Precursors According to the
Handbook of Near-Death Experiences, traces of the Near-death experience can be located in ancient texts, such as
Plato's
Dialogues. During the 1880s and 1890s, near-death phenomena were part of the investigation of
paranormal phenomena. Precursors to the field of near-death studies include the work of paranormal investigators, such as William Crookes and Frederick W.H. Myers, and the work of
parapsychological societies, such as the
Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in England, and its American counterpart. The early 1900s was a period of disinterest in the topic, only marked by occasional contributions, including the commentaries of
Gardner Murphy and the research of Donald West. In 1948, West investigated the occurrence of psi-phenomena in a small sample of the British population. He found that "14 percent of his sample had undergone a hallucinatory experience and 9 percent had reported seeing apparitions of the dead".
Formative period – early profiles Commentators note that the launch of the field of near-death studies started with work of
Raymond Moody. Moody got interested in the subject of near-death experiences at the start of his career. In the mid-1970s, while doing his medical residency as a psychiatrist at the
University of Virginia, he conducted interviews with near-death experiencers. He later published these findings in the book
Life After Life (1976). is the most cited article in the field of Near-death studies as of 2011. One of the first publications associated with this group of researchers was a treatment of several NDE case-reports originally collected by Fred Schoonmaker. The treatment was carried out and published by John Audette in 1979. or regarded as taboo. This early research was followed in 1984 by Ring's book
Heading Toward Omega: In Search of the Meaning of the Near-Death Experience, where he described the mystical and transcendent features of the NDE, and the futuristic visions described by near-death experiencers. The early work of Michael Sabom also brought attention within the academic community. Besides contributing material to academic journals, he wrote a book called
Recollections of Death (1982), which is considered to be a significant publication in the launching of the field. Greyson has also addressed different aspects of the NDE, such as the psychodynamics of the experience, the typology of NDEs, the varieties of NDEs, and the biology of NDEs. In addition, he brought attention to the NDE as a focus of clinical attention, suggesting that the aftermath of the NDE, in some cases, can lead to psychological problems. As research in the field progressed, both Greyson and Ring developed measurement tools that can be used in a clinical setting. Morse and colleagues investigated NDEs in a pediatric population. They found that children reported NDEs that were similar to those described by adults. Morse later published two books, co-authored with Paul Perry, that were aimed at a general audience: ''Closer to the Light: Learning from Children's Near-Death Experiences
(1990), followed by Transformed by The Light: The Powerful Effect of Near-Death Experiences on People's Lives'' (1992). British
neuropsychiatrist Peter Fenwick started to collect NDE stories in the 1980s, following their appearances in television programs. In the book, the authors investigated more than 300 NDEs and concluded that the "subjective experience" is the key to understanding the phenomenon of NDEs. Co-operating with other researchers, such as
Sam Parnia, Fenwick has reviewed, as well as researched, the potential relationship between near-death experiences and cardiac arrest. Early investigations into the topic of near-death experiences were also conducted at the
University of Virginia, where
Ian Stevenson founded the
Division of Perceptual Studies in the late 1960s. Stevenson, whose main academic interest was the topic of reincarnation and past lives, also made contributions to the field of near-death studies. In a 1990 study, co-authored with Owens and Cook, the researchers studied the medical records of 58 people who were thought to have been near death. The authors judged 28 candidates to actually have been close to dying, while 30 candidates, who merely thought they were about to die, were judged to not have been in any medical danger. Both groups reported similar experiences, but the first group reported more features of the core NDE than the other group. From 1975 to 2005, some 2500 self reported individuals in the US had been reviewed in retrospective studies of the phenomena,
Pim van Lommel (a
cardiologist) was one of the first researchers to bring the study of NDEs into the area of Hospital Medicine. In 1988 he launched a prospective study that spanned 10 Dutch hospitals. 344 survivors of cardiac arrest were included in the study. 62 patients (18%) reported NDE. 41 of these patients (12%) described a core experience. The aim of the study was to investigate the cause of the experience, and assess variables connected to frequency, depth, and content. The work of Goza and others is now known as Combat-related NDEs. The first clinical paper from The AWARE-project (AWAreness during REsuscitation), another prospective study, was published in 2014. The research was a multicenter observational study including US, UK and Austrian medical sites. and was published in 2023. The study reported that 28 participants completed interviews, with 11 reporting experiences suggestive of consciousness during cardiac arrest. As of 2011, Greyson has the greatest output of material and remains the leading scholar in the field of near-death studies. Other researchers with a large output of material includes P. M. H. Atwater and neuropsychiatrist Peter Fenwick. ==Explanatory models==