Throughout human history religious and cultural teachings and traditions have been used to explain the experience of death and dying.  These teachings and traditions have also been used to reduce the fear of death, dying, and the unknown of after-death.

    In pre-modern society, death was a conscious part of life and was not denied and hidden.  Most people died at home surrounded by family.  Medical science had not developed enough to prolong life or retard death.  Death, therefore, was considered an intimate part of life.

    In modern society death is denied.  The subject is not discussed openly and many people are confined to institutions to die surrounded by medical technology.  This loss of intimacy with death has left many people ill-equipped to deal with death and dying.  Death has been reduced to scientific terms and delayed by medical science and technology.  Death is seen as an intruder and feared when it touches life.

    Many human beings, fearing the unknowns of the dying process, the finality of death, and the unknown of after-death, have searched for confirmations other than religious and cultural, to prepare for the unknowns of death.  Contemporary reports of the phenomenon of near-death experiences have provided support for many after-death beliefs.  Many interpretations of these near-death experiences are that death is not a fearful event.  Many near-death experience reports are similar to religious teachings of immortality after death.  The awareness of near-death experiences may provide a bridge for individuals looking for a connection between their eschatological beliefs, the disclosures of modernity concerning death and dying, and their personal expectations of what to expect during the dying process and after-death.

    Elderly people have less fear of death and dying than younger people.  However, many elderly individuals do fear death, dying and the unknown of after-death.  To reduce these fears, near-death experience reports can provide a description of dying and after-death, to prepare the individual for these events.