Spiritual and religious experiences are global human phenomena that have always occurred down the ages, while the transcultural features of NDEs (whatever their meaning) appear to be an archetypal expression of the human mind. It is still not clear, however, how people suddenly finding themselves in critical conditions (e.g., cardiac arrest) might be aware of being near-death and have time enough to develop complex scenarios to suit their wishes. Psychological interpretations are based on the “expectation hypothesis” and consider NDEs the product of an altered mental state induced by life-threatening conditions (Blackmore and Troscianko, 1988 Appleby, 1989 Britton and Bootzin, 2004), their phenomenology presumably stemming from the projection of beliefs and expectations of an afterlife. Both psychological and physiological interpretations have been suggested (Table (Table1). NDEs are reported in all cultures (Belanti et al., 2008) and, although a culture-related incidence of some particular features (i.e., “life review” and tunnel perception) has been described (Kellehear, 1993), the core experience seems to be much the same across cultures (Greyson et al., 2009). Their incidence has probably increased due to advances in resuscitation methods. NDEs may include several perceptions, such as seeing a bright light, moving through a tunnel, positive emotions, meeting deceased relatives, communicating with a light, entering a new domain, reaching a point of no return, reviewing one’s life, and out-of-body experiences (OBEs).
Near-death experiences (NDEs) are an intriguing neuroscientific topic with profound epistemological implications and an increasing number of publications (Greyson, 2007, 2010 Griffith, 2009 Metzinger, 2009 Terhune, 2009 Facco, 2010 Agrillo, 2011 Mobbs and Watt, 2011).
0 kommentar(er)
