Does the Arousal System Contribute to Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences? A Summary and Response (open access)

Does the Arousal System Contribute to Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences? A Summary and Response

Article acknowledging the viability and potential value of the hypothesis underlying articles suggesting a relationship between near-death experiences (NDEs) and the body's arousal system, but also identifying substantial weaknesses in both the presented lines of evidence and the studies.
Date: Spring 2007
Creator: Long, Jeffrey & Holden, Janice Miner
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
More Things in Heaven and Earth: A Response to "Near-Death Experiences with Hallucinatory Features" (open access)

More Things in Heaven and Earth: A Response to "Near-Death Experiences with Hallucinatory Features"

Article offering alternative arguments and conclusions to those Keith Augustine offered regarding discrepancies between some near-death experiencers' (NDErs') reports of events they perceived during their NDEs and objective information available about those events.
Date: Autumn 2007
Creator: Holden, Janice Miner
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Journal of Near-Death Studies, Volume 26, Number 1, Fall 2007 (open access)

Journal of Near-Death Studies, Volume 26, Number 1, Fall 2007

Quarterly journal publishing papers related to near-death experiences, including research reports; theoretical or conceptual statements; expressions of a scientific, philosophic, religious, or historical perspective on the study of near-death experiences; cross-cultural studies; individual case histories; and personal accounts of experiences or related phenomena.
Date: Autumn 2007
Creator: Greyson, Bruce
Object Type: Journal/Magazine/Newsletter
System: The UNT Digital Library
Journal of Near-Death Studies, Volume 26, Number 2, Winter 2007 (open access)

Journal of Near-Death Studies, Volume 26, Number 2, Winter 2007

Quarterly journal publishing papers related to near-death experiences, including research reports; theoretical or conceptual statements; expressions of a scientific, philosophic, religious, or historical perspective on the study of near-death experiences; cross-cultural studies; individual case histories; and personal accounts of experiences or related phenomena.
Date: Winter 2007
Creator: Greyson, Bruce
Object Type: Journal/Magazine/Newsletter
System: The UNT Digital Library
Death and Dying in the Works of Two Croatian Writers (open access)

Death and Dying in the Works of Two Croatian Writers

Paper elucidating the views upon death and dying expressed in the works of two Croatian writers, Dobrisa Cesaric and Miroslav Krleza. The paper concludes with a suggestion of an inquiry into the influence of the works by Cesaric and Krleza upon the ideas of modern elementary school and high school generations on death and dying.
Date: Spring 2007
Creator: Rincic-Lerga, Iva & Muzur, Amir
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Psychophysiological and Cultural Correlates Undermining a Survivalist Interpretation of Near-Death Experiences (open access)

Psychophysiological and Cultural Correlates Undermining a Survivalist Interpretation of Near-Death Experiences

Third part of a critique of survivalist interpretations of near-death experiences (NDEs), which considers psychophysiological and cultural correlates of NDEs suggesting that such experiences are solely products of individuals' minds rather than windows into a transcendental realm.
Date: Winter 2007
Creator: Augustine, Keith
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Commentary on "Near-Death Experiences with Hallucinatory Features" (open access)

Commentary on "Near-Death Experiences with Hallucinatory Features"

Abstract: In this response to Keith Augustine's paper, I discuss the question of the nature and causation of near-death experiences (NDEs) with hallucinatory features. The attribution of hallucinations to either a brain mechanism or a peek into the afterworld raises fundamental questions about both the epistemology and ontology of our neuroscience, and of our scientific models of an afterlife. It also raises questions about the physiological state of the brain giving rise to NDEs that arise in very different situations and are clearly unlikely to have a unitary cause. These fundamental questions can be answered only in proper prospective trials when both the brain physiology and psychological variables of the experiencer are known.
Date: Autumn 2007
Creator: Fenwick, Peter
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Culture and the Near-Death Experience: Comments on Keith Augustine's "Psychophysiological and Cultural Correlates Undermining a Survivalist Interpretation of Near-Death Experiences" (open access)

Culture and the Near-Death Experience: Comments on Keith Augustine's "Psychophysiological and Cultural Correlates Undermining a Survivalist Interpretation of Near-Death Experiences"

Abstract: This paper is a sociological commentary on the leading paper by Keith Augustine. It discusses the relationship between social expectations and culture as well as extending the discussion about the possibility that near-death experiences may not be a singular entity. I suggest there are sound grounds for developing a typology of experiences that have different and or overlapping causes and phenomenology.
Date: Winter 2007
Creator: Kellehear, Allan
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
From Fear to Love in Gay and Lesbian Near-Death Experiences and the Coming Out Process (open access)

From Fear to Love in Gay and Lesbian Near-Death Experiences and the Coming Out Process

Abstract: This article illustrates the changes in thought and feeling states within gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender near-death experiences, and implications for the coming out process for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered experiencers.
Date: Spring 2007
Creator: Dale, Liz
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Commentary on Keith Augustine's Article (open access)

Commentary on Keith Augustine's Article

Abstract: This commentary responds to Keith Augustine's article on the hallucinatory nature of near-death experiences (NDEs). It draws attention to his misreading of an important point made in my book Religion, Spirituality and the Near-Death Experience (Fox, 2003) regarding claims made by some NDErs to have traveled into outer space, reinforces the need for a thorough consideration of the epistemological complexities involved in asserting or denying a "common core" to NDEs, and ends by supporting the point made by Augustine that there is a pressing need for more crosscultural studies of the "core" phenomenon itself.
Date: Winter 2007
Creator: Fox, Mark
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Journal of Near-Death Studies, Volume 25, Number 3, Spring 2007 (open access)

Journal of Near-Death Studies, Volume 25, Number 3, Spring 2007

Quarterly journal publishing papers related to near-death experiences, including research reports; theoretical or conceptual statements; expressions of a scientific, philosophic, religious, or historical perspective on the study of near-death experiences; cross-cultural studies; individual case histories; and personal accounts of experiences or related phenomena.
Date: Spring 2007
Creator: Greyson, Bruce
Object Type: Journal/Magazine/Newsletter
System: The UNT Digital Library
Journal of Near-Death Studies, Volume 25, Number 4, Summer 2007 (open access)

Journal of Near-Death Studies, Volume 25, Number 4, Summer 2007

Quarterly journal publishing papers related to near-death experiences, including research reports; theoretical or conceptual statements; expressions of a scientific, philosophic, religious, or historical perspective on the study of near-death experiences; cross-cultural studies; individual case histories; and personal accounts of experiences or related phenomena.
Date: Summer 2007
Creator: Greyson, Bruce
Object Type: Journal/Magazine/Newsletter
System: The UNT Digital Library
Commentary on "Does Paranormal Perception Occur in Near-Death Experiences?" [#2] (open access)

Commentary on "Does Paranormal Perception Occur in Near-Death Experiences?" [#2]

Abstract: Keith Augustine raises questions regarding Pam Reynolds's near-death experience (NDE) while undergoing cerebral aneurysm surgery using the hypothermic cardiac arrest ("standstill") procedure. I specifically address questions regarding anesthesia and brainstem auditory evoked response procedures; and the relation of Reynolds's NDE to "standstill" and life after death.
Date: Summer 2007
Creator: Sabom, Michael B.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
"Does Paranormal Perception Occur in Near-Death Experiences?" Defended (open access)

"Does Paranormal Perception Occur in Near-Death Experiences?" Defended

Article responding to criticisms of another article concerning paranormal perception in near-death experiences.
Date: Summer 2007
Creator: Augustine, Keith
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Commentary on "Does Paranormal Perception Occur in Near-Death Experiences?" [#1] (open access)

Commentary on "Does Paranormal Perception Occur in Near-Death Experiences?" [#1]

Editor's abstract and note: In this commentary, Charles Tart critiques Keith Augustine's deconstruction of Pam Reynolds's near-death experience (NDE) while undergoing cerebral aneurysm surgery using the hypothermic cardiac arrest ("standstill") procedure. However, after drafting this initial response to Augustine's paper, family medical problems prevented Tart from researching and polishing his comments as thoroughly as he would have wished. He has approved our publication of this commentary but regrets taht it is not up to his usual standard.
Date: Summer 2007
Creator: Tart, Charles T.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Commentary on "Psychophysiological and Cultural Correlates Undermining a Survivalist Interpretation of Near-Death Experiences" (open access)

Commentary on "Psychophysiological and Cultural Correlates Undermining a Survivalist Interpretation of Near-Death Experiences"

Abstract: Keith Augustine has provided a legitimate and cogent critique of a transcendental interpretation of near-death experiences, exposing weaknesses in the research methodology, paucity of the data, and gaps in the arguments. He offers evidence from psychophysiological and cultural correlates of NDEs that he interprets as favoring a hallucinatory understanding of these phenomena. however, his analysis relies on idiosyncratic definitions of psychological concepts, reads unidirectional causality into bivariate correlations, and underestimates the empirical predictions of the separation hypothesis. Despite less than compelling evidence for the transcendental hypothesis, it accounts for NDE phenomenology better than the materialist model.
Date: Winter 2007
Creator: Greyson, Bruce
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Remarks on Ernesto Bozzano's La Psiche Domina la Materia (open access)

Remarks on Ernesto Bozzano's La Psiche Domina la Materia

Article discussing Ernesto Bozzano's study on the subject of physical phenomena around the time of someone's death, including a critique of his dogmatic approach to the interpretation of the cases, and the use of cases lacking relevant information.
Date: Spring 2007
Creator: Alvarado, Carlos S.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Comments on "Does Paranormal Perception Occur in Near-Death Experiences?" (open access)

Comments on "Does Paranormal Perception Occur in Near-Death Experiences?"

Abstract: Keith Augustine's critique of studies of veridical perception in near-death experiences is based on unsubstantiated speculation from the popular media, rather than on supportive data or peer-reviewed literature. Nevertheless, addressing the issues he raises would improve the methodology of near-death research and strengthen the evidential database for veridical perception.
Date: Summer 2007
Creator: Greyson, Bruce
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
"Near-Death Experiences with Hallucinatory Features" Defended (open access)

"Near-Death Experiences with Hallucinatory Features" Defended

Article purporting that near-death experience (NDE) reports are sometimes open to multiple interpretations, that different kinds of NDEs should be distinguished according to their diverse physiological mechanisms, and that transformations following NDEs but not other hallucinatory experiences require special explanation if NDEs are hallucinations.
Date: Autumn 2007
Creator: Augustine, Keith
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Obituary: Ian Stevenson, M.D. (open access)

Obituary: Ian Stevenson, M.D.

Obituary of Ian Stevenson, a survival researcher and founder of the University of Virginia's Division of Perceptual Studies.
Date: Spring 2007
Creator: unknown
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Obituary: George G. Ritchie, M.D. (open access)

Obituary: George G. Ritchie, M.D.

Obituary of George Gordon Ritchie, Jr., physician, speaker, and author of "Return From Tomorrow" and "My Life After Dying."
Date: Winter 2007
Creator: unknown
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Other Shoe Drops: Commentary on "Does Paranormal Perception Occur in Near-Death Experiences?" (open access)

The Other Shoe Drops: Commentary on "Does Paranormal Perception Occur in Near-Death Experiences?"

Abstract: Keith Augustine raises questions about my report of a case of veridical out-of-body perception during a near-death experience (NDE). His analysis is based not on my original description of the case but rather on a distorted account in a magazine written by two college students who misrepresented the facts and made unwarranted assumptions to support their beliefs.
Date: Summer 2007
Creator: Sharp, Kimberly Clark
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Near-Death Experiences with Hallucinatory Features (open access)

Near-Death Experiences with Hallucinatory Features

Article surveying near-death experiences (NDEs) incorporating out-of-body discrepancies, bodily sensations, encounters with living persons and fictional characters, random or insignificant memories, returns from a point of no return, hallucinatory imagery, and unfulfilled predictions. Though attempts to accommodate hallucinatory NDEs within a survivalist framework are possible, they signal a failure to take the empirical evidence against a survivalist interpretation of NDEs seriously.
Date: Autumn 2007
Creator: Augustine, Keith
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Letter to the Editor: Response to Augustine's "Does Paranormal Perception Occur in Near-Death Experiences?" [#1] (open access)

Letter to the Editor: Response to Augustine's "Does Paranormal Perception Occur in Near-Death Experiences?" [#1]

Letter written to the editor of the Journal of Near-Death Studies providing a response to Augustine's article "Does Paranormal Perception Occur in Near-Death Experiences?"
Date: Autumn 2007
Creator: Greyson, Bruce
Object Type: Letter
System: The UNT Digital Library