Resumo de Near-death Research - Dr. Raymond Moody

Near-Death Research
Dr. Raymond Moody is recognized as the father of NDE research. He has chronicled and studied many of these experiences in several books (Moody, 1975;1977;1999). Another early pioneer is Dr. Kenneth Ring, co-founder and past President of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS).
Major contributions to the field include the construction of a Weighted Core Experience Index (Ring, 1980) in order to measure the depth of the Near-Death experience, and the construction of the Near-Death Experience Scale (Greyson, 1983) in order to differentiate between subjects that are more or less likely to have experienced a genuine NDE. These approaches include criteria for deciding what is to be considered a classical or authentic NDE. Well-known researchers in the field who support a moderate view, or sympathize with aspects of the after-life view are Kevin Williams, Bruce Greyson, Michael Sabom, Melvin Morse, PMH Atwater, Yvonne Kason, Sam Parnia, Peter Fenwick, Jody A. Long and Jeffrey P. Long. Much of this research is co-ordinated through the field of Near-Death Studies.Among the researchers who support a naturalistic and neurological base for the experience we find the British psychologist Susan Blackmore (1993), and founding publisher of Skeptic magazine, Michael Shermer (1998). The possibility of altered temporal lobe functioning in the near-death experience is suggested by Britton & Bootzin (2004). In this study Near-Death experiencers were also found to have altered sleep patterns compared to subjects in the control group. Dr. Rick Strassman induced near death experiences (in addition to some different naturally-occurring altered states of being) in a clinical setting by injecting subjects with DMT, a powerful psychedelic tryptamine. This is significant because DMT is produced endogenously in the human pineal gland and may be the chemical that causes natural NDE's (and other mystical, religious, entity contact and transpersonal experiences). This research is described in his book DMT - The Spirit Molecule (2001).According to Martens (1994), the only satisfying method to address the NDE-issue would be an international multicentric data collection within the framework for standardized reporting of cardiac arrest events. The use of cardiac arrest-criteria as a basis for NDE-research has been a common approach among the European branch of the research field (Parnia, Waller, Yeates & Fenwick, 2001; van Lommel, van Wees, Meyers & Elfferich, 2001).

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