The near-death experience: Private or public
Leon Rhodes
Journal of Near-Death Studies 1990 DOI: 10.17514/jnds-1990-9-2-p71-75. (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Commentary Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Near-death experience |
| Key points | Argues that the near-death experience is simultaneously an ineffable, intimately personal event and a worldwide public phenomenon, and that both the private experience and its popularized public concept carry common messages for humanity. The author contends that public interest and scholarship on NDEs, sparked by Raymond Moody's bestseller, are built upon very short, private moments of individual experience. |
Abstract
ABS TRA CT: This editorial contrasts the private, personal near-death experi ence with the public concept of the experience, and finds important messages for humanity that are common to both.It would be difficult to think of an experience that is more private, secret, and personal than that brief, dramatic opening of nonphysical eyes to another realm of consciousness.Yet the near-death experience (NDE) is unquestionably of worldwide interest, affecting the human understanding of our existence, and changing fundamental beliefs about the meaning and purpose of life.The existence of organizations to study and to make use of the near death experience raises the very pertinent question of how the private experience and the public perception of the NDE overlap.If we begin with the NDEs of individual humans, we are dealing with a phenome non that is ineffable, as well as intimately personal in its effect on a particular individual at a particular moment in time.It is true that the popularization of the NDE resulting from Raymond Moody's bestseller and the subsequent books, articles, studies, television and radio shows, and public programs actually is based on these very short moments Mr.