Embraced by the Church? Betty Eadie, Near-Death Experiences, and Mormonism
Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought October 1, 1996 DOI: 10.2307/45228453 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Near-death experience |
| Key points | Argues that Moody introduced the term "near-death experience" and identified fifteen characteristic elements, with most reported NDEs containing at least seven of these elements. |
Abstract
IN 1975 PSYCHIATRIST RAYMOND A. MOODY introduced the expression "near-death experience" (NDE) in his bestselling book Life After Life. By 1988 more than 3 million copies of the book had been sold (not including foreign translations). Following the early pioneer work by Swiss-born psychiatrist Elisabeth Kiibler-Ross (who wrote the foreword to Life After Life) on terminally ill patients, Moody described hundreds of experiences he had collected from people who had been clinically "dead" for minutes or hours, had re-entered life, and were able to tell the stories of their NDEs. According to Moody, NDEs include fifteen elements—although no single NDE Moody collected had all the elements, most had seven or more: