Raymond Moody: Life before life. Moody Raymond: Creativity and Interesting Facts Raymond Moody biography

Raymond Moody.

Raymond Moody is a famous American psychoanalyst, medical practitioner and author of bestselling books, revealing his unique discoveries in such areas as: clinical death and near-clinical experiences, the other world and communication with it, hypnosis and past life regression. Back in the 80s, Raymond, working as a resuscitator, became interested in unusual cases encountered in practice: some patients who survived clinical death spoke about the experiences they experienced during an unconscious state. Someone saw himself and the doctors surrounding his own body, fighting for his life, and described the smallest details of the manipulations carried out by the medical staff, others recalled strange visions or communication with deceased loved ones. Moody became seriously interested in such cases and began to study NDEs in depth. He met and consulted on this issue with other doctors, analyzed the materials obtained after numerous conversations with various patients, and in 1975 published the first book, Life After Life, which collected about 150 cases describing the various experiences of patients who underwent clinical death. His first "medical diary" attracted general attention and caused a flurry of various emotions not only among the scientific intelligentsia, but also among the common population. Moody was bombarded with a flood of letters from people who claimed that the events described in the book happened to them. Many new, previously unexplored, issues related to death began to appear, in connection with which, in 1978, the International Association for the Study of Near Death Experiences appeared. Meanwhile, Raymond continued to master various methods of medical research and psychodiagnostics of a person. He actively studied philosophy and received a bachelor's degree from the University of Virginia, but without stopping there, he subsequently acquired a master's degree in philosophy, a doctor of psychology and medicine from Georgia Western College, where he became a professor much later. In the late 1990s, Raymond did research at the University of Las Vegas, Nevada, and spent several years as a forensic psychiatrist at the Georgia Prison Hospital. Continuing to study the range of different experiences of a person at the time of his clinical death and discovering new facts related to death, Moody developed the theme that captured him in his subsequent books: Reflections on Life After Life, Light Beyond, Life After Death, Post-mortem experience or a flash of experience” and many other essays that reveal the boundaries of the generally accepted concept of “death”. "Near-death experiences" later led Raymond to study the phenomenon associated with the continuation of the life of the soul after the physical body dies. He conducted a lot of scientific experiments with patients by immersing them in hypnosis, which gave incredible results - people in a hypnotic trance talked about their past lives, about communicating with those who had long been dead. Thus was born a wave of research studying past life regression and giving life to his new books: “Reunion. Communication with the other world”, “All about meetings after death”, “Life before life”, “Each of us has already lived several lives” and others.

Dr. Moody currently resides in Alabama. He still conducts medical practice, conducts psychological consultations both by phone and in person by appointment. Raymond has developed many video techniques that allow you to look at the loss of a loved one, the death of pets or your own death from a different angle. His scientific writings help people experience severe emotional stress, treat many different phobias with the help of past life regressions, and give people faith that their life has a deeper meaning. Raymond Moody is a unique scientist, to this day he openly conducts clinical experiments, reveals new, amazing “near-death discoveries” in his books, and who knows, maybe he will be able to provide society with irrefutable proof of the immortality of the soul, which, no doubt, will become irrefutable. not only a breakthrough in the world of medicine, but also a complete revolution of the entire worldview of mankind.

Margarita Strizh. Rostov-on-Don

This American doctor and psychologist gained worldwide fame after the publication of a scandalous book that posed many unresolvable questions to science. Dedicated to the study of such a phenomenon as death, it instantly became a bestseller, and Moody Raymond continued to collect testimonies of those who had been “beyond”.

A question that interests all people

Raymond Moody was born in 1944 in Porterdale (USA). His father served in the Navy as an orderly, worked as a surgeon in hospitals and watched patients die. A staunch atheist, he did not believe in life after death and perceived leaving as the extinction of consciousness.

Moody Raymond, who read Plato's The Republic, was incredibly struck by the story of a Greek soldier who came to his senses after being severely wounded on the battlefield. The valiant warrior told about his wanderings in the world of the dead. This myth made a huge impression on the teenager, who repeatedly asked his father about what awaits people after death. As Raymond recalls, such conversations did not lead to anything good: Moody Sr. was a sharp and implacable person who defended his position in a tough manner.

miraculous resurrection phenomenon

After school, the young man enters the University of Virginia, where he receives a Ph.D. and psychology degree. During training, Moody Raymond meets a psychiatrist, whose doctors recorded clinical death. Returning to life, the man spoke about his strange experiences and sensations, echoing the story of the warrior resurrected from the dead, described by Plato. The student was amazed at the details of such an unusual journey, accompanied by strange phenomena.

Later, when Raymond teaches philosophy, he often recalls the myth of the Greek soldier and even gives an entire lecture on the subject. As it turned out, among his students there were many who survived clinical death, and their descriptions of the wandering of the soul in the world of the dead often coincided. Moody notices that there is an amazing light everywhere, beyond description.

Gradually, the teacher's house turns into a gathering place for people who want to discuss all the details of their death and miraculous resurrection. Extremely interested in curious facts, the scientist realizes that he lacks knowledge, and at the age of 28 he enters a medical institution in the state of Georgia.

"Near Death Experience"

The famous Raymond Moody, whose books shed light on issues of concern to all people, is engaged in research at the college, where much attention is paid to the study of parapsychological phenomena. He is interested in past life travel.

It was at this time that the future author of sensational bestsellers collects stories about what he himself called NDE - Near Death Experience. This is the state of a person who has recorded death, but he suddenly comes back to life. But no one can tell exactly what happens after a cardiac arrest. The fact is that clinical death is reversible, and biological death occurs in 20 minutes, and no one returned to our world after it was ascertained.

Stories turned into a book

Moody Raymond does research, works as a forensic psychiatrist at the prison hospital. He is the first to describe the experiences of about 150 people who came to life after doctors pronounced them dead. These impressions turned out to be common to all who were resurrected, which surprised the doctor very much. Why are these stories so similar? Can we say that the soul lives forever? What happens to the brain of a dead person?” Raymond Moody thought about important questions.

Life After Life is a book published in 1975 that caused a real scandal abroad. People have always wondered if we do not start our existence anew each time? Does our spiritual energy disappear after death? Is there any evidence left in the memory that a person lived before? And how to touch the "memories" hidden in the depths of consciousness?

"Memories" of Past Lives

What is the story of the world bestseller, which produced the effect of an exploding bomb? Sheds light on some questions that have been worrying mankind since time immemorial, and tells whether there is life after death, the book.

Raymond Moody objectively examines complex phenomena and brings together all the memories of people describing the same sensations that they experienced when they died: unusual sounds, "tunnel syndrome", soaring above the ground, peace, spiritual light, various visions, unwillingness to return to the physical body.

Science confirms that our subconscious is crammed with “memories” accumulated over millennia, and in order to touch them, hypnosis is needed, which causes the memory to return to past lives of a person.

Is the soul immortal?

Moody meets a professional hypnologist who helped the doctor resurrect several episodes from his past life in his memory. I must say that Raymond Moody was shocked by this experiment.

"Life after life" does not give an unambiguous answer to the burning question of whether our soul is immortal, but the stories collected in it say one thing: after death, a new existence does not begin, but the former one continues. It turns out that there are no interruptions in a person's life, but not all scientists agree with this controversial statement.

They do not consider regression to be real memories and do not equate it with reincarnation. Experts are sure that such pictures allegedly from a past life are just fantasies of our brain, and they have nothing to do with the immortality of the soul.

Personal experience

Curiously, the doctor attempted suicide in 1991. He claims to have had NDE experience, and this further confirmed his opinion about the eternal soul of man. Now Raymond Moody, who has become famous, lives with his wife and adopted children in Alabama.

Life after death: books that have become a comfort to millions of people

After the first book comes the second - “Life after life. Light in the distance”, where the author examines in detail the feelings of children who survived clinical death.

In "Glimpses of Eternity", which is written specifically for skeptics, Moody shatters all doubts about the immortality of the human soul. He publishes brand new evidence that life is the beginning of a long journey.

The unique technique, revived by the doctor, formed the basis of the work "Reunion", where Raymond describes the technique of meeting with his loved ones who have gone to another world. The book teaches how to deal with the subconscious and accept grief without resorting to the services of a psychotherapist.

Life After Loss, written jointly with D. Arcangel, is intended for those who have lost a loved one. Sorrow, embracing people, helps to restore strength and even move to a different level of perception of life.

You can relate to Moody's work in different ways, but the fact that his scientific works help people survive the pain of loss and treat emotional stress is beyond doubt. If it is accurately proven, then this will be a real revolution in the human worldview.

psychology:

Where do you get such a keen interest in the other world? Maybe you were born and raised in a religious family?

Raymond Moody:

Not at all. I was born in a small town in Georgia, in the southeastern United States, in June 1944, the same day my father boarded a warship, serving in the Navy as a corpsman during World War II. When he returned, he completed his medical studies and became a surgeon. My father is a born doctor and loved his profession very much. He was a committed atheist and we never talked about religion with him. He perceived death only as the cessation of life and the extinction of consciousness. Unfortunately, he was harsh and implacable when he stood up for his beliefs, so I was always afraid of him. I must say, I was an inquisitive child, so my parents sent me to a private school for gifted children. I was very fond of space and astronomy. At the age of 14, I was already proud of the fact that I twice had the opportunity to meet and talk at length with NASA employee Wernher von Braun, a well-known specialist in the field of rocket science. Later at the university, I enrolled in a course in astronomy. As you can see, I had a rather scientific, materialistic mindset.

What changed the direction of your thoughts?

R. M.:

I once read Plato's Republic*. His philosophy literally captured me! And I was struck by the curious story that concludes the first part of this book, the myth of Era, the Greek soldier whose body was found on the battlefield ... and then he suddenly came back to life and told about the wanderings of his soul in the realm of the dead. Later, in 1965, our philosophy teacher told us about the journey to the next world of George Ritchie, a psychiatrist who was declared clinically dead from pneumonia. Upon waking up, Richie spoke of his experiences, the details of which strangely echoed Er's narrative, in particular in the description of the "unspeakable light". Driven by curiosity, I met this friendly and sincere man, and he told me about his adventure in great detail. A few years later, when I was already teaching philosophy at the university, where I gave a lecture on the legend told by Plato, a student approached me and shared his own experience, which was similar to that experienced by Er and Richie. And again he mentioned this light, which defies description. Coincidence or not? I decided to test this by regularly mentioning these stories in my lectures. As a result, my home soon became a gathering place for students who wanted to talk about these experiences! Then other people began to bring their testimonies to me.

And it was these stories that inspired you to become a doctor?

R. M.:

I naturally wanted to know more about life, about death, and about consciousness. I started studying medicine at the age of 28. In Georgia, many doctors heard about my research, and, oddly enough, I did not meet with any attacks from teachers and researchers. Everything happened as if the way before me opened by itself: they treated me very kindly and even offered me to give lectures. I became the most famous medical student in Georgia! Over the years I have collected dozens of stories of what I have called NDEs (Near Death Experiences). Then I wrote a book, Life After Life, in which I tried, refraining from trying to metaphysically interpret this evidence, and simply carefully presented it in order to ask important questions: were these people really dead? What is really going on with the brain? Why are all the stories so strangely similar? And, of course, the most important: is it possible to conclude that the spirit continues to live after death?

MANY DETAILS OF THESE STORIES MATCH: PEOPLE HEAR A DISORDER ROOM, LEAVE THE BODY, SEE A TUNNEL AND AN INCREDIBLE LIGHT, MEET THEIR LOVED FAMILY

What do those who have traveled beyond life and returned to it describe?

R. M.:

During clinical death, they hear a strange hum, then exit their body and fall into a dark tunnel. They realize that they now have a “different body”, see an indescribable light, meet their deceased loved ones who are waiting for them, or a “light being” who guides them. In a few moments, their whole life passes in front of them, and, finally, they return to their body ... We have identified about fifteen stages that make up the “ideal” near-death experience: I must say, not all survivors go through all these stages. But their descriptions are identical, regardless of the person's age, country, culture, or creed. There are even cases where people blind from birth have experienced the same experience with the same visual images. And one more very important consequence, which is observed in everyone: "near-death experience" always causes a positive (sometimes radical) transformation of the personality. This "returning of the self" brings about deep, lasting complex changes. By the way, this aspect is of interest to psychologists and psychotherapists who work with this topic.

Was it easy for you to get recognition for your research?

R. M.:

I wouldn't say it's difficult. In the US, my work was immediately well received in medical circles, because I never tried to prove the existence of an afterlife. I focused only on what happens to the human psyche when we are in a state close to death. After all, the definition of clinical death is still rather vague ... The research that I started was continued all over the world. And I got into other aspects of this topic, in particular, such as the "negative" near-death experience, which is reported by people who have experienced terrifying experiences. I am especially interested in "shared" near-death experiences: sometimes relatives or a nurse caring for a person empathically experience this experience with the dying person. This phenomenon is not as rare as it seems, and I have described it in detail**. We have also found that some people can experience a NDE, or at least some of its stages, spontaneously without being near-death.

And in this case, the person is still internally changing?

R. M.:

Yes, that's why I began to be interested in the therapeutic potential of this phenomenon and to explore related areas. To better understand the near-death experience, one must consider it not as a unique phenomenon, but in the context of other phenomena that have an equally healing effect on the soul. For example, very common in the US methods of psychotherapy aimed at past lives. In the late 1980s, I discovered that we have the ability to "greet" deceased loved ones in a special, altered state of consciousness. I relied here on the ancient Greek tradition of the so-called psychomanteums - the oracles of the dead (they are described by Homer and Herodotus), special places where people came to talk with the souls of the dead.

Are you not afraid to get a reputation as a mystic in the scientific world with such a subject of research?

R. M.:

My experiments with the so-called psychomanteum, which I continue to this day, brought me trouble ... only from my father! The fact is that I suffer from a rare disease, myxedema. This is an underactive thyroid gland. She played a fatal role in my life, causing me to make terrible mistakes. For example, because of her, I entrusted the management of my finances to a man who ruined me, I got divorced and even went as far as attempting suicide. My father, being sure that my experiments were the fruit of a sick imagination, made me hospitalize in a psychiatric hospital ... Fortunately, my friends came to my aid. In the end, I was treated and everything went back to normal. Now that everything is behind me, I can say that this illness has done me good: it has developed my capacity for empathy and helped me better understand people who face difficult trials at the end of their lives.

You talk about NDEs as a given. But many still deny its existence...

R. M.:

This experience has long been officially considered a real psychic phenomenon. Those who deny it are simply ignorant... It is clear that the approach of death and the transition to the afterlife can cause atavistic fear in some people. To calm down, they just need to look at the many doctors, neurophysiologists or scientists who work in this field or even agree to talk about their experiences. All attempts to interpret the near-death experience as a hallucination, a fantasy, a reaction to a lack of oxygen, or the release of endorphins are recognized as unfounded. Read the Dutch cardiologist Pim van Lommel, who conducted the largest scientific study of the near-death experience in history.

American psychologist and physician. He is best known for his books on life after death and near-death experiences.

Biography

He studied philosophy at the University of Virginia, where he received successive bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D. degrees in philosophy.

He received his Ph.D. in psychology from Georgia Western College, where he later became a professor on the subject.

He received his Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree from the Medical College of Georgia in 1976.

In 1998, Moody did research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and then worked as a forensic psychiatrist at the Georgia Maximum Security Prison Hospital.

Moody claims to have had a near-death experience in 1991 when he attempted suicide (which he recounts in one of his books). According to Moody, this was the result of an undiagnosed thyroid condition that had taken its toll on his mental state. In an interview in 1993, R. Moody stated that he was placed in a psychiatric hospital.

R. Moody was married three times. He currently resides in Alabama with his wife Cheryl and adopted children Carter and Caroline.

Scientific activity

R. Moody was one of the first researchers of near-death experiences and described the experiences of approximately 150 people who survived near-death experiences.

The term NDE was coined in 1975.

Moody's most popular book is Life After Life.

Bibliography

• Reunion. Communication with the underworld
• Life Before Life: Exploring Past Life Regressions
• Life after life
• Life After Life: A Light Away
• Life After Life: Exploring the Phenomenon of "Contact with Death"
• Life after life and Further reflections on life after life
• Life after life: Is there life after death?
• Life After Loss: How to Deal with Adversity and Find Hope
• Glimpses of eternity
• All about meetings after death
• Reunion: Communication with the other world
• Last laugh
• Glimpses of Eternity: New Evidence for Life After Life

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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 much that is not clear about the moment of death and the experiences of our patients at the 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.

It is my hope that this book will draw attention to a phenomenon that is both widespread and at the same time very little known, and help overcome public prejudice in this regard. For I firmly believe that this phenomenon is of great importance not only for the theoretical and practical fields of research, especially for psychology, psychiatry, medicine, philosophy, theology and pastoral work, but also for our daily way of life.

I will allow myself at the beginning to say something for which detailed reasons will be given much later, namely, I do not seek to "show" that there is life after death. And I don't think such a "proof" is really possible at all. This is partly why I have avoided identifying details in the cited stories, while at the same time leaving their content unchanged. This was necessary both to avoid publicity regarding individuals and to obtain permission to publish the account of the experience.

I think that many readers will find the statements that are made in this book incredible, and the first reaction of such people will be to put it all out of their heads. I have no intention of blaming anyone for this. A few years ago, I must have had exactly the same reaction. I am not asking anyone to believe everything that is written in this book and accept my point of view out of simple trust in me as an author. Indeed, as an impossibility or inability to object to an authoritative opinion, I especially ask you not to do so. The only thing I ask of those who will not believe what they read here is just to look around a little. I have repeatedly addressed my opponents with this appeal. And among those who accepted it, there were many people who, being skeptics at first, eventually began to think seriously with me about such events.

On the other hand, I have no doubt that there will be many among my readers who, after reading this book, will be greatly relieved to find that they are not alone in what they have had to endure. For such people - especially for those who, as is the case in most cases, did not tell anyone about their experience except for a few confidants - I can say one thing: I hope that my book will give you the courage to talk about it a little more freely. , since this will shed more light on the most mysterious side of the life of the human soul.

DEATH PHENOMENON

What is death like? Humanity has been asking this question since its inception. Over the past few years, I have had the opportunity to pose this question to a significant number of listeners. Among them were students of psychological, philosophical and sociological faculties, believers, TV viewers, members of civil clubs and medical professionals. As a result, with a certain degree of caution, I can say that this topic is perhaps the most serious attitude in all people, regardless of their emotional type or belonging to one or another social group.

However, despite this interest, there is no doubt that it is very difficult for most of us to talk about death. This is due to at least two reasons. One of them is mainly psychological or cultural in nature. The very topic of death is taboo. We feel, at least subconsciously, that when confronted with death in any form, even indirectly, we inevitably face the prospect of our own death, the picture of our death, as it were, approaches us and becomes more real and conceivable. For example, many medical students, including myself, remember that even such an encounter with death, which is experienced by everyone who crosses the threshold of the anatomy laboratory of the medical faculty for the first time, causes a very unsettling feeling. The cause of my own unpleasant experiences now seems to me quite obvious. As I now recall, my experiences were almost not related to those people whose remains I saw there, although, of course, to some extent I thought about them too. But what I saw on the table was to me chiefly a symbol of my own death. Somehow, perhaps semiconsciously, I must have thought, "This is going to happen to me."

Thus, talking about death from a psychological point of view can be considered as an indirect approach to death, only on a different level. Undoubtedly, many people perceive any talk about death as something that causes such a real image of death in their minds that they begin to feel the proximity of their own death. To save themselves from such psychological trauma, they decide to simply avoid such conversations as much as possible.

Another reason why it is difficult to talk about death is somewhat more complicated, because it is rooted in the very nature of our language. Basically, the words that make up human language refer to things that we know about through our physical sensations, while death is something that lies beyond our conscious experience, because most of us have never experienced it.

Thus, if we are talking about death in general, we must avoid both the social taboo and the linguistic dilemma that has its basis in our subconscious experience. In the end we come to euphemistic analogies. We compare death or dying with things that we are familiar with from our daily experience and that seem very acceptable to us.

Probably one of the analogies of this type is the comparison of death with sleep. Dying, we tell ourselves, is like falling asleep. Expressions of this kind also occur in our everyday language and thinking, as well as in the literature of many centuries and cultures. Obviously, such expressions were common in ancient Greece. For example, in the Iliad, Homer calls sleep “the brother of death,” and Plato, in his dialogue “Apology,” puts the following words into the mouth of his teacher Socrates, who was sentenced to death by the Athenian court: “And if death is the absence of any sensation, something like a dream when the sleeper sees no further dreams, then it would be surprisingly beneficial. In fact, I think that if someone had to choose a night on which he slept so much that he did not even dream, and, comparing all the other nights and days of his life with this night, would figure out how many days and nights he lived better and more pleasant in comparison with all other nights and days is easy to count.

So, if death is like that, then at least I consider it beneficial, because all subsequent time (from the moment of death) turns out to be nothing more than one night. (The translation is taken from the "Collection of Plato's Creations". Petersburg, Academy" 1823, vol. 1, p. 81).

The same analogy is used in our modern language. I mean the expression "to put to sleep". When you bring a dog to the vet asking to be put down, you usually mean something very different than when you ask the anesthetist to put your wife or husband to put down. Other people prefer a different but similar analogy. Dying, they say, is like forgetting. When a person dies, he forgets all his sorrows, all painful and unpleasant memories disappear.

No matter how old and widespread these analogies, both with "falling asleep" and with "forgetting", they still cannot be considered completely satisfactory. Each of them gives the same statement in its own way. Although they say it in a slightly more pleasant way, nevertheless they both claim that death is in fact simply the disappearance of our consciousness forever. If so, then death does not really have any of the appeal of falling asleep or forgetting. Sleep is pleasant and desirable for us because it is followed by awakening. A night's restful sleep makes the waking hours that follow more pleasant and productive. If there was no awakening, all the benefits of sleep simply would not exist. Similarly, the annihilation of our conscious experience implies the disappearance not only of painful memories, but also of all pleasant ones. Thus, on closer examination, none of the analogies is so adequate as to give us real comfort or hope in the face of death.

There is, however, another point of view that does not accept the assertion that death is the disappearance of consciousness. According to this second, perhaps even older concept, a certain part of the human being continues to live even after the physical body ceases to function and is completely destroyed. This constantly existing part has received many names - the psyche, soul, mind, "I", essence, consciousness. But whatever it is called, the idea that a person passes into some other world after physical death is one of the most ancient human beliefs. In Turkey, for example, Neanderthal burials dating back about 100,000 years have been discovered. The fossilized prints found there allowed archaeologists to establish that these ancient people buried their dead on a bed of flowers. This suggests that they regarded death as a celebration of the transition of the deceased from this world to another. Indeed, from the most ancient times, burials in all countries of the world testify to the belief in the continued existence of a person after the death of his body.

Thus we are dealing with conflicting answers to our original question about the nature of death. Both of them are of very ancient origin, and yet both are widespread to this day. Some say that death is the disappearance of consciousness, while others argue, with the same certainty, that death is the transition of the soul or mind to another dimension of reality. In the narrative that follows, I do not in any way seek to dismiss any of these answers. I just want to give an account of a study that I personally did.

Over the past few years, I have met a large number of people who have had what I will refer to as "near-death experiences." I found them in different ways. At first it happened by accident. In 1965, when I was a graduate student in philosophy at the University of Virginia, I met a man who was a professor of psychiatry at the Medical School. From the very beginning I was struck by his kindness, warmth and humor. I was very surprised when I later learned interesting details about him, namely that he was dead, and not once, but twice, with an interval of 10 minutes, and that he told absolutely fantastic things about what happened to him in this time. Later I heard him tell his story to a small group of students. This made a great impression on me at the time, but since I did not yet have sufficient experience to evaluate such cases, I "put it aside" both in my memory and in the form of a reprinted summary of his story.

A few years later, after I received my Ph.D., I taught at the University of North Carolina. During one of the courses, my students had to read Plato's Phaedo, a work that discusses, among other things, the problem of immortality. In my lecture, I focused on other provisions of Plato presented in this work and did not dwell on the discussion of the issue of life after death. One day after class, a student approached me and asked if he could discuss the issue of immortality with me. He was interested in this problem because his grandmother "died" during the operation and then told about very interesting impressions. I asked him to tell me about it and, to my great amazement, he described the same events that I had heard from our professor of psychiatry a few years earlier.

From that time on, my search for such cases became more active and I began to lecture in my philosophy courses on the problem of human life after death. However, I have been careful and careful not to mention these two death experiences in my lectures. I decided to wait and see. If such stories were not mere coincidence, I suggested, then perhaps I would learn more if I simply raised the question of immortality in a general way in philosophical seminars, showing a sympathetic attitude towards this topic. To my amazement, I found that in almost every group of about thirty people, at least one student usually came up to me after class and told me about his own near-death experience that he had heard about from loved ones or had himself experienced.

From the moment I began to be interested in this question, I was struck by this great similarity of sensations, despite the fact that they were received from people very different in their religious views, social status and education. By the time I entered medical school, I had collected a considerable number of such cases. I began to mention the informal research I was doing in conversations with some of my medical acquaintances. Once one of my friends persuaded me to give a report to a medical audience. Other offers of public speaking followed. Once again, I found that after each performance someone would come up to me to tell me about an experience of this kind that he himself knew.

As more and more people became aware of my interests, doctors began to tell me about patients they had resuscitated and who told me about their unusual sensations. After the newspaper articles appeared about my research, many people began to send me letters with detailed stories of such cases.

At the present time I know of about 150 cases in which these phenomena have taken place. The cases I have studied can be divided into three distinct categories:

1. The experience of people who were considered or declared clinically dead by doctors and who were resuscitated, 2. The experience of people who, as a result of an accident or a dangerous injury or illness, were very close to the state of physical death, 3. The sensations of people who were near death and told about them to other people who were nearby. From the large amount of factual material presented by these 150 cases, a selection was naturally made. On the one hand, it was deliberate. So, for example, although the stories belonging to the third category complement and agree well with the stories of the first two categories, I generally did not consider them for two reasons. Firstly, it could reduce the number of cases to a level more suitable for comprehensive analysis and, secondly, it would allow me to stick to firsthand reports as much as possible. Thus, I interviewed in great detail 50 people whose experience I can use. Of these, cases of the first type (those in which clinical death occurred) are significantly more eventful than cases of the second type (in which there was only an approach to death).

Indeed, during my public lectures on the subject, cases of "death" have always aroused considerably more interest. Some of the reports that appeared in the press were written in such a way that one might think that I dealt only with cases of this kind.

However, in selecting the cases that were to be presented in this book, I avoided the temptation to dwell only on those cases in which "death" took place, because, as will be seen further, cases of the second type do not differ; but rather form a single whole with cases of the first type. In addition, although the near-death experience itself is similar, at the same time, both the circumstances surrounding it and the people who describe it are very different. In this regard, I have tried to give a sample of cases adequately reflecting this variability. With these premises in mind, let us now turn to a consideration of the events which, as far as I have been able to ascertain, can take place when a person dies.