Congruence Between Near-Death and Mystical Experience

Near-death experiences, altered states during a brush with death, may include mystical features like a sense of sacredness and divine union, timelessness/spacelessness, positive mood, noetic quality, and ineffability. We quantified mystical elements in near-death experience by comparing responses on...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Greyson, Bruce 1946- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group 2014
In: The international journal for the psychology of religion
Year: 2014, Volume: 24, Issue: 4, Pages: 298-310
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Parallel Edition:Electronic
Description
Summary:Near-death experiences, altered states during a brush with death, may include mystical features like a sense of sacredness and divine union, timelessness/spacelessness, positive mood, noetic quality, and ineffability. We quantified mystical elements in near-death experience by comparing responses on the Mysticism Scale of 292 near-death experiencers and 34 persons who had come close to death without near-death experiences. Two thirds of near-death experiencers reported mystical experiences during their brush with death, compared to none of the comparison survivors. Near-death experiencers scored higher on the Mysticism Scale than did nonexperiencers; they endorsed noetic quality, positive affect, and unity most often and ego loss, timelessness/spacelessness, and ineffability least often. Depth of near-death experience was correlated highly with scores on the Mysticism Scale, but factor analysis of features during the brush with death yielded two distinct factors representing mystical and near-death elements, suggesting that near-death experiences have commonalities with, but can be differentiated from, mystical experience.
ISSN:1532-7582
Contains:Enthalten in: The international journal for the psychology of religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/10508619.2013.845005