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The concept of “shared-death experiences” and NDE scales

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shared-death experiences

There are also what Raymond Moody called “shared death experiences” in her new book Reflections on Life After Life.

The shared-death experiences are similar to near-death experiences (disembodiment, autoscopic vision, mystical light, increased feeling of well-being, love and peace, etc.) for one detail: they are experienced by people in good health, physical and psychological, but manifested at the death of a relative. They stand near the body and feel transported elsewhere, like escaped from their own body, immersed in intense light and “participate” in peace and love at the leaving of a relative (or patient) after generally after viewing them alongside in the film of his life.

Here is how exposed Witnesses in Reflections on Life After Life the model narrative of human experience:

A woman called Jane sat with her husband, terminally ill with cancer, after thirty years of marriage. He lost consciousness, according to the doctor treating him, his death is imminent. (…) While she looks at him, a white mist rises and dissipates into the air above him. (…) Suddenly, the room lights and fills with white light dancing in which the particles. Jane, who is feeling a little dizzy, she has suddenly left his body and it floats near the ceiling of the room. She sees herself down, sitting with the corpse of her husband, which seems odd to him because she feels the same time not far from her. She turns her head and see who smiled (…). The pair continues to hover while scenes from their life arise around them. They travel in their past seeing these scroll fragments, some of which have panoramic way; (…). These scenes are sequences that Jane is not part of the life scenes of her husband. (…) Together, they move to a corner of the room that is not at right angles. The whole room changed shape and seems to continue to turn (…). This may be due to this opening, this tube seems to expand near the ceiling, like a door to another place. Jane and her husband entering it (…) [and] open into an Edenic landscape. Around them, everything is beautiful. (…) Jane and her husband walking on a path leading down to a stream. As they approach, Jane realizes she can not go further. (…) She is happy for her husband who no more suffers most and no more has a mortal body. She takes leave of him and, in a flash, is found in his body of flesh and bone, sitting beside him, inert, her husband (…)

Seven characteristics according to Moody

More succinctly, Raymond Moody analyzes seven elements of this phenomenon:

  1. “The change in geometry”: the room seems to “mutate” into something else, it “stretches and collapses at the same time, [drawing as] an alternative geometry,” says a mathematician experiencer.
  2. “An immersion in a mystic light”: source of purity, love, peace.
  3. “A music and musical sounds”: accompanying the experience.
  4. “Decorporation” of the experiencer and the deceased.
  5. They may live together “the film of the past” of the deceased: “I stood in front of what looked like a large screen with my husband who had just died and we watched his life unfold before our eyes. Some of the things I saw, I had no idea until then.
  6. “Discovery of a surreal landscape or Edenic”
  7. “The fog at the time of death”: it corresponds to a kind of white smoke escaping from the deceased body and sometimes takes a human form.

In his book Glimpses of Eternity, an investigation into shared death experiences, co-written with Paul Perry and published in 2010, Moody suggests that mirror neurons of the sympathetic system could hold the key to explaining the transmission mechanism of shared death experience. Mirror neurons play a role in social cognition, particularly in the affective processes such as empathy.

In the longer term, one frequently notes a development of empathy, questioning the priorities and changing lifestyle. Some Impacts on the conduct of life:

  • “Their lives had deepened”
  • “Reflect on philosophical problems”
  • “I suddenly matured”
  • “[Before] I was acting under the influence of pulses; Now … I think everything goes through my conscience “
  • “I was more conscious of possessing a mind that before owning a body”
  • “Since then, it is often pointed out to me that I was producing a calming effect on people,”
  • “Almost all the testimonies emphasize the love of neighbor, unique and profound”
  • “Moreover … the importance of seeking knowledge”
  • “In no case has inspired them the idea of ​​instant salvation or moral infallibility.”

The NDE scales

Generally, proven NDE cases are considered when a patient has undergone clinical death and was revived successfully. Their testimonies can then be compared to a NDE-scale built on the Rasch model, a simple mathematical approach used in the context of the theory of item responses to standardize and investigate objectively.

Kenneth Ring has notably built WCEI Index (Weighted core experience index) to measure the “quality” of NDE21 Bruce Greyson and (in) a scale of qualification testimonials.

The WCEI index includes 10 items rated by their presence or absence, the scores from 1 to 5 identifying a superficial experience, 6 or more a basic experience and 10 a deep NDE. The questions in this questionnaire are:

  1. the subjective feeling of being dead;
  2. a sense of peace;
  3. the separation of the body;
  4. entry into a dark area;
  5. meet a presence or a voice;
  6. examine his own life;
  7. see or be wrapped in light;
  8. see beautiful colors;
  9. enter in the light;
  10. meeting of spirits.

The scale of Greyson is a revised version of the WCEI index. It is based on a survey constructed to obtain a numerical result to quantify the near-death experiences. The survey is divided into four categories (cognitive, affective, paranormal, and transcendental), it includes 16 items with an option of 3 responses for each item. A minimum score of 7 out of 32 is considered positive.

After listening attentively to the stories of patients, neuroscientists, in consultation with neuropsychologists, try to characterize his memoirs in order to highlight the potential share of invented stories, the opportunity to compare these memories with other subjective perceptions as the dreams or hallucinations.

Some meditation techniques could also cause feelings that some approach the NDE without reproducing the whole.

Many NDE appear after a critical event (eg when the patient hears that he is declared dead by the doctor or nurse), or when the person feels like being in a fatal condition (eg fair before a car accident).

According to epidemiological studies, the NDE testimony would be more frequent in elderly patients under 60 years.

These near-death experiences, hallucinations or not, they always have a profound impact on the individual. Many psychologists have recognized this impact, without prejudice to the objective nature of the experiment described. Without necessarily seeking to discredit the NDE radical or religious interpretations, scientists are carefully confined to try to understand the biological mechanisms underlying. The British psychologist Susan Blackmore was distinguished by a detailed examination of the nonpartisan NDE stories, and a critical demanding of the most popular “theories”. It highlights the unacceptable defects of the past and proposes the outline of an interpretation that is typical traits of NDE mental manifestations of a brain placed in critical conditions (cerebral oxygenation failure, etc. ).

Translated from Wikipedia

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