Precursors to the field of Near-death studies include the work of paranormal investigators, such as William Crookes and Frederick W.H. Myers, and the work of parapsychological societies, such as the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in England, and its american counterpart. The work attracted skepticism from contemporary branches of Science. In the 19th century a few efforts moved beyond studying individual cases — one privately done by Mormons and one in Switzerland. Then followed a period of disinterest in the topic, only marked by occasional contributions, including the commentaries of Gardner Murphy and the research of Donald West. in 1948 West investigated the occurrence of psi-phenomena in a small sample of the british population. He found that "14 percent of his sample had undergone a hallucinatory experience and 9 percent had reported seeing apparitions of the dead". During the 1970's the work of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross attracted attention to the topic of near-death phenomena. Kübler-Ross, who was a researcher in the field of thanatology and a driving force behind the establishment of the Hospice System in the United States, started to address the topic in a public manner. Interest in the topic of near-death experiences was also spurred by autobiographical accounts, such as the books of George Ritchie. Formative period - early profiles Commentators note that the launch of the field of near-death studies started with work of Raymond Moody. Moody got interested in the subject of near-death experiences at the start of his career. In the mid-seventies, while doing his medical residency as a psychiatrist at the University of Virginia, he conducted interviews with near-death experiencers. He later published these findings in the book Life After Life (1976). In the book Moody outlines the different elements of the NDE. These features were picked up by later researchers, and the book brought a lot of attention to the topic of NDEs. Early contributions to the field of near-death studies also include the work of Russell Noyes, who collected NDE-stories from personal accounts and medical records. According to commentators his work signalled the first big shift in perspective within the field, pulling the methodology away from parapsychology and towards the principles of medicine. In the 1970's Noyes and Kletti reported on the phenomenon of depersonalization related to life-threatening danger. The late seventies saw the establishment of the Association for the Scientific Study of Near-Death Phenomena, an initial group of academic researchers, including