Making Sense of Near‐Death Experience Research: Circumstance Specific Alterations of Consciousness

Opsomming

The growing body of research on near‐death experiences (NDEs) is an indication of the large number of people claiming such experiences. A surprising feature of the research is that conceptually there is no agreement on what anNDEis and consequently a large number of definitions characterize this field of research. In order to address the definitional quagmire, a first step consists of making sense ofNDEdefinitions. An analysis of existing definitions shows that the term is currently used for at least three distinct phenomena: a cluster of experiences encountered in the process of dying, for that cluster of experiences in circumstances of fear‐death and danger, and for that cluster of experiences independently from any life‐threatening circumstances. Secondly, the nested assumptions that characterize identified patterns inNDEresearch are identified. It is shown that pro‐survivalists seeNDEs as a unitary entity with a single explanation, while others restrict the study ofNDEs to life‐threatening circumstances and see them as a cluster of composite experiences. Based on this analysis it is argued that the pattern of experiences labeledNDEs can be modified tocircumstance specific alterations of consciousness.