Near-Death Experiences in India

Pasricha, Satwant; Stevenson, Ian

doi:10.1097/00005053-198603000-00007

Cited by 84 publications

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“…Greyson (1983) reported the most common phenomenological features of American NDEs to be a feeling of peace, joy, time stopping, experiencing an unearthly realm of existence, a feeling of cosmic unity, and an out-of-body experience. Satwant Pasricha and Ian Stevenson (1986) reported that NDEs in India commonly included seeing a "being of light" or religious figure and being taken to another realm by a messenger and then "sent back." These differences in frequencies of phenomenological items might be associated with race or with religious and cultural background.…”

Section: Contents Of the Ndementioning

confidence: 99%

Near-death experiences among survivors of the 1976 Tangshan earthquake

Feng

Jian-xun

1992

J Near-Death Stud

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ABSTRACT:We interviewed 81 survivors of the severe earthquake in Tan gshan in 1976 and found that 32 (40 percent) reported near-death experiences (NDEs) as measured by Greyson's (1983) NDE Scale. The great majority of these NDEs were of the cognitive and transcendental types, and our observa tions were somewhat different from those of Greyson (1985) in the United States and of Pasricha and Stevenson (1986) in India. These differences sug gest that the components, sequences, and types of NDE might differ with race, religion, psychological and cultural background, and kind of near-death event.Near-death experiences (NDEs), profound subjective events experi enced on the threshold of death, have been reported by people who have been seriously injured or ill but unexpectedly recovered, and by people who have anticipated imminent death in potentially fatal situa tions but escaped from that danger (Feng and Liu, 1986;Greyson and Stevenson, 1980). They represent a type of mental action during the process of dying distinct from other phenomena in the psychology of death.In December 1987, we conducted a study of 81 survivors of the severe earthquake that had occurred 11 years earlier in Tangshan, China. This paper reports the results of that study.Feng Zhi-ying is a chief physician, and Liu Jian-xun is a physician-in-charge, in the Department of Psychiatry at Anding Hospital.

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Section: Contents Of the Ndementioning

confidence: 99%

Near-death experiences among survivors of the 1976 Tangshan earthquake

Feng

Jian-xun

1992

J Near-Death Stud

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“…However, the experience of light and beings of light that Greyson (1985) and Justine Owens, Emily Cook, and Ian Stevenson (1990) have found to typify some types of NDEs, are not universally reported. They are not a characteristic of the NDEs collected in India (Pasricha and Stevenson, 1986). Owens, Stevenson, and Cook's (1990) finding that the experience of light was correlated with being medically close to death, and that subjects whose medical condition was judged less serious were less likely to have the experience of light, may suggest that the absence of the experience of light in India is an artifact of the subjects being medically in less serious condition, and/or the result of fewer of the Indian subjects being brought back from the brink of death by state-of-the-art medical technology available in the United States.…”

Section: The Kind Of Hope That Ndes Presentmentioning

confidence: 95%

Commentary on Allan Kellehear's ?Near-death experiences and the pursuit of the ideal society?

Mills

1991

J Near-Death Stud

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Allan Kellehear's article raised four questions for me: (1) whether the near-death experience (NDE) presents enough data about the nature of a transcendent society for it to be a useful model for earthly societies; (2) the degree to which transcendent societies have to address the practical considerations of a material society; (3) whether NDEs are projections of experiencers' cultural concepts about the nature of the transcendent realm(s); and (4) the kind of hope offered by the growing awareness of the features of Western NDEs. I address these questions by referring to transcendent realm concepts and NDEs in the anthropological literature, particularly that of the North American Indian Prophet Movement.In his article "Near-Death Experiences and the Pursuit of the Ideal Society" Allan Kellehear compared various Western concepts of utopia with the social order experienced in a transcendent realm by modern, mostly Western people who have come near death and had a near death experience (NDE). He concluded that the social order portrayed in near-death experiences offers a glimmer of hope for establishing a better society on earth.I would like to comment on a number of questions that Kellehear's paper raised: first, the extent to which NDEs give a clear concept of a transcendent society (with the emphasis on society); second, the rela

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“…Possible cultural influence on the content of NDEs has also not been well studied. The only reference in the Nelson, Mattingly, Lee, and Schmitt article regarding this subject was a study of 16 NDEs from India (Pasricha and Stevenson, 1986). In that study, the authors' primary purpose in visiting India was to study reincarnation.…”

Section: Nde Content Comparison By Age and Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

Does the arousal system contribute to near-death and out-of-body experiences? A summary and response.

2007

JNDS

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In April 2006, an important article appeared in a respected medical journal suggesting a relationship between near-death experiences (NDEs) and the body's arousal system, specifically the phenomenon of rapid eye movement (REM) intrusion. In March 2007, the same authors published another article in the same journal, expanding on the previous article's findings and suggesting a relationship between out-of-body experiences (OBEs) and the arousal system. These articles presented lines of evidence and a study to support the hypothesized relationship. In this paper, we acknowledge the viability and potential value of the hypothesis underlying both articles, but identify substantial weaknesses in both the presented lines of evidence and the studies. We conclude with recommendations for future research that would address the hypothesis and would promote a better overall understanding of NDEs and OBEs. Neurology is one of the largest and most respected journals devoted to medical research on the human nervous system. Nelson, the first author of both articles, is a nationally known neurologist. The articles received a lot of media coverage, and despite the authors' diligent efforts to present their study's findings in a balanced manner, the media often inflated those findings beyond what Nelson, Mattingly, Lee, and Schmitt claimed, especially after publication of the first article. For these reasons, a clear understanding of the articles is important both to interested members of the public and to the scholarly field of near-death studies.These articles and their findings were somewhat complex. To help explain them, we first provide some important background information, including a summary of the articles, and then provide our response to them.The first article, by Nelson, Mattingly, Lee, and Schmitt, addressing a possible relationship between near-death experiences (NDEs) and rapid eye movement (REM) intrusion, was longer and more detailed, and its concepts underlay the conclusions of the second article. That extensive first article included some detailed discussions of neurological pathways, listing 91 references. We will not address the neurological pathway discussions. Instead, we will focus primarily on those points we consider most relevant to an understanding of the relationship between NDEs, out-of-body experiences (OBEs), and REM intrusion, a phenomenon we will explain below.We want to say at the outset that we respect and appreciate the contribution Nelson, Mattingly, Lee, and Schmitt have made to the field of near-death studies. They raised a plausible hypothesis. Although we found much to criticize in their methods and findings, we do not want that criticism to be interpreted as lack of regard for them or their efforts. Our heartfelt goal is to encourage future excellent research on NDEs and to encourage open and respectful dialogue.Journal of Near-Death Studies ndst-25-03-02.3d 18/4

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Near-Death Experiences in India

Cited by 84 publications

References 0 publications

Near-death experiences among survivors of the 1976 Tangshan earthquake

Near-death experiences among survivors of the 1976 Tangshan earthquake

Commentary on Allan Kellehear's ?Near-death experiences and the pursuit of the ideal society?

Does the arousal system contribute to near-death and out-of-body experiences? A summary and response.

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