S.R. Jones
Did Emanuel Swedenborg have near-death experiences? Envisioning a developmental account of NDEs.
Jones, S.R.; Fernyhough, C.
Abstract
The causes of Emanuel Swedenborg's (1688-1772) voices and visions remain unclear. It has recently been argued that post-hoc diagnoses of schizophrenia and epilepsy are not congruent with Swedenborg's actual experiences. In this article we examine the phenomenological commonalities between Swedenborg's experiences and near-death experiences (NDEs). Using the Near-Death Experience Scale (Greyson, 1985), we show that Swedenborg's experiences meet accepted criteria to be classified as NDEs. However, despite significant evidence for such commonalities, Swedenborg's experiences also show a number of points of divergence from NDEs. After reviewing the evidence for a potential role of hypoxia in generating NDEs, we hypothesize that a proximal cause of Swedenborg's experiences was his tendency to hypoventilate. Further, we argue that a distal cause of Swedenborg's experiences was neural changes induced by his lifetime of unusual respiration, in conjunction with a predisposition to temporal lobe seizures. We conclude by proposing a number of empirically testable hypotheses emerging from our arguments, centered around a developmental approach to NDEs.
Citation
Jones, S., & Fernyhough, C. (2009). Did Emanuel Swedenborg have near-death experiences? Envisioning a developmental account of NDEs. Journal of near-death studies, 27(3), 157-187. https://doi.org/10.17514/jnds-2009-27-3-p157-187
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Publication Date | 2009 |
Journal | Journal of Near-Death Studies |
Electronic ISSN | 1573-3661 |
Publisher | lANDS |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 27 |
Issue | 3 |
Pages | 157-187 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.17514/jnds-2009-27-3-p157-187 |
Public URL | https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1532342 |
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