Year: 2012
Type: article
Abstract: Near-death experiences (NDEs) are an intriguing and somewhat awkward topic in the scientific\nmedicine. They can be defined as the memory of impressions occurring during life-threatening\nconditions, including a number of special elements such as out-of-body experiences, pleasant\nfeelings, seeing a tunnel, a light, deceased relatives, or a life review. Their transcendent tonality\nleads one to consider them a priori as doubtful or non-existent, not relevant, or a matter\nof psychiatric or organic disturbances at most. The available interpretations of NDEs, despite\nbeing scientifically sound, so far remain only speculations or, at best, clues without any demonstration,\nwhile others are not even plausible or neglect facts incompatible with the ruling\nmechanistic and reductionistic view, showing the deep epistemological implications of their\nexplanation.\nIn the past few decades NDEs, hypnosis, relaxation, and meditation have been included\namong the so-called altered states of consciousness (ASC), together with other physiological\nand pathological conditions, such as dreaming, sensory deprivation, hypnagogic states,\nepilepsy, effects of hallucinogens, and psychotic symptoms. However, the very term ASC, semantically\nsuggesting abnormality, looks to be questionable for physiological mind activities\nlike hypnosis and meditation.\nNDEs and hypnosis appear as two entirely distinct phenomena, but some common processes\nprobably tinge them. Hypnosis has seldom been used to evoke previous NDEs in an attempt\nto relive them; conversely, NDE-like experiences have been induced in hypnosis in the\ncontext of psychotherapy with the aim of approximating their transformational therapeutic\naspects and facilitating both first- and second-order patient changes.\nFortunately, an increasing dissatisfaction has emerged in recent years with our merely organic\nmedicine, which has been paralleled by a growing interest in consciousness, subjectivity,\nand spirituality. There is an increasing need to reappraise our paradigm and the still mysterious\nmind–brain–world relationship; the so-called ASC also call for a broader approach, to reappraise\nthem in a perspective, including their still misunderstood physiology, merging mechanisms,\ncontents, and meanings in a whole without prejudices, not even scientific ones.
Author: FACCO, ENRICO
Institution: University of Padua
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7039890505