Abstract: Fifty-three adult members of the American Center for the Integration of Spiritually Transformative Experiences completed an online author-created survey about their spiritually transformative experiences (STEs) as children. Included among the survey questions were age at STE; STE contents and aftereffects, both beneficial and challenging, both at home and at school; and recommendations for both experiencers and their parents. Results are reported as descriptive statistics with selected narrative responses. Findings of this exploratory study include that, following their STEs, some participants reportedly felt supported by those around them, but most felt isolated and different from their peers and needed acceptance and affirmation from the closest to them. The article concludes with limitations of the study and recommendations for future research.

Editorial statement introducing the contents of the journal issue and providing other relevant notes.

Abstract: This article represents my presentation at the inaugural 2012 American Center for the Integration of Spiritually Transformative Experiences (ACISTE) Annual Conference; it contains four main sections. The first section focuses on defining the parameters of the contents and includes discussions of what constitutes healthy and unhealthy integration, spiritual emergence and emergency, quantum change, spiritual conversion, and spontaneous awakening experiences. The second section includes four conceptual models utilized to help understand spiritually transformative experiences (STEs): Wilber's, Rummet's, and Wade's developmental models and Assagioli's model of the self. The third section introduces methods I use when working with clients, and the fourth section further provides recent research on topics related to STEs. My goal throughout was to catalyze further discussion regarding what constitutes integration of an STE and how this process relates to current psychospiritual models, therapeutic approaches, and research.

Abstract: The Purpose of the exploratory research was to learn if adults who had childhood near-death experiences (NDEs) sometime between pre-birth to age 17 years had psychotherapy and if they believed it helped them achieve psychological integration of their NDEs. Participants completed three instruments: the NDE Scale (Greyson, 1990), the author-developed Childhood NDE and Psychotherapy Questionnaire, and the three Subjective and Psychological Well-Being Scales (Diener & Biswas-Diener, 2008). Of 29 respondents, 23 met the NDE Scale criteria for an NDE. Results for the 15 (67%) who had engaged in psychological integration of NDE's and more positive emotional feelings (r = .77, p < .01) and fewer negative emotions (r = -.84, p < .01). The correlation between psychological integration of NDE and success with a small effect (r = .16, p > .10). The psychotherapy factors identified by participants as successful i helping them process and integrate their NDE's included having a therapist who accepted the NDE as real and validated the experience and who helped the NDEr express thoughts and feelings about, explore the meaning of, and resolve any guilt around the NDE. Results supported the idea that psychological integration of NDEs is related to subjective and psychological wellbeing, …

Abstract: The professional near-death literature contains cases in which near-death experiencers reported that during their experiences (NDEs), they perceived phenomena in the material world that, based on the condition and position of their physical bodies, they should not have been able to perceive, and yet these perceptions were subsequently verified as accurate. Only a few of these cases of apparently non-physical veridical perception during NDEs have been carefully researched. In this article, we report a case described originally by cardiac surgeon Lloyd Rudy in a YouTube Internet video. We describe pour process of following up exhaustively on all avenues of investigation available to us and our conclusion that this case is among the most evidential in which perceptions during an NDE were confirmed as completely accurate by objective observers.