Abstract

In frameworks cross-cultural research of near-death experience (NDE) comparison of modern western NDE to descriptions of this experience in the Upanishads was carried out (the Brihadaranyaka, Kaushitaki and Katha Upanishads became a material of our analysis). It was revealed, that at Upanishads’ descriptions of NDE alongside with cultural specificity there is the overwhelming majority of elements of the western NDE, thus similarity concerns not so much the concrete contents of elements on itself, but their role in realization of the universal script of travelling to the world of dead.