Ornella Corazza is a NDE researcher. she has held research fellowships in the Department of the Study of Religions in the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), at the University of London; 21st Century Center Of Excellence Program on the Construction of Death and Life Studies, University of Tokyo, Japan.
Ornella Corazza analyses dualist models of mind and body, discussing the main features of NDEs as reported by many people who have experienced them. She studies the use of ketamine to reveal how characteristics of NDEs can be chemically induced without being close to death. This evidence challenges the conventional 'survivalist hypothesis', according to which the near death experience is a proof of the existence of an afterlife.
In 2006 she was appointed Lecturer for the University of Wales, Lampeter for the MA The Body. Eastern and Western Perspectives and Fellow at the Department of Study of Religions at SOAS. In 2003 she was awarded a prize for Academic Exellence from the Italian Embassy in London.