Near-Death Experienceand the Mystic Path

Mukerjee believes that mystical experiences are characterized by feelings of unbounded joy, self-affirmation, self-transcendence, and the mind being free. While these characteristics are not extremely common in our society, certain events may trigger these unfamiliar feelings. Mukerjee’s review of paths to mystical experiences did not identify an experience such as near-death. Therefore this study examines four specific characteristics of mystical experiences defined by Mukerjee and looks for these characteristics in documentary evidence of people’s accounts of near-death experiences. The study found that near-death experiences, like other mystic experiences, are characterized by unbounded joy, self-affirmation, self-transcendence, and the mind being free