Abstract
In the cases of 107 patients who reported unusual experiences during an illness or injury, such as seeing their own body from a different position in space, medical records were obtained for forty patients. These were examined and rated according to the evidence they provided of grave, life-threatening illness or injury. Eighteen patients (45%) were judged to have had serious, life-threatening illnesses or injuries, but twenty-two (55%) were rated as having had no life-threatening condition. Nevertheless, thirty-three (82.5%) of the patients believed that they had been “dead” or near death. Deficiencies in the medical records may account for a few of the discrepancies between patients' reports and medical records. However, it seems likely that an important precipitator of the so-called near-death experience is the belief that one is dying—whether or not one is in fact close to death.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.