Pushing Near-Death Experiences (I)

Summary

The chapter discusses the trend of 'privatized death' in Western societies, where dying occurs primarily in hospitals and institutions. This shift has contributed to the articulation of near-death experiences, which are viewed as a spiritual protest against the impersonal nature of institutional dying and the materialistic focus of modern biomedicine. The chapter also critiques the societal denial of death.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This chapter focuses on a long-term development in Western societies addressed as “privatized death,” namely, the assignment of the dying into hospitals and other institutions. This trend, mirrored in the works of French historian Philippe Ariès and psychologist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, so the chapter argues, served as a “push factor” for articulating near-death experiences. Near-death experiences can be in part read as a “spiritual protest” against alienated, anonymous dying in institutions and the “materialist” take of modern biomedicine of merely prolonging life. This protest is also present in criticizing the “denial of death.”