Raymond Moody: Near-death experiences change people's lives. Raymond Moody - Life After Life Raymond Moody Biography

Raymond Moody - researcher, psychiatrist and philosopher, a pioneer in his field, explored the near-death experience and outlined it in the book Life After Life. In an interview with chiropractor Daniel Redwood, he says:

• about the history of research into life after death;
• why people see the ascension to the light in dying;
• Is information from a past life dangerous?

A light in the end of a tunnel

Daniel Redwood ( DR): How would you respond to those who say that near-death experiences in the form of white light experiences and the transcendental world are simply the result of a lack of oxygen in the brain?

Raymond Moody ( RM): When I first heard about it, I assumed that it was something like a shock to the brain, etc. I know many doctors around the world who have researched this phenomenon and they all started with the same assumption. All of us, talking with people who have had such an experience, are very close in our views.

The classic definition of a hallucination is a sensory experience without a corresponding external event. That is, a person sees and hears something that is not really there.

But we have many dying experiences where patients out of their bodies have witnessed something happening at a distance, even on the other side of the hospital. And then there were independent confirmations of what this man said. Therefore, it is very difficult to explain it simply from a psychological or biochemical point of view.

The other thing that makes me think that NDEs are more than just hallucinations is that the profound impact of such experiences on people is amazing. They have full confidence that what we call death is just a transition to another level of reality.

Although, I think there may not be a definitive answer to your question. Because, ultimately, there are no experts in this advanced field of the human mind who can give us the answer. There is as yet no generally accepted established way to determine such a response. Everyone will have to look at it and decide in their own way.

All I can do is speak for myself and for many of my medical colleagues who have experienced this. And we are all convinced that patients have really looked beyond reality.

Obvious facts of history

DR: Did you find any similarities in the experience of dying among people from very different cultures? Is the experience of an Australian Aboriginal, an Indiana steelworker, and an Afghan shepherd different?

RM A: Yes, obviously it is. It's pretty interesting. The cultural difference in this area seems to be very small. There just aren't many variations.

I myself have not seen cases outside of the Western Judeo-Christian tradition, but my colleagues have. I have received letters from the East, from China, Japan and India, describing identical experiences.

There were letters both from those who had experienced such things themselves, and from doctors who wrote reports.

From time to time, in ancient scriptures and even in pre-literate cultures, anthropologists find such evidence, and it is similar to what we find in emergency rooms in the West.

DR: Is the increasing number of reports of dying experiences in recent years a consequence of the advances in medicine that can bring people back to life, or the fact that people are starting to talk more freely about it?

RM A: My impression is that the first. If you look into history, you will find many such cases. They are in historical chronicles.

Gregory Tour wrote the book "History of the Franks." Or Venerable Beade's History of the English Church and People. There are references to very early writings, several hundred years before the birth of Christ.

Plato describes such a case. Hieronymus Bosch painted a picture in the 1500s depicting this theme. There are even scattered facts in the medical literature dating back to the 19th century.

And Swiss alpinist professor of geology Albert Heim lost his temper in the late 1800s, as a result of which he experienced a mystical experience that radically changed his life.

He became interested in the subject, interviewing fellow climbers and discovering many near-death experiences, again identical to those we hear about today.

This has been going on for a long time, but I think, as you suggested, the possibilities of modern medicine have expanded so much that we are saving from the clutches of death a much larger number of people who have had such experiences.

The light is seen by those who are not ready to give up

DR: What percentage of people don't experience a classic ascension to the light when they're in near-death conditions, such as a terrible car accident? What distinguishes such people?

RM: Well, the cases are different, and it is interesting that the percentage of such people is higher, the closer they were to death.

Fred Schoonmaker, who is the head of cardiovascular medicine in Denver, interviewed a large number of patients he personally revived, and he found that about 60% of those patients who were brought back to life had this kind of experience.

This is comparable to the findings of doctors Ken Ring and Mike Sabom, who studied a group of patients who may not have been in such a critical condition, but were unconscious and close to death.

They found that 45% of such patients experienced these conditions.

But this still does not give a final answer to the question of why some people experience such things and others do not. Actually we don't know.

Many of the facts that I think we could assume - the age of the patient, the specific cause of the borderline, whether it was male or female, prior religious training, beliefs, etc.

None of these factors seem significant. Therefore, I can say that we simply do not know what it is.

Dr. Bruce Grayson, in a study a few years ago, suggested that this has to do with whether or not a person is ready to give up at such a moment.

And those who come close to giving up move on, experiencing the experience of dying.

Is reincarnation a fantasy?

DR:Do you think reincarnation is metaphorical or literal? And what do you think about the survival of the soul?

RM: I definitely think reincarnation is metaphorical, but not in the way some might think.

Let me first say that I don't know if reincarnation exists or not, and I've done a lot of work with past life regressions.

In terms of evidence, I just can't say yes or no.

But if you were to ask me about my feelings and intuition, I would say yes. But still, I believe that reincarnation is metaphorical in the sense that it is a process so much more complex that we cannot even express it in ordinary language.

When we talk about this in our dimension, we have to use a linear form of expression.

But I feel that on the other side, all these linear categories that we use - evidence, time sequence and all that - are completely different.

Reincarnation is a much more complex experience that we can't even imagine right now.

The Benefits and Dangers of Past Life Memories

DR: Have you seen people who have been helped by immersion in past lives?

RM: Yes. There is no doubt about this. For me it was amazing. When I started the experiments, I didn't even think of it as a therapeutic procedure. I explored this as an altered state of consciousness. And what really surprised me is that people who have had such an experience have benefited greatly from it and come to understand themselves on a new level and understand some of the difficult moments and neurological conflicts that they experienced in life.

DR:Is there any danger in getting information from past lives?

RM: Answering the second question, I can say that the criteria are very vague. What we have in our Western culture, I think, is that we systematically exclude ourselves from altered states of consciousness for many hundreds of years, but there are brave souls who can look in and move there, and then help all of us when we let's go there.

You are asking about dangers. I think there are dangers, of course, and I see them all the time. The first is the inflated ego and a kind of elitism - people who say "in my past life or in my past lives there was this or that" and it becomes an ego journey. Some of them seem to want to exclude others by inflating themselves with it all. But, of course, they are in the minority.

And then there is the danger that the Tibetans have expressed. When a person enters this path and begins to explore in the spiritual dimensions, then many things appear that the Tibetans believe, and I agree with them, can distract from the true path. Eastern doctrine implies that when past lives begin to appear, don't pay too much attention to them, because there are other things beyond that that you will want to find. I think it's wonderful that past lives appear, where you can look and learn something about yourself from there. But at the same time, we must understand that this is a step, and if we spend too much time putting together puzzles from the details of past lives, then we may miss something important in this life.

University practice

DR: How has your work with near-death experiences influenced your academic career as a psychology teacher at university? Was there any pressure on you to focus on less controversial areas of research?

RM: No, it would be a good story to imagine being a persecuted martyr, but no, that was not the case.

DR: Glad to hear it.

RM A: I happen to work at a very liberal college where people in my department are very interested in altered states of consciousness. I think it would be irresponsible to present this as some kind of convincing scientific evidence. As long as one deals with these topics with the goal that altered states can teach us a lot about ourselves, then there is no point in objecting.

DR: In the years since your first book was published, do you feel people's increasing openness to this information?

RM A: There is no doubt about that. Recently I was in Europe and visited eight cities.

Physicians in all countries brought me their articles for medical journals with their research on dying experiences. And we can all say, and this is a great contribution over the past 15 years, that it is now a generally accepted fact that people who are close to death go through amazing life-changing experiences.

But now the next step is to interpret these experiences for what they ultimately mean. And it's not even a matter of decision for the medical community.

It is not for doctors to decide whether there is life after death. The point of interest in the medical field is what explanation we can give them when they appear.

We must be ready to explain to patients and support them by explaining to them that they are not alone.

Raymond Moody

Life after life

Study of the phenomenon of continuation of life after the death of the body.

FOREWORD

I had the privilege of reading Dr. Moody's Life After Life before it was published. I admire that this young scientist had the courage to take this direction for his work and at the same time make this area of ​​research accessible to the general public.

Since I began my work with terminally ill patients, which has been going on for 20 years, I have become more and more interested in the problem of the phenomenon of death. We know quite a lot about the processes associated with dying, but there is still a lot of uncertainty about the moment of death and the experiences of our patients at a time when they are considered clinically dead.

Studies such as those described in Dr. Moody's book give us the opportunity to learn a lot and confirm what we have been taught for two millennia - that there is life after death. Despite the fact that the author himself does not claim to study death itself, it is clear from his materials that dying patients continue to be clearly aware of what is happening around them even after they are considered clinically dead. All of this is very much in line with my own research on the reports of patients who have died and then been brought back to life. These reports were completely unexpected and often led to the astonishment of sophisticated, well-known and certainly competent doctors.

All of these patients experienced an exit from their physical body, accompanied by a feeling of extraordinary peace and completeness. Many of them testify to communication with other persons who helped them in the transition to another plane of existence. Most were met by people who had once loved them and died earlier, or by religious figures to whom they attached serious importance in life and who naturally corresponded to their religious beliefs. It was a great pleasure to read Dr. Moody's book just at a time when I myself am ready to publish my own findings.

Dr. Moody has to be prepared for a lot of criticism, mostly from two sides. First, on the part of the clergy, who will of course be concerned that someone dares to conduct research in a field that is considered taboo. Some representatives of a number of religious groups have already expressed their critical attitude towards this kind of research. One priest, for example, described them as "chasing cheap fame." Many believe that the question of life after death should remain a matter of blind faith and should not be tested by anyone. Another group of people from whom Dr. Moody might expect a reaction to his book are scientists and medical professionals, who will find this kind of research unscientific.

I think we have reached some kind of transitional era. We must have the courage to open new doors and not rule out the possibility that modern scientific methods are no longer appropriate for new lines of research. I think this book will open such new doors for open minded people and give them the confidence and courage to tackle new problems. They will see that this publication by Dr. Moody is quite reliable, as it is written by a sincere and honest researcher. The findings are supported by my own research and that of other highly respected scientists, researchers, and clergy who have the courage to explore this new field in the hope of helping those who want to know, not just believe.

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, MD. Flossmoor, Illinois.

This book, essentially written about human existence, naturally reflects the main views and beliefs of its author. Although I have tried to be as objective and honest as possible, some facts about me seem to be of some use in evaluating some of the unusual claims that occur in this book.

First of all, I myself have never been near death, so I cannot testify to the corresponding experiences from my own experience, first-hand, so to speak. At the same time, I cannot defend my complete objectivity on this basis, since my own emotions are undoubtedly included in the overall structure of the book. As I listened to so many people who were fascinated by the experiences in this book, I felt like I was living their life myself. I can only hope that such an attitude will not compromise the rationality and balance of my approach.

Secondly, I am writing as a person who has not thoroughly studied the huge literature on parapsychology and all kinds of occult phenomena. I do not say this to discredit this literature; on the contrary, I am even sure that a more thorough acquaintance with it could deepen the understanding of the phenomena that I observed.

Thirdly, my religious affiliation deserves mention. My family belonged to the Presbyterian Church, however, my parents never tried to impose their religious beliefs and views on children. Basically, they tried, as I developed, to encourage my own interests and create conditions for the favorable development of my inclinations. Thus, I grew up with religion not as a set of fixed doctrines, but rather as a field of spiritual and religious teachings, attitudes, questions.

I believe that all the great religions of mankind have turned to us to tell a lot of truth, and I am sure that not one of us is able to realize the full depth of truth contained in each of them. Technically, I belong to the Methodist Church.

Fourthly, my academic and professional background is quite diverse, so that others might even call it fragmented. I studied philosophy at the University of Virginia and received my PhD in this subject in 1969. My area of ​​interest in philosophy is ethics, logic and the philosophy of language. After three years of teaching philosophy at the University of California, I decided to enter the medical school, after which I intended to become a psychiatrist and teach the philosophy of medicine at the medical school. All these interests and acquired knowledge in one form or another helped me in carrying out this research.

Longing for the dead is the most painful human suffering. Sometimes the bitterness of loss is so unbearable that the survivor himself dreams of death. Is it possible to change the situation and return the joy of life to a person? Yes, according to the famous Dr. Moody. About this he wrote his new book "All about meetings after death."

DEATH WORKSHOP

American resuscitator Raymond Moody knows everything about the afterlife and the light at the end of the tunnel. He wrote a book about it twenty years ago. "Life After Life" which is still sold around the world in huge numbers.

But since then he has not stopped his research. He retired to a mansion in Alabama and began to conduct some experiments in a unique laboratory hidden from prying eyes. The doctor does not even have neighbors, but knowledgeable people say that from time to time, unfortunate people who have lost loved ones come to visit him. And he, as part of his experiment, organizes meetings for them with the dead. After sessions with the dead, the living leave Dr. Moody cheered up and ready to move on.

It's hard to believe this, but it's true. And what Dr. Moody does is called grief therapy. He conceived this project back in the 1990s. Then he bought an old mill far from people and civilization and converted it into a "workshop for working with death."

THE WORLD OF THE MIRROR

As an exception, the doctor allowed cinematographers filming a documentary about him into his mansion. As soon as they crossed the threshold of a strange dwelling, the TV men found themselves in the world of the Looking Glass: absolute darkness, hundreds of mirrors of various shapes and sizes... Under such conditions, a person loses the sense of time and reality of what is happening. This is exactly the result, according to the doctor, he achieved.

How does Dr. Moody work? For half a day, he asks an inconsolable client about a lost relative, learns a lot of details and details, and along the way studies the interlocutor and figures out how to help him. After all, we are all different, and each requires its own approach.

The doctor then takes the patient to a windowless room (Moody calls it the "Psychomanteum") and sits him in a chair in front of a huge mirror. Incredibly, after a while, the inconsolable sufferer begins to feel the presence of the deceased. He hears his voice, smells his perfume, feels his touch.

How does the doctor do it? After all, it's incredible! “Very likely,” he replies. - Ancient Greeks were engaged in similar experiments. I just borrowed their idea."

ENTRY TO THE OTHER WORLD

Statistics say that 65% of widows see the ghosts of their dead husbands, 75% of parents who have lost a child maintain contact with him (visual, auditory, etc.) throughout the year. For both those who have fallen into the realm of grief, this brings relief. However, for a long time it was believed that such meetings with the dead occur involuntarily and cannot be organized by order, that they cannot be observed and studied in the laboratory.

In previous books, Moody has written about the memories of people who have experienced clinical death. Very often, while doctors were fighting for the lives of patients, they made unusual astral journeys in which they met their deceased relatives and friends. As a result, they ceased to be afraid of death, having seen from their own experience that this is only a transition to a different, happier life.

However, this zone, into which the “travelers” fell, has its own clear boundary, beyond which a person cannot advance, otherwise he will die completely and irrevocably. Moody called it the middle region - the crossroads of the physical and the other world. Unexpectedly, the scientist discovered that, in fact, meetings with deceased relatives can take place not only in the middle region and not necessarily during clinical death.

A special technique of looking in the mirror, according to Moody, allows people to see the spirits of deceased relatives at almost any time they wish...

“The ability to see images of deceased relatives is of great benefit,” the scientist believes. - After all, the grief of some people who have lost loved ones knows no bounds. And my magic mirrors allow them to be consoled and get rid of suffering.

ORACLES OF THE DEAD

The ancient Greeks, for example, had “psychomanteums”, or oracles of the dead, for meetings with the dead. A similar place, according to the ancient Greek geographer Strabo, was located in Western Greece in the city of Ether. Those who controlled the oracles settled in underground clay houses connected by tunnels. They never surfaced during the day, they only left their caves at night.

In the late 50s of the XX century, the Greek archaeologist Sotir Dakar discovered this place and began excavations. The oracle turned out to be a complex underground complex of cells and labyrinths converging to a large cave, where meetings with ghosts took place. In it, Dakar found the remains of a giant bronze cauldron. Once its inner surface was polished to a shine and ghosts could be seen on the surface of the water that filled it. Large sizes created huge, life-size visions.

It should be noted that the visitors to the oracle were carefully prepared for the sacrament. For a month they were underground, then they were led through dark corridors and cells, and only then did they get into the cave.

LOST IN TIME

“After studying the experience of the Greeks,” Moody writes, “I decided to try to reproduce ... dates with the dead in the Greek manner ... I turned the top floor of my old mill in Alabama into a modern psychomanteum ... I hung a giant mirror on the wall, next to comfortable armchair. And he draped all this with a black velvet curtain so that it looked like a dark chamber. Indeed, Dr. Moody's mirror reflects only darkness. Behind the chair is the only source of light - a small lamp made of colored glass with a 15-watt bulb.

Moody asks the participants in the experiments to bring any memorabilia that belonged to the deceased. Then he spends half a day with them, leisurely walking in nature and finding out the reasons why the person wanted to meet the deceased.

Some time later, having gained experience, the scientist realized that the preparation for the meeting plays a very important role. It facilitates the transition to an altered state of consciousness, in which only such dates are possible. To help the test subjects "get lost" in time, Moody has them take off their clocks and also removes all the machinery hanging in the house. The large library, furnished with period furniture, creates an atmosphere of times gone by.

DATE IN THE MIRROR

Moody candidly admits that he does not know how the technique of looking in the mirror works. He just took an ancient idea and used it. The scientific explanation for all this has yet to be developed.

“I have been conducting research ... since 1990 and ... examined more than 300 people. The discoveries made were truly amazing. Many patients did not see the dead they wanted to see. And there were a lot of them - about 25%. Rendezvous with ghosts did not always take place in the mirror itself. Approximately in every tenth case, a ghost came out of it. Subjects often reported that the ghosts touched them or that they felt their presence. It also happened vice versa - about 10% of patients reported that they themselves went to the mirror and there they met with the dead.

WOW!

And of course, Moody's book is filled with numerous amazing stories, like all his previous works.

One man, for example, came with an obsession: his mother was sick a lot during her lifetime, and he so wanted to know if she was well after death. In the evening, Raymond took him to the vision room, explained everything he needed, and left him alone. About an hour later, the patient appeared in the doctor's office - smiling and crying at the same time. He saw his mother! She looked healthy and happy. The man said to her, "It's good to see you again." - "I'm glad too." - "How are you, mom?" - "I'm fine," - she replied and disappeared. The fact that the mother no longer suffers, as before her death, reassured the man, and he left, feeling a heavy burden fall from his heart.

And here is another example. “A woman came on a date with a deceased grandfather,” says the scientist. - She had a photo album with her, and she told me about her love for her grandfather, showed me pictures. She went to the mirror room hoping to see her grandfather, but no one was prepared for what happened. She not only saw him, but also talked to him...

When the woman began to cry, he came out of the mirror and began to soothe her, hugging and stroking her back. The patient perfectly remembered the touch of his hands and the words that he was happy where he was.

Raymond Moody - researcher, psychiatrist and philosopher, a pioneer in his field, explored the near-death experience and outlined in the book "Life after life".

In an interview with chiropractor Daniel Redwood, he says:

• about the history of research into life after death,
• why do people see the ascension to the light in dying,
• Is information from a past life dangerous?
• about hypnotic states and working with a magic ball.

A light in the end of a tunnel

Daniel Redwood (DR): How would you respond to those who say that near-death experiences in the form of white light experiences and the transcendental world are simply the result of a lack of oxygen in the brain?

Raymond Moody (RM): When I first heard about it, I assumed that it was some kind of shock to the brain, etc. I know many doctors around the world who have researched this phenomenon and they all started with the same assumption.

All of us, talking with people who have had such an experience, are very close in our views.

The classic definition of a hallucination is a sensory experience without a corresponding external event. That is, a person sees and hears something that is not really there.

But we have many dying experiences where patients out of their bodies have witnessed something happening at a distance, even on the other side of the hospital.

And then they were independent confirmations what this person said.

Therefore, it is very difficult to explain it simply from a psychological or biochemical point of view.

The other thing that makes me think that near-death experiences are more than just hallucinations is that the profound effect such experiences have on people is amazing.

They have full confidence that what we call death is

Although, I think there may not be a definitive answer to your question. Because, ultimately, there are no experts in this advanced field of the human mind who can give us the answer.

There is as yet no generally accepted established way to determine such a response. Everyone will have to look at it and decide in their own way.

All I can do is speak for myself and for many of my medical colleagues who have experienced this. And we are all convinced that patients really looked beyond reality.

Obvious facts of history

DR: Did you find any similarities in the experience of dying among people from very different cultures? Is the experience of an Australian Aboriginal, an Indiana steelworker, and an Afghan shepherd different?

RM: Yes, obviously it is. It's pretty interesting. The cultural difference in this area seems to be very small. There just aren't many variations.

I myself have not seen cases outside of the Western Judeo-Christian tradition, but my colleagues have. I have received letters from the East, from China, Japan and India, describing identical experiences.

There were letters both from those who had experienced such things themselves, and from doctors who wrote reports.

From time to time, in ancient scriptures and even in pre-literate cultures, anthropologists find such evidence, and it is similar to what we find in emergency rooms in the West.

DR: Is the increasing number of reports of dying experiences in recent years a consequence of the advances in medicine that can bring people back to life, or the fact that people are starting to talk more freely about it?

RM: My impression is that the first. If you look into history, you will find many such cases. They are in historical chronicles.

Gregory Tour wrote the book "History of the Franks." Or Venerable Beade's History of the English Church and People. There are references to very early writings, several hundred years before the birth of Christ.

Plato describes such a case. Hieronymus Bosch painted a picture in the 1500s depicting this theme. There are even scattered facts in the medical literature dating back to the 19th century.

And Swiss alpinist professor of geology Albert Heim fell off in the late 1800s, as a result of which had a mystical experience which radically changed his life.

He became interested in the subject, interviewing fellow climbers and discovering many near-death experiences, again identical to those we hear about today.

This has been going on for a long time, but I think, as you suggested, the possibilities of modern medicine have expanded so much that we are saving from the clutches of death a much larger number of people who have had such experiences.

The light is seen by those who are not ready to give up

DR: What percentage of people don't experience a classic ascension to the light when they're in near-death conditions, such as a terrible car accident? What distinguishes such people?

RM: Well, the cases are different, and it is interesting that the percentage of such people is higher, the closer they were to death.

Fred Schoonmaker, who is the head of cardiovascular medicine in Denver, interviewed a large number of patients he personally revived, and he found that about 60% of these patients brought back to life have had experiences of this kind.

This is comparable to the findings of doctors Ken Ring and Mike Sabom, who studied a group of patients who may not have been in such a critical condition, but were unconscious and close to death.

They found that 45% of such patients experienced these conditions.

But this still does not give a final answer to the question of why some people experience such things and others do not. Actually we don't know.

Many of the facts that I think we could assume - the age of the patient, the specific cause of the borderline, whether it was male or female, prior religious training, beliefs, etc.

None of these factors seem significant. Therefore, I can say that we simply do not know what it is.

Dr. Bruce Grayson, in a study several years ago, suggested that this was due to the fact that whether or not a person is ready to give up at such a moment.

And those who come close to giving up move on, experiencing the experience of dying.

Is reincarnation a fantasy?

DR: Do you think reincarnation is metaphorical or literal? And what do you think about the survival of the soul?

RM: I definitely think reincarnation is metaphorical, but not in the way some might think.

Let me first say that I don't know if reincarnation exists or not, and I've done a lot of work with past life regressions.

In terms of evidence, I just can't say yes or no.

But if you were to ask me about my feelings and intuition, I would say yes. But still, I believe that reincarnation is metaphorical in the sense that it is a process so much more complex that we cannot even express it in ordinary language.

When we talk about this in our dimension, we have to use a linear form of expression.

But I feel that on the other side, all these linear categories that we use - evidence, time sequence and all that - are completely different.

Reincarnation is a much more complex experience which we can't even imagine now.

The Benefits and Dangers of Past Life Memories

DR: Have you seen people who have been helped by past life regression?

RM: Yes. There is no doubt about this. For me it was amazing.

When I started regressions, I didn't even think of it as a therapeutic procedure. I explored this as an altered state of consciousness.

And what really surprised me is that people who have undergone regression, benefited greatly from this they came to realize themselves on a new level and understand some of the difficult moments and neurological conflicts that they experienced in life.

DR: Is there any danger in getting information from past lives? Under what circumstances should a regression be carried out, and what qualifications are required for a guide and therapist?

RM: Answering the second question, I can say that the criteria for a guide are very vague, and not a single specialist practicing in this field will give any kind of expertise.

What we have in our Western culture, I think, is that we systematically exclude ourselves from altered states of consciousness for many hundreds of years, but there are brave souls who can look in and move there, and then help all of us when we let's go there.

You are asking about dangers. I think there are dangers, of course, and I see them all the time.

The first is the inflated ego and a kind of elitism - people who say "in my past life or in my past lives there was this or that", and it becomes ego journey.

Some of them seem to want to exclude others by inflating themselves with it all. But, of course, they are in the minority.

And then there is the danger that the Tibetans have expressed. When a person enters this path and begins to explore in the spiritual dimensions, then many things appear that the Tibetans believe, and I agree with them, can distract from the true path.

Eastern doctrine implies that when past lives begin to appear, don't pay too much attention to them, because there are other things beyond that that you will want to find.

I think it's wonderful that past lives appear, where you can look and learn something about yourself from there.

But at the same time, we must understand that this is a step, and if we spend too much time putting together puzzles from the details of past lives, then we may miss something important in real life.

University practice

DR: How has your work with NDEs and regressions influenced your academic career as a psychology teacher at university? Was there any pressure on you to focus on less controversial areas of research?

RM: No, it would have been a good story to imagine being a persecuted martyr, but no, that wasn't the case.

DR: Glad to hear it.

RM: I happen to work at a very liberal college where people in my department are very interested in altered states of consciousness.

I think it would be irresponsible to present this as some kind of convincing scientific evidence.

As long as one deals with these topics with the goal that altered states can teach us a lot about ourselves, then there is no point in objecting.

DR: In the years since your first book was published, do you feel people's increasing openness to this information?

RM: There is no doubt about this. Recently I was in Europe and visited eight cities.

Physicians in all countries brought me their articles for medical journals with their research on dying experiences.

And we can all say, and this is a great contribution over the past 15 years, that it is now a generally accepted fact that people who are close to death, going through an amazing life-changing experience.

But now the next step is to interpret these experiences for what they ultimately mean. And it's not even a matter of decision for the medical community.

It is not for doctors to decide whether there is life after death. The point of interest in the medical field is what explanation we can give them when they appear.

We must be ready to explain to patients and support them by explaining to them that they are not alone.

Magic crystals

DR: What attracts you the most in your work?

RM: What I love to do is explore the limits of the human mind.

One thing I really like is that I'm 45 years old, I have two PhDs, and I've always been interested in the human mind.

I remember sitting on my grandmother's veranda at the age of 3 and thinking about consciousness.

This has always been my aspiration in life, and it amazes me that not a week goes by that I do not encounter some new amazing dimension of the human mind or some phenomenon that I have never heard of before.

Now I am very interested in such an interesting phenomenon as divination with the help of a mirror or, which our society considers a hoax or fraud.

I thought the same thing three years ago. Now I know that this phenomenon has a very rich history, an amazing history that includes a rather dramatic, unusual, intriguing dimension of human consciousness.

I don't know if these visions have anything to do with future events. I do not consider myself entitled even to attempt to confirm or establish such things.

But the phenomenon of divination by a mirror or a crystal, and the visions that arise from it, undoubtedly exist and can have some interesting applications.

Especially when you look into the history of thought, it's amazing how many great creative geniuses used hypnotic states as an addition to your work.

DR: Who are these people?

RM: to get your ideas. Robert Louis Stevenson received his ideas and stories while in a hypnotic state.

George Sand used this to write her novels. Charles Dickens, and the list goes on. Yet in our society, we simply ignore this amazing technique.

DR: Do you need to use a crystal to enter a hypnotic state?

RM: No, if you look into the history of this phenomenon, there were many different ways.

The Tibetans looked into the transparent lakes and saw visions. They also used mirrors for their prophecies. So did the shamans.

Many shamanic cultures have used mirrors for this purpose. Aztec priests used mirrors and obsidian balls for your prophecies.

In the Middle Ages in Europe and in India, where such technology was probably very expensive, soothsayers used the thumbnail, a drop of oil on the nail, to induce visions.

Therefore, there are a large number of techniques, and this can be learned very easily.

In my experiments, I found that this half of the general population can be taught, and very quickly.

And by learning this, people feel a great benefit, both in terms of learning about dimensions of themselves that they are not normally aware of, and also in terms of increased relaxation and access to their creative processes.

DR: What benefit did you personally get from it?

RM: I found it to be a good addition to my creative work.

I've written a few stories that I saw in the crystal ball and use it in some pretty interesting ways in my writing. I find it very helpful.

Translation by Olga Chervyakova

Raymond Moody is a man who managed to completely change the long-established opinion that a person is, first of all, a corporeal shell. In traditional medicine, it is not customary to pay attention to the soul. However, this man managed not only to learn, but also to convey to the world the stories of people who had post- and near-death experiences. Raymond Moody collected these stories and took them as the basis of his scientific research in this area. With his suggestion, the expression “Life after death” appeared in the appeal, and he also began to talk about post-death experiences that human consciousness encounters in a parallel world.

Raymond Moody (there are also recordings of Raymond Moody or Raymond Moody) devoted his life to medicine and psychology. He gained great popularity for his work on the study of near-death experiences and life after death. He has written several books on these topics.

The author of famous works was born in the state of Georgia in the city of Porterdale on June 30, 1944. Enrolling at the University of Virginia, he took up an active study of philosophy. There he received a bachelor's degree, after - a master's degree, and only then a doctor of philosophical sciences. Somewhat later, he received the title of professor in psychology and philosophy.

He was also interested in medicine. Therefore, he began to study it. Raymond Moody received his MD from the Medical College of Georgia in 1976.

He worked at the University of Las Vegas, Nevada, where he successfully conducted a number of studies in 1998. After that, he worked in the state of Georgia in a maximum security prison hospital as a forensic psychiatrist.

Moody says that in 1991 he tried to commit suicide and that's when he got his NDE experience. He told this story in his book. The reason for this action is also explained. The suicide attempt was preceded by an undiagnosed thyroid condition, as a result of which his psychological state suffered somewhat. In 1993, the author of books and psychologist admitted that for some time he even underwent inpatient treatment in a specialized institution.

This did not stop him from doing research, writing scientific papers, living a happy life and starting a family. He was married three times. Today he lives with his family - his wife Cheryl and children Caroline and Carter, who are his adoptive ones, in Alabama.

During his scientific work, Raymond Moody was the first to conduct research in the field of near-death experiences. In support of his theories, he conducted surveys of hundreds of people who survived clinical death. They shared with the psychologist their memories and experienced emotions, said what they saw and how they perceived it. The most famous book of the psychologist, which glorified him and told the world his theory, is the work "Life after life".

Raymond Moody: "Life after life"

As Raymond Moody himself says, he was interested in the mysteries of life and death, he always wanted to know what exactly was hidden behind the boundaries known to us. At the age of 28, he began his studies in medicine and was extremely surprised when the teachers enthusiastically responded to his research in a previously unknown field.

During the years of study, he became one of the most popular students of the university. He was invited to lecture on his scientific work. Over the years of study and work, he has managed to collect a huge database of stories of people who have encountered cases of near-death experiences - NDE (Near Death Experience).

So there was a famous book by Raymond Moody - "Life after life". The purpose of this book is not to try to explain everything that people saw in a parallel world, but to tell and describe these stories themselves in as much detail as possible. So questions arise by themselves. Did these people actually die? What does the human brain face in such a situation? Why are all the stories heard and presented so surprisingly similar to each other? And, probably, the most interesting question: does all this give grounds for asserting that after the death of the physical body, the human soul continues to live?

Raymond Moody: "Life after death"

Raymond Moody at one time managed to draw the attention of the whole world to a long-known, but not discussed phenomenon. In the seventies, the author of the works and psychotherapist published a scientific book, which instantly became popular among the population. In our country, this publication is better known under the name Raymond Moody "Life after death".

In this work, he diligently describes the stories that he was told by patients who came face to face with death. The main idea of ​​these works of his is to convey to the reader the idea that after the physical shell of a person - the body - dies, his soul continues to wander further, it encounters experiences and visions while in consciousness.

It is worth noting that similar exercises have already been carried out earlier by people who were interested in this topic. The so-called “out of body” is not a new term at all. They just used it a little differently. Out of the body meant the usual process - sleep, which we encounter every night. That's just with respect to clinical death and normal sleep, the exit occurs in different ways. In sleep, it is smooth and natural, but in the event of death, the exit is abrupt and uncontrollable.

From the stories of people it can be seen that during clinical death they initially hear a rumble, strange and inexplicable, then they leave the body shell and then head into a dark tunnel. They realize what is happening, encounter a strange light. Their whole life floats before them, in moments, after which they again return to the physical body.

Raymond Moody's book "Life after death" lifts the veil and shows the reader some aspects of the knowledge of personality. A near-death experience includes several stages. It is worth noting that they cannot be called permanent, since not all survivors of such an experience go through all the stages. Moody, focusing on the stories of people and analyzing them, was able to identify nine sensations:

1. strange and inexplicable sounds similar to buzzing;
2. a feeling of complete peace and the absolute absence of pain;
3. detachment from everything around;
4. an indescribable journey along the tunnel;
5. sensations of soaring up into the sky;
6. meeting with long-dead relatives;
7. meeting with a luminous image;
8. pop-up moments from life;
9. lack of desire to return to real life.

This book leaves an unforgettable impression. Everyone at least once thought about what happens to the consciousness and soul after the end of life in the physical sense. This book contains many stories, each of which is a small study. The stories are different, but each of them somehow resonates with others. All of them have common features, namely the sensations experienced by people who have known clinical death. The people telling the stories didn't know each other, but they said similar things. This book is unique in that all the stories in it are real, all people really experienced these situations.

Books by Raymond Moody

The scientist claims that every person who has experienced clinical death and personally experienced near-death experiences changes forever. His consciousness will no longer return to his former thinking, because he has been on the other side of life and has seen something that is not given to everyone.

For all the time of his activity, the doctor, psychologist and writer has published several unique books, each of which is a whole life, it is a new and deep story that makes the reader think about life, death and what happens in different worlds.

1. "Life after death". The book reveals to the world the stories of people who have experienced clinical death, touches on the issues of a possible life in a parallel world.
2. "Life before life". This work describes how one can dive into a past life.
3. "All about meetings after death." The book tells about people who had experience of communicating with the ghosts of deceased relatives.
4. "Life After Loss". The book tells how, despite the loss and grief experienced, to continue to live.
5. "Reunion. Union with the other world. Recommended for study by everyone who mourns for the departed people.

Raymond Moody's books are special works that initiate the reader into the mysteries of life after death.