Abstract: Research has revealed that following a near-death experience (NDE) a majority of experiencers (NDEers) change fundamentally in values, religious/spiritual beliefs, and relationship to paranormal phenomena. Much less is known about the relationship between aftereffects of one spouse's NDE and subsequent marital adjustment and stability. In this preliminary retrospective study, we addressed this question quantitatively with supplementary narrative data. Using the framework of John Gottman's (1999) Sound Marital House, we analyzed self-reported adjustment in and stability of the marriages of 26 NDEers before and after a self-identified life-changing event (LCE) unrelated to NDEs. Results indicated a significant reduction in marital meaning (p = .008), adjustment (p = .007), and stability (p = .005) in NDE compared to LCE couples, with a majority of NDE (65%) but only a minority of LCE (35%) couples' marriages ending in divorce. Implications for health professionals are discussed.

Abstract: In this article I review the German literature of the 19th and early 20th centuries that addressed two phenomena: the state of apparent death and the origin of dreams. Because the term near-death experiences (NDEs) did not yet exist, many features of those phenomena as they are currently understood were subsumed under the broad concept of the state of apparent death, whereas early theories of the origin of dreams included spiritual views that have similarities to current views of NDEs.