Jennifer, only eleven years old, was about to die of cancer, and I came to the hospital at her family's request. There was clearly something she wanted to say and couldn't.

"What's it going to be like?" she asked me eventually.

"Dying?"

"No. Heaven." She paused uncomfortably. "Or the other place."

"Ahhh," I said. "Jennifer, why don't you tell me what you think is going to happen. Maybe we can figure this out together."

She jumped right in, clearly wanting to talk. "There are angels waiting for me to die. I saw that on TV. The angel of death is waiting to take me away. And if I've been good, I get to go to heaven, where God is. I guess I'll be an angel there, too. Maybe they'll let me see my grandmother and my dog who died last year. I'm not sure. The program didn't say. But if I'm bad, I'll go to the other place and it's pretty awful. There's a lot of fire there and horrible things happen to you. I think you get burned up over and over again until some ugly creatures come to find you and take your body away."

"Who told you that, Jennifer?" I asked.

"I think I saw it in a movie. But everyone knows about that other place, don't they? It's for when you're bad." She paused, then whispered, "I think I got cancer because I'm bad. So I guess that means I have to go to hell."

I am used to beliefs like Jennifer's. I have taught world religions and afterlife beliefs at various universities. I have also sat with more than 200 people who were at the point of death. I find that when people are days or hours away from making the transition from life into death, they very much want to know what will happen to them -- what they will face on the other side.

To my students I can explain who believes what, and why. I can explain that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all proclaim that we are judged at the end of our lives and are sent to heaven, or in the case of Christianity and Islam, possibly to hell. We get one shot and that is it. Both Judaism and Islam proclaim that our deeds -- both good and bad -- are recorded in the Book of Life, and at the end of time, God judges each of us accordingly. Christianity teaches that deeds alone will never get us into heaven, but that Jesus Christ must intervene to save us from hell.

The Eastern traditions, Hinduism and Buddhism, teach that we are caught up in samsara, the wheel of life, constantly working out our karma. At the end of this life, we shed our outer garments for new ones, always hoping to reach union with the divine or enlightenment. Many pagan practitioners also believe in reincarnation, perhaps that our energy is joined with others' and recycled in some way.

"So how can we know?" I'm always asked. We can't know. "Who's right and who's wrong?" It isn't a question of right and wrong here; it's a question of faith and belief.

My own experience with the dying has given me some insights. One is that our beliefs, examined or not, tend to be strongly held and are often powerful. As with Jennifer, our beliefs may have unintended consequences for our own lives or those we love. Personally, I believe that the afterlife, in some form or other, exists. I have kept vigil with Catholics and Protestants, Buddhists and Muslims, Jews and pagans, Mormons and Hindus, skeptics and angry nonbelievers. And when the time comes and they are faced with death, I see them experience a clear transition to some other state of being. They are aware of something waiting for them on the other side. As the body shuts down, the inner essence, the soul, if you will, moves onward.