Do prevailing societal models influence reports of near-death experiences?: a comparison of accounts reported before and after 1975

The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease
Geena K AthappillyIan Stevenson

Abstract

Transcendental near-death experiences show some cross-cultural variation that suggests they may be influenced by societal beliefs. The prevailing Western model of near-death experiences was defined by Moody's description of the phenomenon in 1975. To explore the influence of this cultural model, we compared near-death experience accounts collected before and after 1975. We compared the frequency of 15 phenomenological features Moody defined as characteristic of near-death experiences in 24 accounts collected before 1975 and in 24 more recent accounts matched on relevant demographic and situational variables. Near-death experience accounts collected after 1975 differed from those collected earlier only in increased frequency of tunnel phenomena, which other research has suggested may not be integral to the experience, and not in any of the remaining 14 features defined by Moody as characteristic of near-death experiences. These data challenge the hypothesis that near-death experience accounts are substantially influenced by prevailing cultural models.

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Citations

Oct 30, 2008·Netherlands Heart Journal : Monthly Journal of the Netherlands Society of Cardiology and the Netherlands Heart Foundation·C van Tellingen
Oct 31, 2014·The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease·Adriana SleutjesBruce Greyson
Dec 7, 2013·Asian Journal of Psychiatry·Alexander Moreira-Almeida
Oct 30, 2014·Omega·Inge B Corless
Mar 18, 2008·Transcultural Psychiatry·John BelantiKaruppiah Jagadheesan
Sep 9, 2015·The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease·Surbhi Khanna, Bruce Greyson
Jan 31, 2020·PloS One·Vanessa Charland-VervilleSteven Laureys
Jun 8, 2017·International Review of Psychiatry·Alexander Moreira-Almeida, Francisco Lotufo-Neto
Jul 1, 2017·Frontiers in Human Neuroscience·Charlotte MartialSteven Laureys
Nov 24, 2020·Consciousness and Cognition·Charlotte MartialHéléna Cassol

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