Table Of ContentWhere Are the Dead?
Where are the dead? What are they doing? What kind of a process is dying?
What relationships exist among the dead themselves and between the
dead and those in the world they have left behind? Modern philosophers
argue that the idea of disembodied survival – to which many believers pay
lip service – is incoherent and that there can be evidence neither for nor
against something incoherent. By contrast, this book argues, the idea of an
embodied survival (albeit a form of embodiment differing from our pres-
ent embodiment) makes perfect sense in itself and fits much better with the
alleged evidence for post-mortem survival. Exploring post-mortem survival,
Where Are the Dead? uses a variety of empirical data, alongside mythologi-
cal, legendary and purely fictional material, to illustrate how the less famil-
iar idea of embodied post-mortem survival might actually ‘work’ in some
real afterlife environment. By asking questions about the nature and where-
abouts of the afterlife, and about what it might be like to be dead, the book
explores themes nowadays relatively neglected even in disciplines explicitly
concerned with ideas about death, dying and life after death.
Peter Moore took his first degree in English, French and Philosophy at the
University of Sheffield (1966); a Diploma in Social Studies at the same uni-
versity (1967); and completed his doctorate under the supervision of Pro-
fessor Ninian Smart at the University of Lancaster (1975). He spent most
of his academic career at the University of Kent at Canterbury, where he
introduced the study of world religions, taught a variety of undergraduate
courses and supervised research students. In 1990, together with his col-
league Dr Leon Schlamm, he created and taught the MA programme in the
Study of Mysticism and Religious Experience. Dr Moore also worked as
external examiner and academic adviser for a number of UK universities
and colleges of higher education. He retired from full-time teaching in 2011.
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Where Are the Dead?
Exploring the idea of an
embodied afterlife
Peter Moore
First published 2017
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2017 Peter Moore
The right of Peter Moore to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other
means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
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or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A Catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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ISBN: 978-1-472-48419-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-54731-2 (ebk)
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To Maria
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Contents
Preface ix
1 Clarifying the question 1
2 What could it be like to die? 27
3 What might it be like to be dead? 48
4 Locating the afterlife 72
5 What would the dead be doing? 103
6 Between the living and the dead 142
7 Post-mortem identity and continuity 177
8 Eschatology and the future of the afterlife 207
Select bibliography 231
Index 239
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Preface
As mortal beings, we think about death rather less than might be expected.
There are obvious reasons for this, of course. Not the least of them is the
fact that the very nature of being alive keeps our thoughts about death and
dying at bay. As Thomas Browne incisively observes, ‘The long habit of liv-
ing indisposeth us for dying’.1 For many people, certainly, the ideal strategy
is to live life to the full, avoiding for as long as possible not only whatever
threatens to end it, but even any thought of it ending.
Avoiding all thoughts of death, however, is for a mortal being a strategy
of evasion. If, as Plato’s Socrates observes, the unexamined life is not worth
living,2 then any examination of life should include reflection on the fact
of our inevitable death. The meaning of life, however we understand it,
must surely depend crucially upon the significance we attach to death, both
our own death and the deaths of others. For Plato ‘the one aim of those
who practise philosophy in the proper manner is to practise for dying and
death’.3
Those who do think seriously about death must acknowledge two radi-
cally distinct alternatives – either that death brings the complete extinction
of our personal existence, or that our personality survives, in some form,
the destruction of the physical body. Whichever of the two we consider the
more likely, both possibilities deserve careful consideration. The first pos-
sibility suggests that the meaning of life is entirely what we (and others)
decide to make it. The second at least opens up the possibility that our lives
could have, or could achieve, meaning within a much larger context than
that defined solely by our finite earthly selves. How could we not be at least
curious about this possibility?
For the philosopher, if not for the ordinary mortal, examining the mean-
ing of life and death goes beyond the immediate and personal question as to
how one should live one’s own life; it necessarily involves broader reflections
on the nature and purpose of human existence. The danger, of course, is that
speculating about the meaning of life becomes just another way of evading
one’s personal responsibilities here and now. Yet theories and speculations
about the broader questions of existence are, to a rational being, as impor-
tant as any more immediate pragmatic concerns. On the one hand, they can
