Comparing non-Western NDEs: Long excerpt #14

Radiation oncologist Jeremy Long writes in his article, "Evidence for Survival of Consciousness in Near-Death Experiences: Decades of Science and New Insights" - "The most recent version of the NDERF survey allows the unique opportunity to directly compare non-Western with Western near-death experiences. Study entry criteria were a single NDE, shared in English on the English version of the NDERF survey, shared in first-person, and an NDE Scale score of 7 or higher. Twenty-five non-Western NDEs met these criteria and were compared to 809 Western NDEs meeting the same criteria. Non-Western NDEs shared in English was felt to be the best source of direct comparison to Western NDEs because many survey questions contain words and phrases that might be difficult to translate into non-English. NDErs in non-Western countries that know English well enough to complete a detailed survey should be in the best position to answer the English version of the NDERF survey reliably. There were 34 survey questions regarding the NDE elements, which is what occurred during the NDEs.

"Direct comparison of non-Western and Western near-death experiences in this manner has never been previously reported. The results of this study found that every element of NDE occurred in both groups. Of the 34 survey questions regarding NDE elements, there was no statistical significance in the responses between the two groups for 30 of the 34 questions (88%). Borderline statistical significance was present in another four of the survey questions (12%). Overall, there was no difference in responses to the survey questions that were statistically significant or even borderline significant for 26 (76%) of the 34 survey questions.

"Several survey questions with statistically different responses between non-Western and Western NDErs might be challenging to answer even for those with English as a first language. For example, two survey questions with statistically different responses between the two groups were, 'How did your highest level of consciousness and alertness during the experience compare to your normal everyday consciousness and alertness?' and 'During your experience, did you encounter any specific information / awareness that a mystical universal connection or unity/oneness either does (or does not) exist?'

"Given the complexity of some survey questions, the similarity in responses between the non-Western and Western NDE groups is notable. This study of the content of non-Western and Western NDEs provides further significant evidence of a deep universal and cross-cultural consistency among NDEs worldwide regardless of the cultural background of the NDErs.

"Western near-death experiences as a whole do not seem to be significantly culturally determined. I was part of a team that reviewed thirty years of research about the characteristics of Western near-death experiences. Our findings were published in a scholarly book chapter. In this review, we could not find any core characteristics of Western NDEs that seemed culturally determined.

"The cross-cultural study of near-death experiences is more than just statistics. To deeply understand NDEs there is no substitute for reading NDEs from all around the world, including non-Western countries. Volunteer human translators have translated near-death experiences shared with NDERF into over thirty different languages. This allows people everywhere to readily understand the remarkable similarity of the content of NDEs regardless of where in the world the NDEs occurred."

Jeffrey Long, MD, "Evidence for Survival of Consciousness in Near-Death Experiences: Decades of Science and New Insights." In the next several posts I will share excerpts from Long's 2021 article. Footnotes have been deleted. The complete text is available as a pdf at https://www.nderf.org.