For generations, medicine treated death as a clean line: the instant the heart stops, the person is gone. A wave of new research is dismantling that certainty, revealing a messy, lingering borderland ...

In an earlier post, I argued against the idea that the mind could survive the death of the brain. One thing I didn't do was discuss the empirical evidence that supposedly supports the reality of life ...

Near-death experiences (NDEs) are a widely reported yet poorly understood phenomenon. Though there is no agreed-upon definition of an NDE, it has been described as “profound psychological events with ...

Ms. Grose is a Times Opinion writer and the author of a Times newsletter on culture, social change and the American family. Marzena Abrahamik is a photographer based in Chicago. Jan. 7, 2026 ...