Quantifying something that is inherently intangible is one of the greatest difficulties when it comes to researching anecdotal, mental, ephemeral, and/or “random” occurrences. That is why many researchers, such as Dr. Bruce Greyson, have developed several models to better quantify and study these phenomena.
While this scale certainly helps with group and individual clinical or academic studies, attempting to apply these systems to historical actors and events is, at the very least, quite troublesome and, at most, outright discarded by the historical field (for good reason).
Dr. Bruce Greyson M.D.
For those historians familiar with the psychoanalytic approach to history, it is generally understood to no longer be an adequate tool for historical knowledge. While these methods had their moments throughout the development of modern psychology, they have typically been regarded as poor scholarship since psychologists and historians can only study extant materials rather than conduct intimate, one-on-one interviews and studies (amongst other more complex and nuanced issues within the field of history and historiography).
Applying scales like Greyson’s NDE Scale directly, I agree, does constitutes poor scholarship and undermines the advances made in the historical profession. That said, these tools can be used as a guide rather than a diagnostic tool. Thus, I am supplying a copy of Dr. Greyson’s NDE scale below for researchers to get a better understanding of what is looked for in these sources.
Questions
1. Did time seem to speed up or slow down?
0 = No
1 = Time seemed to go faster or slower than usual
2 = Everything seemed to be happening at once; or time stopped or lost all meaning
2. Were your thoughts speeded up?
0 = No
1 = Faster than usual
2 = Incredibly fast
3. Did scenes from your past come back to you?
0 = No
1 = I remembered many past events
2 = My past flashed before me, out of my control
4. Did you suddenly seem to understand everything?
0 = No
1 = Everything about myself or others
2 = Everything about the universe
5. Did you have a feeling of peace or pleasantness?
0 = No
1 = Relief or calmness
2 = Incredible peace or pleasantness
6. Did you have a feeling of joy?
0 = No
1 = Happiness
2 = Incredible joy
7. Did you feel a sense of harmony or unity with the universe?
0 = No
1 = I felt no longer in conflict with nature
2 = I felt united or one with the world
8. Did you see, or feel surrounded by, a brilliant light?
0 = No
1 = An unusually bright light
2 = A light clearly of mystical or other-worldly origin
9. Were your senses more vivid than usual?
0 = No
1 = More vivid than usual
2 = Incredibly more vivid
10. Did you seem to be aware of things going on elsewhere, as if by extrasensory perception (ESP)?
0 = No
1 = Yes, but the facts have not been checked out
2 = Yes, and the facts have been checked out
11. Did scenes from the future come to you?
0 = No
1 = Scenes from my personal future
2 = Scenes from the world’s future
12. Did you feel separated from your body?
0 = No
1 = I lost awareness of my body
2 = I clearly left my body and existed outside it
13. Did you seem to enter some other, unearthly world?
0 = No
1 = Some unfamiliar and strange place
2 = A clearly mystical or unearthly realm
14. Did you seem to encounter a mystical being or presence, or hear an unidentifiable voice?
0 = No
1 = I heard a voice I could not identify
2 = I encountered a definite being, or a voice clearly of mystical or unearthly origin
15. Did you see deceased or religious spirits?
0 = No
1 = I sensed their presence
2 = I actually saw them
16. Did you come to a border or point of no return?
0 = No
1 = I came to a definite conscious decision to “return” to life
2 = I came to a barrier that I was not permitted to cross; or was “sent back” against my will.
A score of 7 or higher is considered a NDE for research purposes. The mean score among a large sample of near-death experiences is 15.
SCORING:
Sum of all 16 items = total NDE Scale score
Among a criterion group of NDErs, the mean score on this scale was 15 with a standard deviation of 7.84; we therefore use a score of 7 or greater (1 standard deviation below the mean) as the cut-off point for identifying an experience as an NDE.
Sum of items 1-4 = cognitive component
Sum of items 5-8 = affective component
Sum of items 9-12 = paranormal component
Sum of items 13-16 = transcendental component
SCORING TYPE OF NDE:
Cognitive type = cognitive component score 5 or higher
Transcendental type = cognitive component score less than 5 and transcendental component score 5 or higher
Affective type = cognitive and transcendental component scores each less than five, and affective component score 5 or higher
Paranormal type = cognitive, transcendental, and affective component scores each less than 5, and paranormal component score 5 or greater
Unclassifiable = no component score 5 or greater
https://iands.org/research/nde-research/important-research-articles/698-greyson-nde-scale.html
Greyson, B. (1983). The Near-Death Experience Scale: Construction, reliability, and validity. Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease, 171, 369-375.
Greyson, B. (1985). A typology of near-death experiences. American Journal of Psychiatry, 142, 967-969.
Greyson, B. (1990). Near-death encounters with and without near-death experiences: Comparative NDE Scale profiles. Journal of Near-Death Studies, 8, 151-161.
The Katabasis Project 