Kenneth Ring

Life at Death (1980) reported structured interviews with 102 people who had come close to death.^[1] Ring found that the experience unfolded in a rough order of stages, from peace through separation from the body to entering light, with fewer people reaching each later stage. He also found that how a person nearly died, and how religious they were beforehand, made little difference to whether they had an experience.

Heading Toward Omega (1984) turned to after-effects. Ring documented lasting changes in values and outlook among experiencers.^[2]

With Sharon Cooper he studied near-death and out-of-body experiences in blind people, including some blind from birth, who reported visual impressions.^[3] The study is widely discussed and its interpretation is contested.

His later book Lessons from the Light gathered accounts of the life review and its effects.

Ring's samples were volunteers and were interviewed, in many cases, years after the event. Later prospective studies in hospitals confirmed several of his findings and did not confirm a fixed order of stages. Critics of the blindness study note that the reports cannot be independently checked.

Ring's research on after-effects and on the life review belongs to the literature that informed the framework. He has no connection to The Source of Aletheia and has not reviewed or endorsed Universal Panpsychism.

1. Ring, K. (1980). Life at death: A scientific investigation of the near-death experience. Coward, McCann & Geoghegan.
2. Ring, K. (1984). Heading toward Omega: In search of the meaning of the near-death experience. William Morrow.
3. Ring, K., & Cooper, S. (1999). Mindsight: Near-death and out-of-body experiences in the blind. William James Center for Consciousness Studies.