ABSTRACT
Experiences that include many (but rarely all) of the features described in Moody’s prototype are known as near-death experiences (NDEs). Greyson (2000: 315) defines NDEs as ‘profound psychological events with transcendental and mystical elements, typically occurring to individuals close to death or in situations of intense physical or emotional danger’. This reflects the fact that NDEs have been reported in cases of actual clinical death, where the vital signs are absent for up to 20 minutes (in rare cases), but also seem to be experienced in situations which are only potentially fatal (see Box 11.1). NDEs were originally thought to be rare (Moody, 1975; cf. Greyson 2000), but more recent estimates (Sabom, 1982; Ring, 1984; Fenwick and Fenwick, 1996) suggest that up to onethird of people who come close to death have them. Although this figure may be somewhat inflated (Greyson, 1998), there is evidence to suggest that such experiences are not uncommon. For example, Royce (1985) found that 70% of the clergymen whom he surveyed had been given NDE accounts by parishioners, and Gallup and Proctor (1982) reported that 5% of Americans claimed to have had some form of NDE. This relatively high incidence could be explained in terms of improvements in resuscitation methods, which mean that more people survive the kinds of close brush with death (e.g. heart attack, drowning, road traffic accident) that would previously have been fatal. It could, of course, simply reflect the fact that the notion of NDEs has entered popular culture and may provide the basis for some fantasized experience produced while unconscious or in crisis.
