How would you feel if you woke up to find your dead parents or grandparents standing at the end of your bed, inviting you to come with them on a journey to the next world?

According to one scientist, such deathbed visions are neither false comfort nor the stuff of late-night horror movies – and they may be a strong indication that there’s indeed life after death.

Alison Hilliard explores with three guests how such visions stand up to scientific investigation, and how they sit with Christian beliefs about what happens when we die.

Her guests are Peter Fenwick, a neuropsychiatrist at the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London and author of ‘The Art of Dying’; Elaine Storkey, a Christian theologian and philosopher; and Judith Pidgeon of the Martinsey Isle Trust, which encourages people to think and talk openly about death.

Image courtesy of Lawrence OP via flickr.com ©©