In the Christian Middle Ages there was a fascination with accounts of the soul's apparent survival of death. These exotic adventures through hell, purgatory and heaven can (like Dante's) be highly imaginative, but they also have uncanny correspondences with contemporary reports - complete with tunnels, protective beings of light (but also malignant beings of darkness), life-reviews, a sense of bliss and extraordinary unconditional love, and a life subsequently felt to be fundamentally transformed. We will discuss Carol Zaleski's 'Otherworld Journeys: Accounts of Near-Death Experience in Medieval and Modern Times' (Oxford University Press). You will need a copy of this book, and also of a medieval monk's purported autobiographical description of an NDE 'Revelations to the Monk of Evesham' (easily and cheaply available online on Amazon or Abebooks). We will read from these books in class, and I will provide a running commentary and facilitate discussion.