Journal of Near-Death Studies, Volume 26, Number 2, Winter 2007

Third part of a critique of survivalist interpretations of near-death experiences (NDEs), which considers psychophysiological and cultural correlates of NDEs suggesting that such experiences are solely products of individuals' minds rather than windows into a transcendental realm.

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Psychophysiological and Cultural Correlates Undermining a Survivalist Interpretation of Near-Death Experiences, ark:/67531/metadc799229

Abstract: Keith Augustine has provided a legitimate and cogent critique of a transcendental interpretation of near-death experiences, exposing weaknesses in the research methodology, paucity of the data, and gaps in the arguments. He offers evidence from psychophysiological and cultural correlates of NDEs that he interprets as favoring a hallucinatory understanding of these phenomena. however, his analysis relies on idiosyncratic definitions of psychological concepts, reads unidirectional causality into bivariate correlations, and underestimates the empirical predictions of the separation hypothesis. Despite less than compelling evidence for the transcendental hypothesis, it accounts for NDE phenomenology better than the materialist model.

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Commentary on "Psychophysiological and Cultural Correlates Undermining a Survivalist Interpretation of Near-Death Experiences", ark:/67531/metadc798881

Abstract: This paper is a sociological commentary on the leading paper by Keith Augustine. It discusses the relationship between social expectations and culture as well as extending the discussion about the possibility that near-death experiences may not be a singular entity. I suggest there are sound grounds for developing a typology of experiences that have different and or overlapping causes and phenomenology.

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Culture and the Near-Death Experience: Comments on Keith Augustine's "Psychophysiological and Cultural Correlates Undermining a Survivalist Interpretation of Near-Death Experiences", ark:/67531/metadc798980

Abstract: This commentary responds to Keith Augustine's article on the hallucinatory nature of near-death experiences (NDEs). It draws attention to his misreading of an important point made in my book Religion, Spirituality and the Near-Death Experience (Fox, 2003) regarding claims made by some NDErs to have traveled into outer space, reinforces the need for a thorough consideration of the epistemological complexities involved in asserting or denying a "common core" to NDEs, and ends by supporting the point made by Augustine that there is a pressing need for more crosscultural studies of the "core" phenomenon itself.

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Commentary on Keith Augustine's Article (Fox), ark:/67531/metadc799028

Abstract: Keith Augustine has provided a useful survey of the psychological and neurological correlates of near-death experiences and out-of-body experiences. The empirical findings he cites may prove awkward to accommodate under current separationist accounts of these experiences, although proponents of the separationist approach may be able to refine their theories so as to enhance their predictive power in this regard.

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Commentary on Keith Augustine's Paper (Irwin), ark:/67531/metadc799087

Article responding to objections raised against another article. The author concedes some of the objections up to a point, but concludes that they neither strengthen the case for a survivalist interpretation of near-death experiences, nor weaken the case against one.

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"Psychophysiological and Cultural Correlates Undermining a Survivalist Interpretation of Near-Death Experiences" Defended, ark:/67531/metadc799101

Obituary of George Gordon Ritchie, Jr., physician, speaker, and author of "Return From Tomorrow" and "My Life After Dying."

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Obituary: George G. Ritchie, M.D., ark:/67531/metadc798920