The absence of tunnel sensations in near-death experiences from India.

Abstract

This article questions the recent report by Susan Blackmore (1993) of tunnel sensations in near-death experiences in India, and presents anthropological and methodological reasons for doubting the validity of that finding. Allan Kellehear, Ph.D., is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at La Trobe University in Bundoora, Australia; Ian Stevenson, M.D., is Carlson Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia; Satwant Pasricha, Ph.D., is Additional Professor of Clinical Psychology at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Bangalore, India; and Emily Cook, Ph.D., is Research Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia. Dr. Stevenson's research receives support from the Bernstein Brothers Parapsychology and Health Foundation and from the Nagamasa Azuma Fund of the University of Virginia; Dr. Pasricha acknowledges the support of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in India. Reprint requests should be addressed to Dr. Kellehear at the School of Sociology and Anthropology, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria 3083, Australia. Journal of Near-Death Studies, 13(2) Winter 1994 1994 Human Sciences Press, Inc. 109 JOURNAL OF NEAR-DEATH STUDIES In this paper we comment on several issues raised by Susan Black more's (1993) recent research into near-death experiences (NDEs) in India. Blackmore solicited, by advertisement in an Indian newspaper, reports of "people who had come close to death." Of the 19 reports that she received in response to this advertisement, only eight were considered NDEs. Of these eight reports, three respondents reported sensations of darkness. One of these respondents accepted a descrip tor ("tunnel") for this darkness that was offered by Blackmore in a follow-up survey. On the basis of these data, Blackmore concluded that the tunnel sensation in NDEs appears independent of cultural influences. In this connection, those findings are also interpreted as support for her neurophysiological theory of tunnel sensations. Our argument is that the theoretical and methodological problems in Blackmore's work are too serious to warrant the conclusions she drew. We will identify both general problems and specific issues that have equal bearing on Blackmore's research design and conclusions. First, the conclusion that the tunnel sensation appears inde pendent of a person's culture is not warranted from any single case study. This is an overgeneralized conclusion. No single case study, whether from India or from Japan, can indicate broad cross-cultural patterns of human experience. Quite clearly a broader cross-cultural examination of NDEs involving several distinctly different cultures is needed for any generalization such as this. In this connection, it is also not clear, other than in the most general way, that India has a culture structurally different from European cultures. This brings us to our second point. Even if some persons in India have the tunnel experience, this would not indicate its universality, since both Indian and European cultures are dominated by historical religions. Historical religions, such as Christianity, Islam, or Hinduism, tend to occur in cultures of long-term settlement, where tunnels are common technological and architectural forms. In societies influenced by primitive religions, such as hunter-gatherer communities, tunnels may not be of common occurrence and hence cultural significance. The evidence of this ar gument, such as it is, has been discussed by Allan Kellehear (1993). Third, despite the theoretical possibility that people from India may experience a tunnel sensation in their NDEs, recent work by Satwant Pasricha (1992, 1993) has failed to uncover this so far. Pas richa has been conducting a survey of NDEs in south India. Her reports show that the cases there are closely similar, with some dif ferences, to those of north India previously reported by Pasricha and 110