Near-Death Experiences and the Religious Metacultures of Western Modernity
Oxford Scholarship Online September 20, 2018 DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190888848.003.0004 (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 Western near-death discourse is organized by four "metacultures"—Christian, Gnostic–Esoteric, and Spiritualist–Occult, which are religious and largely affirm the soul's survival of death, and a nonreligious Naturalist metaculture, which offers pharmacological, neurological, or psychological explanations and usually calls near-death experience content hallucinatory. The religious meaning, the chapter contends, has ontological, epistemic, intersubjective or communicative, and moral significance. |
Abstract
Building on earlier conceptions of “metacultures,” this chapter defines four metacultures that are important for Western near-death discourse: Christian, Gnostic–Esoteric, and the Spiritualist–Occult, being religious in outlook; the fourth, however, the Naturalist metaculture, is of a nonreligious nature. The three former metacultures assign religious meaning to the content of near-death experiences, affirming by and large the soul’s survival of death. The chapter argues that this meaning has (a) ontological, (b) epistemic, (c) intersubjective or communicative, and (d) moral significance. Naturalist metaculture is defined as offering pharmacological, neurological, or psychological explanations of near-death experiences, usually declaring their content to be hallucinatory.
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 |