[Review of the book Near-death experiences in antiquity, by J. Platthy].

A prolific author argues that ancient accounts of near-death experiences (NDEs) and underworld journeys, drawn from Greek and other sources, provide essential context for understanding both modern NDE research and medieval otherworld narratives. The book presents the author's own English translations of passages from ancient writers describing phenomena now called NDEs, along with mythological parallels and historical cases. Platthy contends that Pythagoras's account of visiting Hades foreshadowed later Christian themes of the soul's torture after death. The work retells and integrates 25 mythological visitors' stories to the underworld, many already familiar through Western dramatic retellings.

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Abstract

Interna tional Poetry Associations of UNESCO, he has written 27 poetry vol umes and 22 prose nonfiction works, six of them in Japanese.Their content ranges from the effect of the 1956 Hungarian uprising on Asian nations to critical biographies of Plato, Ch'u Yuan, and Bela Bart6k.In Near-Death Experiences in Antiquity, this prolific and mul tifaceted author provides his own English translations of individual passages from ancient authors describing the phenomena we now call near-death experiences (NDEs), as well as references highlighting the role of the soul in ancient thought and the definition and use of that term in ancient NDE accounts.Platthy includes in this book mythological parallels and literary accounts as well as historical cases.He argues that neither modern near-death research nor medieval accounts of otherworld journeys as researched by Carol Zaleski (1987) are understandable without the perspective of this earlier literature.The soul's torture after death, for example, a common theme of medieval Christian apologists, was presaged by Pythagoras's account of his own visit to Hades.Platthy retells the stories of 25 mythological visitors to the Un derworld, in most cases summarizing and integrating several diver gent accounts of each myth.Some of these stores are quite familiar to most Westerners through various dramatic recountings over the