Near-Death Experiences Still Fascinate Researchers, Public : Afterlife: Theologians disagree on meaning of phenomena reportedly experienced by millions.

Twenty years ago, when psychiatrist Raymond Moody began to publish his research on near-death experiences, he was a pioneer in a field that was viewed, in some of the kinder assessments, as an academic and medical curiosity.

Now he is one of the senior figures in a growing field of researchers and popular authors who have lent credibility and reams of research, as well as compelling personal accounts, to the proposition that people can briefly pierce the veil between now and the hereafter and come back to tell about it.

Whether embraced as a down payment on the promise of an afterlife, studied as a medical idiosyncrasy or attacked as a delusion of the devil, near-death experiences are laughed at a lot less these days. The prospect has engaged the interest of researchers, theologians and those who cater to the public’s curiosity about the possibility of eternal life.

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“There is a whole spectrum of responses, but what you don’t have anymore is (people saying) that this doesn’t exist,” said Dr. Bruce Greyson, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Connecticut Medical School, who has spent 20 years studying people who have had near-death experiences.

The researchers are not wanting for subjects. Pollster George Gallup Jr. estimated in his 1982 book, “Adventures in Immortality,” that about 8 million people in the U.S. population had had some kind of near-death mystical encounter.

About 35% of those who come close to death report near-death experiences, according to the International Assn. for Near Death Studies Inc., of Hartford, Conn. Greyson said other studies have produced similar figures.

Inevitably, discussion of near-death phenomena leads not only to scientific but also religious questions--and the answers vary from group to group. The Roman Catholic Church takes a cautious approach to the issue, and some evangelicals see near-death experiences as a purely medical experience or a devil-caused delusion.

Near-death experiences may be intriguing, but most Catholic theologians would not view them as proof of an afterlife, said Villanova University theology professor Bernard Prusak from his Philadelphia office. The Catholic Church has no official teaching on the subject, he said.

Evangelical author Bill Alnor said that the descriptions of near-death experiences tend to change with the times and that the current crop of accounts reflects a societal shift from the Judeo-Christian perspective.

“A lot of people (who have had near-death experiences) claim to be coming from a Christian context, but if you look closely, they are unorthodox in many ways,” said Alnor, director of Eastern Christian Outreach of Philadelphia.

Noting that some descriptions of near-death experiences omit any mention of a hell or a judgment, Alnor said: “It is very possible that if anyone is meeting someone on the other side, it is the old Angel of Light, whom the Bible calls Lucifer.”

W. Ward Gasque, dean of graduate studies at Eastern College in St. Davids, Pa., said that although many in mainstream evangelical circles would exercise skepticism, there also is “a degree of openness to the reality that one might get messages from the spiritual world at the time of a near-death experience.”

Although no one has been able to pin down why a near-death experience occurs, Greyson said people who say they have had them describe some or all of these phenomena: a sense of overwhelming peace and well-being, being “out of the body,” going through a dark tunnel-like enclosure, encountering light or a being of light and entering some otherworldly realm.

It is also common for people to go through a review of their life and to see loved ones who have died, Greyson said.

Although the religious figures encountered may vary from culture to culture, the basic “otherworldly” phenomena is consistent throughout different societies, Greyson said.

Because curiosity about the subject crosses professional, denominational and cultural lines, there is a persistent public appetite for scientific research and personal accounts of near-death experiences.

Moody has shared his results with business groups, ministerial organizations, medical societies and university audiences.

The impressive number of books sold on the subject testifies to a strong craving for information, or reassurance, on the part of the American public.

Moody said his “Life After Life,” a study of near-death experiences published in 1975, has sold more than 10 million copies in 38 languages.

Betty Eadie’s book, “Embraced by the Light,” published a year ago, has been near the top of the New York Times bestseller list for more than 20 weeks.

More than 915,000 hardback copies of Eadie’s first-person account of her near-death experience have been printed, with the count expected to reach 1 million after Christmas, according to her publicist, Kylie Robertson.

“It’s absolutely extraordinary, the way her book is selling,” said Diane Reverand, editor-in-chief at Villard Books.

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The important element in Eadie’s success, Reverand said, is her unabashedly Christian perspective. Eadie reports meeting Jesus, angels and other spiritual beings after undergoing surgery in 1973.

Recently Villard introduced Moody’s latest work, “Reunions: Visionary Encounters with Departed Loved Ones,” with a printing of 100,000 hardcover copies. “Reunions” is an account of the researcher’s work with more than 300 individuals, many of whom say they experienced contact with the dead through the medium of mirror-gazing and other means inspired by the religious practices of the ancient Greeks.

Reverand said she expects the book to do well with baby boomers who are confronting the death of their parents and their own mortality as they enter middle age.