The centrality of near-death experiences in Chinese Pure Land Buddhism.
The Journal of near-death studies 1981 DOI: 10.17514/jnds-1981-1-2-p154-171. (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Buddhism Near-death experience |
| Citations | 31 |
| Key points | Argues that the paper offers a preliminary report on near-death experiences in Chinese Pure Land Buddhism as a contribution to cross-cultural research, while noting that critics commonly attribute heavenly visions to culturally learned expectations rather than to anything beyond projection. |
Abstract
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 NDEs in Pure Land Buddhism in China, and is an important contribution to cross-cultural research for several reasons" (pp. 154-155).