ACADEMY OF SPIRITUALITY AND PARANORMAL STUDIES. INC.

ANNUAL CONFERENCE, 2007

PROCEEDINGS

NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES IN ANCIENT GREEK PHILOSOPHY; THE

ORIGINS OF RATIONAL INQUIRY INTO THE AFTERLIFE

Raymond A. Moody, MD. Ph.D.

"Abstract:" This paper discusses ancient Greek philosophers' views on

near-death experiences and other phenomena related to the prospect of
life after death. Greek philosophers were the first men to apply
reason in attempts at answering the question of an ajierworld.
Moreover, they discovered and developed the system of reason and
logical thinking that is still in force today. Hence, the origins of
Western, rational thought are closely connected to the Greek
philosophers'studies and practices related to the afterlife world.
Together, these men set the style for rational inquiry into the ajierworld.
This paper identifies nine themes in their work which continue to
injluence today's research.
What do we know about life after death? And how do we know it? Or, rather, can we
know anything about life after death? Heraclitus, Plato, Hume, and other great
philosophers said that the question is ultimately unfathomable. That is, they said that this
particular mystery may be beyond the reach of rational knowledge. But, even if they are
right, can we correct the situation? Can we develop new methods of rational
investigation suitable to the question of life after death?

First, though, we must remember that not everyone cares about rational proof. Some
are convinced that there is life after death hecause of personal, transcendent, near-death
experiences. Othersareconvincedof it because of their religious faith. And yet others
are just as convinced on personal, philosophical grounds that there is no such thing as an
afterlife.

People in these three groups are truly lucky. They can relax and stop wondering about
this nagging and fearful question. They feel certain that they know the answer already, so
they have no need for a rational proof

For the rest of us, however, reason is the only recourse. So, the big, epistemological
problems surrounding life after death are crucial and pivotal questions. Is there a rational
path to knowledge about the prospect of life beyond death?

It is not possible to rethink rational inquiry into this mystery without reconnecting with
the ancient Greek philosophers. They were the first men to apply rational methods to
consider the fate of the conscious self upon physical death. In fact, at that time, most
people identified philosophy with curiosity about that mystery in particular.
 The Apology is Plato's memoir of his mentor Socrates' trial. The dialogue discusses a
proverbial definition of philosophy that figured into Socrates' legal difficulties. It helped
get Socrates into trouble in the first place, and it was in the jurors' minds at his trial. This
ancient, proverbial definition highlights two essential or characteristic activities of
philosophers, according to general opinion. Specifically, a philosopher is someone who
inquires into things under the earth and things in the sky. And each element-
investigating the underworld, and fiying to study the earth and sky-bears directly on the
mystery of life after death.

Ancient Greek philosophers ventured to the underworld, evoked spirits of the dead,
traveled out of their bodies, and studied near-death experiences. Their otherworld
adventures helped lay the foundation and set the agenda for all subsequent, rational
thought in the Western world. So, the ideas of philosophers like Pythagoras, Heraclitus,
Parmenides, Empedocles, Democritus, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle are built into our
established way of debating about life after death. Specifically, Greek philosophers
propounded the following nine ideas that continue to influence the course of rational
inquiry into the afterlife.

1. Certain phenomenal experiences are relevant to the question of life after death.

The earliest philosophers did not just wonder about the other side, they went there to
acquire firsthand knowledge about it.
For, the Greeks envisioned the afterlife realm as a subterranean dimension occupying the
underworld. And they were acquainted with a handftil of traditional techniques for
contacting the spirits of the dead or traveling to the underworld. Greek philosophers
practiced, studied, or discussed about a half-dozen ways of accessing the world beyond.

About 600 B. C. E., the Cretan proto-philosopher Epimenides isolated himself deep
within a cave for about three years. During this period, he journeyed to another world
and experienced visions of knowledge. About 500 B.C. E., Pythagoras, too, supposedly
lived in a cave for the standaid, three-year term. At Pythagoras' schools, students
descended into on-site subterranean chambers for visionary journeys through sensory
deprivation and, presumably, other techniques, including music.

About 500 B. C. E. an underworld deity supposedly summoned the philosopher

Parmedides and transported him down there for consultation. While Parmenides was in
the underworld, the deity revealed the concept of independent truth to him. Then, when
he returned fTom his journey, Parmenides founded deductive logic upon what he had
learned below ground.

People also associated philosophers with oracles of the dead, subterranean complexes
built for various procedures for evoking spirits. Resident experts on these procedures
were known as psychogogues, or evokers of the deceased. Greeks fiocked to oracles of
the dead to seek informationfixjmdeparted loved ones. Or, more commonly, they
probably went there because of grief, and hope of reunions.
 The Birds, one of Aristophanes' comedies, specifically links Socrates to an oracle of
the dead, "in the swamp of dismal dread." It continues, "there we saw foul Socrates come
calling up the dead." So, during his lifetime, ordinary Greeks believed and stated that
Socrates was a psychogogue.

The Greek philosopher Empedocles, as Darwin himself mentioned first propounded a

theory of evolution. Empedocles also made other advances in philosophy, science, and
medicine. For example, he formulated a concept of impersonal force. Healsodefmed
the notion of an element as something that cannot be broken down into another kind of
substance. And he introduced the notion of a pore, or an opening too tiny to be visible.

Empedocles acknowledged himself to be a psychogogue by claiming that he called

people back from death. He descended into the underworld through openings or
depressions in the slopes of a simmering volcano, Mt. Etna. For, in a volcano, the
underworld came up to the surface ofthe earth. Hence, it was a good place for
commurung with the spirits ofthe dead.

The philosopher Democritus realized that, contrary to ordinary sense perception,

material substances must be made up of minute, indivisible bits. He dubbed these minute
bits atoms, or indivisibles and, hence, founded the atomic theory of matter. According to
Democritus's atomism, atoms and the void are all that exist.

Democritus studied reports of near-death experiences, which were popular even then.
However, like today's medical materialists, he denied that near-death experiences are
evidence of an afterlife. Unfortunately, Democritus' book on the subject is now long
lost. Other ancient writers commented on his book, though. And they state that
Democritus discounted near-death experiences as an unreal by-product ofthe dying
process. He pointed out that there is no such thing as a moment of death.

The Greeks thought that, sometimes, people got swallowed up by the earth, and went
down into the underworld. A huge chasm would suddenly open up in the ground, and
swallow someone into the earth. This sort of calamity is also portrayed in the Bible, in
Numbers 16. In that passage, Moses warns a couple of reprobates that they and their
families are about to be swallowed by the earth, down into the underworld. And it
happens, too just as Moses said it would.

Sometimes, someone who barely escaped being swallowed by such a chasm would
climb down thorough it and voluntarily venture into the underworld. Either way, heroes
of this type of underworld journey had to survive the descent and retum to tell the tale.
Plato's Republic centers on this and two other types of underworld journeys and afterlife
experiences.

The Republic is attempts to establish what justice is, and define its relationship to the
mystery ofthe afterlife. The dialogue does so while recounting three popular types of
underworld or afterlife adventures. At the beginning, there is the story of Gyges who
wandered through a gigantic chasm that opened in the earth and into the underworld. In
the middle, Soerates describes and debunks on a subterranean oracle of the dead, where
people traveled to experience lifelike apparitions or visions of their departed loved ones.
Then, at the end, Socrates tells the story of Er, a warrior who spontaneously revived at his
fimeral, after having apparently died in battle. Clearly, in Plato's opinion, near-death
experiences are the type of afterlife journey that offers the strongest rational support for
the possibility of an afterlife.

To recap, Greek philosophers discussed their own or other people's afterlife or

underworld experiences. These phenomenal experiences fiimished one of the basic
requirements for rational inquiry into life after death. For, as Plato pointed out, some sort
of story, narrative, or account is necessary, just to get rational thought and debate about
the afteriife started. Or, that is, some sort of scenario is always required to talk about
continued personal existence beyond death. Hence, experiential accounts of apparitions
of the deceased, underworld journeys, and near-death experiences were the original
fodder for rational inquiry into life after death.

2. The possibility of life after death depends on the mind-body relationship.

About 600 B.C. E., Hermotimus, an ancient Greek proto-philosopher, was known for
his ability to leave his body at will. During his out-of-body experiences, Hermotimus'
soul would supposedly travel to far away places in search of knowledge. So, the Greek
philosophers knew about out-of-body travel, too. Accordingly, they realized that whether
there is life after death depends upon whether the conscious self can exist independently
of the physical body.

This is the ancient imponderable mystery known in philosophy as the mind-body

problem. Theories abound, but if consciousness is merely a secondary, unreal
manifestation of electrxKhemical events in the brain, consciousness ceases to exist upon
bodily death. The mind-body problem remains among the primary issues in today's
rational debate about the afterlife. And Plato was the first philosopher to write a
systematic study of the relationship between the soul and body, vis a vis the afterlife. It is
his dialogue. The Phaedo.

3. The souls of the dead reincarnate and are recycled through this worid.

Pythagoras introduced reincarnation into Western thought. For, he said that he could
remember eight of his past lives. Plato, too, supported the notion that the soul comes
back to earth after death in a new body.

4. The souls of the dead continue to exist in an afterlife world

Ancient Greek philosophers spatialized the afterlife. For, they postulated that if the dead
continue to exist, they must do so in some other kind of world, apart from this one. Plato
composed vivid descriptions of the layout of the afterworid. Even so, he emphasized that
all such accounts are, at best, only plausible conjectures, or opinions. We continue in this
philosophical tradition today, when we talk about life after death as though it exists in a
conjectural, quasi-spatial environment.
 5. Ones conduct in this world determines ones state in the next world.

An afterworld of everlasting reward or punishment is more familiar as a religious

doctrine. Even so, Plato also envisioned a just and moral hereafter. His own, best-guess
scenario is a split-level spirit world in which divine justice is meted out to the souls ofthe
dead, according to individual merit.

It seems that a notion of justice is built into the mystery of life after death. For,
people seem to take it for granted that there must be justice in the afterlife. Hence, even
today, we cannot investigate this mystery without somehow taking the moral dimension
ofthe afterworld into account. For example, questions about the differential fate of good
people versus evil doers in the afterlife often come to the surface during learned debates
about near-death experiences.

6. Grief and fear of dying stir people's curiosity about life after death.

Some wonder about the prospect of an afterlife from early childhood. However, in
many cases, people begin to ponder this question only in the wake of losing loved ones to
death. Or, they begin to wonder about it as age encroaches.

Plato observed that the aging process itself eventually brings people around to the
question of life after death. So, he was the first philosopher to point out that life after
death is partly a developmental question. In other words, it is a question that people tend
to ask themselves during periods of grief, or when they are worrying about dying.

A grief-stricken or anxious state of mind is not conducive to rational thinking about

perplexing mysteries, however. Plato recommended thinking about the afterlife
constantly throughout life. That way, he thought, philosophers would be able to face
death with equanimity.

7. Consolation is a main aim of rational inquiry into life after death.

Plato's Phaedo marshals several lines of reasoning to support the possibility of an

afterlife. The dialogue is set in prison, on the day Socrates was to be executed. And it
reports the discussion Socrates and his fiiends supposedly had that day about the afterlife.

Socrates lays out several rational arguments that seem to show that the soul leaves
the body at death and travels to the next world. After presenting his case, however, he
characterizes his rational arguments as "my attempt at consoling you and myself." So,
Plato and other Greek philosophers saw consolation as a legitimate object of rational
inquiry into this mystery. They figured that fmding strong rational arguments for life
after death would console the grieving and cheer up the dying. Hence, Greek
philosophers of every school, notably the Stoics, published consolation books. These
books compiled arguments that would give readers hope and consolation as they faced the
reality of death.
 Some philosophical authors threw any argument into their books, as long as it might
console someone. So, the arguments in the same book of consoling arguments sometimes
contradicted one another. Apropos, the Platonic dialogue Auxiochus_exposes the foibles
of philosophical attempts at alleviating fear of death by logical argumentation. In the
dialogue, Socrates is called to the bedside of his friend Auxiochus, who is filled with fear
of dying. After hearing Socrates' arguments Auxiochus says "Your logical reasoning
doesn't help, Socrates. Only what sinks to my level consoles me." Then, at the end of the
dialogue, the two men agree that Socrates will probably have to come by again
tomorrow. For, by then, his nervous fiiend will probably need another dose of consoling
arguments.

Even today, the main aim of some afterlife researchers is to make people feel better.
For example, one investigator says that he decided to study mediums in order to console
his grieving girlfriend. And, of course, consoling others is a commendable goal.
However, this particular motivation for conducting afterlife researeh presents its ovm
dangers. For, consoling grieving people is no excuse for helping them deceive
themselves. And, ultimately, the best, most effective and lasting consolation is the truth.

8. Sentences like" There is life after death" are not literal in meaning.

It was Plato who first defined literal meaning and linked it to the distinction between
truth and falsehood, hi that way, literal meaning with its binary true-or-false propositions
became the gold standard for the purpose of searching for rational knowledge. So,
significantly, Plato also first pointed out that talking ahout life after death is not a purely
literal way of using language. Plato compared sentences like "There is a world beyond
death" to incantations, or magic words. He said that we ought to repeat them to ourselves
constantly, to keep up our courage. He recommended them as a way of arming ourselves
against the vicissitudes of life.

Moreover, as we discussed earlier, the Greek philosophers regarded consolation as a

legitimate use of reason. Experts in rhetoric and literary theory, however, place
consolation in a special category of figurative language. That is, phrases like" gone to a
better world" are not literal. Rather, they are stylized, figurative expressions of
consolation.

Furthermore, also as discussed earlier, the idea of an afterlife has a moral dimension. In
other words, it always comes with moral eonsideiations attached to it, and notions of
justice whether openly or in the background. Meanwhile, many experts maintain that
moral pronouncements are more like commands than they are like literal, tnie-or-false
statements. Or, they are as much like imperatives as they are like declaratives. Hence,
sentences like" there is life hereafter" always have a moral, imperative, normative
component. In that respect, then, such sentences are not purely literal in meaning.

To recap, claiming that there is an afterlife has something in common with magical
incantations, figurative consolations, and normative judgments. In each respect, claims
 about life after death are not solely literal. Therefore, rational investigation ofthe
afterlife must take these non-literal dimensions of meaning into account.

9. The mystery of life after death is unfathomable, and perhaps even

unintelligible.

Heraclitus was the first philosopher to point out that life after death is an
imponderable mystery. For, he said that we cannot foresee or imagine what might await
us after death. Similarly, Plato acknowledged that it may even be impossible to answer
this question with certainly while we are alive in this world. Or, at least, he said, the
question of life after death is impenetrably difficult.

When Plato wrote, the rules of sound, logical reasoning had not yet been clearly
worked out, and codified. No uniform code of logic existed, to govern rational
argumentation. So, in The Phaedo. Plato experimented with a system of logical
principles that might fit questions about life after death. Specifically, he structured The
Phaedo around a table of opposites- odd and even, approach and depart, light and dark,
pleasure and pain, and so on. The table of opposites was originally a Pythagorean
innovation, so Plato chose a logic that is in keeping with The Phaedo's discussion of
reincarnation.

Plato's student Aristotle worked out the code of logic we still swear by, in every field
of rational knowledge and when reasoning about everyday problems. However, this logic
has never yielded an answer to the most important question of human existence. Instead,
the ancient notion that the mystery of life after death is unfathomable repeatedly
resurfaces throughout the centuries of debate. In the modem, Humean version logic
unravels over the idea of life after death. Or, as logical positivists and other analytical
philosophers put it, the very notion of an afterlife is unintelligible.
Reflections
The ideas ofthe Greek philosophers still shine through rational debate about the fate
of consciousness at death. We should never forget that they emphasized the centrality of
this question for all human existence. Nor should we ignore their insight that solving
this, the deepest mystery, may be beyond the power of rational intellect, or existing logic.

To me, the latter is the most interesting and exciting challenge of rational inquiry
into life after death. I think we ought to take up the Humean challenge. Rather than
trying to fit in, we ought to develop new rational means of investigation appropriate to the
question. We need a new kind of logic, which will bring a whole new mentality with it.
A rational proof of an afterlife would transform the nature of logic itself—and the mind!
Raymond A. Moody Jr. M.D., Ph.D.
1215 Old Downins Mill Rd.
Anniston, Al. 36207
256-835-7811
Email:Raymondnde@aot.com

Education:
-Residency in Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry,
University of Virginia Medical Center, 1980-1983
-M.D., Medical College of Georgia, 1976
-Ph.D in Philosophy, University of Virginia, 1969
-M.A in Philosophy, University of Virginia, 1967
-B.A. with Honors in Philosophy, University of Virginia, 1966
-H.S. graduate, Stratford Academy, Macon, Georgia, 1962

Teaching Experience
2002-2007- Lecturing, vmting, and researching.
1998-2002 - Bigelow Chair of Consciousness Studies, University of Nevada at Las
Vegas. Also taught philosophy at UNLV.
1987-1992- Associate Professor of Psychology, University of West Georgia, Carrollton,
Ga.
1978-1979- Visiting Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Virgmia.
1969-1972- Assistant Professor of Philosophy, East Carolina University.

10