Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 2016, 80(4) die dunkLe nachT der SeeLe: nahTod-erfahrungen und JenSeiTSreiSen [The dark nighT of The SouL: near-deaTh experienceS and JourneyS To The beyond] by Hans Peter Duerr. Berlin, Germany: Insel Verlag. 2015. 688pp. ISBN 978-3458176312 This book is overwhelming. Over almost 700 pages, it contains a host of accounts and reports of various extraordinary experiences that all have a relationship to near-death experiences (NDEs) as well as experiences of journeys of the soul (or journeys to the beyond, otherworldly journeys). They are obtained from different cultures, historical epochs from the beginning of records up until the present, anthropological, historical, and theological sources, as well as testimonies of contemporaries, and selfexperiential reports. The author, Hans Peter Duerr, professor emeritus, is a well-known (in Germany at least) philosopher and ethnologist whose books are notorious for their extensive volume of academic endnotes, but nevertheless reach an audience much larger than his academic colleagues and students. This applies to his earlier famous book Traumzeit (1978), which is available as an English translation entitled Dreamtime: Concerning the Boundary Between Wilderness and Civilization (1985), as well as for his latest one, here under review. His topics of research include, among others, shamanism, witchcraft, ancient myths of different peoples and cultures, and the process of civilization. From early on, he has dealt with the relationship between science and heterodox world views, resulting in an anthology entitled Der Wissenschaftler und das Irrationale (The Scientist and the Irrational) (1981). This two-volume book includes contributions from famous scientists, such as the anthropologists Åke Hultkrantz, Michael Oppitz, I. M. Lewis, Richard de Mille, and Ian C. Jarvie, the philosophers Paul Feyerabend and Joseph Agassi, the (para-) psychologists and sociologists Eberhard Bauer, John Beloff, Hoyt Edge, Stanislav Grof, Walter von Lucadou, Marcello Truzzi, and many others. His openness towards such research topics, as well as his unorthodox attitude towards established academic practice and hierarchy, has made him an outsider within the academic world. Nevertheless, his work has been taken seriously by most of his academic colleagues. His new book is written on the basis of knowledge obtained during a long researcher’s life, and with the rather unorthodox attitude towards commonly accepted, and insuficiently scrutinised, interpretations that is typical of him. One of the author’s main aims is to teach the audience differences, i.e. to demonstrate that things that look similar can, in reality, be very different. He has arranged the compiled material according to phenomenological characteristics, anthropological categories, and theoretical considerations, and presents it in 25 chapters. They include issues such as the experiences on the moment of leaving the body, the experience of moving through a tunnel, of darkness and light, of the ‘realm beyond’ as well as reports of shamans’ journeys and visions, experiences of lucid dreams, drug-induced hallucinations, sleep paralysis, incubi and succubi, and possession. Duerr has collected an enormous amount of material that demonstrates the global prevalence of such seemingly similar experiences (with all the differences related to culturally-shaped manifestations). He arranges and 240 Book Reviews directly juxtaposes medieval, contemporary and exotic ethnographic accounts, regardless of their cultural context. Close inspection of the reports, and taking them seriously, allows him to disprove ixed (and often ideologically shaped) opinions of several scholars, or to relativise them, at least. Some have claimed, for example, that “the ‘soul travellers’ never meet living persons in the otherworldly realm but exclusively decedents” (p. 87), or that “the ‘near-death experience’ … is the same throughout the ages and societies, and therefore ‘culturally unspeciic’”, and conceptions of the afterlife result primarily from near-death experiences (p. 77).1 To invalidate the latter claim, Duerr refers to an account of a “traveller to the beyond” from New Guinea who had been in a coma for two days, and, thereafter, reported his experience ‘beyond the threshold’. There, he encountered his deceased parents, and also two of his deceased sons who “picked him up with a truck and drove with him to a big and respectable city with bright and clean streets, and a shining clear blue sky. All the buildings of this ‘city of dead’ were made of glass” (p. 76). Additionally mentioned is an indigenous inhabitant of Papua New Guinea who got in direct contact with his ancestors –– apparently not through an NDE, however –– and described the otherworld as follows: “Only machines are working there. There are shopping malls, two-storey and three-storey buildings. The people are happy. No hard work. Everything is ine. This is what the dead told me” (p. 77). These descriptions make Duerr’s notion plausible that the conceptions of an afterlife realm are not exclusively derived from images experienced during NDEs. As one can see with these quotations, the book is not only an interesting but also sometimes a hilarious read. By and large, there is little critical examination of the sources used. The content of the accounts is juxtaposed verbatim. The author relies on the resulting apparent similarity of structural characteristics. For instance, sentences such as “but on stubborn inquiry of the anthropologists they conceded that” (p. 217), or “with a more diligent questioning it becomes apparent” (p. 498, endnote 5), sound like part of a police interrogation aimed at getting the truth about the circumstances of a crime. With regard to the description of internal experiences, this kind of interrogation appears problematic, at least at irst glance. Concrete details of statements could be adapted to it the perceived expectations of the interviewing anthropologist, just as is the case with the wishes of religious leadership (the latter is emphasized by Duerr). The author indicates possible problems with sources only in some cases, when he notes, for instance, with regard to an account ostensibly from a dying child, that it “admittedly sounds as if it has been ‘edited’ by an adult person” (p. 87). This is a basic, signiicant, problem, because such reports are the result of several creative processes: extraordinary experiences, the essence of which is often said to be impossible to put into words, must be understood, conceptualised, verbalised, and thus made into communicable events. An additional problem with regard to non-German sources is the process of linguistic translation. In the context of such formative processes, severe conceptual biases and adaptions can occur that may suggest a higher degree of similarity than is actually present in the original 1 All translations of quotations by G.M. 241 Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 2016, 80(4) experiences. However, despite these constraints, the evidence remains largely convincing due to the abundance of the compiled material, the more so as the argumentation is not directed towards uniformity of the phenomena and experiences, but differentiation. However, some feelings of discomfort do arise while reading the book. The overabundance of material2 suggests that we are dealing with completeness, and not with a –– even very comprehensive –– sample. Furthermore, if the author has read so much research literature and sources we assume he must be right. Information overload, as well as oversaturation with references, can be used as a tool to create a biased, or tendentious image largely unnoticed by most readers because objectivity and analytical sophistication of the author is thereby suggested. Only with a thorough reading, as well as widespread, and good, knowledge of various research topics, is the reader able to detect insuficiently substantiated assertions, little reporting errors, and lawed argument. I did not ind a lot of them. However, I do not have expertise in many of the research ields covered by the book. I will mention two examples to illustrate the problem. In chapter 14, Duerr deals with the shaman and his function as visionary. He emphasises the importance of monotone sounds such as drum beats during rituals which facilitate the attainment of altered states of consciousness. In an endnote, he comments on highly standardised songs that are sung during Ayahuasca ceremonies3 “whose rhymes had been repeated all the time, and whose contents did not matter at all” (p. 490, endnote 14). He refers to an ethnographic report on Cashinahua ceremonies by Keifenheim who writes in her book that, according to all interviewees, “the effect of the chants do not originate from the texts” (2000, p. 146, emphasis in the original). Although Duerr correctly refers to Keifenheim’s inding, he does not mention relevant studies of other Amazonian tribes where the contents of the chants in Ayahuasca ceremonies seem to play a much more important role (e.g. Luna, 1992, Rittner, 2007). Siskind, for example, writes: “each symptom and illness has many songs; some are considered stronger than others. After many months of writing down these songs I was told by my informant that they can be used to induce illness as well as cure” (Siskind, 1973, pp. 31–32). In using the Cashinahua reference as an example to support his statement of the importance of monotone sounds, Duerr is suggesting the erroneous assumption that the contents of such chants in Amazonian shamanism have to be seen as irrelevant in general. Although this point does not play a crucial role in the author’s line of argument, it causes a little mistrust with regard to other provided evidence. The same applies to the second example. In chapter 20, which concerns abductions and rapes by “forest dwellers” and aliens, the author deals with the problem of memory accounts (false memories, etc.). He notes that it is now considered as an empirically veriied fact “that one is not able to 2 Duerr uses the endnotes not only for references, explanatory remarks, and additional asides, as is usually the case, but also for further reports that normally have to be placed in the main text. Thus, the volume of endnotes adds up to more than 150 pages. 3 Ayahuasca is a hallucinogenic tea that plays an important role in Amazonian shamanism (cf. Labate & Cavnar, 2014). 242 Book Reviews remember something better under hypnosis than in a normal waking state” (p. 301). This statement is only half true, because hypnosis can help to discriminate between true and false memories, for example, as research on source monitoring suggests (Mazzoni et al., 2014). This, too, seems to be of rather small relevance with regard to NDEs and ‘journeys of the soul’, but the example demonstrates how Duerr deals with information in order to strengthen his conception of such experiences, and to distinguish ‘real’ from ‘false’ NDEs. However, what is his conception of a ‘real NDE’? Unfortunately, Duerr does not provide a clearly formulated deinition that can be easily detected and quoted. The reader has to assemble it from different parts of the text, although its key points become clear quite soon. The title of the volume, “The Dark Night of the Soul”, gives a irst hint because it refers to the title of a poem by the Spanish mystic St John of the Cross (La noche oscura del alma). Duerr interprets this text as a poetic description of a journey of the soul. However, the poem was not written after experience of mortal danger or immediate fear of death, as is usually the case if an extraordinary experience is labelled as a NDE. Thus, the most striking point of Duerr’s conception is that he is merging NDEs, out-of-body experiences, and journeys of the soul (to the beyond, otherworldly journeys) into the same category, although he still uses the culturally-coined and commonly-used different terms. His deinitional criteria are based on experiential (cognitive, and partly physiological) characteristics. They include loss of consciousness and a virtually complete suppression of external and internal stimuli, as well as a hyperrealistic and augmented perception of the otherworld which can easily be distinguished from every kind of hallucination — be they drug induced or pathological. An important point of the argument is that Duerr has experienced several forms of altered states of consciousness himself; that is, he forms his conclusions not only by comparing written sources and reports from others but also from his own experiences under the inluence of various drugs, with lucid dreams, and with two NDEs, according to his conception. The latter point may have been the driving force behind his research project because he experienced differences where many researchers tend to generalise and lump things together due to a supericial similarity of the reports. As a friend of empirically-based research, I like such an approach. However, the lack of a clear deinition and his failure to identify his central objective often leads to an impression of circular reasoning. For example, Duerr notes on page 335: “From the numerous case examples hitherto referred to, it would appear that unconsciousness and a virtually complete suppression of external and internal stimuli is a — not suficient but necessary — condition of the occurrence of a ‘near-death experience’”. This statement is misleading because the author suggests that he derived his conception of the NDE directly, and more or less inevitably, from the analysis of the case examples mentioned. However, he actually uses them as illustrations for his preexisting idea of near-death and other extraordinary experiences that he wants to distinguish from the former. One central characteristic of a ‘real’ NDE (sensu Duerr), in contrast with hallucinations, is the difference with regard to the experienced realness. While the latter can easily be identiied 243 Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 2016, 80(4) as non-real, or give an impression of diminished realness (two-dimensional, blurred, colourless), the former are perceived as very real, even hyper-real — more real than reality. This sounds good, and most people may have a sense of what is meant, but Duerr gives no clear description, or deinition, of how he understands reality, or realness. He refers to reports by other people who describe the difference, “it was totally objective, and utterly real”, and furthermore, “the experience had been just ‘too real’ to regard it as a hallucination because compared to it, everyday reality is like a faint dream” (p. 230, emphasis in the original). Therefore it concerns not only an augmented perception (e.g., a more differentiated perception of colour gradation), but also a sense of “exaltation of realness” on the level of inding, and understanding, meaning — the feeling of recognising a deeper truth. The last chapter of the volume deals with the question of whether the soul can actually leave the body — an idea that is suggested by the terms journey of the soul, otherworldly journey, etc., as well as by the respective descriptions. For many, the only explanation for such reports, and particularly for some information gained during the journeys, is the idea that the soul can leave the body, leading to a dualistic separation of mind and matter. Duerr does not support such a dualistic world view. He explains the occasionally reported, obviously paranormal, phenomena by psi (telepathy, clairvoyance, or precognition), the existence of which he is absolutely convinced. He strongly emphasizes the body-bound nature of the “soul”, or maybe consciousness, and follows his line of argument with references to various authors and ields of research, partly critical, partly seeking support. For me, this chapter is the weakest of the book. It would go beyond the scope of this review to criticise it in detail, but a few points should be mentioned. The author seems to greatly admire the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, and he refers extensively to his work in this last chapter. However, he selects quotations from Wittgenstein’s writings without taking the particular context into account. Duerr takes most of them from the philosopher’s philosophy-of-language work in order to support his non-dualistic conception of human beings. The Wittgenstein expert Joachim Schulte4 notes that Wittgenstein’s remarks about interjections and the impossibility of a private language, feelings, intentions, and the will … do not conform to any of the usual schemata … and do not allow their application to just any issue (‘How do you think about the body-mind problem?’). [Schulte, 2005, p. 96] However, this is exactly what Duerr does. Often, he is content with an everyday understanding of matters, for example, when he writes that an individual “could exist as little without a body as a Mozart sonata without physical sounds” (p. 370). This statement is based on a personal, albeit common, and maybe plausible, conviction; other people are convinced of other ontological concepts of human individuals. And, by the way, a written piece of music also exists, and can be experienced, in the imagination (in a slightly different way, of course — just as an imagined bite into a lemon is a different 4 Schulte is the author of several books and many papers on Ludwig Wittgenstein, co-editor of critical editions of Wittgenstein’s major works, and has been a member of the committee of the estate trustees of Wittgenstein. 244 Book Reviews experience to an actual bite into such a fruit, but both of them can lead to a similar instantaneous physiological reaction). These examples serve to illustrate the sometimes rather careless argumentation of the author, regardless of the personal assessment of its plausibility. Despite this criticism, the book is, all in all, a rewarding and easily accessible read; rewarding because of the richness and quality of the sources presented. It would be hard to ind another book that provides such a comprehensive compilation of material about the issue of NDEs and journeys of the soul. A further strength of the volume resides in the aspect of differentiation. In this regard, the aim of Wittgenstein, mentioned in the quotation at the beginning of this review, can be applied to Duerr’s investigation. The book sensitises readers to differences in extraordinary experiences during altered states of consciousness. However, it needs a careful, and sometimes critical, reading. The phenomenologically-oriented conceptualisation of the NDE and “journeys to the beyond” based on physiological and experientially-based criteria is reasonable and makes sense, but the question arises whether it would be better to avoid the use of the term near-death experience. IGPP Wilhelmstraße 3a 79098 Freiburg, GERMANY mayer@igpp.de gerhard mayer REFERENCES Drury, M. O’C. (1984). Conversations with Wittgenstein. In: R. Rhees (Ed.), Recollections of Wittgenstein. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 97–171. Duerr, H.P. (Ed.) (1981a). Der wissenschaftler und das irrationale. Erster band: Beiträge aus ethnologie und anthropologie. Frankfurt am Main: Syndikat. Duerr, H.P. (Ed.) (1981b). Der wissenschaftler und das irrationale. Zweiter band: Beiträge aus philosophie und psychologie. Frankfurt am Main: Syndikat. Duerr, H.P. (1985). Dreamtime: Concerning the boundary between wilderness and civilization. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. Keifenheim, B. (2000). Wege der sinne: Wahrnehmung und kunst bei den kashinawaindianern Amazoniens. Frankfurt am Main: Campus. Labate, B.C., & Cavnar, C. (Eds.)(2014). Ayahuasca shamanism in the Amazon and beyond. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Luna, L.E. (1992). Icaros: Magic melodies among the Mestizo Shamans of the Peruvian Amazon. In E.J.M. Langdon & G. Baer (Eds.), Portals of power. Shamanism in South America. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, pp. 231–253. Mazzoni, G., Laurence, J.-R., & Heap, M. (2014): Hypnosis and Memory. Two Hundred Years of Adventures and Still Going! In: Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice 1 (2), pp. 153–167. Rittner, S. (2007). Sound, trance, healing. The sound and pattern medicine of the Shipibo in the Amazon Lowlands of Peru. Music Therapy Today, VIII (2), S. 196–235. Schulte, J. (2005): Ludwig Wittgenstein. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. Siskind, J. (1973). Visions and cures among the Sharanahua. In M. Harner, (Ed.) Hallucinogens and shamanism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 28–39. 245