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The near-death experience as a dissociative phenomenon: An empirical

assessment

Article in Journal of Near-Death Studies · January 1993

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The Near-Death Experience as a
Dissociative Phenomenon: An
Empirical Assessment

Harvey J. Irwin, Ph.D.

University of New England

ABSTRACT: Many commentators, particularly those working in a psychi

atric framework, interpret the near-death experience as a dissociative phenom
enon. The present study sought to assess the hypothesis that near-death
experiencers are characterized by a dissociative response style engendered by
severely traumatic childhood experiences. A postal survey of 121 Australian
university students failed to identify a dissociative response style in experi
encers, but these people did evidence a distinctive history of traumatic events
in childhood. An attempt is made to reconcile these seemingly paradoxical
findings.

In much of the psychiatric literature the near-death experience (NDE)

is interpreted as an instance of dissociation. The purpose of this paper is
to examine this view and to subject it to empirical investigation.
Some preliminary remarks on the nature of dissociation are appro
priate. In the usual course of everyday life processes such as thoughts,
memories, feelings, and sense of identity are relatively integrated. A
particular train of thought, for example, may rekindle a distant mem
ory that in turn may evoke various emotional reactions and may
reaffirm the roots of the person we are. Dissociation may be defined as
a structured separation of such mental processes (Spiegel and Cardena,

Harvey J. Irwin, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of New

England in Armidale, Australia. Reprint requests should be addressed to Dr. Irwin at
the Department of Psychology, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales
2351, Australia.

Journalof Near-Death Studies, 12(2) Winter 1993

1993 Human Sciences Press, Inc. 95
96 JOURNAL OF NEAR-DEATH STUDIES

1991). That is, feelings may be separated or "dissociated" from memo

ries of specific incidents, and some memories may be kept separate or
"repressed" from the flow of conscious thought. In pathological forms of
dissociation such as multiple personality disorder, different clusters of
memories and feelings may be maintained as separate "identities"
within the one individual.
Although these processes lie at the heart of the so-called dissociative
disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 1987), dissociation in it
self is not pathological. Dissociative experiences are common in the
general population (Ross, Joshi, and Currie, 1990). The capacity for
dissociation evidently develops spontaneously in childhood as a normal
process intrinsically associated with fantasy and imaginative ability
(Putnam, 1991). Thus, young children commonly exhibit intense ab
sorption in an activity, rapid attentional shifts, forgetfulness, and a
capacity to take on another identity during play. Dissociative experi
ences in adolescence, however, tend to be transient and their incidence
declines markedly between early adolescence and early adulthood
(Ross, 1989). In normal adulthood, dissociative experiences are increas
ingly infrequent, their distribution across age being markedly skewed
in the positive direction (Ross, Joshi, and Currie, 1990).
Some young children apparently capitalize on their heightened disso
ciative ability as the basis of a psychological coping mechanism. A
rapidly expanding body of data (e.g., Sanders and Giolas, 1991) sug
gests that extraordinary childhood trauma is responsible for inducing
this defensive use of dissociative processes. According to Spiegel
(1986), although dissociation initially is used at the time of the trauma
as a defense against (or attempt to adapt to) the associated pain and the
sense of extreme vulnerability, the dissociative response subsequently
becomes relied upon increasingly as a defense mechanism. In very
general terms this course of development is construed as the origin of
the dissociative disorders, in which the individual's mental processes
become habitually fragmented. But the incidence of dissociative phe
nomena in otherwise normal adults is generally taken as an indication
that many people develop a dissociative coping style without reaching
the point where they fulfill the criteria for the diagnosis of a dissocia
tive disorder.
The NDE frequently is spoken of, and even defined, as an instance of
dissociation (e.g., Spiegel and Cardena, 1991). Indeed, Serdahely (1992)
recently has proposed that the NDE and multiple personality disorder
are variants of the same phenomenological pattern. More typically this
depiction of the NDE has been presented in terms of the concept of
depersonalization, a psychiatric symptom that entails an altered sense
HARVEY J. IRWIN 97

of self. Among near-death researchers the first influential writer to

adopt this approach was Russell Noyes. Particularly in his early writ
ings Noyes (e.g., Noyes and Kletti, 1976) identified the NDE with
depersonalization almost as a matter of definition, although he did
support that definition by noting parallels between some phenome
nological elements of the NDE and previously identified symptoms in
depersonalized patients (e.g., Slater and Roth, 1969).
At the heart of the sense of self, however, is an awareness of one's
identity. It is arguable that in phenomenological terms, a person hav
ing an NDE does not have an altered sense of identity. On the con
trary, many near-death experiencers (NDErs) report that their impres
sion of their self identity during the NDE was particularly lucid. What
is altered in the NDE is the individual's association of self identity
with their physical body, or more precisely, with current bodily sensa
tions. In a life-threatening situation these sensations commonly would
include anxiety symptoms and physical pain. During the NDE the
experiencer is seemingly oblivious to such sensations. Indeed, the
NDEr is oblivious also to the diverse somaesthetic and kinesthetic
sensations that normally serve to remind one that phenomenologically
speaking, the self is "in" the body. In psychiatric terminology these
symptoms are most aptly described as dissociation rather than simply
as depersonalization. From this perspective, sense of identity and men
tal imagery appear to be dissociated from physical sensations and (the
physical concomitants of) emotions. In any event it is fair to say that a
number of researchers working in a psychiatric framework, including
those who prefer the terminology of depersonalization, essentially are
interpreting the NDE as a dissociative phenomenon.
Under the dissociation model it might be predicted that many NDErs
are characterized by a dissociative coping style. In other words, NDErs
may react to threatening circumstances with dissociative behavior
because they were prompted to develop such a coping style in child
hood. Little attention seems to have been devoted to a direct empirical
assessment of this hypothesis. The recent study by Kenneth Ring and
Christopher Rosing (1990) nevertheless is most pertinent. A compari
son between NDErs and control participants was undertaken on an
inventory of items concerning childhood abuse and trauma. Ring and
Rosing reported a significant difference between the groups on all
dimensions surveyed, namely physical abuse, psychological abuse, sex
ual abuse, neglect, and negative home atmosphere. These researchers
interpret their data to imply that as a result of a history of childhood
abuse, NDErs develop a "dissociative response style" (p. 231), enabling
them to "tune into" alternate, nonordinary realities (p. 232).
98 JOURNAL OF NEAR-DEATH STUDIES

Although Ring and Rosing's notion of the nonordinary reality of an

NDE is a moot inference, their findings do offer a degree of support for
the dissociation approach to NDEs. There are, however, some limita
tions to their study. One problem is that the surveyed dimensions of
childhood trauma may well be intercorrelated. Although Ring and
Rosing acknowledged this point, they did not utilize a statistical
procedure such as discriminant analysis to overcome the problem,
apparently opting instead for a series of univariate tests. It is possible,
therefore, that their two groups in effect did not differ on all aspects of
trauma. By way of illustration, if "neglect" is a common element in
many other childhood traumas, the groups may differ on this factor
but not on other factors once the contribution of neglect has been
partialled out. A second limitation of the study is that it surveyed a
comparatively limited range of childhood trauma. Use of a broader
index of trauma not only would offer the opportunity for a construc
tive replication of Ring and Rosing's findings, but also might reveal
other categories of trauma that have a bearing on NDErs' alleged
dissociative coping style. Additionally, there is scope for undertaking
a direct test of the dissociation hypothesis by assessing NDErs'
relative proneness to dissociative experiences.
In seeking to address these limitations of the previous research the
present study sought to assess further a dissociation approach to the
NDE.

Method

Participants

The study was undertaken as part of a larger postal questionnaire

survey of adults enrolled in an off-campus Introductory Psychology
course taught through the University of New England in Australia.
Students in this course generally are of mature age; most are in paid
employment, some are homemakers. This group thus may be deemed
to be more similar to the general population than are typical under
graduate psychology students.
Survey forms were mailed to the 152 members of the class. Com
pleted forms were returned by 121 people, a participation rate of 80
percent. The net sample comprised 32 men and 89 women, ranging in
age from 19 to 72 years (mean = 37.1, median = 36).
HARVEY J. IRWIN 99

Materials

The survey inventory included three questionnaires. One was a brief

form requesting details of gender and age, and asking if the respondent
had had an NDE, that is, a transcendent state of consciousness or
awareness experienced under life-threatening circumstances. The
other two questionnaires related to dissociation and to childhood
trauma.
The measure of proneness to dissociation was Kevin Riley's (1988)
Questionnaire of Experiences of Dissociation (QED). The QED com
prises 26 dichotomous (true/false) items tapping experiences of disso
ciative phenomena. Scores thus may range from 0 to 26, with higher
scores signifying a greater range of dissociative experiences acknowl
edged by the respondent. The QED has been standardized on normal
samples. The scale's reliability is satisfactory, and the measure has
been validated both through application to clinical samples with disso
ciative disorders (Riley, 1988) and by factor analytic comparison to
another similar measure (Ray, June, Turaj, and Lundy, 1992).
Childhood trauma was indexed by the Survey of Traumatic Child
hood Events (STCE) (Council and Edwards, 1987). The 30 items of the
STCE tap childhood trauma of eleven types: intrafamilial sexual
abuse, extrafamilial sexual abuse, intrafamilial physical abuse, loss
related to a friend, loss related to the family, isolation, personal illness
or accident, parental divorce/separation and abortion/miscarriage, as
sault, loss of the home, and robbery. Responses are made on a five
point scale (1 = "none", to 5 = "more than ten"). For each of the eleven
subscales a score is computed by summation across items, with high
scores attesting to a high incidence of the given class of childhood
trauma. No psychometric data for the STCE are yet available.

Procedure

An informed consent form was attached to the front of the inventory

mailed to potential participants. This sheet explained the objective of
the study, drawing attention to the personal nature of items in the
STCE and stressing that participation was voluntary and confidential.
An appeal was made to participants to respond as spontaneously and
openly as possible.
Participants returned their completed questionnaires in a stamped
envelope supplied by the researcher. A substantial majority of
100 JOURNAL OF NEAR-DEATH STUDIES

inventories were returned within a few weeks of the original distribu

tion, but occasional returns still were being received some three
months later. At the latter date a decision was made to regard the
process of data collection as complete, and statistical analysis then was
undertaken.

Results

For the purpose of statistical analysis, participants were allocated to

one of two groups on the basis of their response to the item about a past
NDE. Ten students responded affirmatively to this question; they were
designated as NDErs. The remaining 111 participants served as a
control group. The incidence of NDErs in the sample thus was 8
percent, a result comparable to findings of previous research (Locke
and Shontz, 1983). It may be noted that all NDErs in the sample had
encountered their experience at the age of 18 years or older; that is, the
NDE did not occur in childhood and thus its circumstances can not be
regarded as one of the childhood trauma indexed by the STCE.
Mean scores on each of the research measures are given for each
group in Table 1.

Table 1
Mean Scores of each Group on Measures of Dissociation (QED)
and Childhood Trauma (STCE)
NDErs Controls
Scale (n = 10) (n = 111)
QED 10.40 8.96
STCE scales
Intrafamilial sexual abuse 3.10 3.87
Intrafamilial physical abuse 17.30 15.46
Loss related to friend 4.20 3.45
Extrafamilial sexual abuse 6.20 4.42
Loss related to family 3.90 4.79
Isolation 2.90 2.60
Personal illness or accident 2.60 2.60
Parental divorce or separation;
abortion or miscarriage 2.40 2.47
Assault 4.10 2.63
Loss of home 5.30 4.64
Robbery 1.00 1.05
HARVEY J. IRWIN 101

Although the mean QED score for NDErs was slightly higher than
that for the control participants, the difference between groups was not
significant (t = 0.96, df = 119). That is, there is no evidence here that
NDErs as a group are especially prone to dissociation.
A discriminant function analysis was performed using the eleven
subscales of the STCE as predictors of membership in the two groups.
The discriminant function was highly significant (chi-squared = 27.24,
df = 10, p < .005). Dimensions of childhood trauma contributing
substantially to the prediction of group membership were assault (ca
nonical loading = .65), extrafamilial sexual abuse (.41), and loss re
lated to a friend (.37).

Discussion

The lack of any evident difference between NDErs and others in

proneness to dissociation is an interesting result. It suggests that
experiencers are not habitually inclined to use a dissociative response
style. In this respect the findings do not offer support for Ring and
Rosing's (1990) interpretations of their data, nor indeed for the claim of
Serdahely (1992) that the NDE and multiple personality disorder are
variants of the same phenomenological pattern. This result does war
rant replication in a larger sample of NDErs, but given that for my
sample the value of t was less than 1, the prospects for establishing a
significant relationship seem remote.
At the same time the data clearly support the broad findings of Ring
and Rosing (1990), that NDErs as a group tend to have had a relatively
traumatic childhood. Because the trauma indexed by the STCE oc
curred before the NDE, the higher level of traumatic events in the
NDErs' childhood is not a mere confound of the circumstances of the
NDE itself. The results of the discriminant function analysis therefore
attest to a significant developmental difference between experiencers
and nonexperiencers.
Contrary to the findings of Ring and Rosing, however, the data
suggest that some traumatic events are much more important than
others in discriminating between the two groups of people. The factors
contributing most strongly to the discrimination were assault by a
stranger, extrafamilial sexual abuse, and separation by injury, illness,
or death from a close personal friend. One possibly cogent characteristic
of these specific types of traumatic event is their episodic and unpredict
able nature. Some of the factors that did not contribute to the discrimi
nant function, on the other hand, commonly tend to be persistent
102 JOURNAL OF NEAR-DEATH STUDIES

and relatively predictable in the life of the traumatized child, such as

intrafamilial sexual abuse, intrafamilial physical abuse, and living in
isolation.
This characteristic of the discriminating trauma in NDErs' child
hood suggests a means of reconciling the STCE results with those for
the QED. It is possible that childhood events encountered by NDErs in
fact do not induce a general dissociative defense style that is used
whenever the person has difficulty in coping with prevailing circum
stances. Rather, severe and unpredictable episodic trauma may en
gender a tendency to use a dissociative response in specific situations
marked by a highly stressful but unforeseen threat. In other words, the
dissociative defense may be relatively situation-specific. This version
of the dissociation model would account for the occurrence of an NDE
when such an individual is in a life-threatening context and for the
paradoxically "normal" level of dissociative behavior in most other
settings. Perhaps other researchers will be able to replicate my find
ings and extend my speculations through a detailed formulation of a
dissociation model of the NDE.

References

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