“He should stay in the grave”: Cultural patterns in the interpretation of near-death experiences in African traditional religions.
Gregory Sushan
Journal of Near-Death Studies 2017 DOI: 10.17514/jnds-2017-35-4-p185-213. (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Survey Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Indigenous African societies |
| Topics | Near-death experience |
| Keywords | Interpretation philosophy Anthropology Linguistics |
| Key findings | Near-death experiences are historically rare in indigenous African societies and did not play a significant role in shaping afterlife conceptions. |
Abstract
A wide-ranging survey of ethnographic, explorer, and missionary literature demonstrates that although historical accounts of near-death experiences (NDEs) are attested in indigenous African societies, they are comparatively rare. Correspondingly, there is also a scarcity of mythological narratives of journeys to afterlife realms and a comparative lack of concern with afterlife speculation per se. Instead the literature reveals that many African peoples had marked concerns about potentially malevolent influences of ancestral spirits, shamanistic focus on spirit possession and sorcery, and precipitous burial practices limiting the occurrence of NDEs. NDEs were sometimes seen as aberrational, suggesting that individuals would have been reluctant to relate them. In such cultural environments, NDEs could scarcely have played a significant role in contributing to afterlife conceptions.
Comparable studies
Other cross-sectional and survey studies on near-death experience, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fantasy Proneness Correlates With the Intensity of Near-Death Experience Individuals who have experienced a near-death experience (classical or NDE-like) and... | 2018 | Cross-sectional survey | n = 228 |
| A systematic analysis of distressing near-death experience accounts Individuals who had a near-death experience and wrote down their account | 2019 | Cross-sectional study | n = 123 |
| Reduced death threat in near-death experiencers Adults who had near-death experiences, came close to death without NDE, or never came... | 1992 | Cross-sectional study | n = 290 |
| Near-Death Experiences in a Psychiatric Outpatient Clinic Population Psychiatric outpatients | 2003 | Cross-sectional survey | n = 832 |
| Near-Death States Reported in a Sample of 50 Misusers Previous ketamine misusers who reported a ketamine-related near-death experience | 2010 | Cross-sectional survey | n = 50 |