The Near-Death Experiences of Hospitalized Intensive Care Patients: A Five Year Clinical Study

by Penny Sartori

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Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen 2008.   564 pp  Refs 32 pp $139.95 HB

The Near-Death Experiences (NDE) is well known from various books over the past several decades. Those who have experienced an NDE are often deeply transformed. They no longer fear death; they feel a clearer sense of purpose in life; and they often open into spiritual awarenesses – even when this had been uncharacteristic for them prior to their NDE. Skeptics have proposed numerous reductionistic explanations for the NDE. They have suggested that this is a wishful fantasy to deny the finality of death; drug-induced delirium; the product of oxygen starvation in a brain that is in a body which came close to death; and so on.

Penny Sartori, a nurse in an ITU in Wales in the UK has written a wonderfully thorough summary of her prospective study of patients who reported an NDE. Standardized NDE scales, an in-depth questionnaire, and a semi-structured interview provided details for a meticulous analysis of the NDE phenomena. The study focused on details of: 1. everyone released alive from the ITU from January to November, 1998 (243 people) who reported an NDE (0.8 percent); 2. Survivors over a five year period who had cardiac arrests (because these people had NDE experiences far more frequently (17.9 percent); and 3. Total sample with NDEs during the five year study period.

The discussions of the findings of this careful study are most thorough. Here are a few of the interesting items reported in this study. Few of the people in the ITU would have mentioned their NDE if they had not been asked. The reductionistic explanations were not supported by the evidence. For instance, neither drugs nor anoxia were found to correlate with NDE reports. The core elements of the NDE were validated. Perhaps of most importance in our death-denying, death avoidant society are the following observations:

Death is currently considered by many to be their greatest enemy. However, as a result of their experience, the two NDErs who reported the deepest NDEs in this study were absolutely certain that death was nothing to fear. They only considered death to be the end of their physical existence. The concept of life after death, however, seems too simplistic a notion as it will transcend all previous bodily experiences. It is therefore essential that we consider what NDEs can teach us about life. It appears that only when one considers death, does one stop and really consider life. If there is one thing I have learned since conducting this research, it is that here and now is important and that NDErs’ spiritual insights have much to teach us all about life and how to live it.

Equally, the most important point to remember is that what occurs after the initial phases, as described by the NDEr, is beyond our comprehension and will remain a mystery until we all, one day, experience it in its entirety, at our own death. (p. 333)

For anyone interested in a thorough understanding of the NDE, this book is a must read.

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