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5219
Shushan, Gregory. Near-Death Experience in Ancient Civilizations: The Origins of the World's Afterlife Beliefs. Inner Traditions, 2025, Chapter 6, "Unnamed Woman," pp. 136.
10
Weak Evidence
7
Low Compatibility
Communication with the dead (necromancy), Occult/folk magic
The near-death experience of the unnamed woman from 1 CE, while structurally simple, contains elements that place it in direct conflict with biblical prohibitions, resulting in a "Low Compatibility" rating. At first glance, some aspects might seem neutral or even positive. A person returns from death and brings a warning that saves their family from a disaster. The encounter with a deceased relative is a common feature in modern NDEs, and while the Bible does not explicitly condone such interactions, the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) shows it was a concept familiar to the culture. The idea of receiving a divine or spiritual warning about an impending catastrophe also has numerous parallels in the Bible, such as the warnings given to Noah, Lot, and Joseph.
However, the core mechanics of this experience are fundamentally unbiblical. The central issue is the source and nature of the interaction. The woman communicates directly with the spirit of her dead grandfather, who acts as an intermediary providing salvific information. This is a clear instance of necromancy—consulting the dead for knowledge—which is explicitly and repeatedly condemned in the Old Testament as an abomination (e.g., Leviticus 19:31, Deuteronomy 18:10-12). The Bible teaches that believers should seek guidance from God alone through prayer and His word, not from the spirits of the deceased. Furthermore, the remedy provided by the grandfather is a form of occult folk magic. The family is instructed to place a reed over the door as a protective talisman. This relies on the power of a ritual object to ward off disaster, which is a magical practice, as opposed to the biblical model of seeking protection through prayer, repentance, and trust in God's sovereignty. Because the experience promotes forbidden communication with the dead and advocates for a magical solution rather than divine deliverance, it is biblically incompatible.
This near-death experience is recounted in the ancient Chinese text known as the Five Agents Treatise and is dated to the year 1 CE. The account provides only sparse details about the medical circumstances leading to the event. The text states simply that an unnamed woman "died and was placed in a coffin." The cause of her death is not specified, but the fact that she was pronounced dead and formally placed in a coffin indicates that her condition was perceived as fatal by her family and community. She remained in this state of apparent death for a significant period—six days. After this lengthy interval, she revived, an event that would have been considered miraculous.
The narrative focuses on the information the woman brought back from her time in the afterlife. While in the otherworldly realm, she had an encounter with a deceased relative, her grandfather. This meeting with a familiar, deceased family member is one of the most common features of near-death experiences reported across cultures and time periods. Her grandfather did not simply greet her but gave her a specific and urgent message to convey to the living. He tasked her with a prophetic warning for her surviving family members. He revealed that a great pestilence, or plague, was coming and would cause widespread death. Her grandfather also provided a specific ritualistic remedy to protect the family from this impending disaster. He instructed her to tell her family to take a "reed from the roof, put it over the door, and that this would protect them." The primary veridical claim in this account is the prophecy of a coming plague. The woman returned from her six-day "death" with a specific warning about a future catastrophe. The text strongly implies that this prophecy was fulfilled, as the grandfather provided a specific means of protection, suggesting the plague did arrive and that the family needed the charm to survive it. This type of prophetic knowledge, where a person gains information about a future event during an NDE that they could not have known otherwise, is a form of veridical perception. The text does not provide details about the woman's physical or psychological state after reviving. Upon her return to life, she relayed her grandfather's warning and instructions to her family. The implication is that the family heeded the warning and performed the protective ritual of placing the reed over their door. |