Cultures the world over recognize that every life will end in death. However, many claim that some invisible but vital part of the human being—the spirit or soul—continues to exist after death. In some traditions, the individual possesses more than one soul, and each of these may have a separate fate.

Religions throughout the ages have included a belief in an afterlife, a state of being that people enter when they die or a place to which they or their souls go. Myths, legends, and religious texts offer varying visions of the afterlife. These images reveal much about each culture's hopes and fears for the afterlife and often contain lessons about how people should live their lives.

The World Beyond

In some cultures, the afterlife is regarded as a place of pleasure and joy. In others, it is a gloomy shadow of earthly existence, a slow fading away, or a...