African researchers Stephen Hosea Vongdip—who is also a clergyman—and Jock Matthew Agai attempted to compare near-death experiences with the Christian belief in resurrection. A common feature of these phenomena is the sensation of being out of the body. People who have had near-death experiences often say that they floated above their bodies, which is similar to ideas about what might happen to the body after the resurrection as it becomes something more than a physical form.
The authors are not sure that the acts of flying through a tunnel to the light or meeting the dead are part of a different reality. But they do believe that such acts are not merely hallucinations or products of the brain’s work. Although they emphasize that clinical death and resurrection are different things, the study of near-death experiences facilitates a fresh look at questions about the nature of consciousness, reality, and the possibility of existence after death. Studying this phenomenon in various cultural contexts is especially important because our ideas about death and the body are associated with the traditions and beliefs that shape our lives.
Of note, a near-death experience can be one of the phase states, as indicated in a well-known REMspace study in which a group of lucid dreamers experienced a popular scenario—flying through a tunnel—in lucid dreams.
What do you think: do phase states and the Christian concept of resurrection have something in common?
The article was published in May 2025 in the African Theological Journal for Church and Society.
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