Otherworld journeys: accounts of near-death experience in medieval and modern times PDF
Preview Otherworld journeys: accounts of near-death experience in medieval and modern times
Otherworld Journeys This page intentionally left blank Otherworld Journeys ACCOUNTS OF NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE IN MEDIEVAL AND MODERN TIMES Carol Zaleski OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS New York Oxford Oxford University Press Oxford New York Toronto Delhi Bombay Calcutta Madras Karachi Petaling jaya Singapore Hong Kong Tokyo Nairobi Dar es Salaam Cape Town Melbourne Auckland and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Copyright © 1987 by Oxford University Press? Inc. First published in 1987 by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 1001t^4314 First issued as an Oxford University Press paperback, 1988 Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press, Inc. Portions of I Died Three Times in 1977, P.M.H. Atwater, reprinted by permission of the author. Portions of Life After Life, Raymond A. Moody, Jr., teprinted by permision of Mockingbird Books, Inc. Portions of Life at Death: A Scientific Investigation of the Near-Death Experience, Kenneth Ring, reprinted by permission of the Putnam Publishing Group. Copyright © 1980 by Kenneth Ring. "Prophetic Voices" videotaped interview with near-death experiences reprinted with permission of Andrew ). Silver. Extract from Canto 3? reprinted by permission of the Bodley Head Ltd. from Dante's Paradise, translated by John D. Sinclair. "Profile of an Experiencer: Tracy Lovell," Vital Signs I, no. 4, reprinted by permission of Vital Signs. "St, Patrick's Purgatory/' Carol Zaleski. Acknowledgment to Journal of the History of Ideas XLVI (October-December 1985): 467-85. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Zaleski, Carol Goldsmith. Otherworld journeys. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Near-death experiences—Religious aspects—Christianity. 2. Voyages to the otherworld. 3. Voyages to the otherworld in literature. I. Title. BT825.Z34 1987 133.9'01'3 86-17983 ISBN 0-19-503915-7 ISBN 0-19-505665-5 (PBK.) 6 8 10 9 7 5 Printed in the United States of America Acknowledgments THIS BOOK BEGAN several years ago as a dissertation in the Study of Religion at Harvard University. I am grateful for the advice, encouragement, arid friendship of my teachers and colleagues, especially Richard R. Niebuhr, Jane I. Smith, William A. Graham, Jr., Margaret R. Miles, Clarissa W. Atkinson, Diana L. Eck, and Wilfred Cantwell Smith. A doctoral dissertation grant from the Charlotte W. Newcombe Foun- dation and a residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts allowed me to work on this project without distraction, and the staff of the Harvard Arts and Sciences Computer Services helped me find my way in the labyrin- thine other world of electronic text processing. Nicole Galland and Lisa Vines provided valuable eleventh-hour research assistance. Cynthia A. Read's discerning editorial suggestions and Wendy Warren Keebler's vigi- lant copy editing made the process of revising for publication both edifying and pleasant. John L. Barger deserves credit, too, for his careful work on the index. Nancy Evans Bush, Bruce Greyson, Raymond and Louise Moody, Karlis Osis, Kenneth Ring, Kimberly Clark, Leslee Morabito, and James Krum were very gracious to me. I would also like to thank those who have taken the risk of publicizing their own experiences in the face of death. Although my per- spective is inevitably different from theirs, I hope they will find that this study contributes in some way to our common aim of understanding near-death testimony. Finally, I wish to acknowledge the wonderful support I received from my family: Philip Zaleski, Morton and Laura Goldsmith, and Berenice Siki- delsky. This book is dedicated to them. A Note on Terminology and Translations THE TERM "near-death experience," coined by Raymond Moody, applies to the testimony of individuals who have revived from apparent death as well as those who have only come close to death. As I shall indicate in chapter 10, definitions of death, return from death, near-death states, dreams, and visions are often blurry in the material we are considering. Whenever finer distinc- tions are needed, I supply them; otherwise, for the ease of the reader I use such terms as near-death experience, near-death vision, otherworW journey, otherworld vision, deathbed vision, and return from death almost interchangeably. Translations are my own, unless otherwise noted. For the sake of brev- ity, I have not reproduced the original Latin or vernacular European texts, but I have indicated where these sources can be found. Latin editions of many works cited here are included in the PatroJogia latina series edited by J.-P. Migne, indicated in the notes by the abbreviation PL. Biblical passages are taken from the Revised Standard Version or, in some cases, the Douay- Rheims edition. For apocalypses and other extracanonical texts, I have relied most often on The Old Testament Pseudepi'grapha, edited by James H. Charlesworth. Contents INTRODUCTION 3 PART I ORIENTATION CHAPTER 1 A Wide-AngJe View 11 CHAPTER 2 Four ModeJs of Christian OtherworJd Journey Narration 26 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 viii Contents PART II MEDIEVAL CHRISTIAN RETURN-FROM-DEATH STORIES: A THEMATIC TREATMENT CHAPTER J The Other World: Medieval Itineraries 45 Exit from the Body The Guide The Journey CHAPTER 4 Obstacles 61 Fire The Test-Bridge Encounter with Deeds CHAPTER 5 Reentry 75 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 97 Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Precursors Life After Life: A New Phase The Researchers CHAPTER 7 The Other World: Modern Itineraries 113 Attitudes toward Death and Dying Images of the Soul Liminality The Journey The Light Judgment Contents ix "Falling into Heaven": Mystical States and Visions of the Whole Otherworld Topography Otherworld Demography CHAPTER 8 Back to Life 136 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 153 Credentials Verification CHAPTER 10 Explanations and Counterexplanatidns 161 Were They Dead? Models of Death "Natural" Causes Counterarguments CHAPTER 11 Evaluating Near-Death Testimony ] 84 Experiential Claims Double Vision Corporeal Imagery The Question of Interpretation Another World to Live In Orientation APPENDIX Chronology of Medieval Visions 206 NOTES 210 BIBLIOGRAPHY 248 INDEX 267
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