Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross was a Swiss-American psychiatrist, a pioneer in near-death studies, and author of the internationally best-selling book, On Death and Dying (1969), where she first discussed her theory of the five stages of grief, also known as the "Kübler-Ross model."

Kübler-Ross was a 2007 inductee into the National Women's Hall of Fame, was named by Time as one of the "100 Most Important Thinkers" of the 20th century, and was the recipient of nineteen honorary degrees. By July 1982, Kübler-Ross taught 125,000 students in death and dying courses in colleges, seminaries, medical schools, hospitals, and social-work institutions. In 1970, she delivered an Ingersoll Lecture at Harvard University on the theme On Death and Dying.

Kübler-Ross was one of the central figures in the hospice care movement, believing that euthanasia prevents people from completing their "unfinished business." In 1977 she persuaded her husband to buy forty acres of land in Escondido, California, near San Diego, where she founded "Shanti Nilaya" (Home of Peace). She intended it as a healing center for the dying and their families. She was also a co-founder of the American Holistic Medical Association.

In the late 1970s, after interviewing thousands of patients who had died and been resuscitated, she became interested in out-of-body experiences, mediumship, spiritualism, and other ways of attempting to contact the dead. This led to a scandal connected to the Shanti Nilaya Healing Center, in which she was duped by Jay Barham, founder of the Church of the Facet of the Divinity.

Claiming he could channel the spirits of the departed and summon ethereal "entities," he encouraged church members to engage in sexual relations with the "spirits." He may have hired several women to play the parts of female spirits for this purpose.

Kubler-Ross' friend Deanna Edwards was invited to attend a service to ascertain whether allegations against Barham were true. He was found to be naked and wearing only a turban when Edwards unexpectedly pulled the masking tape off the light switch and flipped on the light. Despite the accusation of sexual misconduct, Kübler-Ross protected him for over a year. Then she announced the ending of her association with both Jay Barham and his wife Martha in her Shanti Nilaya Newsletter (issue 7) on June 7, 1981.

Kübler-Ross also dealt with the phenomenon of near-death experiences. She was also an advocate for spiritual guides and the afterlife, serving on the Advisory Board of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS).

Kübler-Ross reported her interviews with the dying for the first time in her book, On Death and Dying: What the Dying Have to Teach Doctors, Nurses, Clergy, and Their Own Families (1969). Kübler-Ross went on to write more about near-death experiences (NDEs) in her books, On Life After Death 1991 and The Tunnel and The Light 1999.