Abstract: The authors present an introductory overview of the history of near-death phenomena, followed by a synopsis of near-death research representative of three historical eras: 1880s-1930s; 1930s-1960; and 1960 to the present.

Abstract: The authors present both unconfirmed and externally confirmed cases of children's pre-existence memories with paranormal aspects that apparently cannot be explained by childish fantasy. The anomalous phenomena mostly comprise extrasensory perception with one case involving psychokinesis. Such aspects are similar to and convergent with paranormal aspects of near-death experiences and point to a common, non-physical origin of both types of experiences.

Abstract: Spiritual experiences are a potent means by which a person's attitudes and behaviors may changed, usually (but not always) in benevolent ways. This article presents examples from various times and places, many from the annals organized religion. Research into spiritually transformative experiences is reviewed as is a means to measure spiritual content in written or verbal reports: the Casto Spiritually Scoring System. This instrument includes subscales regarding spiritual settings, spiritual objects, spiritual characters, spiritual emotions, spiritual activities, and spiritual experiences. The reliability of the system has been examined and found to be quite high. In addition, the system has been useful clinically when spirituality becomes an issue in counseling or psychotherapy.

Article matching phenomena associated with the passage into otherworlds as reported during out-of-body and near-death experiences, with imagery associated with the passage into otherworlds as depicted in classic modern fantasies and fairy tales.

Abstract: A wide-ranging survey of ethnographic, explorer, and missionary literature demonstrates that although historical accounts of near-death experiences (NDEs) are attested in indigenous African societies, they are comparatively rare. Correspondingly, there is also a scarcity of mythological narratives of journeys to afterlife realms and a comparative lack of concern with afterlife speculation per se. Instead the literature reveals that many African peoples had marked concerns about potentially malevolent influences of ancestral spirits, shamanistic focus on spirit possession and sorcery, and precipitous burial practices limiting the occurrence of NDEs. NDEs were sometimes seen as aberrational, suggesting that individuals would have been reluctant to relate them. In such cultural environments, NDEs could scarcely have played a significant role in contributing to afterlife conceptions.

Article describing a modern attempt to recreate the psychomanteum. Like near-death experiences, visionary encounters in this modern psychomanteum are experienced as real and not as hallucinatory, and have profound personal aftereffects. This novel experimental technique may permit the scientific study of phenomena that previously occurred only spontaneously and under uncontrolled circumstances.