The afterlife is a purported existence in which the essential part of an individual's identity or their stream of consciousness continues to live after the death of their physical body. According to various ideas about the afterlife, the essential aspect of the individual that lives on after death may be some partial element, or the entire soul or spirit, of an individual, which carries with it and may confer personal identity or, on the contrary nirvana. Belief in an afterlife is in contrast to the belief in oblivion after death.
In folklore, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to realistic, lifelike forms. The deliberate attempt to contact the spirit of a deceased person is known as necromancy, or in spiritism as a séance. Other terms associated with it are apparition, haunt, phantom, poltergeist, shade, specter or spectre, spirit, spook, wraith, demon, and ghoul.
Raymond A. Moody, Jr. is a philosopher, psychiatrist, physician and author, most widely known for his books about afterlife and near-death experiences (NDE), a term that he coined in 1975 in his best-selling book Life After Life. Raymond Moody's research purports to explore what happens when a person dies. He has widely published his views on what he terms near-death-experience psychology.
Victoria Helen McCrae Duncan was a Scottish medium best known as the last person to be imprisoned under the Witchcraft Act 1735 for fraudulent claims. She was famous for producing ectoplasm which was proven to be made from cheesecloth.
Near-death studies is a field of psychology and psychiatry that studies the physiology, phenomenology and after-effects of the near-death experience (NDE). The field was originally associated with a distinct group of North American researchers that followed up on the initial work of Raymond Moody, and who later established the International Association for Near-death Studies (IANDS) and the Journal of Near-Death Studies. Since then the field has expanded, and now includes contributions from a wide range of researchers and commentators worldwide.
The 21 grams experiment refers to a scientific study published in 1907 by Duncan MacDougall, a physician from Haverhill, Massachusetts. MacDougall hypothesized that souls have physical weight, and attempted to measure the mass lost by a human when the soul departed the body. MacDougall attempted to measure the mass change of six patients at the moment of death. One of the six subjects lost three-quarters of an ounce.
Mary Roach is an American author specializing in popular science and humor. As of 2021, she has published six New York Times bestsellers: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (2003), Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife (2005), Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex (2008), Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void (2010), Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal (2013), and Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War (2016). Her newest book, Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law, was published in September 2021.
Spook is a synonym for ghost.
Fascination with death has occurred throughout human history, characterized by obsessions with death and all things related to death and the afterlife.
Thomas Lynn Bradford of Detroit, Michigan, is best known for dying by suicide in an attempt to ascertain the existence of an afterlife and communicate that information to a living accomplice, Ruth Doran. On February 5, 1921, Bradford sealed his apartment in Detroit, blew out the pilot on his heater, and turned on the gas, which was successful in killing him.
A near-death experience (NDE) is a profound personal experience associated with death or impending death which researchers claim share similar characteristics. When positive, such experiences may encompass a variety of sensations including detachment from the body, feelings of levitation, total serenity, security, warmth, the experience of absolute dissolution, and the presence of a light. When negative, such experiences may include sensations of anguish and distress.
Eben Alexander III is an American neurosurgeon and author. His book Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife (2012) describes his near-death experience that happened in 2008 under medically-induced coma when treated for meningitis. He asserts that the coma resulted in brain death, that consciousness is not only a product of the brain and that this permits access to an afterlife. Alexander has also authored follow-up books.
"Emanations" is the ninth episode of Star Trek: Voyager, a science fiction television show about a spacecraft, set in the 24th century of the Star Trek universe. This episode centers on the experiences of Harry Kim, and is also noted for an exploration of afterlife concepts.
James Van Praagh is an American author, producer and television personality who describes himself as a clairvoyant and spiritual medium. He has written numerous books, including The New York Times bestseller Talking to Heaven. Van Praagh was a producer and screenwriter on the 2002 CBS primetime semi-autobiographical miniseries Living with the Dead starring Ted Danson. He also hosted a short-lived paranormal talk show called Beyond with James Van Praagh.
Suzane Northrop is an author, podcaster, TV show host, and purported psychic medium. She has written at least four books, and hosted the television show, The Afterlife with Suzane Northrop. She participated in The Afterlife Experiments which was turned into a book by Gary Schwartz. The experiments and their conclusions were widely criticized across the scientific community for not being blinded, and for the lack of inclusion of any other scientifically credible evidence.
Karlis Osis was a Latvian-born parapsychologist who specialised in exploring deathbed phenomena and life after death.
Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife is a 2012 New York Times bestselling nonfiction book and autobiographical book written by the American neurosurgeon Eben Alexander and published by Simon & Schuster. The book describes a near-death experience Alexander had while suffering from a bacterial meningitis and under coma. Alexander describes how the experience changed his perceptions of life and the afterlife. The book was a commercial success but also was the subject of scientific criticism in relation to misconceptions about neurology, like relating to medically induced coma as brain death.
Kathleen Goligher was an Irish spiritualist medium. Goligher was endorsed by engineer William Jackson Crawford who wrote three books about her mediumship but was exposed as a fraud by physicist Edmund Edward Fournier d'Albe in 1921.
Jeffrey Long is an American author and researcher into the phenomenon of near-death experiences (NDEs). A physician by training, Long practices radiation oncology at a hospital in Louisiana. Long is the author of Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences, which appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list. In 1998, he founded the Near Death Experience Research Foundation, which is concerned with documenting and researching NDEs.
Surviving Death is a docu-series directed by Ricki Stern about beliefs in life after death and psychic mediumship. Its first season of six episodes was released on Netflix on 6 January 2021. The series is based on the 2017 book Surviving Death by journalist and paranormal enthusiast Leslie Kean.
