This article summarizes some trends and issues raised by a review of recent articles in the Journal of Near-Death Studies.It points to a need for clarity on the problems of monism and dualism, on the definitions of near-death experiences (NDEs), on reasoning by analogy, and on hypothe sis testing and falsification.While recognizing the superficial similarities be tween NDEs and a broad range of...
This article presents a Tibetan perspective on near-death experiences (NDEs) and life after death.Tibetans have been concerned with death and deathbed visions from ancient times.After reviewing the beliefs of the Bon religion and of Vajrayana Buddhism, this article focuses on the theories of the Tibetan Bardo Thodol or Book of the Dead (Evans-Wentz, 1957).Many similarities to modern NDE reports...
From introduction: "One of the commonest reactions to the visionary experiences of heaven by the critical observer has been to argue that these are nothing more than the projections of the expectations of the dying person, who was either consciously or subconsciously trained to expect heavenly scenery (etc.) by his cultural upbringing. [...] This paper is a preliminary report on the status of...