Pushing Near-Death Experiences (I)
Oxford Scholarship Online September 20, 2018 DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190888848.003.0013 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Near-death experience |
| Citations | 1 |
| Key points | Argues that the historical trend of "privatized death" in Western societies served as a "push factor" for articulating near-death experiences, which can be read as a "spiritual protest" against institutionalized dying and biomedical materialism. |
Abstract
This chapter focuses on a long-term development in Western societies addressed as “privatized death,” namely, the assignment of the dying into hospitals and other institutions. This trend, mirrored in the works of French historian Philippe Ariès and psychologist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, so the chapter argues, served as a “push factor” for articulating near-death experiences. Near-death experiences can be in part read as a “spiritual protest” against alienated, anonymous dying in institutions and the “materialist” take of modern biomedicine of merely prolonging life. This protest is also present in criticizing the “denial of death.”