Near Death Experiences in Ancient Greece and Rome

Near Death Experiences are reported in many times and places around the world and throughout history, but some of the details can be culturally specific. In this video, I’ll take you through some examples of ancient Greek and Roman reports of Near Death Experiences.

Creepy Classics: Timarchus in the Underworld:    • Timarchus in the Underworld  

Buy Creepy Classics: Ghost Stories from Ancient Rome (UK): https://amzn.eu/d/b6Y4JzR

Buy Creepy Classics: Ghost Stories from Ancient Rome (US): https://a.co/d/1vaLjXy

Seikilos Epitaph arranged and performed by Ed Harrisson, with vocals by Olivia Knops

Gregory Shushan’s first book has just been re-issued in a revised and updated edition as Near Death Experiences in Ancient Civilizations – this book explores Near Death Experiences in the cultures of ancient Egypt, Sumer and Mesopotamia, India, China, and Maya and Aztec Mesoamerica, and you can buy it here: https://www.innertraditions.com/near-...

You can also pick up his other books:

The Next World: Extraordinary Experiences of the Afterlife: https://amzn.eu/d/ffH4d5h

Near-Death Experience in Indigenous Religions: https://amzn.eu/d/a2xNGkf

00:00 Intro
01:30 What is an NDE?
08:00 Cleonymus of Athens
10:06 The Myth of Er
13:42 Timarchus of Chaeronea
15:27 Thespesius of Soli
20:06 Some other reports
22:41 Lucian on Cleodemus

Other books and sources

Bruce Greyson, MD, ‘The Near-Death Experience Scale Construction, Reliability, and Validity’ in The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 1983

Marinus Van der Sluijs, Three Ancient Reports of Near-Death Experiences: Bremmer Revisited, Journal of Near-Death Studies, 27(4), Summer 2009

Bremmer, J. N. (2002). The rise and fall of the afterlife: The 1995 Read-Tuckwell Lectures at the University of Bristol. New York: Routledge

Plutarch, On the Divine Vengeance: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo2/A7...

Plutarch, On the daimonion of Socrates: https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/...

Plato, Republic: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/...

Lucian, Lover of Lies: https://sacred-texts.com/cla/luc/wl3/...

Sections from Proclus sourced from various texts, via Gregory Shushan

Image credits:

Passage: Anna Sahlsten, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Tunnel segreto: Lidia Ilona, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons

Detail from The School of Athens: Raphael, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Plutarch: Michel Wolgemut, Wilhelm Pleydenwurff (Text: Hartmann Schedel), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Orion Nebula: NASA, ESA, M. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA) and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Cave of Trophonius in Lebedaia: Edward Daniel Clarke, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Fall of the Damned: Hieronymus Bosch, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The torment of Tantalus: Rijksmuseum, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Black figure amphora showing Sispyhus’ punishment: Carole Raddato from FRANKFURT, Germany, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons

The judgment of the dead: Rijksmuseum, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons