Claims
Plato's Republic (Myth of Er) contains an early recorded near-death-experience account
Documented · occurred What these labels mean →In Plato's Republic, the soldier Er dies in battle, is presumed dead, and revives to describe an afterlife journey — often cited as an early NDE account.
Evidence
| Relation | Record | Note |
|---|---|---|
| documents | gutenberg.org | Plato, Republic Book X (Jowett tr., Project Gutenberg): 'Er the son of Armenius, a Pamphylian by birth. He was slain in battle… on the twelfth day, as he was lying on the funeral pile, he returned to life and told them what he had seen in the other world' |
| corroborates | pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov | J Adv Nurs 2001;36(4):520-6, 'Near death experience: a concept analysis' (abstract via PubMed): 'Parallels have existed as early as the Bible and Plato's Republic' |
| corroborates | britannica.com | Britannica: Myth of Er in Republic Book X matches the account |
Sources
| Source | Relation | At |
|---|---|---|
| Pasulka on The Why Files Basement (Aug 2026) | asserts | 00:06:25 |
Claim
In Plato's Republic, the soldier Er dies in battle, is presumed dead, and revives to describe an afterlife journey — often cited as an early NDE account.