I have corresponded with Dr. Long before via e-mail, and being one that accepts the possibility of NDEs being some sort of transcendent experience I think he's a little too over-enthusiastic. He told me about his book back in December, and he made it sound like it was his mission to tell the whole world about NDEs. I think his heart's in the right place, but he's overestimating his case. I personally think also appearing on Coast-to-Coast AM (Long's been on there more than once) also some what makes you seem a little bit looney and I think that's a reason why other researchers have avoided things like that.
Paul, from what I've heard (as I haven't read the book) his book does refer to some cases submitted via the online form on NDERF. I think his book might be a bit of a stretch to call it scientific, I'll give you that much.
There's no doubt that among the 2,000 NDE accounts on NDERF that there are probably some that are fake or fabricated. However, I kind of doubt the assumption that all of the accounts submitted there are fake, that's almost conspiracy theory territory there. Anita Moorjani's account was submitted on there and there are news articles that at least shows proof the very least she had a medical crisis:
Anita M's NDE 2766 NDERF Forum :: View topic - Anita Moorjani's NDE :: Anita Moorjani :: Creating Heaven on Earth (Anita's website which contains media references and interviews about her experience, note that some of them are skeptical)
On an interesting note, and I think it's something that a lot of people aren't aware of is where Kevin Nelson got his sample from for his REM Intrusion study on NDEs. If you take a look, surprise, surprise:
Quote:
To try to answer this question, Nelson, Mattingly, Lee, and Schmitt
conducted a study involving a survey of an NDE group and
a comparison group. For the NDE group, 446 North American adult
self-reported NDErs, who had posted their NDEs at the Near-Death
Experience Research Foundation (NDERF) web site, were invited by
e-mail to participate in a study.
|
http://www.iands.org/images/stories/...mintrusion.pdf
I think there's a problem there. If people are skeptical about Long using accounts in his book from his website (which as Paul pointed out anyone can submit an account to and thus the possibility of forgery), shouldn't we be careful about Nelson's study? I hope Dr. Nelson at least got permission from hospitals to at least see if the people he interviewed are at least telling the truth, that they were in the hospital. Thus potentially within the interviews he did for his study, there's the possibility his sample could have been contaminated by people who've never had an NDE and only made one up (potentially to seek attention, etc.).
However, even with verification of a medical crisis in the hospital there still is a bit of "faith" or "trust" required in the research regardless if you view NDEs as a brain generated experience or a glimpse of another dimension. You could be there to witness someone at a hospital clinically die and be revived and he or she will discuss about having an NDE right after. However, given that NDEs are subjective experiences, do you know for sure they actually had one? Once again, there's the potential for fraud, maybe the patient has a good imagination and made up the experience after their "death" for reasons such as attention seeking.
My point is that yeah, Dr. Long's reporting service is not perfect. I think he or his wife actually points out it's up to the reader to decide whether an account on his website is true or not. But at the same time, even with skeptical studies like Dr. Nelson's we kind of have to take for word that the NDE patients are telling the truth.
02-03-2010, 11:05 AM
94. Dr. Jeffrey Long?s Near-Death Experience Research a ?Game Changer? for Science (P 
