What Dreams May Come in the book are derived from my wide range of reading." One of Matheson's influences was Harold W. Percival, an adherent of Theosophy, a belief system with a strong Eastern and Hindu influence. The story also shares the same theme of the ancient Greek myth Orpheus and Eurydice, in which the gifted musician makes a challenging journey to Hell to retrieve his wife. One character quotes from the writings of 18th century Christian mystic Emanuel Swedenborg. Matheson bases his descriptions of the death experience itself on studies by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and Raymond Moody. When reading these accounts, Matheson found that
Hades they are impious or evil, or sent to Elysium (Islands of the Blessed) with the "blameless" heroes. In the Sibylline oracles, a curious hodgepodge of Greco-Roman and Judaeo-Christian elements, Hades again appears as the abode of the dead, and by way of folk etymology, it even derives "Hades" from the name Adam (the first man), saying it is because he was the first to enter there. Owing to its appearance in the New Testament of the Bible, "Hades" also has a distinct meaning in Christianity. Hades Hades (; "Hádēs"; Ἅιδης "Háidēs"), in the ancient Greek religion and myth, is the