Characteristics of Memories for Near-Death Experiences
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Plain English Summary
People who survive near-death experiences often insist their NDE felt 'more real than real life' β and this study from the University of Virginia actually put that bold claim to the test with the largest sample yet. Researchers had 122 NDE survivors rate memories of their NDE, a real event from around the same time, and an imagined event using a detailed 38-item questionnaire. The results were genuinely remarkable: NDE memories consistently scored higher than memories of things that actually happened, which in turn beat out imagined memories. This held across nearly every dimension tested β clarity, context, thoughts and feelings, emotional intensity β all with impressively large statistical effect sizes. Even after accounting for potential explanations like age, time elapsed, whether the person had a cardiac arrest, or drug use, the pattern held firm. Deeper NDEs produced even more vivid memories, and that wasn't just because they were emotional experiences. This seriously challenges the idea that NDEs are mere hallucinations, since hallucination memories typically score lower than real ones, not higher.
Abstract
Near-death experiences are vivid, life-changing experiences occurring to people who come close to death. Because some of their features, such as enhanced cognition despite compromised brain function, challenge our understanding of the mind-brain relationship, the question arises whether near-death experiences are imagined rather than real events. We administered the Memory Characteristics Questionnaire to 122 survivors of a close brush with death who reported near-death experiences. Participants completed Memory Characteristics Questionnaires for three different memories: that of their near-death experience, that of a real event around the same time, and that of an event they had imagined around the same time. The Memory Characteristics Questionnaire score was higher for the memory of the near-death experience than for that of the real event, which in turn was higher than that of the imagined event. These data suggest that memories of near-death experiences are recalled as ''realer" than real events or imagined events.
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π Cite this paper
Moore, L.E, Greyson, B (2017). Characteristics of Memories for Near-Death Experiences. Consciousness and Cognition. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2017.03.003
@article{moore_2017_nde_memory,
title = {Characteristics of Memories for Near-Death Experiences},
author = {Moore, L.E and Greyson, B},
year = {2017},
journal = {Consciousness and Cognition},
doi = {10.1016/j.concog.2017.03.003},
}