2. JOllrnalollnternat拘nalSociety01lileInlormationSciena(ISlIS)
園山J.lnll.Soc.L!feInfo.Sci. Vol.34,No.2,September2016
The42ndSymposillmonlileinlormationSciena
August26-29,2016,"Kasuga-no-mori
Ethicalconsideration
Copyrightandrelatedissllesdidnotapplybecallse
the contents of narratives that were commercially
availableinapllblishedbook,availableinthepublic
domain,werelltilizedexclllsivelyintheanalysis.
Fig.1 AscentoftheBlessedbyHieronymusBosch
4.Results
sasicstatistics
Following an analysis of the basic text in
"Testimonies:Near-deathexperience,"thetotalnumber
ofIinesreflectsthetotalnumberofwordsbypersons
withan巳ar-deathexperienc巴. Ofthe23narratives,one
didnotpertaintoanear-death巴xperience.ThllS,22
narrativeswereincludedintheanalysis.Theaverage
nllmberofwordspernarrativewas5294.6.Thetotal
numberofsentenceswas3705,andtheaveragenllmber
ofwordspersentencewas31.4
Wordfrequencyanalysis
The26mostfrequentlyusedwordsinthe22
narrativesareshowninTabl巴1.
Forthepurposesofenablingfurtheranalysis,
persons seen during the near-death experience were
divided according to gender. 111 addition,sentences
whichincludedthewords,“flower,""flowergarden,"
“river,"“Styx,"and"light"wereexaminedindetail.
Eightpersonsmention巴dseeingaman,andanothereight
awoman.Twelvepersonsdescribedflowers,andninea
flowergarden.Oth巴rs(12)sawariver,sixmademention
ofStyx,andninesawlight.
Table1 Thetop26mostfrequentlyusednouns
Japanese Kαna Translation Numberof
word indicating II1to expenencer
pronUnClatlon English (Total=22)
人 hito person 22
気持ち kimochl feeling 21
声 koe vOlce 21
状態 jOutal state 20
わけ wake reason 19
世界 sekαi world 19
円リ mae 合ont 19
目 me eye 19
向こ う mukou overther巴 18
7.1< nuzu water 18
頭 。tama head 18
夢 yume dream 18
顔 kαo face 17
死 shi death 17
人間 mngen human 17
病院 byouin hospital 17
体 karada body 16
医者 isha doctor 15
下 shit.α bottom 14
花 hana flower 14
子ども kodomo child 14
色 lro color 14
)11 kawa nver 14
JEニ ashi foot 14
品百 hanashi story 14
主回L 010 sound 13
Wordfrequencyanalysis,inwhichthefocuswason
theobjectsseenduringthenear-deathexperience
Almostallofthestlldysubjectsreportedthatthey
sawlight,ariver,oraman,andsomemetthemselvesas
theyhadexistedinthepast.
Eightpeoplesawaman,includingafatheranda
grandfather. TherewasnoC01l1JτlOnalityamongtheir
testi1l10nies.Somerecognizedaparticularperson,others
wereunsureofwhetherthepersonseenwasamanora
woman,and some p巴ople reported being called by
someone.EightpeoplesawaW01l1an,andagain,ther巴
wasnocommonalityamongtheirtestimonies.Although
theabsenceofcommonality inthedepiction ofthe
neaトdeathexp巴riencewasapplicabletoboththemen
andwomen,mostpeoplemadementionofapersonwho
was close to th巴m,such as their own children,
grandparentsandrelatives
Fourteenpeoplereportedseeingflowers.Twelve
ofthe14madereferencetoth巴 flowersblooming.Allof
3. 122 Joumalol伽'IemlltionalS切'lJietyollileInloFIRlltionI勧ience(ISlIS) ((で~市
よlntl.Soc.L砕lnfo.Sci. 陥 L34,No.2,September2016 11(t:1..μ11
The42nd身仰'fIO&加rmonlile血formlltionScience 11式市】 11
Au伊 st26・29,201丘“Kasuga-no・mori", Kasuga-Onsen,Saku-Ci似 Nagano,Japan ILì!三~JI
themsaid白紙 theflowersextendedfarastheeyecould
see,andeitherrichlymulti-orsingle-colored. The
remainingtwoexplained:“Tl羽田:aleaswerethere,but
weregreenandnotinbloom",and“Somethingcollapsed
inshape,andwasonaWistariatrellis."Ninepeople
referredtoaflowergarden.
Twelvepeoplesaidthattheysawariver.Tenout
the12alsosawflowers,andsevenaflowergarden.
Somewereintheriveratthebeginningofthenear-dea血
experience,somewerein企ontofit, andotherssawa
ship,raftorbridgeextendingovertheriver,symbolizing
awayofcrossingit.
Ninepeoplesawlight.Flowersandariverwere
seentoge由er,butlightwasseenbypeoplewhodidnot
seeariver.Fiveoftheninepeopledidnotseeariver.
Thepeoplewhoon1ysawlightreportedbeingexposed
toastronglight.百lisfeatureisoftendescribedin
Westemnear-deathexperiences.Peoplewhosawboth
lightandariverdescribedtheHghtasbeingpartof血e
landscapeandexperienceditasbeingbright.
Wordfrequencyanalysis,inwhichthefocuswason
peoplemetduringthenear-deathexperience
Narrators met various people during their
near-deathexperiences,andmanyofthemsaidthatthey
heardsomeone'svoicewhentheywokeup企omthe
experience.Forthepurposesoffurtheranalysis,word
frequencywasappliedtocommonandpropernouns.
Themost企equentlyusednounwas“grandpa."
“Grandfather"wasalsoincluded.Manyof由en釘 rators
wererelativelyelderlypeople,sotheirgrandfathershad
alreadypassedaway,whichmayperhapsexplainwhy
theysaw出.em.
Wordsrelatingtowomen,suchas“mother"and
“mom,"wereusedfourtimes,andthoserelatingtomen,
suchas“father"and“dad,"onlyonce.Peopledescribed
howtheywerecalledtowakeupbyapersonoranimal.
Onewasbeckonedbyhisdog,anotherbyahorsewhich
usedtobehispet, andanotherbyChrist.Manyheardthe
voicesoftheirdeceasedgrandparentsorrelativeswho
implored“Don'tcome"企omtheoppositesideofariver.
Positive開 negativeanalysis
Thecorrespondence analysis(positive-negative
analysis)ofthenarrativeswillnowbeconsidered.Many
people who had anear-death experience expressed
positiveopinionsaboutit,suchas“Thisis白ehappiest
feelingI'veeverfelt,"and“1amnota合aidofdyingif1
canfeelsuchacomfortablefeeling."Bycon凶 st,many
negativewordsaboutpain,inrelationtoinjuryor
disease,wereusedtodescribetheirconditionbeforethe
near-deathexperience.Thewords“condition"or“s凶,e"
wereusedtodescribetheirinjuryordisease.Negative
words were not used to describe the near-death
experienceitself.
5.Discussion
In this study,the words “'person,"“自ower,"
“river,"and“light,"prominentinJapanesenear-death
experiences,were analyzed. Many people made a
distinctionbetween白isworldandanotherbyseparating
thetwowithariver.ThiscorrespondswiththeWestem
conceptoflightandatunnelwhichappearsbeforethe
light.Itisconsidered由atWestempeopledistinguish
betweentheinnerandoutersidesofthetunnelbyusing
lightastheboundary.
Followinganalysis,itwasobservedthatnegative
wordswereseldomusedtodescribethenear-death
experienceitself.Thissuggeststhata11thepeoplewho
hadanear-deathexperienceregardedtheirexperience酪
positive.
Inaddition,therewerecommonalitiesbetweenthe
WestemandJapanesesubjectswithintheirdetailed
narrativeswithregardtowhattheysawandfelt,and
howtheirviewsoflifeanddeathchangedbeforeand
afterthe near圃 death experience. Relatives or close
企iendswerecitedinmanytestimonies,butonlyone
personreferredtoChristoragod.
Manypeoplewhohadanear-deathexperience
werefilledwithecsぬsyorpleasure,whichwashardto
describe.Theexperiencepositivelyinfluencedtheirlives
and由eypeacefullyanticipatedtheireventualrealdeaths
after the experience. Painful feelings were only
describedinnarrativesrelatingtoanaccident,diseaseor
illnessexperiencedbeforethenear-deathexperience.
Overall,the experience of nearly dying removed
people'sfearsaboutdeathandhelpedthemtogoonto
leadapeacefullife.Thisisapositiveaspectofthe
near-deathexperience,commonlyexperiencedallover
theworld.
Acknowledgements
Weare吐lank釦1toMr.YutaHoriguchi,Ms.Akiko
Takagi,Ms.EmiKinoshita,andMr.AkihiroSugitafor
theircommentsonthemanuscript.
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