Life in Suspension with Death: Biocultural Ontologies, Perceptual Cues, and Biomarkers for the Tibetan Tukdam Postmortem Meditative State.
Tawni L Tidwell
Culture, medicine and psychiatry February 23, 2024 DOI: 10.1007/s11013-023-09844-2 (opens in new tab)
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Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Case study (epistemological inquiry) Case report Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 2 |
| Population | Tibetan monastic populations in India; advanced Tibetan Buddhist practitioners |
| Topics | Buddhism |
| Keywords | Humans Attitude to death Cues India Female Biomarkers Tibetan medicine Epistemology Ontology Postmortem meditation Tukdam |
| Key findings | Presents two cases of the post-death meditative state "tukdam" to examine how Tibetan Buddhist and medical traditions and Euroamerican biomedical and scientific traditions each investigate the same phenomenon through distinct epistemological and ontological frameworks. Argues that the traditions enact two paradigms of the body at death and of life itself, and inquires when their epistemologies might converge and what counts as valid evidence for exceptional processes after clinical death. |
Abstract
This article presents two cases from a collaborative study among Tibetan monastic populations in India on the postdeath meditative state called "tukdam (Tib., thugs dam)". Entered by advanced Tibetan Buddhist practitioners through a variety of different practices, this state provides an ontological frame that is investigated by two distinct intellectual traditions-the Tibetan Buddhist and medical tradition on one hand and the Euroamerican biomedical and scientific tradition on the other-using their respective means of inquiry. Through the investigation, the traditions enact two paradigms of the body at the time of death alongside attendant conceptualizations of what constitutes life itself. This work examines when epistemologies of these two traditions might converge, under what ontological contexts, and through which correlated indicators of evidence. In doing so, this work explores how these two intellectual traditions might answer how the time course and characteristics of physiological changes during the postmortem period might exhibit variation across individuals. Centrally, this piece presents an epistemological inquiry delineating the types of valid evidence that constitute exceptional processes post-clinical death and their potential ontological implications.