John Audette, Raymond Moody, Bruce Greyson, Kenneth Ring and Michael Sabom, who laid the foundations for the field of near-death studies, and carried out some of the first NDE-research in the wake of Moody's work. The Association was a forerunner to the International Association for Near-death Studies (IANDS), which was founded in the early eighties and which established its headquarters at the University of Connecticut, Storrs. This group of researchers, but especially Ring, was responsible for launching Anabiosis, the first peer-reviewed journal within the field. The journal later became Journal of Near-Death Studies. Even though the above-mentioned profiles introduced the subject of NDEs to the academic setting, the subject was often met with academic disbelief, or regarded as taboo. The medical community has been somewhat reluctant to address the phenomenon of NDEs, and funding for research has been limited. However, both Ring and Sabom made contributions that were influential for the newly established field. Ring published a book in 1980 called Life at Death: A Scientific Investigation of the Near-Death Experience. In the book Ring identified the core near-death experience, with its corresponding stages. This early research was followed up by new book in 1984, Heading Toward Omega: In Search of the Meaning of the Near-Death Experience, where he described the mystical and transcendent features of the NDE, and the futuristic visions described by near-death experiencers. The early work of Michael Sabom was also bringing attention to the topic within the academic community. Besides contributing material to academic journals, he wrote a book called Recollections of Death (1982) which is considered to be a significant publication in the launching of the field. Some of the early retrospective work was being carried out by Greyson and Stevenson who published their findings in the American Journal of Psychiatry in 1980. The authors used questionnaires, interviews, and medical records in order to study the phenomenology of NDE’s and suggested that social and psychological factors explained some, but not all, components of the NDE. Greyson has also addressed different aspects of the NDE, such as the psychodynamics of the experience, the typology of NDEs, the varieties of NDE, and the biology of NDEs. In addition, he has brought attention to the near-death experience as a focus of clinical attention, suggesting that the aftermath of the NDE, in some cases, can lead to psychological problems. As research in the field progressed both Greyson and Ring