| Popis: |
To date, researchers have focused mainly on verbal descriptions of near-death experience (NDE) phenomenology but have not investigated experiencers’ (NDErs’) graphic representations to understand NDE phenomenology through the physical body location and the subjective sense of self-location, that is, the feeling of “where I am” spatially located. Using graphic representations, we explored the topography (spatial features) of 15 NDErs’ recollections of their body locations and self-location positioning. We specifically considered NDErs’ kinematics (movements), visual field of view, and affects during distinct NDE phases. The various paths between successive self-location positions depicted in participants’ drawings suggested specific subjective velocities, directionalities, and temporalities in which the physiological interaction of the visuo-vestibular and somatosensory signals produce a phenomenon known as vection. These signals act as motor agents in the NDEr’s sense of self-location position and motion. Bodily self-awareness appeared to be transferred affectively to a self-location depending on how much the NDEr’s multisensory integration of the visuo-vestibular and somatosensory signals was altered. Results showed that the kinematic components of the NDEr’s sense of self-location correlated with a specific emotional state and field of view within a specific phase of the NDE sequence and trajectory—for example, self-location motions at extreme speeds associated with a reduced field of view and achromatic textures; self-location motion at standstill associated with an expanded field of view and light textures). During a specific NDE phase, different phenomenal structures and textures occurred together, which we identified as a set of spatio-temporal configurations or “Archi-Textures” for that phase. We identified three distinct Archi-Textures as well as out-of-body experience perceptual patterns. |
