Near-Death Experience Scholar Gregory Shushan: NDEs & The Origin Of Afterlife Beliefs (2012)

Gregory Shushan writes:

"In this seminar I will review my research into the relationship between afterlife beliefs and certain types of 'religious' or 'mystical' experiences worldwide as found in the texts of early civilizations, and in the earliest ethnographic reports on indigenous societies. The key issue is the extent to which afterlife conceptions are consistent cross-culturally, and with the spontaneous, evidently universal near-death experience. In opposition to contemporary postmodernist-influenced assumptions that religious beliefs and experiences are entirely culturally constructed, I argue that afterlife conceptions in human societies are commonly formed not only by a combination of culture-specific socio-historical and environmental factors, but also universal cognitive factors and universal anomalous experiential factors. This is demonstrated by the existence of thematically consistent narratives of near-death experiences found in nearly all times and places, which in turn correspond to the widespread general similarities found in afterlife conceptions worldwide. This is despite differences in social organization and scale, and high degrees of cultural independence and geographical and chronological distance between the societies considered."

Gregory Shushan is author of the Grawemeyer Award-nominated Conceptions of the Afterlife in Early Civilizations: Universalism, Constructivism, and Near-Death Experience (Continuum Advances in Religious Studies, 2009). He has been Visiting Lecturer in Religious Studies at University of Wales Lampeter, Lecturer in the Study of Religions at University College Cork where he helped establish the first such department in the Republic of Ireland, guest lecturer in Anthropology of Religions at Swiss University, and Research Fellow at the Centro Incontri Umani (The Cross Cultural Centre) at Ascona, Switzerland. He has presented his research in seven different countries, and is the recipient of six academic awards, including the Gordon Childe Prize. He holds a Diploma in Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology from Birkbeck College (University of London), a BA in Egyptian Archaeology and an MA in Research Methods for the Humanities from University College London, and a PhD in Religious Studies from University of Wales Lampeter. He is currently a Research Fellow at the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion, University of Oxford, researching comparative afterlife beliefs in indigenous religions worldwide in the context of shamanic and near-death experiences. The project is supported by a grant from the Perrot-Warrick Fund, Trinity College, Cambridge.

Original YouTube Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVeoV14J2dY

Gregory Shushan Website
https://www.gregoryshushan.com/

The Next World: Extraordinary Experiences Of The Afterlife (Book)
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B09W2Q3GT8/nhne-20

Near-Death Experience In Indigenous Religions (Book)
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B07F38WG9V/nhne-20

Conceptions of the Afterlife in Early Civilizations: Universalism, Constructivism and Near-Death Experience (Book)
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0826440738/nhne-20

Gregory Shushan on Medium
https://gregory-shushan.medium.com/

Support Gregory Shushan and his work via Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/gregoryshushan

Near-Death Experiences and the Origins of the Afterlife
https://gregory-shushan.medium.com/near-death-experiences-and-the-origins-of-the-afterlife-cdac101a379f

Revelation In Near-Death Experience
https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198795353.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780198795353-e-46

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Historical & Cross-Cultural Near-Death Experiences
http://the-formula.org/historical-cross-cultural-near-death-experiences/

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The Formula For Creating Heaven On Earth
https://theformulaforcreatingheavenonearth.com

The Wisdom Of Near-Death Experiences On Twitter
https://twitter.com/nhneneardeath

The Wisdom Of Near-Death Experiences On Telegram
https://t.me/sunfellownde

Outstanding Near-Death Experiences On GETTR
https://www.gettr.com/user/outstandingndes

Outstanding Near-Death Experiences
https://rumble.com/c/sunfellownde

Outstanding Near-Death Experience Resources
https://rumble.com/c/sunfellowndemisc

The Purpose Of Life As Revealed By Near-Death Experiences From Around The World (Book)
https://thepurposeoflife-nde.com/
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1797012037/nhne-20

500 Quotes From Heaven: Life-Changing Quotes That Reveal The Wisdom & Power Of Near-Death Experiences (Book)
https://quotesfromheaven.com/
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B08H5C9Z6Z/nhne-20

NDE Stories
http://ndestories.org/

Encounters With Jesus
https://encounters-with-jesus.org/

Encounters With Jesus On Rumble
https://rumble.com/c/sunfellowjesus

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Near-Death Experiences From Around The World
https://the-formula.org/nde-accounts/

Historical & Cross-Cultural Near-Death Experiences
https://the-formula.org/historical-cross-cultural-near-death-experiences/

What Near-Death Experiences Teach Us
http://the-formula.org/resources/what-near-death-experiences-teach-us/