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The Greeks knew of at least two ways of ‘brushing with death’: near-death experiences and mystery initiations. The chapter surveys literary descriptions of passages through darkness in the visions of people who had been pronounced dead and eventually returned to life. These testimonies allude to tunnel experiences. This chapter also presents an overview of complex and richly documented cave experiences during mystery initiations (Eleusinian, Dionysiac, Orphic, Isiac, and Mithraic mysteries, some cases of male initiations). Mystery initiations as a way to overcome fear of death could be patterned to some extent by near-death experiences. Given the popularity of mystery cults, multifaceted cave experiences of numerous initiates were perhaps one of the most profound noetic sensations known to common people of the Classical world.

This chapter surveys the wealth of literature on altered states of consciousness which in many cases lead to the sensation of ineffable revelation of superhuman truth. Altered states of consciousness often occur in people exposed to sensory deprivation. As a result, seers, shamans, and other mediators between gods and mortals practise prolonged isolation in caves and other closed spaces in their quest of ecstatic illumination. The tunnel sensation is characteristic of near-death experiences, which appear to have influenced assorted mystical ideas and practices. The assessment of the cross-cultural nature of altered states of consciousness makes apparent that out-of-body sensations and ecstatic insights of the Greek visionaries and sages were not imported from abroad. They developed within the Greek culture, deriving from the universals of human consciousness.

An examination is made of data from near‐death experiences from the standpoint of some important recent work in epistemology, and arguments are presented that they offer positive evidence for life after death (heaven). Among the persons whose work on near‐death experiences is discussed are Raymond Moody, Allan Kellehear, Carol Zaleski, Susan Blackmore (a critic who believes that near‐death experiences can be explained in purely naturalistic terms), Bruce Greyson, Alvin Plantinga, and William Alston. The views of Carol Zaleski (who offers a sympathetic account of near‐death experiences intended as an alternative to naturalistic approaches), and of Alvin Plantinga and William Alston (who are leading Christian epistemologists) are examined in detail.

This chapter shows that out-of-body (OB) and near-death (ND) experiences, despite conflation by experients and authors, stand as separate phenomena. OBE involves the viewing of subjects' bodies from an elevated, extra-corporeal vantage point that is also coincident with the locus of conscious-awareness. The other is deemed to take conscious-awareness into other realms, by means of a ‘tunnel’ into ‘light’, and where an assortment of individuals may be encountered. Other subjects may report some kind of life-review or judgemental episode before finding themselves rapidly projected back to earth and into their bodies. In exploring other features of extra-corporeal experiences (ECE) phenomenology, descriptive accounts of hellish experiences are provided, the perceptions of the afterlife perceived by the blind, and a critique of the special case of Pam Reynolds. Ms Reynolds underwent a prolonged brain operation during which she reported having an OBE and NDE. The case has been used as proof that an ECE can occur in the presence of a virtually ‘dead’ brain (after surgical cooling and local exsanguination).

This chapter examines the consequences of near-death experience (NDE) on the subsequent lives of these experients. Most subjects are changed by their experience(s), becoming more tolerant towards society, people, and family.

This chapter focuses on greater in-depth criticism of extra-corporeal experience (ECE) phenomenology related to its interpretation and meaning and, more generally, to its cultural relativity — historically and geographically. Subjects undergoing a near-death experience believe themselves to have been rewarded with glimpses of the afterlife and indisputable convictions that an other-worldly domain does exist. Such convictions are private, unassailable and independent of previously held religious belief.

This chapter goes beyond Kohlberg’s, Hoffman’s, and Haidt’s theories to consider the question of a deeper reality. As noted, Kohlberg argued that existential thinkers in their soul-searching sometimes come to see their earthly moral life from an inspiring “cosmic perspective.” Perhaps such a reality can be glimpsed not only through existential crises, but also through physically life-threatening ones. Accordingly, this chapter studies cases of persons who have had a so-called near-death experience (“When some people come close to death, they go through a profound experience that may include a sense of leaving the body and entering some other realm or dimension” [Greyson]). A review of the literature—especially, recent medical research literature—suggests that the experience entails a transcendent significance congruent with Kohlberg’s cosmic perspective. In this light, “growing beyond the superficial” and “taking the perspectives of others” take on radical new meaning.

Metaphysical spirituality has found a receptive audience among middle‐class Americans. The New Thought movement combined mesmerist psychology and the “power of positive thinking” to show Americans how they might learn to become inwardly connected with powerful spiritual forces. Theosophy built upon this tradition and added a new vocabulary, partially drawn from Asian religions, for describing the higher spiritual worlds to which we are said to be inwardly connected. Avid interest in such topics as mysticism, altered states of consciousness, angels, and near‐death experiences have all been avenues through which Americans have pursued spiritual discovery outside of our established churches. The phenomenal popularity of James Redfield's bestseller The Celestine Prophecy illustrates how fully metaphysical spirituality has penetrated the American religious vernacular.

This chapter explores the relationship of moral development and behavior to a deeper reality. It considers the near-death experience phenomenon because of its potentially major implications for moral development and reality by presenting the stories of Pam Reynolds Lowery and Thomas Sawyer. It also examines the ontological significance of the near-death experience and suggests that it is not entirely a matter of subjective projection, but also involves something real. This theory is in agreement with Lawrence Kohlberg's suggestion that a cosmic reality underlies moral development and inspiration. The chapter discusses five questions related to near-death experience: whether the context of the near-death experience influences and even determines the content of the experience; whether near-death experiencers interpret the experience as real; whether verifiable aspects of the near-death experience are accurate or veridical; whether the likelihood or depth of the experience is associated with proximity to physical death; and whether the typical near-death experience actually takes place during near-death.

This chapter was originally written as a guide for teachers in Britain responsible for teaching Philosophy of Religion to Advanced Level Students. The “A” Level examination is taken at age 18 in Britain and this chapter was first published in the journal Dialogue in November 2003. The chapter explores the wide range of beliefs held in contemporary society giving both the case for extinction on naturalistic grounds as well as spelling out the importance for world religion of belief in life after death. It explores the case for dualism in the writings of leading British philosophers. It looks at Resurrection in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as well as the importance of the law of Karma in the religions of the East. It outlines the philosophical arguments for life after death in Christian philosophy, and examines the empirical evidence for reincarnation with special to the Tibetan and Pure-land traditions of Buddhism. The chapter ends with an examination of Near-death experiences and their possible significance.

A good course on death does more than explore the way we die and grieve. It does more than show us how to prepare a living will or to decide whether physician-assisted suicide is ethical. It does more than survey the various religious views on death and afterlife or the philosophical arguments for or against survival of bodily death. A complete course will address the question of meaning. What is the meaning of death? The meaning of death hinges on the question of afterlife—as does the meaning of life. Do we survive death? If so, what do we survive into? There is no evidence more helpful in deciding how to answer these questions than that coming out of psychical research. This chapter looks at the most important of these evidences: near-death experiences, deathbed visions, studies of children who remember previous lives, and mediumistic accounts of the world beyond.

This chapter argues that the foundation for much out-of-body and near-death phenomenology is the recovering brain, which provides the neuronal basis for whatever bits of those phenomenologies are experienced. However, the experiences undergone are coloured and rendered non-uniform by two critical insights. First, because the stored perceptual model idealizations of what might be entailed in dying and accessing the afterlife are personally and psychologically idiosyncratic. Second, because the circumstances of and recovery from each extra-corporeal experience (ECE) depend on several important biological and environmental factors which are personally and clinically idiosyncratic. These are crucial factors which demand careful analysis. They alter considerably prevailing concepts and expectations of what ECE are really about.

This chapter elucidates other possible neurophysiological aetiologies of extra-corporeal experience (ECE). These include such items as endorphins, hypoxia, nitrous oxide, and carbon dioxide narcosis, and whether the anaesthetic agent ketamine could be considered to be a credible mediator of ECE phenomenology.

Since extra-corporeal experiences (ECEs) are widely alleged to offer new insights into phenomena exemplary of the afterlife, there is an imperative to examine these experiential claims. This chapter examines whether ECEs can justifiably fulfil criteria of divine disclosure, and thus be construed as truly spiritual events. This is an important issue, raising the problem how God communicates with earthbound subjects and, importantly, how the brain is involved.

During this period, many Christians emphasized several long-standing themes about heaven, most notably the majesty and glory of God, the splendor of paradise, and heavenly worship and rewards. More than any previous era, stress was placed on the temporal and eternal benefits of focusing on heaven. Numerous developments made American portraits of the afterlife more diverse and complicated: the efforts of the Catholic Church after Vatican II to adjust its theology and practice to modern times; the rise or growing importance of new theological positions and religious movements that held distinctive perspectives of heaven, especially process theology, liberation theology, Death of God theology, the New Age movement, and Mormonism; the vastly larger number of reported near-death experiences and the public's substantial interest in them; and the depiction of the hereafter in movies, television shows, and novels. To counter these alternative perspectives, evangelicals reasserted the traditional Christian conception of heaven.

This chapter considers the manner in which authors have, themselves, elucidated gross phemomenologies of out-of-body (OB) and near-death (ND) experiences. This is most important in providing the backdrop upon which thoughts and conclusions in regard to these phenomenological issues can be further developed in succeeding chapters. The outcome hinges on two major factors: authors' conceptions of the afterlife, and the problem of the acquisition or enhancement of psychical powers.