Understanding the cognitive experience of death and the near-death experience

Exploring the needs and barriers for death education in China: Getting answers from heart transplant recipients' inner experience of death

Background

Promoting reflection about death may support better living, and how to carry out death education is an important issue to be addressed across the world. The purpose of the current study was to explore the attitude of heart transplant recipients toward death and their inner real experience to provide information for the development of death education strategies.

Methods

A phenomenological qualitative study was conducted using a snowball method. A total of 11 patients who had undergone heart transplantation more than 1-year ago were recruited for the current study for semi-structured interviews.

Results

A total of five themes were identified: "Not avoid talking about death," "Feeling fear about the pain in the process of death", "Wanting a good death at the end of life," "The richness of feelings during near-death is surprising," and "Being close to death makes people more receptive to death."

Conclusion

Heart transplant recipients have a positive attitude toward death and wish for "good death" at the end of life. These patients' near-death experiences and positive attitudes toward death during the course of their illness provided evidence of the need for death education in China and supported the experiential approach to death education.

Explanation of near-death experiences: a systematic analysis of case reports and qualitative research

Background and objective

Some individuals report a near-death experience (NDE) after a life-threatening crisis, which refers to a range of subjective experiences related to impending death. This experience is a phenomenon with transcendental elements, which leads to deep permanent changes in both the individual and the social lives of the NDEr's. Therefore, this study aims to review the near-death experiences of individuals with different religious and cultural views.

Methodology

This is a systematic analysis study. All the case report, case series and qualitative research studies which presented patients' NDE experiences were included in the study, without language restrictions, and in the period of 1980-2022. The stages of screening, selection, data extraction, and quality assessment have been gone through by two of the researchers. Data analysis and synthesis has been done qualitatively. JBI Critical Appraisal Checklist tool was used to evaluate the quality of the included studies.

Findings

After the initial search, 2,407 studies were included, 54 of which underwent final examination. The total number of the NDEr's in the studies was 465 men, women, and children. Among these studies, 27 were case reports, 20 were case series, and 7 were qualitative studies. Near-death experiences have been categorized into 4 main categories and 19 subcategories. The main categories include emotional experiences (2 subcategories), cognitive experiences (4 subcategories), spiritual and religious experiences (4 subcategories), and supernatural experiences [9 subcategories in two categories (out of body experiences, and supernatural and metaphysical perceptions)].

Conclusion

The most frequent near-death experiences were supernatural experiences, especially the experience of leaving the body. The basis and the content of the patterns mentioned by the NDEr's are similar, and the differences are in the explanation and the interpretation of the experience. There is a common core among them such as out-of-body experiences, passing through a tunnel, heightened senses, etc. Therefore, correct knowledge of near-death experiences leads to providing helpful answers to patients.

Near-Death Experience among Iranian Muslim Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Survivors

BACKGROUND

Near-Death Experience (NDE) refers to a broad range of subjective experiences associated with forthcoming death. The majority of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) survivors experience NDEs. It seems that near-death events are experienced differently by people with different cultural and religious viewpoints. Thus, this study aimed to explain NDEs in Iranian Muslim CPR survivors.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological approach influenced by Ricoeur was used to understand the meaning of CPR survivors' NDEs. Eight survivors were interviewed in private. The study was conducted in southeast Iran. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were used for data collection, and probing questions were added when necessary. The duration of the interviews was between 40 and 65 min. According to Lindseth and Norberg, in the naive understanding phase, we read the interviews several times for achieving naive understanding. In the structural analysis phase, the whole text is divided into meaningful units. Finally, the researchers formulated a comprehensive understanding of the contextualization of the text.

RESULTS

Four main themes emerged including 1) pleasing experiences along with flying and seeing light, 2) the experience of transport to the beyond, 3) out-of-body experience, and 4) reviewing life and memories in a religious context.

CONCLUSIONS

Iranian Muslim CPR survivors, reported NDEs, much similar to those reported by survivors in Western countries with different theistic religions. This means that medical professionals dealing with these patients need to be aware of such experiences in Iranian Muslims.

Semiology and Mechanisms of Near-Death Experiences

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Near-death experiences (NDEs) are conscious perceptual experiences, including self-related emotional, spiritual, and mystical experiences, occurring in close encounters with death or in non-life-threatening situations. The origin of NDEs remains unknown. Here, we review recent advances in the understanding of NDE semiology and pathophysiology.

RECENT FINDINGS

Recent prospective studies confirm that NDEs reflect a spectrum of highly distinctive memories which are associated with negative or positive emotions and can be influenced by the nature of the causal event, but the temporal sequence with which these images unfold is variable. Some drugs, notably ketamine, may lead to experiences that are similar or even identical to NDEs. New models extend previous neural network theories and include aspects of evolutionary and quantum theories. Although the factual existence of NDEs is no longer doubted and the semiology well-described, a pathophysiological model that includes all aspects of NDEs is still lacking.