Living in the afterlife: clues from direct experiencers
PsyArXiv Preprints September 8, 2026 preprint DOI: osf:7n9gr_v4 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Qualitative study |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 37 |
| Population | Participants claiming mediumistic abilities, direct afterlife experiencers, experts, and authors |
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Keywords | Afterlife Consciousness First-person accounts Mediumship Psychology, other |
| Key findings | Across diverse sources, the afterlife is consistently described as a spectrum of realms where individuals retain identity, environments respond to thought, and souls self-judge, gravitating to matching realms. |
Abstract
This study aims to obtain detailed information about the afterlife and how discarnate entities live there, using 37 different sources for the first time. These sources comprise seven selected participants claiming to be able to interview entities living in the afterlife, six participants claiming a direct experience of the afterlife, six experts on this topic, and books by 17 different authors who claimed to have direct personal experience or communicate with entities from this dimension. The information obtained from these 37 sources was analyzed using a qualitative approach for their content, using Gemini 3.1 Pro. Among the main common characteristics related to the afterlife, several key themes emerged: • The individual retains self-awareness, personality, and memories from their earthly life. • The afterlife environment is highly responsive to, and often constructed by, the thoughts, expectations, and emotional states of its inhabitants. • The afterlife is not a binary heaven-and-hell system, but a spectrum of realms, spheres, or dimensions ranging from dense/dark to subtle/luminous, organized by spiritual evolution. • Souls are not judged by an external deity; rather, they undergo a life review and pass judgment upon themselves, naturally gravitating to a realm that matches their inner state. • Individuals are drawn to those with whom they share energetic or psychological resonance, often forming "group-souls" or communities of like-minded entities. Differences were noted in the description of individual souls’ appearances, the natural and artificial environments, types of communication, and types of mental activity. These variations may reflect different stages of spiritual evolution or different perspectives given by entities at various levels of understanding, as well as representing the limitations of human language in capturing the essence of non-physical existence. Although most of the information obtained by our different sources converges on the general description of the afterlife and how life proceeds in these realms, these reports cannot be considered conclusive evidence of the afterlife and its characteristics. However, they can be used as preliminary information for future studies using different sources of information and methods of investigation.