample of near-death experiencers acknowledged...
Death Studies
November 1, 1992
Bruce Greyson
58 citations
Abstract Near-death experiences (NDEs), profound mystical or transcendental experiences occurring on the threshold of death, have been reported to reduce fear of death and death anxiety. This study compared responses to the Threat Index, a widely used measure of the threat implied by one's personal death, of (a) 135 near-death experiences, (b) 43 individuals who had come close to death but not...
Psychiatry
February 1, 1992
Bruce Greyson, Nancy Evans Bush
226 citations
Most reported near-death experiences include profound feelings of peace, joy, and cosmic unity. Less familiar are the reports following close brushes with death of experiences that are partially or entirely unpleasant, frightening, or frankly hellish. While little is known about the antecedents or aftereffects of these distressing experiences, there appear to be three distinct types, involving...
Journal of Near-Death Studies
1992
Bruce Greyson, P. Atwater, A. Chen et al.
The percentage of hell-like near-death experiences (NDEs) is probably much larger than has been previously claimed. In this article, I discuss current research into what are now termed "distressing" or "unpleas ant" NDEs, and my own findings from interviews of over a hundred such cases. I compare this information with earlier reports from Maurice Rawlings (1978, 1980), mythological traditions...