Dutch NDE Study Attracts Worldwide Attention

by Jeffrey Long, MD & Paul Bernstein, PhD.

Originally published in 'Vital Signs', the quarterly newsletter of the International Association for Near-Death Studies, Issue #1 of 2002 - www.iands.org (http://www.iands.org/)



Of the 344 patients tracked by the Dutch team, 18% had some memory from their period of unconsciousness, and 12% (1 out of every 8) had what the physicians called a "core" or "deep" NDE. The researchers defined that as a memory by the patient from their period of unconsciousness which scored six or more points on the scale published by Dr. Ken Ring in his 1980 study, Life at Death: A Scientific Investigation of the Near-Death Experience (http://www.iands.org/bib.html) (linked page size: 40Kb (http://www.iands.org/kb.html)),. This scale includes, among other things, out-of-body perception, moving through a tunnel, communication with light, blissful feelings, observation of a celestial landscape, meeting with deceased persons, life review, and presence of a border. The scientists were surprised that the NDErs recalled their experience with the same degree of detail when interviewed again several years later.




Dr. Long: Are you planning any further NDE studies?







IANDS congratulates Dr. van Lommel for his excellent research.

Comments about the Dutch Study From a Family Doctor Who is also a Near-Death Experiencer
by Pam Kircher, M.D.

Van Lommel's article in Lancet is a landmark that should be read by every doctor. It reports on the largest prospective study to ask people about NDEs after a cardiac arrest. Its results show that NDEs are a significant phenomenon in the setting of cardiac arrest. Equally important, the study followed people for eight years after their NDE. The observations gleaned from that follow-up demonstrate that NDEs really are life transforming, and that the transformation in values is consistent over time. The study showed that NDEs create much greater changes in a person's life than does simply having a cardiac arrest or being near death.

Family doctors may not be the physicians present at the time of cardiac arrest, but they are the doctors people usually talk to the most, because they are the doctors people go to most often for a variety of problems. I would encourage Vital Signs readers to obtain the complete Lancet article to share with your doctor. You will be doing your family doctor a great favor. Basically, we doctors change our minds about diagnoses and treatments because of articles in medical journals.

When people read van Lommel's article, they are often drawn to one or two items in his vast array of findings. I have mentioned the major ones in my first paragraph. Near the end of the summary on this page, Dr. Greyson addresses the question of false memories, which the Lancet commentary brought up regarding patients who later recalled an NDE they hadn t initially reported on. For me, the most fascinating statistic in van Lommel's article has to do with predictors of death in the 30 days following cardiac arrest. Each person in the study was very ill or they would not have had a cardiac arrest. Statistically, it is quite common to die soon after a cardiac arrest, particularly if it occurred as the result of a chronic medical condition. In his study, Dr. van Lommel measured the depth of the NDE by using Kenneth Ring's scale. People who had more of certain aspects of the NDE (e.g., tunnels, light, life reviews) were labeled core experiencers. Having a core experience was a predictor of death over the next 30 days at a probability of .0001. That means that there is a 1-in-10,000 chance that those results would have occurred by chance alone. Why would that be?

Two very different hypotheses come to mind. One is that people with very deep experiences might be so taken with the experience that they simply allowed themselves to slip over to the other side. (The will to live is crucial in people who are extremely ill. Though it doesn t predict whether or not the person will die, it can have a bearing on when their death occurs. For example, people who are terminally ill frequently put off their own deaths until after they have finished waiting for an important day such as their daughter's wedding.) The sense of what lies ahead of NDErs may be so peaceful, that they simply complete unfinished business here and then let go into death. Another possible interpretation of the data, however, is that the depth of the NDE may be related to the severity of the illness of the person. In a statistically precise study of NDErs, Dr. Bruce Greyson found that psychic abilities are more common after a core NDE (Theta, 11:26-29, 1983). Since we have not had studies until now that interviewed large numbers of people within 30 days of their NDEs, the reasons for the relationship between the depth of the NDE and impending death have not yet been identified.

I believe that the findings in van Lommel's study challenge hospitals to ask people about their NDEs after a cardiac arrest. As it becomes common practice to invite resuscitated people to discuss their NDEs with health care personnel in the hospital, the relationship between having a core NDE and dying a short time later will become clearer. In addition, NDEs in resuscitated persons will be seen as a normal concomitant of the experience. Finally, I believe that people with NDEs will be able to adjust more easily to the changes that occur in their values, if they have some assistance with that from immediate caregivers while still in the hospital setting.

Colorado physician Pam Kircher is board certified in both hospice care and family practice. She has taught at Baylor College of Medicine, and was Chief of Family Medicine at Memorial Southwest Hospital in Houston, Texas.


To read the full Lancet article and its accompanying Commentary, you may visit the website (http://www.thelancet.com), register there for free, and search for the keywords "near death". The article's title is, Near-death experience in survivors of cardiac arrest: a prospective study in the Netherlands, to be cited as Lancet 2001; 358: 2039-45. Its authors, in addition to Dr. van Lommel, are Ruud van Wees, Vincent Meyers, and Ingrid Elfferich.