Domain
Death & What Follows
Epicurean Materialism (The Termination Thesis)
Holds that death is the permanent end of the person and of all experience — and, distinctively, argues this means death cannot actually harm the person…
Substance Dualism and the Survival of the Soul
Holds that a person consists of two distinct substances — a physical body and a non-physical mind or soul — and that because the soul is…
Comparative Religious Afterlife Beliefs
Not a single theory but a family of beliefs describing consciousness or the soul persisting beyond bodily death — heaven, hell, and purgatory in Abrahamic traditions;…
Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation (Stevenson’s Research)
A decades-long research program, based mainly at the University of Virginia, documenting young children who spontaneously report detailed memories of a specific deceased person's life —…
Near-Death Experience Research
A body of clinical research studying vivid, structured experiences — a sense of leaving the body, moving through darkness toward light, profound peace, a life review…
Terror Management Theory
A well-tested psychological theory (not itself a claim about what actually happens after death) proposing that awareness of our own mortality is a uniquely human source…
Quantum Immortality
A speculative thought experiment built on the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, suggesting a conscious observer could never actually experience their own death — because in…
Personal Identity and Survival (Parfit’s Reductionism)
Reframes the entire question of survival: Parfit argued there is no separately existing self or soul that must persist for "you" to continue — personal identity…