LIFE AT DEATH: A Scientific Investigation of the Near-Death Experience

by Kenneth Ring ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 14, 1980

Ring, a psychologist at the University of Connecticut, has followed up on Raymond Moody's studies (Life After Life, 1976) with his own survey of individuals who came close to dying. He or members of his staff interviewed over 100 men and women who survived heart stoppages, surgery crises, suicide attempts, or accidents. Rather than provide purely descriptive accounts, however, Ring has attempted to weigh, classify, and correlate. His findings generally confirm Moody's, in that subjects report similar details and sequences of events. Ring interprets the ""core experience"" in terms of five stages: 1) a feeling of peace; 2) body separation; 3) entering darkness; 4) entering light; 5) decision to return to life. Subjects were divided into core experiencers or non-experiencers depending on the number and depth of the stages reported. Ring's data (with admitted problems of sample selection) showed that women tended to have core experiences in relation to near-fatal illness, while men's came as a result of an accident or suicide attempt; suicides, however, tended not to experience all five stages. Ring found no correlation between core experiencers and prior religious beliefs, age, education, or sex. The majority found that the near-death experience changed their lives for the better, making them less fearful of death, more appreciative of life, more spiritual, etc. But reading verbatim accounts of almost dying is not per se emotionally gripping; after the fourth or fifth dark tunnel and radiant light, the ineffable tends to the banal. In any case, Ring enumerates various biological and non-biological interpretations of the events, confessing to a strong liking for a paranormal explanation: the near-death experience may be just another way of experiencing a special domain. Ring's modesty, honesty, and clarity are exemplary, and his contention that more research is needed is indisputable.

Pub Date: Aug. 14, 1980

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1980

Categories: NONFICTION