The Confusion of Worlds: Resurrection, the Kingdom of God, and Otherworld Experiences

By Heiner Schwenke

The idea of the resurrection of the physical body and the eternal continuation of life with this body in a future paradisiacal kingdom of God on earth is one of the most enigmatic of religious ideas. It fully contradicts our knowledge of the transitoriness of all things in this universe. According to the author, the origin for this idea lies in certain forms of otherworld experiences, as, for example, reported by people who had near-death experiences: encounters with the dead in brilliantly beautiful bodies and the experience of paradisiacal, seemingly earthly landscapes. He observes that cultures with a pre-modern cosmology sometimes projected such otherworld experiences onto this world, to distant and unknown locations on earth. These experiences were the blueprint for an expectation of paradisiacal conditions on earth. The author establishes parallels between the reports of otherworld experiences and the eschatological ideas of Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and Christianity. He shows that otherworld experiences can indeed foster the expectation of paradisiacal conditions on earth by referring to the Ghost Dance movement of the Lakota people in 1890. He presumes that the confusion of worlds proved fatal not only for the Lakota people but also for Jesus of Nazareth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Release date: Jan 31, 2019
• ISBN: 9781532656040

Heiner Schwenke

Heiner Schwenke holds a Doctorate in Natural Sciences and a Doctorate in Philosophy. He is Research Fellow at the Faculty of Theology, Basel, and conducts the research project Transcendent Experiences: Phenomena, Ideas, and Judgments at the Max-Planck-Institute for the History of Science in Berlin.

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The Confusion of Worlds

Resurrection, the Kingdom of God, and Otherworld Experiences

Heiner Schwenke

Translated by Sarah Kühne

Abridged and revised by the author

41210.png

The Confusion of Worlds

Resurrection, the Kingdom of God, and Otherworld Experiences

Copyright © 2019 Heiner Schwenke. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

Pickwick Publications

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

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paperback isbn: 978-1-5326-5602-6

hardcover isbn: 978-1-5326-5603-3

ebook isbn: 978-1-5326-5604-0

Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

Names: Schwenke, Heiner, author. | Kühne, Sarah, translator.

Title: The confusion of worlds : resurrection, the kingdom of God, and otherworld experiences / by Heiner Schwenke; translated by Sarah Kühne.

Description: Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2019 | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: isbn 978-1-5326-5602-6 (paperback) | isbn 978-1-5326-5603-3 (hardcover) | isbn 978-1-5326-5604-0 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Jesus Christ—Resurrection | Near-death experiences | Experience (Religion) | Psychology and religion | Future life | Religion—Controversial literature | Religion and science | Eschatology

Classification: bl53 s394 2019 (print) | bl53 (ebook)

Previously published in German by Verlag Karl Alber, 2017.

Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NKJV) are from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NETS) are from A New English Translation of the Septuagint, © 2007 by the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies, Inc. Used by permission of Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations from the Greek NT are from Novum Testamentum Graece, 28th revised edition, edited by Barbara Aland and others, © 2012 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Scripture quotations from the Latin Vulgate are from Biblia Sacra Iuxta Vulgatam Versionem, 5th revised edition, edited by Roger Gryson, © 2007 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Scripture quotations from the Greek Septuagint are from Septuaginta: id est vetus testamentum graece iuxta LXX interpretes, edited by Alfred Rahlfs, 2nd revised edition, edited by Robert Hanhart, © 2006 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Manufactured in the U.S.A. 12/10/18

Table of Contents

Title Page

Preface

Abbreviations

Introduction

Chapter 1: Otherworld Experiences

Chapter 2: Resurrection and the Kingdom of God in Zoroastrianism

Chapter 3: Resurrection and the Kingdom of God in Judaism

Chapter 4: Resurrection and the Kingdom of God in Jesus of Nazareth

Chapter 5: Resurrection and the Kingdom of God in Christianity after Jesus

Chapter 6: The Lakota Ghost-Dance Movement

Chapter 7: Did Jesus Have Transcendent Experiences That Might Explain His Eschatological Belief?

Chapter 8: The Great Disappointment

Epilogue

Appendix: Miracles and Science

Bibliography

Preface

In this book I endeavor to employ knowledge about so-called otherworld experiences to illuminate two enigmatic, interlinked religious ideas: the ideas of the resurrection of the physical body and of a paradisiacal, earthly kingdom in which the resurrected will live eternally with these same bodies. The book emerged from the research project Transcendent Experiences—Phenomena, Ideas, and Judgments, conducted at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. In the context of the project, transcendent experiences are understood as experiences that transcend ordinary reality or familiar categories of explanation. Examples are the just mentioned otherworld experiences, or experiences of a seemingly extra-ordinary influence of the mental upon the physical. Transcendent experiences can strongly influence the lives and thoughts of those experiencing them. Until now, their phenomenology, their impact on the history of ideas, and the ways of cognitively dealing with them have been neglected by scholarship. Addressing transcendent experiences seems to be demanding in terms of judgment, both for experiencers and outside observers. A diligent and circumspect evaluation of the experiences in question often seems to fall victim to the need for cognitive closure. On the one side of the spectrum, we find the habit, particularly among non-experiencers, to block out and to debase transcendent experiences a limine. On the other side, there is a tendency both of experiencers and outside observers towards premature interpretations and explanations. And it would seem that misinterpretations of transcendent experiences can also have serious, far-reaching practical consequences, as this study shows.

The book is a slightly abridged and revised English version of the original German edition (Die Verwechslung der Welten: Auferstehung, Reich Gottes und Jenseitserfahrungen. Freiburg i. Br.: Karl Alber, 2017). I am deeply grateful to Dale C. Allison, Jr. for encouragement, discussion, and many valuable suggestions and questions. He undertook the most generous effort not only to comment on a previous German version of the manuscript, but to read through the entire English version and to provide linguistic assistance. I thank Sharokh Raei for checking the retranslations of his German versions of Zoroastrian texts. I am indebted to Sarah Kühne, the competent translator, for the smooth, effective, and agreeable cooperation.

I dedicate the book to my wife, Anne Peters, and to our children, Charlotte and Johannes.

Abbreviations

General

a. articulus

ad responsio ad obiectum

arg. argumentum (= obiectio)

BCE before the Common Era / Christian Era

CE Common Era / Christian Era

cf. confer, compare

co. corpus articuli (respondeo dicendum)

D Paragraph in Denzinger, Compendium

e.g. exempli gratia, for example

ed(s). editor(s), edited by, edition

et al. et alii, and others

etc. et cetera, and so forth, and the rest

fn. footnote

i.e. id est, that is

n. note

n.d. no date

p(p). page(s)

q. quaestio

s.c. sed contra

s.l. sine loco, without place (of publication)

s.n. sine nomine, without name (of publisher)

Suppl. supplementum

vol(s). volume(s)

vs. versus

Classical Greek and Latin Authors

Aristotle

Cael. De caelo

Cicero

Rep. De republica

Tusc. Tusculanae disputationes

Diogenes Laertius

Vit. De clarorum philosophorum vitis

Herodotus

Hist. Historiae

Hesiod

Op. Opera et dies

Homer

Od. Odyssee

Plato

Phaedr. Phaedros

Resp. Respublica

Plutarch

Is. Os. De Iside et Osiride

Zoroastrian Scriptures

Y. Yasna

Yt. Yasht

GBd. Greater Bundahishn

Pahl. Riv. Pahlavi Rivāyat

WZ Wizīdagīhā Zādspram

Hebrew Bible / Old Testament

Gen Genesis

Exod Exodus

Lev Leviticus

Num Numbers

Deut Deuteronomy

Josh Joshua

Judg Judges

1–2 Kgs 1–2 Kings

Ps Psalm

Isa Isaiah

Jer Jeremiah

Ezek Ezekiel

Dan Daniel

Hos Hosea

Joel Joel

Amos Amos

Mic Micah

Zech Zechariah

Mal Malachi

Deuterocanonical Works

2 Macc 2 Maccabees

Sir Sirach / Ecclesiasticus

Tob Tobit

Wis Wisdom of Solomon

Other Ancient Jewish Sources

As. Mos. Assumption of Moses

2 Bar. 2 Baruch (Syriac Apocalypse)

4 Bar. 4 Baruch (Paraleipomena Jeremiou)

1 En. 1 Enoch (Ethiopic Apocalypse)

4 Ezra 4 Ezra

Jub. Jubilees

LAB Liber antiquitatum biblicarum (Pseudo-Philo)

Pss. Sol. Psalms of Solomon

b. Sanh. Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin

m. Sanh. Mishnah Sanhedrin

Sib. Or. Sibylline Oracles

T. Ab. Testament of Abraham

T. Benj. Testament of Benjamin

T. Jud. Testament of Judah

T. Levi Testament of Levi

T. Sim. Testament of Simeon

T. Zeb. Testament of Zebulun

New Testament

Matt Matthew

Mark Mark

Luke Luke

John John

Acts Acts

Rom Romans

1–2 Cor 1–2 Corinthians

Eph Ephesians

Phil Philippians

Col Colossians

1 Thess 1 Thessalonians

Heb Hebrews

1–2 Pet 1–2 Peter

Rev Revelation

Other Ancient Christian Sources

1 Clem. 1 Clement

Ep. Apos. Epistle to the Apostles

Gos. Pet. Gospel of Peter

Gos. Thom. Gospel of Thomas

Ign. Smyrn. Ignatius, To the Smyrnaeans

Inf. Gos. Thom. Infancy Gospel of Thomas

Syr. Apoc. Dan. Syriac Apocalypse of Daniel

Treat. Res. Treatise on the Resurrection

Ancient and Medieval Christian Authors

Athenagoras

Res. De resurrectione

Augustine

Civ. De civitate dei

Cur. De cura pro mortuis gerenda

Bede

Hist. eccl. Historiam ecclesiasticam gentis anglorum

Cyril of Jerusalem

Catech. illum. Procatechesis et catecheses ad illuminandos

Eusebius

Hist. eccl. Historia ecclesiastica

Gregory the Great

Dial. Dialogi de vita et miraculis patrum Italicorum

Irenaeus

Haer. Adversus haereses

Josephus

A.J. Antiquitates judaicae

Justin

1 Apol. Apologia maior

Lactantius

Epit. Epitome divinarum institutionum

Inst. Divinarum institutionum

Methodius of Olympia

Res. De resurrectione

Minucius Felix

Oct. Octavius

Origen

Fr. Ps. Fragmenta in Psalmos

Princ. De principiis

Tertullian

An. De anima

Res. De resurrectione carnis

Thomas Aquinas

S. Th. Summa Theologiae

Modern Christian Sources

CCC Catechism of the Catholic Church. Popular and Definitive Edition. London: Burns & Oates, 2000 (Numbers are locator numbers, not page numbers.)

Versions, Translations, and Lexica of Zoroastrian, Jewish, and Christian Sources

ANF Ante-Nicene Fathers: The Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325. Edited by Aleander Roberts and James Donaldson. Revised by A. Cleveland Coxe. 10 vols. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature, 1885–97.

BDAG Bauer, Walter, Frederick W. Danker, William F. Arndt, and F. Wilbur Gingrich. Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.

ESV English Standard Version

EZIQ Sharokh Raei. Die Endzeitvorstellungen der Zoroastrier in iranischen Quellen. Göttinger Orientforschungen III. Reihe: Iranica. Neue Folge 6. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2010.

LXX Septuagint

NETS Pietersma, Albert, and Benjamin C. Wright III, trans. A New English Translation of the Septuagint and the Other Greek Translations Traditionally Included under That Title. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.

NKJV New King James Version

NPNF¹ A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Series 1. Edited by Philip Schaff. 14 vols. New York: Christian Literature, 1886–90.

NPNF² A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Series 2. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. 14 vols. New York: Christian Literature, 1890–1900.

NTApoc New Testament Apocrypha. 2 vols. Revised ed. Edited by Wilhelm Schneemelcher. English trans. ed. Robert McL. Wilson. Cambridge: Clarke, 2003.

OTP Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. Edited by James H. Charlesworth. 2 vols. New York: Doubleday, 1983, 1985.

TH Theodotion

Introduction

The mystery of belief in resurrection and the kingdom of God

Religious concepts are often enigmatic. The doctrines of a physical resurrection¹ and an earthly kingdom of God take a leading place in this regard. They can be found in Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, and to a certain extent in Islam.² Once resurrected, the risen, with their physical bodies restored, will go on to live an eternal, peaceful life under God’s reign without disease or old age, catastrophes or hardships, in wonderful surroundings and on earth, but an earth from which violence and decay have disappeared. This idea, however, contradicts everything we know about this cosmos. Ageing and death are essential components of biological life. No living organism lives forever. The lifespan of higher life forms is even more insignificant in comparison to the age of the stars and planets. All animals, including humans, live depending on the destruction of other lives, many from the extermination of other animals. Lions cannot live on grass. Catastrophes such as floods, droughts, storms, fires, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and impacts from meteorites, asteroids, and comets are a result of the nature of the earth and the cosmos. They inevitably bring death and destruction to living beings on earth. Life, as such, will not exist forever on earth because even celestial bodies are transient. The evolution of the sun into a red giant in the distant but certain future will eventually result in all forms of life on earth being extinguished.³

Transcendent experiences

How could a belief that so utterly contradicts our knowledge about this cosmos come to be? I suggest that by taking transcendent experiences into account we will come closer to the solution. By transcendent experiences I mean those in which the ordinary limits of the physical world are transcended, that is, exceeded. This can happen, for example, in otherworld experiences. These are experiences of a world other than the one familiar to us. But it may also consist of experiencing perceptions and effects that seem to transgress the boundaries of what is possible according to the usual worldview. This includes perceptions of things not currently present to the physical senses or macroscopic physical events that appear to be caused by an unusual mental influence such as the healing or food miracles of Jesus of Nazareth.⁴

Effects of transcendent experiences on worldview

Until now, research on religious and philosophical ideas has given transcendent experiences little attention, despite the fact that they can heavily influence not only the life but also the worldview of the experiencer. Paul of Tarsus’s Damascus-road experience⁵ is paradigmatic here in that he mutates from Christian hunter into the most significant missionary of the gospel in early Christianity. Recently, the effects of transcendent experiences on the experiencer have been examined in greater depth.⁶ For example, in the case of near-death experiences⁷ it has been shown that they have a massive and long-lasting effect on the worldview of the experiencers.⁸ They say, for example: It had such a profound effect on the rest of my life: the timelessness that I experienced; the knowledge that my consciousness will survive outside my body. It was enough to destabilize my life.⁹ Or: I used to think that I knew what was what. But my worldview underwent a radical transformation.¹⁰ Out-of-body experiences that occur in situations which are not close to death can have a similarly strong influence.¹¹ William Buhlman wrote of his first experience of this kind:

Suddenly, everything I had ever learned about my existence and the world around me had to be reappraised. I had always seriously doubted that anything beyond the physical world existed. Now my entire viewpoint changed. Now I absolutely knew that other worlds do exist and that people like myself must live there. Most important, I now knew that my physical body was just a temporary vehicle for the real me inside[.]¹²

Encounters with persons from other worlds¹³ can have life-changing effects¹⁴ and also significantly shape the experiencer’s worldview. When encounters with the deceased are at issue, it is the understanding of death that is most affected.

[B]ased on my experience more than thirty years ago, I believe that, in fact, we do survive after death in a way I can only describe as blissful.¹⁵

After that [experience], I began to feel that life is a continuum, and that this life is but one step. Death is just going through a door.¹⁶

This [experience] confirmed life after death for me. There is no death—there is only life.¹⁷

The neglect of transcendent experiences in the history of ideas

Judging by existing accounts, many prominent figures from religious history had intensive transcendent experiences. It is therefore likely that we might better understand their ideas in light of these experiences, as was already emphasized over a hundred years ago by William James.¹⁸ It is thus astonishing that to date many religious studies scholars and theologians assign little importance to transcendent experiences for understanding religious ideas.¹⁹ One can only guess why this is the case. Insufficient knowledge, the underestimation of the frequency of transcendent experiences, and the pathologization of the experiencers could all be important reasons.²⁰

The hypothesis of this book and the course of the investigation

The leading hypothesis of this book is that the idea of a physical resurrection and a subsequent eternal, blissful life on earth is based on a projection of certain elements from otherworld experiences onto an earthly reality. Firstly, I will concern myself with otherworld journeys and some related otherworld experiences. I will address two issues: the experience of paradisiacal and similar-to-earth landscapes and encounters with deceased persons with luminous bodies. I will then discuss how these components came to be projected onto the earthly sphere. Finally, I will analyze the accounts of an earthly kingdom of God and the resurrected in Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and Christianity and examine their similarities to descriptions of the beyond and its inhabitants in reports of otherworld journeys. I pay particular attention to Jesus of Nazareth, by far the most important, historically tangible representative of the doctrine of physical resurrection and a kingdom of God on earth. In the case of the historically well-documented Ghost Dance movement of the Lakota, I then show that otherworld journeys in fact have an influence on belief in an afterlife on a paradisiacal earth. I will then return to Jesus of Nazareth. In his case, it does not seem to have been otherworld journeys but miracles that strengthened his belief in the resurrection and kingdom of God, as handed down to him from early Jewish apocalypticism. I understand the cry Jesus made on the cross that God had forsaken him as the epitome of the disappointment that necessarily accompanies the hope for a paradisiacal kingdom of God on earth. In the epilogue, I will reflect on the consequences that the results of my study may have on the understanding of Christianity and its founder. The appendix contains a discussion on the relationship between miracles and science.

1. Resurrection is often broadly understood as the postmortal renewal or glorification of a previous existence (Ahn, Resurrection). However, I use this term more specifically for the beginning of the postmortal existence of a person with a physical body. The term physical resurrection would thus be a pleonasm, but I use it to assure greater clarity. Typically, the resurrected body is the revived physical body. Resurrection can be thought about monistically or dualistically. Seen monistically, it is the idea that, with the death of the physical body, the whole person dies and is brought back to life through resurrection. In contrast, a dualistic understanding of resurrection implies that, following the death of the physical body, a non-physical part of the person, for example, the soul, lives on and is reunited with the reanimated physical body through resurrection (see also Ringgren, Resurrection,

7762

).

2. I will not explore Islam in any more detail because, to my knowledge, it has never taught an eternal, blissful afterlife on this earth. In the Qur’an, the postmortem paradise appears to be in heaven. For Islamic eschatology in general, see Hagemann, Eschatologie im Islam, for Islamic paradise, see Gardet, Djanna.

3. See Ward and Brownlee, Planet Earth,

101

–

65

.

4. For the miracles of Jesus, see below, pp.

125

–

27

. For more detail on my concept of transcendent experiences and for the distinction of related terms such as religious, spiritual, mystical, anomalous, exceptional, or paranormal experiences, see Schwenke, "Transzendente Erfahrungen."

5. According to Acts, Paul was on his way to Damascus, to arrest followers of the late Jesus Christ: [S]uddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ And he said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.’ The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one (Acts

9

:

3

–

7

ESV). See the full account in Acts

9

:

1

–

21

and the slightly different versions in Acts

22

:

3

–

16

;

26

:

9

–

20

.

6. See the overviews in Noyes et al., Aftereffects of Near-Death Experiences; Greyson, Near-Death Experiences and Spirituality; see also Greyson and Khanna, Spiritual Transformation After Near-Death Experiences. For examples of prospective studies on the effects of near-death experiences, see van Lommel et al., Near-Death Experiences; Schwaninger et al., Prospective Analysis of Near-Death Experiences.

7. By near-death experiences I understand primarily experiences in physiological proximity to death, e.g., during cardiac arrest. See below, p.

6–7

.

8. van Lommel et al., Near-Death Experiences, showed that the effects are triggered not only by the physiological circumstances surrounding a near-death experience. They compared two groups of patients where the people in one of the groups had only suffered a cardiac arrest, the others, in addition, retained memories of a near-death experience. From a medical perspective no differences could be ascertained between the two groups. See also Parnia et al., Qualitative and Quantitative Study; Greyson, Incidence and Correlates of Near-Death Experiences.

9. van Lommel, Consciousness Beyond Life,

46

.

10. van Lommel, Consciousness Beyond Life,

41

.

11. By out-of-body experiences I understand experiences in which the experiencers have the impression that the center of perception and action lies outside of their own physical body but not necessarily outside any kind of body; see similar definitions in Alvarado, Out-of-Body Experiences,

183

; Kelly et al.: Unusual Experiences near Death,

394

; Nahm, Außerkörperliche Erfahrungen,

151

; for criticism of equating out-of-body experiences with so-called autoscopic experiences, that is, perceptions of one’s own physical body from a point outside it, see Nahm, Außerkörperliche Erfahrungen,

160

–

61

; see also Kelly et al., Unusual Experiences near Death,

403

–

4

.

12. Buhlman, Beyond the Body,

6

.

13. For the definition of such transcendent encounters see Schwenke, Transzendente Begegnungen,

20

–

26

.

14. See, e.g., Arcangel, Afterlife Encounters,

276

–

300

, and the overview in Schwenke, Transzendente Begegnungen,

160

–

67

.

15. LaGrand, Messages and Miracles,

148

.

16. Guggenheim and Guggenheim, Hello from Heaven,

133

.

17. Guggenheim and Guggenheim, Hello from Heaven,

145

.

18. William James believed that the investigation of religion must start with religious experiences which are immediate personal experiences (Varieties of Religious Experience,

64

). They spontaneously and inevitably engender myths, superstitions, dogmas, creeds, and metaphysical theologies [. . .]. But all these intellectual operations [. . .] presuppose immediate experiences as their subject-matter. They are interpretative and inductive operations, operations after the fact, consequent upon religious feeling (Varieties of Religious Experience,

433

, see also

456

–

57

).

19. Recent exceptions are, e.g., Dale Allison, who links the Easter apparitions with the widespread phenomenon of encounters with the deceased (see Resurrecting Jesus,

269

–

99

), and Carl Becker, who draws on near-death experiences to throw light upon Pure Land Buddhism (see Centrality of Near-Death Experiences). For parallels between accounts of near-death experiences and afterlife doctrines in various religions and cultures, see Shushan, Conceptions of the Afterlife, and Musamian, World Religions and Near-Death Experiences.

20. For the pathologization of encounters with people from the beyond, see Schwenke, Transzendente Begegnungen,

192

–

226

.

1

Otherworld Experiences

The Key to Belief in Resurrection and the Kingdom of God?

Otherworld journeys

Otherworld journeys are of special interest as an experiential basis for the concept of an eternal, paradisiacal life on earth. I understand otherworld journeys to be experiences in which those experiencing them have the impression of being and operating in a real world beyond this cosmos. For my argument it makes no difference whether or not the otherworld is real, only whether or not the experiencers consider it to be real, not only during the experience but also afterwards. There can be no scientific proof for the existence of another world, in the same way that there can be no such proof for the existence of this one.²¹ Otherworld journeys are a frequent element of near-death experiences, they are, however, albeit often less vividly and coherently, also experienced by people who are not close to death. By near-death experiences in the narrower sense I understand experiences in physiological proximity to death, for example, during cardiac arrest.²² They are often accompanied by an enhanced mentation, that is, an increased capacity for thinking and perception.²³ This may be related to the fact that memories of experiences and perceptions during near-death experiences tend to be more detailed than memories of normal earthly experiences, and all the more so than memories of imaginations or dreams.²⁴ Near-death experiences are often described as being more real than real. Even many years after the experience, the experiencer’s belief in the reality of the experience appears to remain unchanged.

Paradisiacal, earth-like landscapes

Particularly for those otherworld journeys in the context of near-death experiences, experiencers often move in heavenly landscapes that appear paradisiacal but that are very similar to earthly ones. Pim van Lommel writes: People often find themselves in a dazzling landscape with gorgeous colors, remarkable flowers, and sometimes also incredibly beautiful music. Some see cities and splendid buildings.²⁵ Peter and Elizabeth Fenwick gained a similar impression from their analysis of accounts of near-death experiences: surprisingly uniform vision of Paradise emerges. It is a picture of a heavenly countryside where there may be brilliantly coloured birds and flowers, wonderful scents, heavenly music, friends or relatives who have died.²⁶

In neurosurgeon Eben Alexander’s account of his own near-death experience in 2008, similarities between the otherworld and earthly sceneries and their realistic character are explicitly addressed:

[I] found myself in a completely new world. The strangest, most beautiful world I’d ever seen. Brilliant, vibrant, ecstatic, stunning [. . .]. Below me was a countryside. It was green, lush, and earthlike. It was earth . . . but at the same time it wasn’t. [. . .] I was flying, passing over trees and fields, streams and waterfalls, and here and there, people. There were children, too, laughing and playing. [. . .] A beautiful, incredible dream world. . . . Except it wasn’t a dream. Though I didn’t know where I was [. . .], I was absolutely sure of one thing: this place I’d suddenly found myself in was completely real. The word real expresses something abstract, and it’s frustrating ineffective at conveying what I’m trying to describe.²⁷

Alexander’s report is of particular interest for our discussion because—due to similarities between otherworldly and earthly landscapes—he expresses his uncertainty about the nature and localization of the landscape he experienced. In the account that Dr A. S. Wiltse from Skiddy, Kansas gave of his near-death experience in the year 1889, the similarity becomes even clearer:

Underneath me lay a forest-clad valley, through which ran a beautiful river full of shoals, which caused the water to ripple in white sprays. I thought the river looked much like the Emerald River [in Arkansas], and the mountains, I thought, as strongly resembled Waldron’s Ridge [in Arkansas]. On the left of the road was a high bluff of black stone and it reminded me of Lookout Mountain [in Georgia], where the railroad passes between it and the Tennessee River.²⁸

William Buhlman, who claims to have regularly induced out-of-body experiences at will without being close to death, writes that the first nonphysical dimension or world that he crosses in these