The motif of death plays an important role the human psyche in connection with archetypal and karmic material.

The materialistic paradigm of Western science has been a major obstacle for any objective evaluation of the data describing the events occurring at the time of death.

The knowledge of the realm of death makes it possible for the shaman to move freely back and forth and mediate these journeys for other people.

The experiences associated with death were seen as visits to important dimensions of reality that deserved to be experienced, studied, and carefully mapped.

The elimination of the fear of death transforms the individual's way of being in the world.

Research challenges the materialistic understanding of death, according to which biological death represents the final end of existence and of all conscious activity.

Individuals approaching death often experience encounters with their dead relatives, who seem to welcome them to the next world. These deathbed visions are authentic and convincing they are often followed by a state of euphoria and seem to ease the transition.

If consciousness can function independently of the body during one's lifetime, it could be able to do the same after death.

Dying before dying has two important consequences: It liberates the individual from the fear of death and influences the actual experience of dying at the time of biological demise.

A number of cases have been reported in which a dying individual has a vision of a person about whose death he or she did not know.