ABSTRACT
Near-death experiences (or NDEs) are sometimes reported by individuals who are resuscitated from a period of clinical death or near-death. From the pioneering work of various psychologists and medical researchers, the field of near-death studies has evolved to focus on the key areas of obtaining empirical scientific evidence, cross-cultural comparisons, the relevance to philosophy and religion, and the implications for healthcare and psychology. Accounts of NDEs can be found in ostensibly documentary contexts in narratives from ancient Greece and Rome Study of religion scholar Carol Zaleski (1987) compared modern Western NDEs with Medieval European 'otherworld journey' visionary texts, and found that in the latter the focus was on punishment and the process of judgment, whereas the former are more concerned with education and rehabilitation. The existence of structurally similar narratives describing contextually stable experiences from such different times, places, and cultural-linguistic backgrounds points to pre-cultural origins of this experience type.
