About this Event
When people are close to death, they sometimes begin seeing and speaking to people who are not there, often relatives or friends who died years earlier. Others have unusually vivid dreams, describe being somewhere else entirely, or suddenly become lucid after long periods of confusion. Nurses, hospice workers and families have reported experiences like these for generations, and the people having them are often not frightened by them at all.
These experiences are known as deathbed phenomena, and what makes them especially interesting is how often the same patterns appear across cultures and time periods. People describe seeing deceased relatives, preparing for a journey, or moving between ordinary awareness and another experience that feels completely real. We know the brain and body undergo enormous changes at the end of life, but we still do not fully understand why these experiences recur.
In this lecture, forensic anthropologist Dr. Myriam Nafte draws on historical accounts and interviews with hospice workers, nurses and palliative care physicians who have witnessed these moments firsthand. Instead of deciding in advance whether these experiences are spiritual or simply hallucinations, she asks what we can actually learn from them about consciousness at the end of life.
Myriam Nafte is a forensic anthropologist and consultant in criminal casework across North America and parts of Latin America. She holds degrees in Medical Anthropology, Science and Skeletal Biology, including a PhD from McMaster University, where she is currently an Adjunct Clinical Professor in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine. She is the author of several books, including and .
Event venue & nearby stays
Oria on King, 220 king st W, Toronto, Canada
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