Uploaded April 2019 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
Ancient Egyptian Perspective Of The Afterlife
with Sheryl Gottschall
The central theme to all mystery traditions is the concept of the soul leaving the physical body to journey into the spirit world. The ancient Egyptians understood this all too well and undertook various funerary practices and rituals, going to great lengths to pay reverence to the gods of the afterlife.
For them, life continued after death as death was only a temporary interruption or pause to life. Central to their beliefs was a collection of texts now referred to as the Egyptian Book of the Dead, which contained magic spells to aid and protect the dead in their journey to the afterlife. While these texts are ancient they reflect descriptions similar to those of modern day near death experiences including entering paradise-like places where they met their deceased loved ones and spirit beings, underwent judgement and took on divine characteristics.
This seems to provide strong suggestive evidence that near death experiences have been part of the human experience throughout history and are far from being a cultural creation of the human mind as skeptics claim.
Ancient Egyptian Perspective Of The Afterlife
with Sheryl Gottschall
The central theme to all mystery traditions is the concept of the soul leaving the physical body to journey into the spirit world. The ancient Egyptians understood this all too well and undertook various funerary practices and rituals, going to great lengths to pay reverence to the gods of the afterlife.
For them, life continued after death as death was only a temporary interruption or pause to life. Central to their beliefs was a collection of texts now referred to as the Egyptian Book of the Dead, which contained magic spells to aid and protect the dead in their journey to the afterlife. While these texts are ancient they reflect descriptions similar to those of modern day near death experiences including entering paradise-like places where they met their deceased loved ones and spirit beings, underwent judgement and took on divine characteristics.
This seems to provide strong suggestive evidence that near death experiences have been part of the human experience throughout history and are far from being a cultural creation of the human mind as skeptics claim.
