Examination of the Validity of Near-Death Experiences

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Department of Islamic Philosophy and Theology, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

So far, various cases of near-death experiences have been reported by different people around the world. In addition to examining the reasons given in by the proponents and opponents of these experiences, this article proves that one cannot deem all these experiences as valid or invalid. Rather, various near-death experiences should be differentiated: (a) some experiences for which no natural explanation exists are valid; (b) some cases that are against rational and religious teachings are invalid; and (c) no decisive stance can be taken about some others; rather, one can deem the accuracy of these experiences as possible. Another important point is that the acceptance of the validity of some of these experiences does not mean that the experiencers have really entered the intermediary world and returned from it. Rather, their accuracy means that these experiences do not originate from mind and hallucination, but rather God has decided that the soul of some humans experiencing the near-death experiences get separated from their bodies so that those individuals can see parts of the realities related to the afterlife. This way, these experiences turn into a reminder of the afterlife for the experiencers and others.

Keywords

Main Subjects


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