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" F u r t h e r research into the quest ion of ver idical percept ion dur ing the ""naturalistic" near -dea th out-of-body experience (nND OBE), t ha t phase of the near -dea th experience in which the exper iencer seems to be perceiving a normal ea r th ly rea lm, would be of value to NDErs, the i r caregivers , and h u m a n i t y in general . I propose a research procedure t ha t t a rge t s v isual percept ion dur ing nND OBEs tha t occur in the hospi ta l set t ing. I discuss unresolved issues in the design and implemen ta t ion of such a procedure, and identify a reas for fur ther research. A fascinating chapter in the history of parapsychological research began to unfold in the mid-1960s. Several years after the mysterious disappearance-and presumed dea th-of a frugal, reclusive miner of the Southwestern U.S., his will was found. In it, he left an estimated $174,000 to ""research or some scientific proof of a soul of the human body which leaves at death" (Fuller, 1969, pp. 20-21, 23). After a lengthy court battle, including an appeal, the money was awarded to the American Society for Psychical Research and was subsequently shared with the Psychical Research Foundation. Thus was funding provided for some of the most important research on out-of-body experiences (Rogo, 1986, pp. 13-14, 46ff). Dr. Holden is currently Assistant Professor of Counselor Education at the University of North Texas. This paper was derived in part from her Ed.D. dissertation submitted to the Northern Illinois University Graduate School. Requests for reprints should be addressed to Dr. Holden at the Department of Counselor Education, College of Education, University of North Texas, P.O. Box 13857, Denton, TX 76203. Journal of Near-Death Studies, 7(1) Fall 1988 9 1988 Human Sciences Press 19 20 JOURNAL OF NEAR-DEATH STUDIES James Kidd's bequest epitomizes the curiosity that most, if not all, humans feel regarding the possible existence of a human soul. This curiosity is peaked, in particular, by out-of-body experiences (OBEs), which '~suggest a discreet aspect of self that may be able to exist apart from the physiological body" (Morris, 1978, pp. 11-12). The study of the near-death experience (NDE), which has been considered an extended out-of-body experience (Ring, 1980, p. 221; Sabom, 1982, p. 27), seems central to this question. However, even if evidence existed that the NDE, or portions of it, were %bjectively real," the existence of the human soul would not be proved, because the NDErs who provided the evidence would not, in fact, have actually died; the evidence, whatever its nature, could be attributed to some function(s) of the living human body, whether or not those functions had as yet been identified and understood (Krishnan, 1982). The question of the %bjective reality" of the NDE is not, however, a pursuit without value. NDErs report relief at hearing normative information about NDEs (Moody, 1975, pp. 87-88; Oakes, 1981, p. 72; Sabom 1982, p. 139); presumably, information regarding the objective reality of the experience would contribute to such relief. And although NDErs are typically convinced of the objective reality of the NDE based on their own experience (Grey, 1985, p. 34; Jung, 1961, p. 295; Ring, 1980, pp. 82, 94; Ring, 1986; Sabom, 1982, p. 97), at least three cases have been cited in which experients wanted to verify that seemingly realistic NDE perceptions actually corresponded to ~reality" (Clark, 1984, p. 243; Grey, 1985, pp. 37-38; Ring, 1984a, p. 43). NDErs could also benefit if a better understanding of the %bjective reality" of the NDE were available to those with whom the NDEr subsequently interacts. In a recent article containing guidelines about how best to intervene when one encounters a near-death experiencer, the authors stated that ~'caregivers should validate the individual's subjective experience in and of itself. However the individual or the caregiver interprets the NDE and its meaning, the experience itself must be recognized as subjectively real and powerful . . ." (Greyson & Harris, 1987, p. 46). In the absence of evidence regarding the objectivity of the experience, the caregiver is, indeed, limited to a phenomenological approach to intervention; this lack of evidence also limits the scope of the ~straightforward factual information" (p. 46) the caregiver is encouraged to provide. In addition, such evidence would probably limit the ~biases" that caregivers are admonished to control (Clark, 1984, p. 247). Indeed, negative bias on the part of an interviewer has been detected by at least one NDEr (Sabom, 1982, p. 157), and such biases on the part of JANICE MINER HOLDEN 21 caregivers can have a profoundly negative impact on the NDEr's subsequent adjustment (Ring, 1984a, pp. 92-95). Thus further evidence regarding the %bjective reality" of the NDE could enhance the degree to which caregivers can be helpful to NDErs. Even for those of us who are neither NDErs nor their caregivers, a better understanding of the %bjective reality" of the NDE could significantly enhance %ur understanding of the death experience in human life" (Lundahl, 1982, p. 238). Such an understanding also bears upon our continued acceptance of the current scientific paradigm (Tart, 1974) as well as our beliefs about the fundamental nature of human beings (Garfield, 1979, p. 47; Ring, 1980, pp. 219-220; Sabom, 1982, p. 181; Tart, 1975; Widdison, 1982). Thus, although a better understanding of the %bjective reality" of the NDE cannot prove the existence of the human soul, it nevertheless ~'touches upon the very essence and meaning of life" (Sabom, 1982, p. xii). A Review of Veridicality Research Years of r e s ea r ch -and criticism of that r e sea rch -have been spent on the phenomena of both the NDE and the closely related out-of-body experience. What has been said of NDEs could also be said of OBEs: ~Their occurrence, as such, as well as their aftereffects, have now been documented amply and are no longer in doubt. The con t roversy . . , has continued to be concerned with their interpretation and significance" (Ring, 1984b, p. 6). One expression of this controversy is a division among scholars: some believe that these phenomena involve either clairvoyance or actual perception during a ~separation of ~something' 9 from the physical body" (Ring, 1980, p. 221), whereas others believe that these phenomena are the result of very ~down to earth" psychological or neurophysiological mechanisms (Irwin, 1985, pp. 219-220). This controversy between the ~parapsychological" (Gabbard & Twemlow, 1984, p. 134) and ~imaginal" (Irwin, 1985, pp. 219-220) viewpoints continues to rage 9 The fundamental issue in this controversy was encapsulated in Russell Noyes' (1979) observation that ~those of us who only hear of [near-death experiences] have difficulty accepting these experiences as . . . t r u t h . . . " (p. 86). As John Palmer (1978) so cogently pointed out, "It is essential to make a sharp distinction between the experience of being tout-of-body' . . , and the possible fact of such separation. It is logically possible to have the experience of separation without actually separating, i.e., an ~illusory' experience" (p. 19). Despite the fact that ~percep22 JOURNAL OF NEAR-DEATH STUDIES tual realism is reported in the substantial majority of OBEs" (Irwin, 1985, pp. 92-93) and that the NDE has nearly always been described as subjectively real (Grey, 1985, p. 34; Ring, 1980, pp. 82, 94), ~'The feeling of being ~out of the body' in itself means little without evidence that such a separation has in fact occurred" (Anderson, 1981, p. 10). Although this question has been examined in a number of ways, the most common has been the study of veridical perception (Irwin, 1985, p. 59), that is, the extent to which OB perceptions ~correspond precisely to the real (physical) world" (Irwin, 1985, p. 104). Such research has focused on the '~naturalistic" OBE, in which the experient seems to be perceiving ~ a normal ea r th ly . . , realm" (Irwin, 1985, p. 7), usually the physical surroundings including and immediately adjacent to the experient's physical body (Irwin, 1985, p. 88; Ring, 1980, pp. 45-53). In the NDE, the naturalistic component seems to correspond to what Ring identified as ~Stage Two" (1980, pp. 45ff) and what Sabom labeled the ~autoscopic experience" (1982, p. 27). Indeed, the naturalistic ND OBE ~provide[s] one of the few avenues through which to secure data about NDEs that can be independently corroborated" (Ring, 1984a, p. 41, referring to Sabom, 1982). Cases in which experients claim to have acquired veridical information during the naturalistic experience have been replete in the literature of both the OBE (Alvarado, 1983, p. 12; Alvarado, 1984, p. 227; Blackmore, 1982a, p. 296; Blackmore, 1984, p. 234; Green, 1968, pp. 120-134) and NDE (Green & Friedman, 1983, pp. 80-81; Grey, 1985, pp. 37-38; Oakes, 1981, p. 69; Moody, 1975, p. 100; Ring, 1980, pp. 50-52). Informal veridicality research initially involved ex post facto corroboration of experients' descriptions of physical events during their naturalistic ND OBEs. Convincing anecdotes were cited by Kimberly Clark (1984) and Michael Sabom (1981). Several such anecdotes were also noted by Raymond Moody (1975, p. 99) and Kenneth Ring (1984a, pp. 42, 50), but many could not be corroborated. In those cases in which hospital records were available for comparison, Moody (1975) found that the experients' accounts of events during their NDEs were ~r out" (p. 146). Whereas these observations were not the result of systematic investigation, they ~[serve well] to indicate how in principle these accounts do lend themselves to external verification" (Ring, 1984a, p. 43). A more systematic study which, in an ex post facto design, compared NDErs' descriptions of their resuscitations (as purportedly viewed while out of body) with the medical records of their resuscitations, yielded strikingly positi

Rationale and considerations for proposed near-death research in the hospital setting.