The Near-Death Experience Scale: Construction, Reliability, and Validity
📄 Original study📌 Appears in:
Plain English Summary
Before this 1983 study, there was no standardized way to measure near-death experiences. Greyson changed that by building the first proper yardstick: a 16-question scale whittled from 80 possible NDE features. It captures four flavors — thinking-related, emotional, paranormal, and transcendental — with impressively strong reliability scores across the board. A simple cutoff correctly flagged about 84% of people who reported having an NDE, and the scale could distinguish genuine NDEs from brain-disorder symptoms or ordinary stress responses. This tool became the bedrock of rigorous NDE research.
Abstract
Near-death experiences (NDEs) have been described consistently since antiquity and more rigorously in recent years. Investigation into their mechanisms and effects has been impeded by the lack of quantitative measures of the NDE and its components. From an initial pool of 80 manifestations characteristic of NDEs, a 33-item scaled-response preliminary questionnaire was developed, which was completed by knowledgeable subjects describing their 74 NDEs. Items with significant item-total score correlations that could be grouped into clinically meaningful clusters constituted the final 16-item NDE Scale. The scale was found to have high internal consistency, split-half reliability, and test-retest reliability; was highly correlated with Ring's Weighted Core Experience Index; and differentiated those who unequivocally claimed to have had NDEs from those with qualified or questionable claims. This reliable, valid, and easily administered scale is clinically useful in differentiating NDEs from organic brain syndromes and nonspecific stress responses, and can standardize further research into mechanisms and effects of NDEs.
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📋 Cite this paper
Greyson, Bruce (1983). The Near-Death Experience Scale: Construction, Reliability, and Validity. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease.
@article{greyson_1983_nde_scale,
title = {The Near-Death Experience Scale: Construction, Reliability, and Validity},
author = {Greyson, Bruce},
year = {1983},
journal = {The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease},
}