Otherworld journeys : accounts of near-death experience in medieval and modern times / Carol Zaleski.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Zaleski, Carol.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Near-death experiences--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Near-death experiences.

Voyages to the otherworld.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (286 pages)

Place of Publication:

New York ; Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1988, c1987.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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

Contents:

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;

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-19-028158-8

1-280-52362-X

0-19-802098-8

0-19-536352-3

OCLC:

476010669