Two researchers navigate the mind-boggling and often sinister, parallel universe that is known as the digital afterlife industry and chatbots specifically designed to help people grieve.
Articles on Afterlife
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A definition of happiness must include unhappiness and chance if it’s to have real meaning.
A scholar of Tibetan Buddhism discusses how she challenges her students to rethink their preconceived notions of death, the afterlife and the concept of the ‘other.’
A course explores how ancient apocalypses find their way into movies and TV shows.
The Aztecs deliberated on how to continue their traditions and preserve their group identity following the Spanish invasion.
Ways to interact with virtual versions of our deceased loved ones are now a possibility – but there’s a raft of ethical and emotional challenges involved.
Across cultures, death rituals give mourners a chance to grieve. But they also offer one last opportunity to help the deceased as they transition to the next stage of existence.
There is often a distinct fragrance of pine or cedar, with some spiciness from cloves, cumin, myrrh, and warm notes from plants, flowers and trees.
Views on death and the afterlife vary from person to person and culture to culture. This course gives US Air Force cadets a broad perspective on mortality and its effects on people and society.
Ouija boards have been around for more than a hundred years.
Today viewers may be preoccupied by the methods used by spirit photographers, but spirit photographs had a notable impact on the bereaved who commissioned the portraits.
The afterlife envisioned by spiritualism appealed to women who rejected the idea that their unbaptized children could be damned to hell.
Ancient Christian and Jewish texts threatened women with hellfire if they stepped out of line – and those terrifying visions still resonate in U.S. society today.
Every day, the internet fills up with more and more dead people while our ability to reanimate them grows. The dead are more robust and more vulnerable — and we’re not ready for any of this.
Taiwan’s death rituals come from multiple spiritual sources. A Taiwanese-American scholar explains what changes for those who make their home in the US.
The meaning of hell might have changed over the centuries, but for devout Christians it remains a core part of their faith.
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PhD Candidate and Public Scholar, Communication Studies, Concordia University
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Professor of Pedagogy in Biology, Emory University
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Associate Professor, Boise State University
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Assistant Professor of Philosophy, United States Air Force Academy
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Associate Professor of Christian Origins, University of Dayton
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Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Sheffield Hallam University
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Associate Professor in Digital Strategy and Data Science, Monash University
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PhD Candidate, Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Bristol
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Professor of Comparative Religion, Miami University
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Associate Professor of Philosophy, Deakin University
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Assistant Professor of Spanish World Languages, Literatures & Cultures, Auburn University
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Senior Lecturer of Communication, University of Dayton
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Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Case Western Reserve University
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Professor in Philosophy & Director of the NWU AI Hub, North-West University
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Associate Professor of Marketing, ESCP Business School