What Is It Like To Be Dead?

Studies of "near-death experiences" show that such experiences not only provide a new certainty of post-mortem survival, but often function as a call for fundamental change in the present. Reported aftereffects encompass changes in attitudes, beliefs, and life orientation. It is said that "experiencers" have lost their fear of death, found their purpose in life, or become "more spiritual." The experience often declared to be indescribable, inexplicable, orineffable is held by many to be the most important of their lives and, moreover, the best proof available for matters "transcendent."In What Is It Like To Be Dead?, Jens Schlieter argues that to understand recent testimonies of near-death experiences, we need to be aware of the history of innumerable reports of earlier near-death experiences that were communicated and handed down in scores of newspapers, journals, and books. Collections of such testimonies have been published for more than 150 years, accompanied by attempts to classify and interpret them. Schlieter analyzes the religious relevance of near-deathexperiences for the experiencers themselves, but also for the growing audience attracted by these testimonies. Near-death experiences bear ontological, epistemic, intersubjective, and moral significance, ranging from reassurance that religious experience is still possible to claims that they initiate a newspiritual orientation in life, or offer evidence for the transcultural validity of afterlife beliefs. This study is the first to document and analyze four centuries of near-death testimonies before the codification of the genre in the 1970s, offering the first full account of the modern genealogy of "near-death experiences."

What Is It Like To Be Dead?: Near-Death Experiences, Christianity and the Occult is a complex and deeply researched book that will repay being read many times. It is a powerful piece of research about how social and historical changes of circumstances influence and in fact often constitute the experiences humans record themselves having. It is a major contribution to Religious Studies, and I recommend it unreservedly., What Is It Like to Be Dead? is extremely impressive and meticulously researched, constellating a vast array of primary source data in the production of an airtight genealogy... This book is imperative for those fortunate enough to work with the GnosticEsoteric and Spiritualist-Occult metacultures, Theosophy, or more generally, anyone who is curious about the nature of death or the shape of the soul., Schlieter has produced a...fascinating contribution to the literature... the book is unquestionably an important one., the book is of interest to everyone dealing with the intellectual history of modern Europe, particularly the great importance of various strands of religious and philosophical traditions that shape our current understanding of life and death. In addition, the book is also very interesting in terms of the theoretical approach that is meticulously developed regarding the specific topic and the many questions that arise in this context., ...this work represents a step forward in the study of near-death reports. Schlieter has grasped the importance of researching the "genealogy" of these narratives, rather than naively receiving them without any context, either within a culture or the reporter's life, let alone accepting the accounts without any critical or even analytic engagement. The word "indispensable" is overused, but in my opinion, for those interested in the field of near-death narratives, this volume is indeed indispensable.

Jens Schlieter (Ph.D. University of Bonn, Germany) is Professor of the Systematic Study of Religion and Co-Director of the Institute for the Science of Religion, University of Bern, Switzerland. His publications comprise contributions on methodological and theoretical questions of the study of religion, on Buddhist bioethics, and comparative philosophy.