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November 1, 2005 |
Vol. 04 No. 11, Ed. 01 |
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The Near-Death Newsletter is a free semi-monthly newsletter from
www.near-death.com which is emailed to subscribers every 1st of the month and on every 15th of the month. The mission
of this newsletter is to provide the latest news on the subject of near-death experiences and related phenomena and to
promote IANDS (International Association for Near-Death Studies), near-death researchers, experiencers,
events, and multimedia resources. Disclaimer: This newsletter is not affiliated with IANDS; but the author of this newsletter, Kevin
Williams, is a member of IANDS and is dedicated to the IANDS mission. IANDS is the premier organization for near-death research. Membership gives you access
to their prestigious Journal of Near-Death Studies and
Vital Signs newsletter. You can join IANDS at their website.
Get connected with IANDS because they will probably be the organization who will someday provide the scientific evidence proving that human consciousness
survives death. |
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Download this newsletter in PDF format.
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Table of Contents |
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Archive of NDEs in the News
- Read all the major news articles
concerning the NDE and related phenomena
from 1995 to current. This is a
permanent archive to ensure that these
news articles will always be available
on the internet. The Near-Death News
section of this Near-Death Newsletter
will soon be available in syndication so
stay tuned! |
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(November 2005) |
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"Beyond
the Indigo Children: The New Children and the Coming of the Fifth World" hit
bookstores September 28th. Get a copy. I know you will be surprised by what is
in the book! It is now time for all of us to move beyond labels such as indigo,
crystal, star, sky, cosmic, and psychic, and take a real look at the REAL
children now entering our world - and the Great Shifting occurring everywhere! |
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LATEST HEADLINES FROM P.M.H: |
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FREEBIES FROM P.M.H: |
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WHAT'S NEW ON P.M.H.'S WEBSITE: |
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(October 30, 2005) |
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In the spirit
of Halloween (pun intended), I found a photograph on the
Internet which is the best "ghost" photo I have ever
seen. A teen was murdered in his home and his mother was
so despondent that she put her home on the market for
sale and moved into an apartment. In the process of
selling her home, she took a number of photographs of
the interior of her home. When she received the
developed photographs, she looked through them all to
see how they turned out. When she came across one
particular photograph, however, what she saw shocked her
so much that she ...
[Read more here] |
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(October 30, 2005) |
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The following
organizations are looking for NDErs to share their story: |
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A top UK publisher is looking for
personal NDE accounts preferably from experiencers living in the UK.
Contact Tammy Cohen at
tammymichael@btinternet.com. |
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A national magazine called First For
Women is seeking to interview women who have had an NDE
. Send a photo and full
contact info to: Christine Coppa,
ccoppa@bauerpublishing.com, Bauer Publishing, Special
Projects, 270 Sylvan Avenue, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 07632, phone: (201) 569-6699
x394, fax: (201) 569-6264. |
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NDErs needed for interview for a
History Channel documentary called "The History of Heaven" to be televised later
this year. Please email Associate Producer Ann LeSchander
at annbbp@earthlink.net with
your name, your testimony and your contact information. |
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(September 22, 2005) |
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Reports
of OBEs and NDEs are often simply anecdotal, but the hospital
environment allows Sam Parnia to monitor and compare oxygen, carbon
dioxide and salt levels in the patients who did and did not have
either experience. His study also involves a novel method of testing
if the "self" actually does leave the body during an OBE. Sam has
suspended boards below the ceiling and these have images on the
upper side. The idea is that if people do look down from above, they
may recall the extra information. As yet, no patients have reported
seeing these images. Whether these phenomena are visions of a dying
brain or paranormal activity, Dr Parnia says science needs to offer
an explanation of what happens when we die. "I think that NDEs hold
the key to finally solving this mystery. In studying them further we
will be able to discover the true nature of the relationship between
the mind and the brain and answer the wider questions regarding the
existence of an afterlife."
[Read more here] |
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(October 30, 2005) |
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I
felt a pinch in my chest and I found myself in a tunnel, what seemed
to be a tunnel. I walked or floated down the tunnel until I came to
... two more tunnels. One was very bright and the other one was
black. So I took the one on the right, which was light, and suddenly
appeared before a picket fence, similar to the fences you'd find
around the old railway stations ... I was looking out on an area
which was multi-coloured. The colours were beautiful. I can't
describe them. The only way I could describe them - it was a very,
very beautiful garden. What seemed a few seconds, my parents
appeared from the side, were standing in front of me, smiling. My
mother-in-law, she joined them. They're all smiling and I had the
urge to go through the fence, through a gate into the garden. And my
father gave me a look which fathers give to naughty children. In
other words: "Don't do that, or else." So I didn't go through the
gate. Next thing I found I was back in the tunnel going the way I'd
come.
[Read more here] |
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(October 26, 2005) |
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Watching
himself die and be resuscitated -- twice -- has brought the Rev.
Elkan Kemp to his own interpretation of a relationship with God ...
"I remember I was in the hospital and they were trying to
resuscitate me," Kemp said. "And I was off in one side of the room
watching what was going on while they were trying to bring me back
to life. At the time, it was not an emotional experience, but just a
matter-of-fact experience of witnessing it." Then there was the
pneumonia incident, when Kemp spent too long a period on his back.
It caused his breathing to become impaired and he suffocated. "I saw
the doctors working on my body, lifting me up. And I heard the death
rattle. The doctor pulled the sheet over my body and said, 'We're
done.' Then the nurse pulled it off and tried again, and I came
back," Kemp said. "It was kind of like a dream or a nightmare."
[Read more here] |
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(September 28, 2005) |
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He
floated into an "almost blinding white light," he said. "I heard
dolphins clicking, and there was this really white light with a blue
hue," said Patterson, now 35. "Then I saw seven angels, and they
took me into a building. They were your traditional angels with
wings and everything. They were 14 feet tall, and they were all
females." During his time with the angels, Patterson said he learned
that God and angels love people's souls unconditionally,
understanding that the mind is a separate entity that can force
people to make bad decisions. "You feel so peaceful and loved," he
said, describing the angels' presence. He added the angels explained
to him people are reincarnated until they learn to respond with love
in bad situations instead of anger. When he awoke in his bed the
next morning after being slammed back into his body, he didn't tell
anyone about his experience, but he did change his life. "I try to
spend time meditating, and it made me study religions to find the
common truth among all of them," said Patterson, who earned an
undergraduate degree in psychiatry. "It made me 100 percent
responsible for myself."
[Read more here] |
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(October 7, 2005) |
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"I've
always been interested in the paranormal. I had a near-death
experience when I was six years old. I drowned in a river and was
resuscitated by my sister. While I was drowned I saw another boy in
the water. I was being dragged away from him and I realised that
this other boy was me. So I knew at the age of six that there is
some form of other existence and from then on I've been searching,
through every job and life situation I've had, for this paranormal
life ... When I published Shadowmancer I had a series of dreams that
told me what was going to happen in the future and they've all come
true," he explains.
[Read more here] |
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(October 3, 2005) |
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A
soldier "died" for 40 minutes after a horrible car crash - then
amazed his Sheffield family by regaining consciousness. Sgt. David
Gratton was about to be deployed to Iraq when his Army Land Rover
was involved in a serious motorway collision. The 22-year-old
squaddie was brought back to life at a top intensive care unit ...
"My son was clinically dead for 40 minutes but somehow a surgeon
managed to save his life." David, who was based at Aldershot Army
barracks in Surrey, was traveling in an Army Land Rover when it
collided with another vehicle. Rescue teams who attended the
accident on the M3 in Basingstoke in February failed to detect
breathing and thought David had died. Doctors later conducted a
medical test which showed he had the same level of consciousness as
a dead body.
[Read more here] |
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(October 30, 2005) |
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Take
Joanie Thurston for instance. She was a 52 year old woman when she
crashed her late model compact car into a light pole. The force of
the impact crushed her chest and caused major internal damage.
Moments later Thurston watched the paramedics pull her from her car
from above. Joanie wrote a book about her near death experience
called Possible Fatal with fellow writer, Wally Johnston. She
candidly reveals that one of the true miracles of her near death
experience is that she was changed for the better. From everyday
personality shifts to eradicating deep emotional wounds, Thurston's
NDE and its aftermath is a powerful biographical testament.
[Read more here] |
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(October 30, 2005) |
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On
October 1, 2005, Mellen-Thomas Benedict spoke at the Virginia Beach
IANDS and an audiocassette tape and a VHS videotape of his
presentations were made. Copies are available of his first
presentation (a 2-hour audio tape) and his second presentation (a
3-hour video) through the Virginia Beach IANDS. For a donation to
the Virginia Beach IANDS of $10 (also add $2 for shipping &
handling), you can get either the audio tape or the video tape. For
a donation of $20 (also add $2 shipping & handling), you can get
both which is the recommended package from the
Virginia Beach IANDS. Place your order by sending an email to Dick
Dinges at
RichardADinges@aol.com. Specify whether you want the 2-hour
audio tape, the 3-hour video, or both (the recommended package).
Make your check out to "VBIANDS" and mail it to this address:
Dick Dinges, VBIANDS, 1285 Paramore Drive,
Virginia Beach, VA 23454.
[Read more here] |
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(September 10, 2005) |
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Scientists
probing the paranormal said on Wednesday they hoped to set up a
major experiment in Britain trying to find out once and for all
whether the mind can step outside the body at the brink of death.
The proposed study would involve interviewing people who had
survived cardiac arrest to see if they had had an out of body
experience while on the operating table. "Over the course of a year
we hope this would give us 100 people who leave their bodies,"
neuropsychiatrist Peter Fenwick told reporters at the annual meeting
of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. The
researchers plan to ask 25 hospitals to place special objects and
pictures around their cardiac units. Each survivor who then claimed
to have an out of body experience -- where they typically hover near
the ceiling watching the resuscitation process -- would be asked if
they had noticed any of the objects. "If they do notice them when
the brain is not functioning then it makes the case for the mind
being separate from the brain," he said.
[Read more here] |
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(July 2005) |
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Near-death
experience is a term used to describe a unique psychological
experience in individuals who survive a life-threatening medical
condition such as cardiac arrest and includes one or several of the
following elements: the sensation of seeing one's body from a
vantage point outside the physical body (out-of-body experience);
entering a tunnel; meeting living or dead relatives; a strong
positive affect; encountering "religious" aspects such as a "being
of light," lights and colors, a celestial landscape or a deity; a
panoramic life review; and a ...
[Read more here] |
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(September 15, 2005) |
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The
group, Friends of the International Association for Near-Death
Studies, have been meeting every fourth Saturday for about two
years. In the case of the mediator, Rev. Juliet Nightingale, her
life has slipped precariously from her hands not once, but three
times, from bouts of colon cancer, pneumonia and meningitis. But
these folks aren't concerned with the particulars of how they'd
died, but rather, how to live seeing what they've seen, knowing what
they know ... Nightingale mentions that she jetted around the
universe in death, and while she “saw scenes that were difficult to
look at,” she never felt afraid. There is no ego in death, she
explains -- no attachment to people or things. What keeps spirits
around, according to these folks, is the energy of the living, who
refuse to let them pass. So the notion that people live on forever
in our memory, while comforting to us, may not be that great a shake
for those trying to get to more exciting destinations.
[Read more here] |
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(September 2005) |
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The
following are some of the many benefits that out-of-body
experiencers have reported worldwide in the last three decades ...
Development of a greater awareness of reality ... Personal
verification of our immortality ... Accelerated personal development
... A decreased fear of death ... Increased psychic abilities ... An
increased desire for answers ... Realizations concerning death ...
Accelerated human evolution ... Spontaneous healing ... More
expansive self-concept ... Increased spirituality ... Recognizing
and experiencing past-life influences ... Accelerated psychological
change ... Obtaining personal answers ... Encountering a being of
light, an angel, or nonphysical resident of some kind ... An
increased respect for life ... Increased self-respect,
self-responsibility and inner dependence ... A reduction in
hostility, violence and crime ... Increased knowledge and wisdom ...
A profound sense of knowing instead of believing ... An inner
calmness ... An increased zest for living ... Increased
intelligence, memory recall and enhanced imagination ... A sense of
adventure.
[Read more here] |
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(October 11, 2005) |
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At
two of America's best universities, professors and doctors are
studying the existence of the soul, near-death experiences and
reincarnation ... The University of Virginia's Division of
Perceptual Studies is another hotbed of afterlife inquiry. It's
home to both near-death studies (why do people have visions on the
operating table?) and a researcher who compiles reports of children
who talk about their past lives. Have these researchers actually
found anything to suggest the existence of a soul or afterlife?
Schwartz said his research with about 20 mediums proves that some do
indeed have a connection to the dead, or at least a way to glean
details about them.
[Read more here] |
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(August 11, 2005) |
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 Nancy
Clark is not afraid of dying. Neither is Dennis Hale. Been there.
Done that. Came back. Their deaths, they say, changed their lives,
and for the better. Clark, a resident of Dublin, and Hale, who lives
in the small town of Rock Creek outside of Ashtabula, have both had
what they classify as near-death experiences. Clark is convinced she
died during the birth of her son in 1962. Hale firmly believes he
passed away in 1966 while floating on a life raft in Lake Huron
following the sinking of an ore freighter on which he was a member
of the crew. In addition, Clark had what she terms a "transcendent
experience" while delivering a eulogy in 1979 for a close family
friend who had been killed in a plane crash in Alaska. Clark had
attempted to completely ignore that first experience in 1962, but
not so in 1979 when, she says, once again she lifted out of her body
and saw that bright light. No longer concerned with what people
might think of her mental state, Clark began telling family and
friends what had happened to her in that funeral home.
[Read more here] |
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(October 15, 2005) |
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"For
35 minutes he was dead, the doctors said, but somehow his heart came
back and it started beating again." Roberto Zanini, a cardiac
specialist at the hospital, said: "You do sometimes get these sort
of unusual cases in medicine. "For 25 minutes we had fought to save
him with electrocardiogram and massage but there was no response.
"When there was no sign of heart or brain activity he was declared
dead, but under Italian law he still had to be kept attached to the
monitor for two hours. Then a full 35 minutes later the machine
beeped again and his heart started beating. "Further chest massage
was given and he responded well this time - so much so that he was
able to speak and eat a light meal. "As a matter of routine we
checked the monitor and it was in perfect working order. "The
patient is still in hospital but is responding well to treatment."
Mr. Maestrelli is now understood to be recovering. Yesterday his
wife, Anna Maria, said: "We just can't believe it. This is truly a
miracle."
[Read more here] |
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(October 9, 2005) |
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And
in the last chapter, "Six Feet Over," Roach reports on the study
that most excites her. At the University of Virginia Hospital,
Professor Bruce Greyson has set up a computer screen facing the
ceiling of a defibrillator-insertion surgery room where patients
routinely have "near-death experiences." During such out-of-body
wanderings, people often claim that they float somewhere near the
ceiling, watching their own surgery in progress. If so, they will be
able to see -- and later describe -- the image on Greyson's computer
screen, which would not be viewable from elsewhere in the room. (Too
bad the study is in too early a stage to have produced any
reportable data.) ... Indeed, this personal journey is what the book
most successfully captures: How a skeptic learned to be a believer
(or a possible believer, anyway), and still keep her wit intact.
[Read more here] |
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(October 6, 2005) |
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The
six bullets lodged in Jim Holladay's skull sometime make his ears
ring when he passes through a metal detector. But he said they also
gave him an opportunity to hear a joyful sound never heard on Earth.
For seven minutes that "seemed like an eternity" Holladay, the
victim of a 1992 robbery, said he was dead. Before doctors at
Huntsville Hospital revived him, he said, he saw heaven approach,
only to learn it wasn't his time to be there. "But I was there long
enough to hear the heavenly choir," he said. "It was the most
beautiful thing I ever heard. It was way better than any rock band."
Doctors told Holladay, 39, at the time, that he seemed upset when
his heart
started beating again. Holladay said he was mad because he couldn't
stay in heaven.
[Read more here] |
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(October 19, 2005) |
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In the
Andersons' new release "Rainbows & Bridges: An Animal Companion
Memorial Kit", they deal with all aspects of pet loss, including
after-death reunions. McCluskey says in "Rainbows &
Bridges" that her deceased Great Dane Keira communicated in a dream
that her sister, of whom the dog had been fond, needed a breast exam
immediately. McCluskey related the warning to her sister via an
e-mail letter. About a week after the dream, McCluskey's sister
phoned and said that indeed, she had been putting off having an exam
of a lump in her right breast. She hadn't wanted to alarm McCluskey
by telling her about it. After reading the letter about McCluskey's
dream with Keira, the sister got a mammogram and thankfully, found
that the lump was benign.
[Read more here] |
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(October 6, 2005) |
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An
Italian man who spent two years supposedly unconscious in a deep
coma and written off by doctors as nearly dead, awoke saying he had
heard and understood everything happening around him during his
ordeal. Salvatore Crisafulli, a father of four, is describing his
case as a "miracle". His brother said Crisafulli was "an Italian
Terri Schiavo case", a reference to the brain-damaged Florida woman
who died in March after her feeding tube was removed. Crisafulli,
38, who had been injured in a road accident in 2003, emerged from
the coma three months ago, but began speaking only recently. His
first word was "Mama".
[Read more here] |
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(October 11, 2005) |
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 Bill
Guggenheim, co-author of "Hello from Heaven!," was invited by Nick
Roy, of Greensburg, who for nearly three years has led meetings at
WCCC to discuss purported contact from dead people ... Guggenheim
will talk about reported after-death communication incidents that
people claim helped them through the loss of loved ones ... Roy's
interest in after-death communication began years ago, when he
believes that his dead brother contacted him by phone. He started a
discussion group at WCCC after he researched after-death
communication and found others with similar experiences. More than
400 people have attended and enrollment has increased this semester
... His interest began in 1978 at a seminar by Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross,
an expert on death and dying who said a deceased patient "came back"
to her. Two years later, Guggenheim said, he had an experience that
saved the life of his youngest son, Jonathan, when he was a toddler.
The family had a pool with a locked safety gate, but the boy somehow
got through. Inside the house, Guggenheim claimed, he heard "in his
head" the voice of his dead father. "He told me to go outside and
check the swimming pool," he said. He found Jonathan floating face
down in the water. The boy survived. "That really grabbed my
attention," Guggenheim said.
[Read more here] |
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(October 20, 2005) |
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Rob
Macomber and his family say they have been receiving communications
via "automatic writing transmissions" from the spirit of the
deceased psychic, Ruth Montgomery. The Macombers are writing a book
based upon the automatic writing communications they say they began
receiving after Mrs. Montgomery's June 10, 2001 death. According to
the Macombers, these transmissions occur when the energy of a
departed spirit enters the body and moves the pen in the hand across
the paper on its own ... The book includes: A 3-part action plan
that provides solutions to the planet's greatest troubles. Why 50%
of the book's profits will be donated to help address the world's
single most pressing problem: the plight of the Third World. Ruth's
description of Heaven and the hope that she and the Spirit Guides
have for humanity. In one of her communications, she told the
Macombers, "It is fun doing this work from 'The Other Side.' There
is so much freedom 'up here' . . . I can't wait for the day when
humans on Earth will experience this kind of bliss." In another
message, the Spirit Guides explained: "To give away our many secrets
is such a relief . . . "
[Read more here] |
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(October 19, 2005) |
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To
paraphrase Jane Austen, there are two truths universally known.
Everybody dies and everybody dreams, whether they can remember them
or not. An emerging notion is that the dreams we have before we die
may be particularly significant and can be used to ease a terminal
person and their families' pain and grief. The Rev. Patricia Bulkley
worked as a spiritual counselor at a hospice in Marin County,
Calif., for more than 10 years. What she found when speaking to
patients was many of her patients had stories to tell and dreams to
share ... The authors focus on three types of dreams and the symbols
inherent in them. These are dreaming that one is going on a journey
and all the excitement that entails, seeing dead who act as a guide,
and dreams where the dreamer resolves a conflict or faces a
recurrent sense of anxiety.
[Read more here] |
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(October 28, 2005) |
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The
Tibetan Book of the Dead is a kind of Baedeker (i.e. travel guide)
for the afterlife and, like the best guidebooks, its reassuring
refrain is “Don't panic!” After death, it says, you will be assailed
by thunderous sounds and bewildering apparitions as first the
peaceful deities rise before you, then the wrathful ones, who drink
blood and eat the entrails of bloated corpses. If you are very
unlucky, Yama (representing the forces of impermanence and the laws
of cause and effect) will chop off your head, lick out your brains
and drink your blood, then eat you. The trick is not to be afraid
and to remember that you don't have a body any more, so he can't
hurt you ... This idea fascinated Jung, who revered The Tibetan Book
of the Dead as a great psychological work. According to Highest Yoga
Tantra (from which The Tibetan Book of the Dead derives), only
during the process of dying can we achieve liberation from the cycle
of existence. Advanced yogis can make trial runs by inducing a
deathlike state, but after death the rest of us must try to remember
what we've read in The Tibetan Book of the Dead and put it into
practice.
[Read more here] |
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(October 6, 2005) |
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Captain
Snow did not believe in reincarnation when he went for a past life
regression on a dare made by a fellow police officer. To his
surprise, in the regression Snow had a vivid past life memory, which
he states was “more real” than waking consciousness. In the memory,
he saw himself as an artist painting a portrait of a hunchback
woman. Snow remembered 20 specific details of this lifetime ... When
Snow wandered into a small art gallery in the French Quarter, he was
shocked to find the portrait of the hunchback woman, exactly as he
had seen it during the past life regression. The portrait was done
by the artist Carroll Beckwith. Snow found that Beckwith had a diary
preserved at the New York Academy of Design and upon reading it,
Captain Snow was able to validate all 20 memories from his past life
regression, which led to his writing, “Looking for Carroll
Beckwith.” In this book, Captain Snow states he has proven
reincarnation to be true and remarks that if his reincarnation case
was presented in court, he would win “without plea bargaining.”
Captain Snow has the same facial features as Carroll Beckwith.
[Read more here] |
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(October 4, 2005) |
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It
was almost like living a miracle for a Gujjar family based in south
Delhi -- a four-year-old angel called Manisha walked into their arms
on the shraddh of their daughter who died about five years ago.
Manisha, the little girl, claimed that she was their deceased
daughter Suman, who had died of typhoid at the age of 15 on December
14, 2000. The infant, who apparently has vivid memories of her last
birth, took to her "past-life parents" as her own. "She ran into our
arms when she saw us. She pointed to me and said voh nahi yeh mere
papa hai ," says Chaudhary Kamal Singh, her father of the last
birth.
[Read more here] |
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(October 7, 2005) |
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The
anaesthetic ketamine is growing in prevalence on the UK dance scene,
recent surveys have found. Best known by the street names K, Special
K and Vitamin K, ketamine is a synthetic "dissociative" anaesthetic
used for medical and veterinary purposes ... Ketamine is
dose-specific so the amount taken determines the level of effect. At
low doses the user may feel euphoric, experience waves of energy,
and possibly synaesthesia - sensations such as seeing sounds or
hearing colours. At higher doses the user might become paralysed,
experience hallucinations and alternate realities, and a feeling of
disassociation giving an "out of body" experience known as the
"K-hole". Dr Susan Blackmore took ketamine in an experiment - hear
her experiences by clicking the audio button above. "It is an
extraordinary thing to be lying on your back, not to be able to move
anything at all except your eyes ..."
[Read more here] |
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(October 23, 2005) |
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Spend
some time on the Shadowlands Web site, and you'll hear plenty of
ghost stories ... Carlson counts herself as one of those people. Now
43, she says she's dealt with ghosts ever since age 2, when she
almost died while stricken with spinal meningitis. She recalls a
"typical" near-death experience with a twist: moving through a dark
tunnel toward a bright light, then seeing a woman who looked like
her grandmother, and hearing the woman say "you have a lot of people
to help and to make understand." Years later, she says, she was
thumbing through a family photo album and spotted the mysterious
woman. It was her great-aunt, she says, who had died years before
her experience. That was the first of many encounters with ghosts,
she says. Now, she spends much of her time looking for them as
director of the Las Vegas Society for Supernatural Investigation.
She also spends much time helping with the Shadowlands site, and
takes seriously the ghost stories visitors submit.
[Read more here] |
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(October 2, 2005) |
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Bill
Fox, 75, said he supports the law [doctor-assisted suicide] but that
the safeguards -- such as requiring two doctors to ensure a patient
is mentally competent and terminally ill -- are necessary. "A person
in my stage now -- I have a few aches and pains -- no, I wouldn't
want to do it now, and I shouldn't have the right to do it now," he
said. "But if it got to the point of having a tremendous amount of
pain, I'd like the choice. I won't say that I would run to my doctor
and grab pills, but I would like the choice." Fox's decision to
support the law is partly because he survived an auto accident that
killed his wife and left him in a coma for three weeks when he was
35. "I had an out-of-body experience -- a near-death experience," he
said. "I could look down at the operating table and see the doctors.
There was a sense of peace and calmness and joy almost." His
experience left him with no fear of death, so if someday he is in
terrible pain and dying of a terminal illness, he said he wants the
option of going to that peaceful place again."
[Read more here] |
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(September 29, 2005) |
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New
research shows some levels of sleep are so deep you're practically
unconscious. Researchers studied the brain activity of study
participants when they were asleep and awake. They found that when
participants were in the deepest levels of sleep, the brain was not
sending messages to other areas of the brain like it did during
wakefulness. Sleep basically cut off communication between areas of
the brain ... In the study, researchers activated specific areas of
the brain with magnetic stimulation, then using an EEG measured the
response to the stimulation. (The "message" is sent along nerve
pathways to many areas of the brain.) During the day, the
stimulation was spread across the brain. During sleep, the
stimulation was contained only to that region and was not passed
along to other areas. According to the lead author, "the brain
breaks down into little islands that can't talk to one another."
[Read more here] |
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(September 30, 2005) |
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In
the past three decades scientific evidence has accumulated showing
that the present scientific paradigm is broken. In the hard
sciences: (1) DARK MATTER of an unknown form makes up most of
the matter of the universe. (2) THE LAW OF GRAVITY appears to
be seriously broken. (3) COLD FUSION. (4) CHARGE CLUSTERS.
Under certain conditions, billions of electrons can "stick together"
in close proximity, despite the law of electromagnetism that like
charges repel ... (5) COSMOLOGY. (6) SPEED OF LIGHT,
once thought unbreakable, has been exceeded in several recent
experiments. (7) ESP. Large-scale experiments by the
Princeton PEAR Lab as well as other laboratories have proven that
ESP is a real, statistically verifiable scientific phenomenon. (8)
PSYCHOKINESIS, or Mind Over Matter. (9) REMOTE VIEWING.
(10) TIME AND PROPHECY. One unusual aspect of ESP, remote
viewing and psychokinesis is that "time" doesn't seem to matter.
(11) OUT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCE. (12) GHOSTS.
[Read more here] |
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(October 6, 2005) |
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When
tens of thousands of people can gather in a fully 3D environment to
buy and sell fanciful clothing, defy gravity by flying, make friends
from all over the world, build residential communities, speculate on
land prices, and create and license software, what do you call it?
For three years, Linden Lab, the publisher of "Second Life," has
grappled with that question. "Second Life" is one of a very small
number of so-called virtual worlds that eschew the traditional
medieval fantasy-based role-playing game play common to such online
blockbusters as "World of Warcraft," "EverQuest" and "Ultima
Online." As such, Linden Lab is loathe to call "Second Life" a game,
despite the accessibility of such a term.
[Read more here] |
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(October 2005) |
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A
blind woman has baffled scientists after proving on TV that she can
distinguish between colours by touch. Gabriele Simon, 48, from
Wallenhorst in Germany, revealed her ability in her country's most
popular TV show Wetten dass. She used her fingertips to recognise
the different colours of various t-shirts and blouses while
blindfolded. She said: "I took me 20 years to master this skill. It
is a combination of pure learning and concentration." Ms Simon
added: "This ability really gives me more independence, as I don't
need to ask my mother about what to wear anymore."
[Read more here] |
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(October 10, 2005) |
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Imagine that a physicist detonates a nuclear bomb located beside
her. In almost all parallel universes, the nuclear explosion will
vaporize the physicist. However, there should be a small set of
alternative universes in which the physicist somehow survives (ie.
the set of universes which support a "miraculous" survival
scenario). The idea behind quantum immortality is that the physicist
will remain alive in, and thus able to experience, at least one of
the universes in this set, even though these universes form a tiny
subset of all possible universes. Over time the physicist
would therefore consider herself to be living forever ... Proponents
point out that while it is highly speculative, quantum immortality
violates no known laws of physics.
[Read more here] |
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(September 7, 2005) |
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Scientists
at Edinburgh University have developed a way of moving an object
without touching it, in breakthrough research which could be as
revolutionary as the discovery of electricity. The team of
researchers has been able to move objects across flat surfaces and
even up a slope with nothing more than a light beam. In the future,
the technology could be developed to make molecular machines, and
with research could eventually lead to the development of artificial
muscles which can perform specific physical tasks. Scientists
believe such machines could one day be used to control the movement
of drugs around the human body, making sure they go exactly where
they are needed. And they could also find their way into "smart"
materials, which can change their properties in response to a
stimulus such as light.
[Read more here] |
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(October 30, 2005) |
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Being
prepared for emergencies is crucial at home, school, work and in
your community. Disaster can strike quickly and without warning. It
can force you to evacuate your neighborhood, workplace or school or
can confine you to your home. What would you do if basic services --
water, gas, electricity or telephones -- were cut off? Local
officials and relief workers will be on the scene after a disaster,
but they cannot reach everyone right away. Therefore, the best way
to make you and your family safer is to be prepared before disaster
strikes ... Possible disasters include blackouts, chemical
emergencies, drought, earthquakes, fires, floods, heat waves,
hurricanes, mudslides, terrorism, thunderstorms, tornadoes, tsunami,
volcanoes, wild fires, and winter storms.
[Read more here] |
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(2) |
Q & A with P.M.H. Atwater, L.H.D. |
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An in-depth look at the near-death phenomenon |
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In
this section of the newsletter,
P.M.H. Atwater
will answer questions submitted to her from subscribers to
this newsletter.
Atwater's contribution to near-death studies is considered
to be one of the most important as her first two books,
Beyond the Light
and
Coming Back to Life,
are considered to be the "Bibles" of the NDE by researchers
and enthusiasts.
If you have a question that you would like her to
answer for this column, just email your question to Kevin
Williams at
http://www.near-death.com/contact.html for consideration.
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 QUESTION:
"A woman whose sister had an abortion years ago, then in recent years became
very religious and was feeling guilty and troubled about the abortion she once
had, contacted me to see if there were any insights in near-death research that
might help her sister. "I have never really done much research about abortions
except that I know the
Bible is actually pro-choice because of all the abortions "God" caused in
the Old Testament, and the abortions which the prophet Moses prayed would happen
to Israel's enemies which "God" answered (See
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14).
And I know about the story of Josiane Antonette
who had an abortion which resulted in a near-death experience - a wonderful one.
I am pro-choice myself and believe NDErs in general support pro-choice. But to
find out, I spent most of the day searching case histories concerning abortions
and miscarriages. I stumbled across
one particular
near-death experience involving a miscarriage that, truly, was one of the
best cases I had ever heard of. It was so full of insights, so very touching, it
just "blew" me away. Then I discovered to my complete amazement that I had been
reading about your near-death experience. You! One of the many aspects to your
testimony that amazed me was that you chose not to have an abortion, yet you
stated that you would defend any woman's right to choose to have one. This was
all the confirmation I needed to answer the woman concerned about her sister.
But, I'd like to ask you,
is there an NDE
-position on abortion? What have you found in your research?"
--
Kevin Williams |
|
ANSWER:
"I discuss abortions, missing twins,
miscarriages, and that sort of thing in-depth in my book "The New Children
and Near-Death Experiences." Episodes children have reveal all kinds of
things - some we applaud because their stories seem to confirm our most
cherished beliefs, and others send shock waves through us because they challenge
us in ways that are troubling . . .
[Read
more here] |
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Links of Interest: |
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At the
Near-Death Online Store you can find NDE products
such as books, documentaries, movies, music,
magazines, and journals. More NDE media products
are coming.
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New NDE Books Coming Soon! |
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The following NDE Books are due for
release on January 2006:
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by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross |
(Availability: Now) |
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In
1969, Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross changed the way we think about the
final stage of our lives with her revolutionary book, "On Death and
Dying." Now, in this landmark recording, this revered researcher
speaks about her largely private revelations, observations, and
conclusions on life after death. Dr. Kübler-Ross, the first
scientist to embark upon a genuine inquiry on the similarities
between near-death experiences of people all over the world,
gathered empirical data and personal impressions from countless
studies that informed her opinions on what awaits us all when we
leave this life. From her family archives comes a rare published
audio of this trailblazing author speaking in her own words, as she
engages the oldest question of all: Is There Life After Death?
[Read more here] |
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by Mary Roach |
(Availability: Now) |
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Roach
travels the world in search of answers: she heads to India to
conduct research with a doctor who investigates cases of children
whose families claim they are reincarnations of people from nearby
villages and have the memories to prove it; she goes to the
University of Arizona and meets with mediums currently working
today; she tries her hand at telecommunication with the dead in the
forests of California; and she even tries her hand at getting in
touch with her own inner medium at a school in England. Roach is
dogged in her approach as she examines each phenomenon through the
lens of scientific fact. In the end, she usually walks away
skeptical. The journey itself, however, is gripping, and Roach's
witty asides liven up an already interesting and unusual read.
[Read more here] |
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by Gary E. Schwartz, William L. Simon |
(Availability: Now) |
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Every
Monday night millions of Americans tune into Medium, NBC's new hit
drama featuring Allison DuBois, an ordinary woman who helps police
solve baffling crimes through her ability to communicate with the
dead. What most don't know is that this fictional character is based
on a true-life medium named Allison DuBois, who is a consultant to
the show. For the past four years, DuBois has been the subject of
rigorous scientific experiments conducted at the University of
Arizona by Harvard-trained psychologist Gary Schwartz. The Truth
about Medium chronicles many of those experiments and reveals hard
laboratory evidence that psychic ability and mediumship are real.
[Read more here] |
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by Robert Moss |
(Availability: Now) |
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In The
Dreamer's Book of the Dead, Robert Moss explains that we have
entirely natural contact with the departed in our dreams, when they
come visiting and we may travel into their realms. As we become
active dreamers, we can heal our relationship with the departed and
move beyond the fear of death. We also can develop the skills to
function as soul guides for others, helping the dying to approach
the last stage of life with courage and grace, opening gates for
their journeys beyond death, and even escorting them to the Other
Side.
[Read more here] |
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by Dianne Arcangel, Gary E. Schwartz |
(Availability: Now) |
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Afterlife Encounters is the culmination of the Afterlife Encounters
Survey, Arcangel's five-year, international survival study. Arcangel
presents all-new, first-hand accounts from individuals who've
experienced visitations from the dead. Afterlife Encounters reveals
the results of that study and, for the first-time, offers a
systematic categorization of such encounters, explaining when these
encounters are most likely to occur, and what type of apparition is
likely to appear. Arcangel's eye-opening conclusion is that
Afterlife Encounters provide lasting comfort to those who are
mourning the loss of a loved one.
[Read more here] |
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by Allan Botkin, R. Craig Hogan |
(Availability: Now) |
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Induced After-Death Communication is a new therapy that has helped
thousands of patients permanently assuage their grief by allowing
them private communication with their departed loved ones. Botkin, a
clinical psychologist, created the therapy while counseling Vietnam
vets in his work at a North Chicago VA hospital. Induced After-Death
Communication presents the story of how Botkin initially made his
discovery and includes 84 cases of patients who have experienced the
therapy's profound healing effects. After more than two decades as a
clinical psychologist specializing in the treatment of
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Botkin founded the Center for Grief
and Traumatic Loss.
[Read more here] |
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(4) |
IANDS in the
Spotlight |
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International
Association of Near-Death Studies website |
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IANDS
is the premier research organization
in the field of near-death studies.
If you haven't yet joined this
wonderful organization, I encourage
you to
join online
at their membership page. There
are many benefits for being a
member. Their quarterly newsletter
Vital
Signs alone is worth becoming a
member. You will also be receiving
the only scholarly journal in NDE
studies, the
Journal of Near-Death Studies.
Visit their website by checking out
the excellent links below.
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modified on
December 07, 2006 |
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visitors |
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"Death most resembles a
prophet who is without honor in his own land or a poet who is a stranger among
his people." - Kahlil Gibran |
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Recommended |
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NDE Books |
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On Life After Death |
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by
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross |
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This is the world-famous best-seller by the
woman who popularized the field of thanatology
as a subject for general social commentary. |
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Life After Life |
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by
Raymond Moody |
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Dr. Moody
investigated more than 100 case studies of
people who experienced an NDE
and in 1975
published this best-seller. |
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Mindsight |
by Kenneth Ring, et al. |
Dr. Ring and
associates investigated the astonishing claim
that blind persons, including those blind from
birth, can actually "see" during an NDE
. They
present their findings in scrupulous detail and
include fascinating case histories. |
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Where God Lives |
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by
Melvin Morse |
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Dr. Morse presents
the scientific evidence of life after death
which is being overlooked by skeptics such as
the existence of a location in our brains that
communicates with God and the universe.
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Light and Death |
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by
Michael Sabom |
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Dr. Sabom combined
scientific research and dramatic narrative in
the first book to seriously explore the
relationship between the NDE and traditional
Christian experience. |
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Lessons from the Light |
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by
Kenneth Ring, Evelyn Elsaesser Valarino |
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An outstanding book that presents intriguing
evidence to support the theory that NDEs are an authentic, objective experience,
and not the hallucination of a dying brain. |
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Blessing in Disguise |
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by
Barbara Rommer |
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Even the most horrifying NDEs are a spiritual
wake-up call that causes the person to stop, look back, and review past choices
which makes it the ultimate learning experience. |
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Descent Into Death |
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by
Howard Storm |
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An atheistic professor dies, goes to hell, is
rescued by Jesus, is shown the future, returns to life, then becomes a minister. |
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Ordered to Return |
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by
George Ritchie |
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This is the profound NDE testimony which inspired
Raymond Moody to begin his groundbreaking research of the NDE. |
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Embraced by the Light |
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by
Betty Eadie |
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A woman describes one of the most detailed and
profound NDE ever documented and becomes a New York Times bestseller. |
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When Ego Dies |
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by
Diane Corcoran, et al |
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A compilation of NDE and mystical conversion experiences
described in their very own words. |
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After The Light |
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by
Kimberly Clark Sharp |
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Kimberly's profound life-changing NDE led her to
conclude that death is not to be fear; therefore, a life without fear can be
lived to the fullest. |
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Love Is The Link |
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by
Pamela Kircher |
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A seasoned hospice doctor shares her experience of
near-death and dying in this unique and deeply moving book. |
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The Truth In The Light |
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by
Peter & Elizabeth Fenwick |
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One of the world's foremost NDE experts conducted a
thorough study of more than 300 NDEs and presents his analysis. |
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Journey Of Souls |
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by
Michael Newton |
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A hypnotherapist regressed clients back to a point
in time between past lives -- the time before birth and after death -- to
discovery what happens after death. |
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Hello From Heaven |
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by
Bill & Judy Guggenheim |
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This is the "Bible" of the after-death communication
(ADC) phenomenon and the groundbreaking study in the field. |
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Saved By The Light |
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by
Dannion Brinkley, Paul Perry |
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Brinkley recounts how his own NDEs
brought him before 13 angelic instructors in the "cathedral of knowledge" where
he was given visions of the future. |
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Closer To The Light |
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by
Melvin Morse, Paul Perry |
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One of the best books on the NDEs of children by a
renowned pediatrician and leader in the field of NDE research. |
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The Place We Call Home |
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by
Robert Grant |
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"This is the handbook we need to help us prepare for
the realms to come." -- George Ritchie, Jr., M.D., author of Return from
Tomorrow |
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Nothing Better Than Death |
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by Kevin Williams |
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"If I lived a billion years more, in my body or yours, there's not
a single experience on Earth that could ever be as good as being dead. Nothing." - quote from
Dr. Dianne Morrissey |
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God At The Speed Of Light |
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by
T. Lee Baumann |
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Learn how quantum physics, NDE
research, and religious studies share a common central theme: the god-like
nature of light. |
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Otherworld Journeys |
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by Carol Zaleski |
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Drawing on modern
and historical examples, Carol Zaleski argues that the "otherworld vision" is a
key to understanding imaginative and religious experience in general. |
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The Near-Death
Experience: Mysticism or Madness |
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by
Judith Cressy |
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An
examination of three experiencers and their NDEs,
including Howard Storm, which makes the case
that NDEs are indeed mystical experiences and
not "crazyness" or brain anomalies as some
skeptics claim. |
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Journeys
Beyond Life |
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by
Arvin Gibson |
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The
complete case studies of 32 NDEs, including that
of Howard Storm, are provided and includes
research statistics for 68 NDEs, together with
significant conclusions resulting from analysis
of the statistical data. Arvin Gibson is one of
the leading researchers in the NDE field. |
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