Max_B
Member
A young Northland woman is researching near-death experiences among Northland Maori in a bid to find out if culture impacts what people see when they are close to death.
Hannah Young said as many as one in five people had visions during a near-death experience, but because international research was focused mainly on European cultures she said it was unknown if different cultures had different experiences.
So, the 24-year-old from Opua decided to look into it for the thesis part of her Masters of Psychology she is studying at Massey University.
"A near-death experience can be someone who has had a heart attack and been pronounced clinically dead but is successfully resuscitated. Sometimes they will say they've seen a bright light and heard the doctors talking or have gone out of their body and seen themselves."
Miss Young said a near-death experience could also affect someone who was close to death.
For example, she said someone who was in a serious car crash might experience watching the crash from the sideline. She has six Northland Maori participating in her research and has interviewed four so far.
"I thought [their experiences] would be different, very dissimilar. There's only ever been one Maori near-death experience recorded and it was an older lady in 1985 who had little contact with Pakeha and her experience conformed closely with tradition."
She said she could not be certain as her research was incomplete, but so far it looked like that prediction was wrong.
"So far it's remarkably similar [to current studies] ... "
She hoped the research would help people better understand the phenomenon.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503450&objectid=11516829
Hannah Young said as many as one in five people had visions during a near-death experience, but because international research was focused mainly on European cultures she said it was unknown if different cultures had different experiences.
So, the 24-year-old from Opua decided to look into it for the thesis part of her Masters of Psychology she is studying at Massey University.
"A near-death experience can be someone who has had a heart attack and been pronounced clinically dead but is successfully resuscitated. Sometimes they will say they've seen a bright light and heard the doctors talking or have gone out of their body and seen themselves."
Miss Young said a near-death experience could also affect someone who was close to death.
For example, she said someone who was in a serious car crash might experience watching the crash from the sideline. She has six Northland Maori participating in her research and has interviewed four so far.
"I thought [their experiences] would be different, very dissimilar. There's only ever been one Maori near-death experience recorded and it was an older lady in 1985 who had little contact with Pakeha and her experience conformed closely with tradition."
She said she could not be certain as her research was incomplete, but so far it looked like that prediction was wrong.
"So far it's remarkably similar [to current studies] ... "
She hoped the research would help people better understand the phenomenon.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503450&objectid=11516829