Witnessing the Afterlife: Anthropological and Islamic Approaches to Near Death Experiences (NDE)

Undergraduate / Graduate

Advances in resuscitation technologies over recent decades have increased post-cardiac arrest survival, rendering Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) both more frequent and more accessible to clinical observation. Since the 1970s, a transdisciplinary movement has emerged that mobilizes NDE testimonies to interrogate fundamental questions concerning the nature of consciousness, personhood, and the purpose of human life. Notably, many NDE narratives exhibit structural and thematic parallels to mystical and spiritual experiences documented across diverse religious traditions, including within Islam. This interdisciplinary course, co-taught by an anthropologist and a scholar of Qur'anic Studies, approaches NDEs as culturally and historically situated experiences that bear significant ethical and interpretive implications. We will examine NDE accounts from a range of religious and geographic contexts while also engaging Islamic textual traditions and contemporary Muslim narratives concerning the soul (nafs/rūḥ), the processes of dying, the intermediate realm of the barzakh, and encounters with non-human or otherworldly beings. In doing so, the course explores how scientific, cultural, and religious epistemologies differently conceptualize and evaluate experiences occurring at the threshold of life and death.