LGBT Near-Death Experience Researcher Seeks LGBT Near-Death Experiencers for Online Survey as Part of New Study and Book
We get a great deal of press releases across our desks/emails and some are just way out there and some are spot on – we need to share – kind of content. When we received this one, I was not sure which one it was.
Clinical psychologist and author Liz Dale is asking anyone — but especially those in the LGBT community — who has had a near-death experience (NDE) to participate in an online survey regarding the experience and its consequences. Survey results will inform a groundbreaking study and a new book to be published by Balboa Press, a division of Hay House. The survey is live now at www.lizdale.com/survey.html.
So wait, why are we being targeted for a NDE study? Are we as LGBT peeps more prone to experience NDEs? I am not so sure about that, but I personally have not brushes with death, but brushes with life-changing occurrences.
I’m a little too young to have been in the thick of the AIDS crisis (well, we are still in it really), but I have older friends that had lost countless members of their chosen family in the early years. At the ripe age of 46 now, I do remember the AIDS scare, the death sentence and of course we are now learning the truth about living long lives with AIDS/HIV and loving fellow men and accepting them with U=U. But the time in the middle was when I was doing the things we do and I remember a couple of hour long hot showers as the thoughts went through my head after being contacted to come in and get tested as a “partner” had disclosed they were HIV positive. I don’t think I took hotter or longer showers since then. And there were the times that many of us would think of suicide, usually before coming out, but luckily, something stopped us.
So, I do not know if this study is focusing on some of those aspects that I experienced or something more
The forthcoming book on NDE aftereffects will not be Dale’s first. In 2000, she published “Crossing Over and Coming Home: Twenty-One Authors Discuss the Gay Near-Death Experience as Spiritual Transformation” (Emerald Ink Publications, 2000) Another research named Pamela Kirsher, M.D., author of the NDE book “Love Is The Link,” had this to say about Dale’s book:
“People in the gay community have been close to death on so many occasions since the onslaught of the AIDS epidemic that they have become the natural experts on NDEs in our time. Because they not only had NDEs themselves, but are also surrounded by other people who have had NDEs. These communities are becoming a prototype of what communities might be. We are acutely aware of our own mortality and live from the values learned in an NDE. Dr. Liz Dale’s compilation of NDE stories from the gay community is a welcome and timely addition to the NDE literature. Her research into NDEs in the gay community is groundbreaking.”
Participating in such a study could be therapeutic for some but could be triggering for others. I know I have handled my demons from the past, but some of us may still need help dealing with our very personal challenges. This post could even trigger some people to think too much about what they have fought to put behind them. Remember, if you ever need help, reach out to loved ones, but there is also the Trevor Project (https://www.thetrevorproject.org/).
What do you think, Instincters?
- Do we as LGBTQ+ peeps have more Near Death Experiences?
- Are we the “natural experts on NDEs in our time?”
- Would you participate in the study?
- Do you think this study is just way off?
About the Author
Liz Dale, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist whose expertise is near-death experience (NDE) research within the LGBT community. Upon learning that no such research existed, she contacted the LGBT community over a two-year period and published her findings in a groundbreaking book entitled, “Crossing Over and Coming Home” (Emerald Ink Publications, 2000).
Dale’s official site (www.lizdale.com) has become an important resource for those with academic or personal interests in the NDE phenomenon. It includes access to five free NDE books in ebook format to download, as well as links to LGBT-focused articles on Amazon.com, Wikipedia and Google, among other information repositories. Dale anticipates that her new survey will make important contributions to the literature, as well as pave the way for future investigations.
The International Association for Near Death Studies is sponsoring a complementary NDE study. Interested parties can learn more at www.iands.org.
Follow the full story here: https://przen.com/pr/33386909
Source: digitaljournal.com
Hi, I’m a 65 year old man who’s had a NDE and I’m looking for anyone interested to talk to about this subject.
I’ve written a manuscript about my experience.
What is most important about Dr. Dale’s work is not whether the LGBTQ community is more prone to NDEs but whether in such experiences the LGBTQ near-death experiencer had any reflections or insights arise about their sexual orientation and identity in their n-d experience. I got interested in Liz Dale’s research many years ago because I’m a longtime student of near-death studies, and I’m also a longtime ally and advocate for the LGBTQ community (though straight myself). Near-death experiencers often have classic life reviews that feature core issues about their earthly journey up to that point. I wondered one day whether anyone had focused on n-d experiences in the gay community, because statistically there had to have been quite a few stories. That’s when I found Liz Dale’s first study and book.The answer is, at least in her first major study, sexual orientation and identity barely registered in the experience of these 21 cases! Seems significant to me in at least one way: feeling judged did not happen with a single experiencer. One can pass off the study as meaningless if one is sure material existence is all there is, but if the possibility that our existence is held in a multi-dimensional reality that transcends strict physicalism, then Dale’s studies raise some interesting questions.
Hi, I’m a 65 year old man who’s had a NDE and I’m looking for anyone interested to talk to about this subject.
I’ve written a manuscript about my experience.