Almost 40 Years Investigating Near-Death Experiences
Adriana Sleutjes, Alexander Moreira-Almeida, Bruce Greyson
The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease October 29, 2014 DOI: 10.1097/nmd.0000000000000205 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Systematic review Longitudinal Cross-sectional Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 266 |
| Population | Scholarly publications on near-death experiences |
| Topics | Near-death experience |
| Citations | 38 |
| Key findings | Most publications on near-death experiences are recent, lack original empirical data, and originate in North America and Western Europe. |
Abstract
This article reviews mainstream scientific publications on near-death experiences (NDEs). We searched near-death experience in titles, key words, and abstracts at the Web of Knowledge database published between 1945 and 2013. We identified 266 relevant documents, the oldest from 1977. There was a strong predominance of opinion articles (book reviews, commentaries, and editorials), review articles, phenomenological description articles, and articles that originated in the United States. Since 2000, the number of longitudinal and cross-sectional studies has increased; there has been a diversification in the countries that have published on the subject and more articles that discuss the implications of NDEs for the mind-brain relationship. The results indicate that most scholarly publications on NDEs are recent, usually have no original empirical data, and are concentrated in North America and Western Europe. Future studies should focus on increasing the cultural diversity in the field and on testing explanatory hypotheses based on high-quality empirical data.
Comparable studies
Other systematic reviews and meta-analyses on near-death experience, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Explanation of near-death experiences: a systematic analysis of case reports and qualitative research. Individuals (men, women, and children) who reported near-death experiences | 2023 | Systematic review | n = 465 |
| Near-Death Experiences: A Bibliometric and Systematic Review of Published Literature From 1977 to 2025. Articles on near-death experiences | 2025 | Systematic review | n = 775 |
| Systematic Review on the Aftereffects of Near-Death Experiences. | 2025 | Systematic review | |
| Recalled Experience of Death: transcending the cerebrocentric model of consciousness | 2024 | Non-systematic review | |
| Death and Near-Death Experiences in Ketamine and Psychedelic Therapy | Systematic review and synthesis |
Citations in the library
Cited by 18
- Neurochemical models of near-death experiences: A large-scale study based on the semantic similarity of written reports. Consciousness and Cognition March 1, 2019
- The Near-Death Experience Content (NDE-C) scale: Development and psychometric validation Consciousness and Cognition November 1, 2020
- Near-Death Experiences and Posttraumatic Growth The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease September 5, 2015
- Making Sense of Near-Death Experience Research: Circumstance Specific Alterations of Consciousness Anthropology of Consciousness March 1, 2019
- Persistence of Attitude Changes After Near-Death Experiences The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease March 29, 2022
and 13 more in the library
Cites 24
- Near-death experience in survivors of cardiac arrest: a prospective study in the Netherlands The Lancet December 1, 2001
- Introduction to Research Topic – Binocular Rivalry: A Gateway to Studying Consciousness Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2012
- Incidence and correlates of near-death experiences in a cardiac care unit General Hospital Psychiatry July 1, 2003
- Near-Death Experiences and the Temporal Lobe Psychological Science March 24, 2004
- Near‐death experiences: the experience of the self as real and not as an illusion Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences October 1, 2011
and 19 more in the library