Recreating Near-Death Experiences: A Cognitive Approach

I describe a guided meditation that, when used by near-death experiencers (NDErs), recreates fragments of their NDEs. The meditation is based on Michael Persinger's neurological theory regarding the "God Experience," and its success supports that theory. The present study included too few subjects to support quantitative analysis, and must be regarded as a pilot study. It seems reasonable to assume that any procedure that will recreate fragments of near-death experiences (NDEs) in those who have had been through them may also shed light on how they occur. There are already reports of elements of NDEs having been elicited through hypnosis (Babb, 1989), and lucid dreaming (Rogo, 1990), and procedures for inducing out-of-body experiences (Brent, 1979). In this article, I describe a nonvisual guided meditation that has succeeded in recreating some elements of NDEs in a small sample of self-reported NDErs, who volunteered at the 1996 conference of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) in Oakland, CA. The Sensed Presence Guided Meditation procedure consists of imagining a "presence" behind oneself, and to the left. At the same time, one must be aware of the breath, perhaps putting a very slight emphasis on exhalation. Unlike previously published techniques, each feature in the Sensed Presence Guided Meditation has a specific neurological rationale, and is the only guided meditation I am aware of that was designed using neurological theories. Todd Murphy is a Buddhist theologian who is interested in neurology. Acknowledgments are due to the School of Shiatsu and Massage at Harbin Hot Springs in Middletown CA, USA, for their participation in gathering the 'addendum' material. Reprint requests should be addressed to Mr. Murphy at P.O. Box 70, Middletown, California 95461. Journal of Near-Death Studies, 17(4) Summer 1999 C 1999 Human Sciences Press, Inc. 261 JOURNAL OF NEAR-DEATH STUDIES