Otherworld Journeys [[electronic resource] ] : Accounts of Near-Death Experience in Medieval and Modern Times

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910784813603321
• Autore: Zaleski Carol
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: New York, : Oxford University Press, 1989
• ISBN: 1-280-52362-X; 0-19-802098-8; 0-19-536352-3
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (286 pages)
• Disciplina: 133.9013
• Soggetti: Near-death experiences; Near-death experiences - Religious aspects - Christianity; Near-death experiences - Christianity - Religious aspects - Middle Ages, 600-1500; Near-death experiences - History of doctrines - Christianity - Religious aspects; Voyages to the otherworld; Voyages to the otherworld in literature
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di contenuto: CONTENTS; INTRODUCTION; PART I: ORIENTATION; CHAPTER 1 A Wide-Angle View; CHAPTER 2 Four Models of Christian Otherworld Journey Narration; The Otherworld Journey as Apocalypse: The Vision of St. Paul; The Otherworld Journey as Miracle Story: The Dialogues of Gregory the Great; The Otherworld Journey as Conversion: The Vision of Drythelm; The Otherworld Journey as Pilgrimage: St. Patrick's Purgatory; PART II: MEDIEVAL CHRISTIAN RETURN-FROM-DEATH STORIES: A THEMATIC TREATMENT; CHAPTER 3 The Other World: Medieval Itineraries; Exit from the Body; The Guide; The Journey; CHAPTER 4 Obstacles; Fire; The Test-Bridge Encounter with Deeds; CHAPTER 5 Reentry; The Visionary Transformed; The Visionary as Messenger; The Narrator as Messenger; Vision and Revision; Interpretation of Visions; PART III: THE MODERN NEAR-DEATH NARRATIVE: A THEMATIC AND COMPARATIVE ; TREATMENT; CHAPTER 6 From Deathbed Visions to Life After Life; Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Precursors; Life After Life: A New Phase; The Researchers; CHAPTER 7 The Other World: Modern Itineraries; Attitudes toward Death and Dying; Images of the Soul; Liminality; The Journey; The Light; Judgment; ""Falling into Heaven"": Mystical States and Visions of the Whole Otherworld Topography; Otherworld Demography; CHAPTER 8 Back to Life; Approaching the Point of No Return; The Visionary Transformed; The Visionary and the Interviewer; PART IV: THE INTERPRETATION OF NEAR-DEATH VISIONS; CHAPTER 9 Ecstatics and Statistics; Credentials; Verification; CHAPTER 10 Explanations and Counter explanations; Were They Dead?; Models of Death; ""Natural"" Causes; Counterarguments; CHAPTER 11 Evaluating Near-Death Testimony; Experiential Claims; Double Vision; Corporeal Imagery; The Question of Interpretation; Another World to Live In Orientation; APPENDIX: Chronology of Medieval Visions; NOTES; BIBLIOGRAPHY; INDEX
• Sommario/riassunto: Dozens of books, articles, television shows, and films relating ""near-death"" experiences have appeared in the past decade. People who have survived a close brush with death reveal their extraordinary visions and ecstatic feelings at the moment they died, describing journeys through a tunnel to a realm of light, visual reviews of their past deeds, encounters with a benevolent spirit, and permanent transformation after returning to life. Carol Zaleski's Otherworld Journeys offers the most comprehensive treatment to date of the evidence surrounding near-death experiences. The first to pla