I am almost 2/3 thru the recent book release by IANDS, the foundations of near death research which covers a lot of articles from the journal of near death studies and I am kind of embarrassed. I pride myself on being very well versed on ndes and have read so many books, articles, blogs and watched so many videos and listened to so many podcasts and even attended local IANDS meetups only to realize that in years of feeling on top of this stuff, I’ve missed really taking account of NDES in other cultures and just how different they are . I was so caught up in some of dr Jeff Long’s research that I completely neglected other cultures ndes outside of North America and other than the general knowledge that other cultures often experience specific “experiences” or imagery that’s different than traditional “Western” NDE’s, I was not aware to just how much an extent they r different . No reports of tunnels, bright lights, life reviews, lack of pleasant feelings, etc. one thing that I always “hung my hat on” was the fact that I believed ndes across cultures and time, pretty much, generally speaking at least, were very similar . And I know all the typical interpretations that maybe we interpret things from our culture or maybe things r symbolic or many other possibilities but I’m just speaking to my disheartening realization that one of the few things I “held onto” as convincing proof.. was NDE’s. Now I feel I’ve lost that.