Religious Wars in the NDE Movement: Some Personal Reflections on Michael Sabom's Light & Death

After a short personal glance at the early days of the field of near-death studies, I offer an open letter to Michael Sabom in response to his book, Light & Death (Sabom, 1998). This letter is in effect both a reply to certain criticisms Sabom has made of my work and an attempt to make public certain significant changes in my own view of near-death experiences (NDEs) since the publication of Heading Toward Omega (Ring, 1984), particularly in regard to their being a catalyst for higher consciousness. The second part of this essay presents a personal perspective on the ideological role of religion in the NDE movement, which I see as corrupting the original vision that prompted the formation of the field of near-death studies. I end with an ecumenical call for a return to the values of nontheologically driven inquiry with which near-death studies began.