Surviving Death (2021) is a six-part docu-series that premiered on Netflix on January 6, 2021. Directed by Ricki Stern, each episode explores various ways people have or think they have experienced life after death. Topics covered included near-death experiences, mediums and channeling, ghosts, pre-death visions and reincarnation. Each episode features people who have experienced the phenomena being discussed as well as scientists or other experts who attempted to verify the story.
Critics who reviewed the documentary noted that while every segment attempts to verify the claims of the participants in some way, the veracity of the evidence varies wildly. A well-documented segment features a hospice doctor who has recorded thousands of patients' visions of their dead loved ones before passing and published a peer-reviewed study on the phenomena that does not address whether the visions are "real" or not. On the other end of the spectrum, there are segments with medium-channelers and ghost hunters that require taking the sources at their word or are supported by paranormal researchers and journalists with few credentials.
This show provides examples of:
- Children Are Special: Small children are portrayed as possibly being able to remember previous lives, especially if they died violently in a previous life.
- Near-Death Clairvoyance: Both women who experience NDAs have instances of knowing the future.
- Near-Death Experience: Episode 1 explores the experiences of two women who "died" and have vivid experiences of an afterlife before being revived.
- Past-Life Memories: Episode 6 deals with two American boys whose childhood memories of alleged past lives have been the subject of research and attempts at verification.
- Psychic Powers:
- Episodes explore people who claim to be able to see and hear spirits as wells as those who claim to be able to channel spirits.
- Both women from the near-death episode have episodes of clairvoyance.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: The documentary's POV leans heavily toward the idealistic, even if skepticism is given some weight.
- Spooky Photographs: The ghost episode investigates spirit photography.
- Spooky Séance: One researcher attends a seance.
