An Anthropological Perspective on Near - Death - Like Experiences in Three Men ' s Pregnancy - Related

In this article I bring a transpersonal perinatal anthropological perspective to the study of three fathers' near-death-like experiences. I com pare Kenneth Ring's descriptions of prototypical near-death experiences (NDEs) with the "spiritual emergencies" of these three New Zealand men during their partners' pregnancies. Their experiences show significant similarities to the classic NDE pattern outlined by Ring (1989). Moreover, these NDE-like experiences appear to unfold in a perinatal sequence as de scribed by Stanislav Grof (1985) and Christopher Bache (2000), adding weight to the notion that a "deep structure" lies behind shamanic initiations, NDEs, and unidentified flying object (UFO) encounters (Ring, 1989). I explore these seemingly anomalous male birth/death/rebirth experiences and draw some parallels with what some Western researchers have called "the shamanic crisis," and I compare their stories with the symbolic reproductive maneuvers of shaman midwives.