Article offering a brief bibliography on the subject of copyright and digital media in the context of libraries.

Article discussing patterns of E74A RNA and protein expression at the onset of metamorphosis in Drosophila.

This article reviews the three books "The Blues Route," by Hugh Merrill, "Going to Chicago: A Year on the Chicago Blues Scene," by Stephen Green and Laurence J. Hyman, and "Blues Fell This Morning: Meaning in the Blues," by Paul Oliver.

Study surveying 60 hospice nurses regarding their knowledge and attitudes toward the near-death experience (NDE), using Thornburg's Near-Death Phenomena Knowledge and Attitudes Questionnaire.

Article describing the results of a two-phase descriptive study intended to document the frequency of near-death experiences (NDEs) in a nonprobability convenience sample of patients undergoing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), to describe the types of NDE experienced most commonly during CPR, and to describe the types of NDE experienced most commonly during CPR, and to describe views of helpful nursing responses to reports of NDEs.

Study exploring the influence that a near-death experience (NDE) had on the family relationships of eleven NDErs, based on in-depth interviews, detailing the changes in relationships with extensive quotes providing data on family interactions.

Article arguing that the society so often mentioned by near-death experiencers is a unique type of utopian society. As stories from utopia, near-death experiences (NDEs) serve an inspirational narratives that help re-evaluate the social world and our place in it.

Article studying near-death experiences in persons who would be expected to have a high rate of both psychopathology and coming close to death, by interviewing sixty-one consecutive suicide attempters.

Abstract: Five scholars have offered comments, suggestions, and criticisms of my paper "Near-Death Experiences and Pursuit of the Ideal Society." In this rejoinder, I reply to those comments and elaborate on aspects of my earlier paper. I discuss issues of methodology, epistemology, validity, logic, and other social considerations with respect to the plausibility of viewing some near-death imagery as utopian. I conclude with some reflections on the social character and study of the near-death experience.

Paper illustrating the apparently providential timing and the healing character of near-death experiences (NDEs) and NDE-like episodes, through four case histories of persons whose lives, prior to their experiences, were marked by deep anguish and a sense of hopelessness.

Abstract: This paper examines the parallels between my anesthetic-related near-death experience and Rudolph Otto's description of numinous states. I discuss Otto's arguments about such perceptions and their implications, and explore internal numinous processes such as they might be seen through Carl Jung's psychology.

Article suggesting that researchers look first for indications of ideal social order in near-death narratives, and only later compare them with types of utopias.

Article looking back on the author's ten years of involvement with near-death studies and with the International Association for Near-Death Studies, reviewing some of the major questions and accomplishments of that decade both in understanding of the near-death experience and in service as an organization.

Study comparing five childhood near-death experiences (NDEs) reported by adults and another five NDEs reported by minors, in terms of Ring's five NDE stages, Greyson's four NDE components, Moody and Perry's 12 NDE traits, Sabom's 16 general characteristics, and Gallup and Proctor's 10 basic positive experiences.

Article addressing the problem of unclear terminology for the study of anomalies. Researchers have used the term "near-death experience" to describe four different kinds of incidents. To avoid confusion, new labels are needed for experiences that differ in their relationship to death and near-death and their transformative potential.

Article examining the logical implications and philosophical possibilities of a utopian realm, and coming to three conclusions. First, the realms described by near-death experiencers (NDErs), if taken at face value, are far from utopian. Second, any truly utopian postmortem society is so far removed from our present world as to be morally irrelevant to our own. And third, only an ideational postmortem utopia, of the sort exemplified by Pure Land Buddhist theology, can avoid both the non-utopian nature of NDErs' descriptions and the irrelevance of postmortem utopias.

Article arguing that as scientific research provides an ever-more-complete physiological explanation of the near-death experience (NDE), popular interest in NDEs will wane, because the transcendental interpretation, which holds that the NDE provides proof of an immaterial soul, an afterlife, and assorted paranormal phenomena, has always been the magnet that has attracted widespread attention to the subject.

Abstract: Ten years ago our research on out-of-body experiences suggested that the elements of the near-death experience (NDE) were not necessarily limited to situations in which survival was threatened. A decade of continued study has confirmed that the perception of being near death, independent of the actual reality of the situation, is the key determinant of the classical NDE. From early in life, the infant's dread of catastrophe leads to the elaboration of extensive psychological defenses against the possibility of extinction. The NDE is simultaneously a manifestation of faith and a catalyst for the development of faith.

Abstract: Allan Kellehear's article is a pioneering venture exploring features of the transcendent society and comparing it with J.C. Davis's typology of ideal societies. Kellehear assumed that in the life after life there is a sociocultural ordering that can be discussed via structural functional theory and concepts; and he also assumed internal and external validity, despite evidence tot he contrary in his article. I think both of these assumptions are incorrect. What we need are alternative sociocultural frameworks and alternative research strategies, possibly from the "new science."

Article examining the meaning and developmental potential of the near-death experience (NDE) as a stimulus to inner exploration. The NDE as a prototype of the transcendent contact encounter offers a model for an evolutionary theory of religion. The author's experiences and contemporary portrayals of NDEs suggest that the experience is a vehicle for the mythic renewal of our idea of death as a journey rather than as a termination, and may be a stimulus for spiritual revolution.

Abstract: We analyze three near-death experiences involving a unique type of prophetic vision that has not previously been reported in the literature. These visions involve a brief glimpse of what circumstances would have been like for the near-death experiencers' family in the aftermath of the experiencers' deaths, had they actually died.

Article responding to Allen Kellehear's cultural analysis based on nine Mormon near-death experiences (NDEs) did not reflect the diversity of near-death visions from other cultures. It suggests that these Mormon NDEs were neither as utopian as Kellehear assumed nor representative of contemporary NDE reports, and that a more complete analysis would reveal a variety of NDEs and otherworld visions reflecting the experiencers' sociocultural background.

Abstract: Allan Kellehear's article raised four questions for me: (1) whether the near-death experience (NDE) presents enough data about the nature of a transcendent society for it to be a useful model for earthly societies; (2) the degree to which transcendent societies have to address the practical considerations of a material society; (3) whether NDEs are projections of experiencers' cultural concepts about the nature of the transcendent realm(s); and (4) the kind of hope offered by the growing awareness of the features of Western NDEs. I address these questions by referring to transcendent realm concepts and NDEs in the anthropological literature, particularly that of the North American Indian Prophet Movement.