Exploring Near-Death Experiences across Cultures
Oxford Scholarship Online August 23, 2018 DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190872472.003.0001 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Near-death experience |
| Key points | Argues that near-death experiences share cross-cultural common elements while also reflecting individual cultures, and that religious beliefs have frequently originated in such experiences. Contends that culture- or language-only explanations of belief fail to account for these origins or to take experiencers' testimonies seriously, and proposes that NDEs offer rational grounds for beliefs in soul survival and an afterlife. |
Abstract
Near-death experiences (NDEs) share many common elements worldwide, indicating that they originate in phenomena that are independent of culture. They also have many elements unique to the individual experiencers and their cultures, demonstrating a symbiotic relationship between experience and belief. There are numerous examples worldwide of religious beliefs originating in NDEs and other extraordinary experiences. This is in contradiction to widely accepted notions that all experiences and beliefs are generated entirely by culture or language. Such paradigms not only fail to explain the origins of religious beliefs or the nature of related experiences but also fail to take seriously the testimonies of their sources. Near-death experiences provide perfectly rational grounds for beliefs that the soul can leave the body, and that it can survive death and join spirits of the dead in another world. As such, the phenomenon helps to demonstrate the cross-cultural process of reasoning based on evidence.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on near-death experience, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Otherworld Journeys: Accounts of Near-Death Experience in Medieval and Modern Times | 1987 | Historical analysis | |
| Neuroscience and the Near-Death Experience: Roles for the NMSA-PCP receptor, the sigma receptor and the endopsychosins | 1990 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Implications of near-death experiences for a postmaterialist psychology. | 2010 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Near-Death Experience as a Probe to Explore (Disconnected) Consciousness | 2020 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Near-death experiences between science and prejudice | 2012 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |