Incidence and Correlates of Near-Death Experiences in a Cardiac Care Unit
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Plain English Summary
In this ambitious 30-month study — the largest of its kind at the time — Greyson tracked nearly 1,600 heart patients to see who reported near-death experiences. The headline: 10% of cardiac arrest survivors described an NDE, versus just 1% of other heart patients. But here's the really fascinating twist: NDEs didn't correlate with how physically close someone was to dying, how sick their heart was, or how their brain was functioning. NDE reporters were younger, more likely to have lost consciousness, and had more prior paranormal-type experiences. This disconnect between NDEs and measurable bodily factors challenges simple "your brain is shutting down" explanations and fuels ongoing debates about the nature of consciousness.
Actual Paper Abstract
Near-death experiences, unusual experiences during a close brush with death, may precipitate pervasive attitudinal and behavior changes. The incidence and psychological correlates of such experiences, and their association with proximity to death, are unclear. We conducted a 30-month survey to identify near-death experiences in a tertiary care center cardiac inpatient service. In a consecutive sample of 1595 patients admitted to the cardiac inpatient service (mean age 63 years, 61% male), of whom 7% were admitted with cardiac arrest, patients who described near-death experiences were matched with comparison patients on diagnosis, gender, and age. Near-death experiences were reported by 10% of patients with cardiac arrest and 1% of other cardiac patients (P.001). Near-death experiencers were younger than other patients (P.001), were more likely to have lost consciousness (P.001) and to report prior purportedly paranormal experiences (P.009), and had greater approach-oriented death acceptance (P.01). Near-death experiencers and comparison patients did not differ in sociodemographic variables, social support, quality of life, acceptance of their illness, cognitive function, capacity for physical activities, degree of cardiac dysfunction, objective proximity to death, or coronary prognosis.
Research Notes
The largest prospective cardiac NDE survey at publication, complementing the van Lommel (2001) Dutch and Parnia (2001) British studies. The finding that NDEs correlate with cardiac arrest but not objective physiological measures challenges purely neurological explanations and is widely cited in the consciousness-survival debate.
A 30-month prospective survey of 1,595 patients admitted to the cardiology service at the University of Virginia identified near-death experiences using the NDE Scale (≥7 threshold). Of 116 cardiac arrest survivors, 10% reported NDEs compared to 1% of patients with other cardiac diagnoses (P < .001). NDErs (N=27) were younger (56±13 vs 64±13, P < .001), more likely to have lost consciousness (63% vs 18%, P < .001), reported more prior purportedly paranormal experiences (P=.009), and showed greater approach-oriented death acceptance (P=.01). No differences were found in cognitive function, quality of life, cardiac dysfunction severity, objective proximity to death, or coronary prognosis. The largest prospective NDE survey in cardiac patients at time of publication.
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Cites
Same Research Program
- Consistency of Near-Death Experience Accounts over Two Decades: Are Reports Embellished over Time? — Greyson, Bruce (2007)
- Seeing Dead People Not Known to Have Died: "Peak in Darien" Experiences — Greyson, Bruce (2010)
- Epistemological Implications of Near-Death Experiences and Other Non-Ordinary Mental Expressions: Moving Beyond the Concept of Altered State of Consciousness — Facco, Enrico (2015)
- Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms Following Near-Death Experiences — Greyson, Bruce (2001)
- Near-Death Experiences with Reports of Meeting Deceased People — Kelly, Emily Williams (2001)
Extended By
Cited By
- Non-local Consciousness: A Concept Based on Scientific Research on Near-Death Experiences During Cardiac Arrest — van Lommel, Pim (2013)
- The Central Clinical Relevance of Near-Death Experiences in Acute Care Contexts — Michael, Pascal (2025)
- The Mystical Experience and Its Neural Correlates — Woollacott, Marjorie (2020)
- Advancing the Evidence for Survival of Consciousness — Delorme, Arnaud (2021)
- Infrequent Near Death Experiences in Severe Brain Injury Survivors - A Quantitative and Qualitative Study — Hou, Yongmei (2013)
- Cosmological Implications of Near-Death Experiences — Greyson, Bruce (2011)
- Epistemological Implications of Near-Death Experiences and Other Non-Ordinary Mental Expressions: Moving Beyond the Concept of Altered State of Consciousness — Facco, Enrico (2015)
- Temporality of Features in Near-Death Experience Narratives — Martial, Charlotte (2017)
- Explanation of Near-Death Experiences: A Systematic Analysis of Case Reports and Qualitative Research — Hashemi, Amirhossein (2023)
- Near-Death Experience, Consciousness, and the Brain: A New Concept About the Continuity of Our Consciousness Based on Recent Scientific Research on Near-Death Experience in Survivors of Cardiac Arrest — van Lommel, Pim (2006)
- Surge of neurophysiological coherence and connectivity in the dying brain — Borjigin, Jimo (2013)
- AWAreness during REsuscitation - II: A Multi-Center Study of Consciousness and Awareness in Cardiac Arrest — Parnia, Sam (2023)
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📋 Cite this paper
Greyson, Bruce (2003). Incidence and Correlates of Near-Death Experiences in a Cardiac Care Unit. General Hospital Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0163-8343(03)00042-2
@article{greyson_2003_incidence_nde_cardiac,
title = {Incidence and Correlates of Near-Death Experiences in a Cardiac Care Unit},
author = {Greyson, Bruce},
year = {2003},
journal = {General Hospital Psychiatry},
doi = {10.1016/S0163-8343(03)00042-2},
}