This article requires a subscription to view the full text. If you have a subscription you may use the login form below to view the article. Access to this article can also be purchased.
To The Editor:
We read with interest the article by Nelson et al. suggesting an association between REM intrusion and near-death experience (NDE).1 We applaud their creative hypothesis about NDE, but caution against drawing premature etiologic conclusions from a correlational study.
Their NDE sample, drawn from volunteers who shared their NDE on the Internet, may be atypical of most NDE experiencers in their willingness to acknowledge unusual experiences publicly. Moreover, it is plausible that sleep paralysis questions embedded for the NDE sample in an Internet survey of unusual experiences would elicit more positive responses than identical questions presented solely in interviews to the control sample.
Furthermore, we suspect the control group, “recruited from medical center personnel or their contacts,” would have reservations about endorsing hallucinations and related symptoms they would likely identify as pathologic. This suspicion is bolstered …
AAN Members: Sign in with your AAN member credentials (e-mail or 6-digit Member ID number)
Non-AAN Member subscribers: Sign in with subscriber credentials
Log in using your username and password
Purchase access
Disputes & Debates: Rapid online correspondence
NOTE: All authors' disclosures must be entered and current in our database before comments can be posted. Enter and update disclosures at http://submit.neurology.org. Exception: replies to comments concerning an article you originally authored do not require updated disclosures.
- Stay timely. Submit only on articles published within the last 8 weeks.
- Do not be redundant. Read any comments already posted on the article prior to submission.
- 200 words maximum.
- 5 references maximum. Reference 1 must be the article on which you are commenting.
- 5 authors maximum. Exception: replies can include all original authors of the article.
- Submitted comments are subject to editing and editor review prior to posting.