Dreams and visions of other world journey’s generally depict the after-life in one form or another either it being hell, purgatory, or heaven. Furthermore, these dreams and visions generally occur while one is close to death or going through a near death experience. Mainly, in these dreams for individuals who are Christian, report being taken to hell and paradise by a saint (Davis, 2005, p. 82). During the medieval time period these dreams tended to validate the notions of hell and purgatory. Others believe that these dreams are illusions that the devil create to lead individuals of a righteous path. In one case a man named Fursey,  had a dream that a man who was being tormented by a devil and was on fire was pushed into Fursey burning his face and arm. When he awoke he had scars in the same place he was burnt, this was explained by stating that even though the devils uses dreams to manipulate an individual and are illusions, the devil is real and could experience the devil in reality (Davis, 2005, p. 83). However, there have been studies about the soul and other world Journeys among many different religions and beliefs, and have found that there is a common ideology that the soul after death of the body still exists, and judged based on the ethical behavior the soul exhibited while in the body and either is punished or rewarded for its experiences in life (David, 2005, p. 82).  This is interesting from a psychological point of view because it is somewhat similar to Carl Jung’s idea of the collective unconscious.

By: David Minnick