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.qxd 6/6/08 4:44 PM Page 55The river of no return 55dissimilar to the one the percipient is from.The major differences arethat this world is often much more pleasant socially and physically.Clearly,the consistency of these reports suggests that at least two features of theNDE are indeed cross-cultural.(ibid.: 33)It is interesting to observe how the concept of transition into a period ofdarkness is rather different from the vision of a tunnel (also known as tunnel effect ).The latter, following Kellehear, is socially constructed:This darkness is then subject to culture-specific interpretations: a tunnelfor Westerners, subterranean caverns for the Melanesians, and so on.NDErs who do not report a period of darkness may not view this aspectof the experience as an important part of their account or narrative.(ibid.: 35 6)He gives the example of children s literature in Western societies, which isreplete with tunnels, extraordinary beings, life reviews, flying experiences,and tales of reunion (ibid.: 153).Classical tunnel-based stories are those ofThe Wizard of Oz, in which Dorothy is transported inside a tunnel to anotherplace and she meets the good witch of the east , or Alice in Wonderland,where Alice begins her journey after a long fall down a dark rabbit hole.Moreover, there is Santa Claus who comes every December down thechimney of the house (ibid.).Kellehear s theory largely contradicts Blackmore s biological explanationthat the tunnel experience is caused by a lack of oxygen (anoxia) in thebrain (Blackmore 2003).Consequently, this causes a random activity through-out the visual system, giving the impression of lots of bright lights flashingin the middle where there are lots of cells, but fading out towards theperiphery of the visual system, where there are fewer.As the oxygen levelfalls even more, the brightness in the middle will increase, leading to theimpression of travelling along a tunnel towards the light.Eventually thewhole area would seem to be light, giving the feeling of entering the light(Blackmore 1993b).ChinaWe know relatively little about NDE in China.The most popular work hasbeen carried out by Carl Becker (1981).He made a study of three traditionalmonks, who were exponents of the foundation of Pure Land Buddhism.Eachof the three monks reported a period of illness, during which they all experi-enced either an NDE or a death-bed vision while still reasonably unconscious.During these accounts neither tunnel experience nor out-of-body experiencewas reported. 9780415455206_4_003.qxd 6/6/08 4:44 PM Page 5656 The river of no returnMore recently, another study was carried out by Zhi-ying and Jian-xunin 1987.The authors looked at the accounts of 81 survivors of the 1976Tangshan earthquake in China.Of these, 72 reported an experience similarto a near-death experience (Zhi-ying and Jian-xun 1992).The most distinc-tive features were: sensations of the world being exterminated; a sense ofweightlessness; a feeling of being pulled or squeezed , as well as the mostcommon feeling estranged from the body, unusually vivid thoughts, loss ofemotions, unusual bodily sensations, life seeming like a dream, a feeling ofdying, a feeling of peace or euphoria, a life review or panoramic memory ,and thinking unusually fast (ibid.: 46).IndiaMore evidence emerged from several studies which were carried out inIndia.One of these was carried out by Satwant Pasricha and Ian Stevenson(Pasricha and Stevenson 1986).This was based on 16 cases of NDEs in India.The authors observed that experiences were characterized by the meeting withYamraj, the King of the Dead, or his messengers, called Yamdoots, or theman with the book , Chitragupta.Curiously, NDErs were often sent backto life because of a mistake in the identity of the person.An example quotedin their study is that of Vasudev Pandey, who was interviewed in 1975.Thisboy was considered dead and taken to the cremation ground.At this time,some signs of life aroused the attention of those present and Vasudev wasremoved to the hospital where doctors tried to bring him back to life.Heremained unconscious for three days.When he regained consciousness, hetold the following story to those who were present:Two persons caught me and took me with them.I felt tired after walk-ing some distance; they started to drag me.My feet became useless.Thenthere was a man sitting up.He looked dreadful and was all black.Hewas wearing no clothes.He said in a rage [to the attendants who hadbrought Vasudev] I had asked you to bring Vasudev the gardener.Ourgarden is drying up.You have brought Vasudev the student.(Pasricha and Stevenson 1986: 166)The day after, his gardener, who was also called Vasudev, who was presentwhen Vasudev told his NDE, died.2Once again, the content of an Indian NDE differs from those reported inWestern societies where NDErs are not usually able to give a reason for theirrecovery and if they do so, they are more likely to say that they were sentback because deceased relatives or friends told them that their time has notyet come.A different interpretation of the phenomenon has been given bySusan Blackmore who placed an advertisement in The Times of India on 2November 1991 in order to find potential Indian NDErs.Although she had 9780415455206_4_003.qxd 6/6/08 4:44 PM Page 57The river of no return 5719 replies, she was able to interview only nine of them.Her findings differedfrom Pasricha and Stevenson, who found no tunnel or OBE effects.In con-trast, 3 of Blackmore s subjects encountered tunnels or a dark space, andtheir experiences were in general closer to Western ones.She believes thatthe cross-cultural similarity supports her contention that NDEs have a bio-logical basis (Blackmore 1993b).Another study was carried out in India by Osis and Haraldsson (1972 73)in order to determine the extent of cultural variations in death-bed visionsin India.A similar investigation was carried out in the USA.They publishedtheir results in a book called At the Hour of Death (1977), which discussesa large number of cultural variations.One of these regards the vision of beingsof light, or religious figure, during the experience:The identity of the religious figure [in the vision] was also quite a prob-lem in adult cases
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