Community Attitudes Toward Near Death Experiences: A Chinese Study

In a survey of Chinese attitudes toward near-death experiences (NDEs), 197 respondents were read a hypothetical description of an NDE and asked to choose from a range of explanations and social reactions that might approximate their own. Fifty-eight percent of respondents believed that NDEs were probably hallucinations or dreams. Less than nine percent believed the NDE was evidence of life after death. Rural and younger persons were more likely to react positively to NDErs. The results are discussed with reference to an earlier Australian study by Kellehear and Heaven (1989). In this paper we examine the attitudes toward near-death experi ences (NDEs) of a sample of people from China (N = 197). To do this we replicated an earlier study by Allan Kellehear and Patrick Heaven (1989). We posed the following questions: What are Chinese attitudes Dr. Kellehear is Lecturer in Sociology at La Trobe University; Dr. Heaven is Lecturer in Psychology in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Charles Sturt University-Riverina; and Jia Gao is Lecturer in Sociology at the Institute of Sociology, People's University of China. The authors wish to thank Jamie Young for her kind assistance in backtranslating the survey instrument used in this study. Requests for reprints should be addressed to Dr. Kellehear at the Department of Sociology, La Trobe University, Victoria, 3083, Australia. Journal of Near-Death Studies, 8(3) Spring 199