In contemporary Western thought, we often talk about dying as a singular bodily event: you’re alive and then you’re not. In many cultures, both secular and spiritual, the moment of physical death marks the beginning of transformation for the soul.
But according to sociologist Allan Kellehear, pre-Modern hunter and gatherer cultures believed that dying was a kind of trial which didn't begin until you left your physical body and entered the supernatural world. In these cultures, death was not the destruction of the body, but the annihilation of the personality and its transformation into something new.
Kellehear’s work is based on an examination of grave goods throughout the world — not just things left at grave sites to represent the grief of survivors, but items specifically given to the dead for them to use on their journeys. In many cultures, these journeys could be perilous, as suggested by weapons left for the deceased to use. In Fijian culture, for example, unmarried persons were believed to confront a creature that attempted to thwart their passage to the next world. These journeys were long, ranging from 50 to 300-plus days after physical death.
Beyond these historical arguments, Kellehear’s research also focuses on people dying today. He’s interested in the relatively common experience of death-bed visions, where people report experiences such as seeing lights or being visited by deceased relatives. Even though people don’t seek these visions out, they often find them transformative, calling into question their view of themselves and the afterlife.
According to Kellehear, research into these experiences revolves around the central question of what makes us human. He says, “Anybody who thinks they’ve got the the answer to that is trying to sell you something. It’s that simple.”