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A new book of the dead: Reflections on the near-death experience and the Tibetan Buddhist tradition regarding the nature of death

Kenneth Ring

The Journal of near-death studies 1993 DOI: 10.17514/jnds-1993-12-2-p75-84. (opens in new tab)

Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Historical analysis Peer reviewed
Topics Buddhism Near-death experience
Citations 2
Key points Argues that contemporary Western near-death experiences differ from historical Tibetan das-log experiences in culturally shaped ways, and proposes that these modern accounts could serve as the basis for a new Book of the Dead addressing present-day existential and planetary concerns.

Abstract

Article offering a comparison of historical cases of Tibetan near-death experiences (NDEs) and contemporary Western accounts. A tradition of NDEs in Tibetan culture, the das-log experience, affords such a comparison. Modern NDEs differ from das-log experiences in ways that reflect their cultural context and may provide the foundation for a new Book of the Dead especially fitted to the existential and planetary concerns of modern time.