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The Near-Death Experience
The Near Death A Reader is the most comprehensive collection of NDE cases and interpretations ever assembled. This book encompasses a broad range of psychological researchers discuss cognitive models and Jungian theories of meaningful archetypal phenomena; the biological perspectivedescribes how brains near death may produce soothing endorphins, optical illusions, and convincing hallucinations. Philosophers present empirical analyses and images in archetypal theories, and the symbolic language of comparative phenomenological theories. Christian, Jewish and Mormon responses to NDEs outline the religious perspective, and the mystical and spiritual interpretations of NDEs are also explored.
424 pages, Paperback
First published June 4, 1996
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About the author
Lee Worth Bailey
7 booksLee Worth Bailey is an associate professor of religion at Ithaca College. His books include The Near Death Experience: A Reader, with Jenny Yates, and Anthology of Living Religions, with Mary Pat Fisher.
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March 30, 2024
AN EXCELLENT AND BALANCED SELECTION OF ESSAYS
At the time this book was published in 1996, Lee W. Bailey was a professor of Religion and Culture at Ithaca College, and Jenny Yates was professor of Religion and Philosophy at Wells College. They explain in the ‘Acknowledgements’ section, “This book began with our study and teaching of death-related issues for several years. As we spoke to people who had near-death experiences and did further research, we became increasingly convinced of the importance of this topic for interdisciplinary analysis. The project took off at the conference at Cornell University on ‘Religion, Politics, and Cultural Dynamics’ in 1994, where Lee and Jenny discovered common interest through their presentations on near-death experiences.”
They explain in the Introduction, “With the increased efficiency of medical resuscitation technology, more people are coming back from the edge of death, and a good percentage of them are reporting visionary experiences. The surprise is that, for the most part… they are reporting beautiful, peaceful feelings… Returning to their bodies, these survivors report boldly changed lives, usually with no fear of death and new values and spirituality. At this point… the questions begin: Are these experiences real of just hallucinations? Do we have any scientific documentation?... These are questions that are currently being asked and answered. This book is intended to provide you with the most current research and analysis… a wide spectrum of disciplines must be represented, from neurological to mystical. Research on NDEs must be an interdisciplinary task… We have gathered in this book two types of readings: cases and interpretations. First, we have a number of CASES of near-death experience, some from well-known individuals… and others less well-known… Second, the INTERPRETATIONS of NDEs strive to answer many questions…” (Pg. 2-3)
They ask, “What do you think would happen if a seasoned, skeptical philosopher had a NDE? Well, it happened. A.J. Ayer… had a NDE in old age. He saw a red light, but returned only slightly changed. ‘My recent experiences,’ he mused, ‘have slightly weakened my conviction that my genuine death … will be the end of me, though I continue to hope that it will be. They have not weakened my conviction that there is no god.’ … Clearly, the NDE does not have a spiritually transforming effect in every case.” (Pg. 15)
The first essay is by Raymond Moody, who stated, “What happens when people die?... there are many ordinary people who have been to the brink of death and reported miraculous glimpses of a world beyond… Upon return, the persons who ‘died’ are never the same. They embrace life to its fullest and express the belief that love and knowledge are the most important of all things because they are the only things you can take with you. For want of a better phrase to describe these incidents, we can say these people have had near-death experiences (NDE). I coined this phrase several years ago in my first book, ‘Life After Life.’… I isolated these traits over two decades ago in personal research that started … when I was a twenty-year-old philosophy student…” (Pg. 27-28)
Betty Eadie (author of ‘Embraced By the Light’) wrote, “There was no questioning who he was… He was Jesus Christ… I wanted to know why there were so many churches in the world. Why didn’t God give us only one church, one pure religion?... Each of us, I was told, is at a different level of spiritual development and understanding… All religions upon the earth are necessary because there are people who need what they teach… that religion is used as a stepping stone to further knowledge. Each church fulfills spiritual needs that perhaps other cannot fill.” (Pg. 57)
Dannion Brinkley recounts, “This life-review was not pleasant. From the moment it began until it ended, I was faced with the sickening reality that I had been an unpleasant person, someone who was self-centered and mean.” (Pg. 64)
C.G. Jung reports, “There was a pneuma of inexpressible sanctity in the room, whose manifestation was the mysterium coniunctonis. I would never have imagined that any such experience was possible. It was not a product of imagination. The visions… all had a quality of absolute objectivity.” (Pg. 107-108)
Jenny Yates proposes, “I suggest that the current repeating images from near-death experiences, such as the move through a cave … to a … Being of Light, can best be understood through the tools for archetypal dream interpretation. The epistemology of the surface is inadequate for the deep.” (Pg. 147-148)
Sogyal Rinpoche observes, “there are significant similarities between the near-death experience and the bardo teachings; there are also significant differences. The greatest difference, of course, is the fact that the near-death experiencers do NOT die, whereas the teachings describe what happens to people as they die, after actual physical death, and as they take rebirth. The fact that the near-death experiencers do not go further into the journey into death… must go some way to explaining at least the possibility for disparities between the two accounts.” (Pg. 173)
Kenneth Ring reports his research, which (among other things) says of experiencers, “there is a tendency to describe themselves as more spiritual, not necessarily more religious… they have experienced a deep inward change in their spiritual awareness, but not one that made them more outwardly religious in their behavior. They claim to feel… much closer to God than they had before, but the formal, more external aspects of religious worship often appear to have weakened in importance.” (Pg. 189)
Bruce Greyson and Nancy Evans Bush report of ‘distressing’ experiences, “the absence of such distressing experiences from contemporary near-death accounts may be due to their rarity, or the reluctance of the individuals to report this type of experience… It is difficult to imagine that an experiencer could be indifferent to the cultural assumption that personal merit determined type of experience; that is, ‘heavenly’ and ‘hellish’ experiences come to those who have earned them… It may seem impossible to be open about a dark and distressing experience, considering how difficult it is for many people to report radiant and peaceful encounters…” (Pg. 211)
Psychologist Robert Kastenbaum argues, “Ten thousand reports are no better than ten reports if they are offered simply as further examples of the fact that some people believed they have died and come back to life.” (Pg. 245)
Psychiatrist Karl Jansen reports, “The NDE is an important phenomenon that can be safety reproduced by ketamine, and the ‘glutamate theory of the NDE’ can thus be investigated by experiment. Recent advances in neuroscience strongly suggest a common origin for ketamine experiences and the NDE in events occurring at glutamatergic synapses, mediated by the NMDA (PCP) receptor.” (Pg. 276)
Susal Blackmore summarizes, “If my analysis of the NDE is correct, we can extrapolate to the next stage. Lack of oxygen first produces increased activity through disinhibition, but eventually it all stops. Since it is this activity that produces the mental models that give rise to consciousness, then all this will cease. There will be no more experience, no more self, and so that, as far as my constructed self is concerned, is the end.” (Pg. 296)
Melvin Morse suggests, “Death-related visions can restore a sense of order to the universe because they often imply that there is a purpose and meaning to death, even if that meaning is obscure. A parent who interprets their child’s death-bed visions as hallucinatory ravings from drugs or physiological derangement is seemingly less likely to look for meaning in the experiences than one who views such experiences within a communal and spiritual context which accepts such visions as natural.” (Pg. 314)
Carol Zaleski summarizes, “The present study has demonstrated the need to take into account the imaginative, narrative, didactic, and therapeutic character of eschatological visionary literature; at the same time it has yielded a guiding principle for the interpretation of religious discourse in general. This approach not only helps us to come to terms with the varied religious expressions of our own culture but also contributes to our effort to understand other traditions.” (Pg. 342)
Lee W. Bailey states, “NDEs are not simply experiences of fact and information, to be confirmed or rejected by empirical testing. Near-death experiences are about the meaning of each person’s own death. So each investigator is involved; none can be ‘objective,’ none ‘subjective.’ No theory about NDEs can linger in the shopworn assumptions of modern industrial ego-consciousness.” (Pg. 401)
This is a marvelous, very well-balanced collection, that will be of great interest to those studying near-death experiences.
At the time this book was published in 1996, Lee W. Bailey was a professor of Religion and Culture at Ithaca College, and Jenny Yates was professor of Religion and Philosophy at Wells College. They explain in the ‘Acknowledgements’ section, “This book began with our study and teaching of death-related issues for several years. As we spoke to people who had near-death experiences and did further research, we became increasingly convinced of the importance of this topic for interdisciplinary analysis. The project took off at the conference at Cornell University on ‘Religion, Politics, and Cultural Dynamics’ in 1994, where Lee and Jenny discovered common interest through their presentations on near-death experiences.”
They explain in the Introduction, “With the increased efficiency of medical resuscitation technology, more people are coming back from the edge of death, and a good percentage of them are reporting visionary experiences. The surprise is that, for the most part… they are reporting beautiful, peaceful feelings… Returning to their bodies, these survivors report boldly changed lives, usually with no fear of death and new values and spirituality. At this point… the questions begin: Are these experiences real of just hallucinations? Do we have any scientific documentation?... These are questions that are currently being asked and answered. This book is intended to provide you with the most current research and analysis… a wide spectrum of disciplines must be represented, from neurological to mystical. Research on NDEs must be an interdisciplinary task… We have gathered in this book two types of readings: cases and interpretations. First, we have a number of CASES of near-death experience, some from well-known individuals… and others less well-known… Second, the INTERPRETATIONS of NDEs strive to answer many questions…” (Pg. 2-3)
They ask, “What do you think would happen if a seasoned, skeptical philosopher had a NDE? Well, it happened. A.J. Ayer… had a NDE in old age. He saw a red light, but returned only slightly changed. ‘My recent experiences,’ he mused, ‘have slightly weakened my conviction that my genuine death … will be the end of me, though I continue to hope that it will be. They have not weakened my conviction that there is no god.’ … Clearly, the NDE does not have a spiritually transforming effect in every case.” (Pg. 15)
The first essay is by Raymond Moody, who stated, “What happens when people die?... there are many ordinary people who have been to the brink of death and reported miraculous glimpses of a world beyond… Upon return, the persons who ‘died’ are never the same. They embrace life to its fullest and express the belief that love and knowledge are the most important of all things because they are the only things you can take with you. For want of a better phrase to describe these incidents, we can say these people have had near-death experiences (NDE). I coined this phrase several years ago in my first book, ‘Life After Life.’… I isolated these traits over two decades ago in personal research that started … when I was a twenty-year-old philosophy student…” (Pg. 27-28)
Betty Eadie (author of ‘Embraced By the Light’) wrote, “There was no questioning who he was… He was Jesus Christ… I wanted to know why there were so many churches in the world. Why didn’t God give us only one church, one pure religion?... Each of us, I was told, is at a different level of spiritual development and understanding… All religions upon the earth are necessary because there are people who need what they teach… that religion is used as a stepping stone to further knowledge. Each church fulfills spiritual needs that perhaps other cannot fill.” (Pg. 57)
Dannion Brinkley recounts, “This life-review was not pleasant. From the moment it began until it ended, I was faced with the sickening reality that I had been an unpleasant person, someone who was self-centered and mean.” (Pg. 64)
C.G. Jung reports, “There was a pneuma of inexpressible sanctity in the room, whose manifestation was the mysterium coniunctonis. I would never have imagined that any such experience was possible. It was not a product of imagination. The visions… all had a quality of absolute objectivity.” (Pg. 107-108)
Jenny Yates proposes, “I suggest that the current repeating images from near-death experiences, such as the move through a cave … to a … Being of Light, can best be understood through the tools for archetypal dream interpretation. The epistemology of the surface is inadequate for the deep.” (Pg. 147-148)
Sogyal Rinpoche observes, “there are significant similarities between the near-death experience and the bardo teachings; there are also significant differences. The greatest difference, of course, is the fact that the near-death experiencers do NOT die, whereas the teachings describe what happens to people as they die, after actual physical death, and as they take rebirth. The fact that the near-death experiencers do not go further into the journey into death… must go some way to explaining at least the possibility for disparities between the two accounts.” (Pg. 173)
Kenneth Ring reports his research, which (among other things) says of experiencers, “there is a tendency to describe themselves as more spiritual, not necessarily more religious… they have experienced a deep inward change in their spiritual awareness, but not one that made them more outwardly religious in their behavior. They claim to feel… much closer to God than they had before, but the formal, more external aspects of religious worship often appear to have weakened in importance.” (Pg. 189)
Bruce Greyson and Nancy Evans Bush report of ‘distressing’ experiences, “the absence of such distressing experiences from contemporary near-death accounts may be due to their rarity, or the reluctance of the individuals to report this type of experience… It is difficult to imagine that an experiencer could be indifferent to the cultural assumption that personal merit determined type of experience; that is, ‘heavenly’ and ‘hellish’ experiences come to those who have earned them… It may seem impossible to be open about a dark and distressing experience, considering how difficult it is for many people to report radiant and peaceful encounters…” (Pg. 211)
Psychologist Robert Kastenbaum argues, “Ten thousand reports are no better than ten reports if they are offered simply as further examples of the fact that some people believed they have died and come back to life.” (Pg. 245)
Psychiatrist Karl Jansen reports, “The NDE is an important phenomenon that can be safety reproduced by ketamine, and the ‘glutamate theory of the NDE’ can thus be investigated by experiment. Recent advances in neuroscience strongly suggest a common origin for ketamine experiences and the NDE in events occurring at glutamatergic synapses, mediated by the NMDA (PCP) receptor.” (Pg. 276)
Susal Blackmore summarizes, “If my analysis of the NDE is correct, we can extrapolate to the next stage. Lack of oxygen first produces increased activity through disinhibition, but eventually it all stops. Since it is this activity that produces the mental models that give rise to consciousness, then all this will cease. There will be no more experience, no more self, and so that, as far as my constructed self is concerned, is the end.” (Pg. 296)
Melvin Morse suggests, “Death-related visions can restore a sense of order to the universe because they often imply that there is a purpose and meaning to death, even if that meaning is obscure. A parent who interprets their child’s death-bed visions as hallucinatory ravings from drugs or physiological derangement is seemingly less likely to look for meaning in the experiences than one who views such experiences within a communal and spiritual context which accepts such visions as natural.” (Pg. 314)
Carol Zaleski summarizes, “The present study has demonstrated the need to take into account the imaginative, narrative, didactic, and therapeutic character of eschatological visionary literature; at the same time it has yielded a guiding principle for the interpretation of religious discourse in general. This approach not only helps us to come to terms with the varied religious expressions of our own culture but also contributes to our effort to understand other traditions.” (Pg. 342)
Lee W. Bailey states, “NDEs are not simply experiences of fact and information, to be confirmed or rejected by empirical testing. Near-death experiences are about the meaning of each person’s own death. So each investigator is involved; none can be ‘objective,’ none ‘subjective.’ No theory about NDEs can linger in the shopworn assumptions of modern industrial ego-consciousness.” (Pg. 401)
This is a marvelous, very well-balanced collection, that will be of great interest to those studying near-death experiences.
July 23, 2014
The most interesting part of this book for me was the crossover between NDE's and the main body of mystical experiences in many religions, personal narratives that have often been at loggerheads with orthodox theology.
Zaleski and Cressy's essays dig into some of these parallels between visions and NDEs, and the politics often involved. While NDEs and mystical visions definitely run up against the outdated scientific materialism handed down to us from the Victorians and still enthroned as "good science" (a science actually replete with assumptions and laden with imperialist attitudes), it's interesting that visionary experiences have encroached not only on orthodox science but on orthodox theology, and not just in Christianity, but in all the mainstream religions, Buddhism included. Looking at late-medieval visions (typically by women), Zaleski hints at what a short step it is from the Inquisition (which tried to silence St. Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross) to the conservative evangelical fundamentalists of today, who often consider NDEs "tricks of the devil" -- odd to me how claims about having had direct encounters with the Divine challenge this brand of Protestant theology, which has historically prized the direct experience of God over church authority and rigid doctrine. (Not when it comes to NDE's, apparently, though the plethora of YouTube videos linked to the 700 Club makes me wonder both about NDEs and Zaleski's claim.)
Cressy's essay, however, looked at experiencers' need to place themselves back within an established spiritual practice post-NDE. Like a few saints and other well-known visionaries, the mystical encounter of the NDE generally comes unexpectedly, to people not "trained" in mysticism (and often to atheists who would have disavowed the value of the mystical altogether). As Cressy writes, "one mystical encounter does not make a mystic." For her, "training" the near-death experiencer after the NDE helps both to reinvigorate spiritual traditions and to keep expressions of the mystic from becoming what Zaleski calls "tawdry".
The essays were short on parallels with shamanism, which I would have found intriguing. (Black Elk's vision trip is here, however.) Jung's colleague Marie-Louise von Franz looks at parallels with dreaming.
The book also includes Jung's account of his own NDE, after he had a heart attack in 1944, surely one of the most interesting "trips" ever taken. Reads like a Borges short story.
Academic essays for the most part, mostly from a Jungian perspective, less from a neuroscience point of view -- but as a book from 1996, this would long be outdated as a scientific study. The "cultural" essays I think still apply.
Zaleski and Cressy's essays dig into some of these parallels between visions and NDEs, and the politics often involved. While NDEs and mystical visions definitely run up against the outdated scientific materialism handed down to us from the Victorians and still enthroned as "good science" (a science actually replete with assumptions and laden with imperialist attitudes), it's interesting that visionary experiences have encroached not only on orthodox science but on orthodox theology, and not just in Christianity, but in all the mainstream religions, Buddhism included. Looking at late-medieval visions (typically by women), Zaleski hints at what a short step it is from the Inquisition (which tried to silence St. Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross) to the conservative evangelical fundamentalists of today, who often consider NDEs "tricks of the devil" -- odd to me how claims about having had direct encounters with the Divine challenge this brand of Protestant theology, which has historically prized the direct experience of God over church authority and rigid doctrine. (Not when it comes to NDE's, apparently, though the plethora of YouTube videos linked to the 700 Club makes me wonder both about NDEs and Zaleski's claim.)
Cressy's essay, however, looked at experiencers' need to place themselves back within an established spiritual practice post-NDE. Like a few saints and other well-known visionaries, the mystical encounter of the NDE generally comes unexpectedly, to people not "trained" in mysticism (and often to atheists who would have disavowed the value of the mystical altogether). As Cressy writes, "one mystical encounter does not make a mystic." For her, "training" the near-death experiencer after the NDE helps both to reinvigorate spiritual traditions and to keep expressions of the mystic from becoming what Zaleski calls "tawdry".
The essays were short on parallels with shamanism, which I would have found intriguing. (Black Elk's vision trip is here, however.) Jung's colleague Marie-Louise von Franz looks at parallels with dreaming.
The book also includes Jung's account of his own NDE, after he had a heart attack in 1944, surely one of the most interesting "trips" ever taken. Reads like a Borges short story.
Academic essays for the most part, mostly from a Jungian perspective, less from a neuroscience point of view -- but as a book from 1996, this would long be outdated as a scientific study. The "cultural" essays I think still apply.
January 21, 2009
A collection of very interesting cases of NDEs.
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