Characteristics of Near-Death Experiences Memories as Compared to Real and Imagined Events Memories
📄 Original study ↗📌 Appears in:
Plain English Summary
Here's a wild finding: memories of near-death experiences aren't just vivid — they're richer and more detailed than memories of things that actually happened. That's the 'realer than real' result from this pioneering study out of the University of Liege. Researchers compared memories across four groups — NDE survivors, coma patients without NDEs, coma patients with no memories, and healthy volunteers — using a standardized questionnaire scoring emotional intensity, clarity, and personal significance. NDE memories blew past every other category with highly significant results. The researchers propose these ultra-vivid memories work like 'flashbulb memories' (the kind your brain stamps in during intensely emotional moments) except of hallucinations rather than external events. A 2018 follow-up confirmed the pattern.
Research Notes
Published in PLoS ONE. Pioneering study showing NDE memories are phenomenologically richer than both real and imagined event memories ('realer than real'). Uses modified 15-item MCQ from D'Argembeau & Van der Linden (2008). From Coma Science Group, University of Liege. See Cassol et al. (2018) for follow-up replication.
Study comparing phenomenological characteristics of NDE memories with real and imagined event memories using the Memory Characteristics Questionnaire (MCQ) across four groups: 8 NDE patients, 6 coma patients with non-NDE memories, 7 coma patients without memories, and 18 healthy controls (N=39). NDE memories had significantly higher MCQ total scores than all other memory types (p<0.05), with more self-referential information, emotional content, and clarity than coma memories (all p<0.02). A group effect on target memories was significant (H(3,N=39)=20.57, p<0.001). Authors conclude NDE memories cannot be considered imagined events and propose they are flashbulb memories of hallucinations.
Links
Related Papers
Extended By
- Qualitative thematic analysis of the phenomenology of near-death experiences — Cassol, Helena (2018)
- Characteristics of Memories for Near-Death Experiences — Moore, L.E (2017)
- "Reality" of near-death-experience memories: evidence from a psychodynamic and electrophysiological integrated study — Palmieri, Arianna (2014)
Same Research Program
Companion
- Consistency of Near-Death Experience Accounts over Two Decades: Are Reports Embellished over Time? — Greyson, Bruce (2007)
- Epistemological Implications of Near-Death Experiences and Other Non-Ordinary Mental Expressions: Moving Beyond the Concept of Altered State of Consciousness — Facco, Enrico (2015)
- 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)
- AWARE--AWAreness during REsuscitation--A prospective study — Parnia, Sam (2014)
- There Is Nothing Paranormal about Near-Death Experiences: How Neuroscience Can Explain Seeing Bright Lights, Meeting the Dead, or Being Convinced You Are One of Them — Mobbs, Dean (2011)
Cited By
- Intensity and Memory Characteristics of Near-Death Experiences — Martial, Charlotte (2017)
- Neuro-Functional Modeling of Near-Death Experiences in Contexts of Altered States of Consciousness — Romand, Raymond (2023)
- 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)
- Surge of neurophysiological coherence and connectivity in the dying brain — Borjigin, Jimo (2013)
Also by these authors
More in Nde
The Central Clinical Relevance of Near-Death Experiences in Acute Care Contexts
AWAreness during REsuscitation - II: A Multi-Center Study of Consciousness and Awareness in Cardiac Arrest
Which Near-Death Experience Features Are Associated with Reduced Fear of Death?
Advancing the Evidence for Survival of Consciousness
The Mystical Experience and Its Neural Correlates
📋 Cite this paper
Thonnard, Marie, Charland-Verville, Vanessa, Bredart, Serge, Dehon, Hedwige, Ledoux, Didier, Laureys, Steven, Vanhaudenhuyse, Audrey (2013). Characteristics of Near-Death Experiences Memories as Compared to Real and Imagined Events Memories. PLoS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0057620
@article{thonnard_2013_nde_memory_reality,
title = {Characteristics of Near-Death Experiences Memories as Compared to Real and Imagined Events Memories},
author = {Thonnard, Marie and Charland-Verville, Vanessa and Bredart, Serge and Dehon, Hedwige and Ledoux, Didier and Laureys, Steven and Vanhaudenhuyse, Audrey},
year = {2013},
journal = {PLoS ONE},
doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0057620},
}