Dying to Be Me: My Journey from Cancer, to Near Death, to True Healing

In this truly inspirational memoir, Anita Moorjani relates how she lost her four-year battle with cancer resulting in an extraordinary NDE where she realized her inherent worth and the actual cause of her disease. Upon regaining consciousness, Anita's condition had improved so rapidly, she was released from the hospital within weeks without a trace of cancer in her body! In "Dying to Be Me", Anita freely shares all she learned about illness, healing, fear, "being love", and the true magnificence of each and every human being! This is a book that definitely makes the case that we are spiritual beings having a human experience ...and that we are all One.

Physics of the Soul: The Quantum Book of Living, Dying, Reincarnation and Immortality

At last, science and the soul shake hands. Writing in a style that is both lucid and charming, mischievous and profound, Dr. Amit Goswami uses the language and concepts of quantum physics to explore and scientifically prove metaphysical theories of reincarnation and immortality. In Physics of the Soul, Dr. Goswami helps you understand the perplexities of the quantum physics model of reality and the perennial beliefs of spiritual and religious traditions.

Life After Death: The Burden of Proof

Deepak Chopra has touched millions of readers by demystifying our deepest spiritual concerns. Now he turns to the most profound mystery: What happens after we die? Is this one question we were not meant to answer, a riddle whose solution the universe keeps to itself? Chopra tells us there is abundant evidence that “the world beyond” is not separated from this world by an impassable wall; in fact, a single reality embraces all worlds, all times and places.

Children Who Remember Previous Lives: A Question of Reincarnation

This is the revised edition of Dr. Stevenson's 1987 book, summarizing for general readers almost forty years of experience in the study of children who claim to remember previous lives. For many Westerners the idea of reincarnation seems remote and bizarre; it is the author's intent to correct some common misconceptions. New material relating to birthmarks and birth defects, independent replication studies with a critique of criticisms, and recent developments in genetic study are included.

Hindu Hell: Visions, Tours and Descriptions of the Infernal Otherworld

In the long tradition of Hindu literature there was a significant development in the concept of hell from the period of the Vedas through the period of the Puranas. The earliest descriptions are vague, particularly in terms of topography, alluding only to an underground, dark, putrid place for punishing sinners. Later descriptions calculate the huge dimensions, and designate almost innumerable subdivisions, of hell. Hell descriptions have been collected here from eight Hindu texts.

How to Attain Enlightenment: The Vision of Nonduality

This complete guide to enlightenment presents the wisdom of the ancient science of self-inquiry, a time-tested means for achieving spiritual freedom. The author convincingly refutes the popular view that enlightenment is a unique state of consciousness and debunks a host of other myths. In his straightforward style he reveals proven methods for purifying the mind, and takes the reader from the beginning to the end of the spiritual path, patiently unfolding the logic of self-inquiry.

The Divine Quest, East and West: A Comparative Study of Ultimate Realities

Many books have discussed the development of the notion of God in Western monotheistic traditions, but how have non-Western cultures conceptualized what those in the West might identify as “God”? What might be learned by comparing different visions of the Divine, such as God, gods, Brahman, Nirvana, and Emptiness? James L. Ford engages these fascinating questions, exploring notions of “the Divine” or “Ultimate Reality” within Jewish, Christian, Hindu, and Buddhist traditions.

Bhagavad Gita: A New Translation

Stephen Mitchell is widely known for his ability to make ancient masterpieces thrillingly new, to step in where many have tried before and create versions that are definitive for our time. His celebrated version of the Tao Te Ching is the most popular edition in print, and his translations of Jesus, Rilke, Genesis, and Job have won the hearts of readers and critics alike. Stephen Mitchell now brings to the Bhagavad Gita his gift for breathing new life into sacred texts.

In 1986, researchers Satwant Pasricha and Ian Stevenson, documented 16 cases of Indian near-death experiences in the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research (77,1 15-135). Their small sample shows, Indian and American near-death experiences resemble each other in some respects but differ in others. Subjects of Indian near-death experiences do not report seeing their own physical body during the near-death experience, although American subjects usually do. Subjects of Indian near-death experiences frequently report being taken to the after-death realm by functionaries who then discover that a mistake has been made and send the person back, whereupon he or she revives. In contrast, American subjects, if they say anything at all about why they revived, mention meeting deceased family members who told them to go back, or say they came back because of ties of love and duty with living persons or say they were told it was not their time to die.
 
Many people have asked me (the webmaster) why experiences, such as Hindu near-death experiences, are so different than western ones. The reason is because everyone has their own cultural and religious background by which they see their experience. Jody Long, a near-death researcher with NDERF, put it best:

This important truth must be kept in the back of one's mind when reading these different reports. The following Hindu near-death experiences come from Pasricha's and Stevenson's research as well as other sources on near-death experiences in India.

Vasudev Pandey was interviewed in 1975 and again in 1976. He was born in 1921 and had nearly died in his home of what he described as "paratyphoid disease" when he was about 10 years old. Vasudev had been considered dead and his body had actually been taken to the cremation ground. However, some indications of life aroused attention, and Vasudev was removed to the hospital where doctors tried to revive him, using "injections," with eventual success. He remained unconscious for 3 days and then became able to describe the following experience (as narrated to us in 1975):

In reply to questions about details, Vasudev said that the "black man" had a club and used foul language. Vasudev identified him as Yamraj, the Hindu god of the dead. He said that he was "brought back" by the same two men who had taken him to Yamraj in the first place. Vasudev's mother, who died before the time of the interview, was a pious woman who read scriptures which included descriptions of Yamraj. Vasudev, even as a boy before his near-death experience, was quite familiar with Yamraj.

Durga Jatav, a man approximately 50 years old, was interviewed in November, 1979, and again 3 months later. About 30 years before, he had been ill for several weeks, suffering from what had been diagnosed as typhoid. When his body "became cold" for a couple of hours, his family thought he had died. He revived, however, and on the third day following this he told his family he had been taken to another place by 10 people. He tried to escape, but they cut off his legs at the knees to prevent his escape. He was taken to a place where there were tables and chairs and 40 or 50 people sitting. He recognized no one. They looked at his "papers," saw that his name was not on their list, and said, "Why have you brought him here? Take him back." To this Durga had replied, "How can I go back? I don't have feet." He was then shown several pairs of legs, he recognized his own, and they were somehow reattached. He was then sent back with the instructions not to "stretch" (bend?) his knees so that they could mend. Durga's older sister, who was also interviewed, corroborated his account of his apparent death and revival.

A few days after Durga revived, his sister and a neighbor noticed marks on Durga's knees which had not been there before. These folds - or deep fissures - which appeared on his skin in front of his knees were still visible in 1979. There was no bleeding or pain in his knees other than the discomfort engendered by Durga following the "instructions" to keep his knees in a fixed position. X-ray photographs we took in 1981 showed no abnormality below the surface of the skin.
 
Durga had not heard of such experiences until his own near-death experience. He did not see his physical body from some other position in space. He said afterward the experience seemed like a dream; nevertheless, he claimed it strengthened his faith in God.

One informant for this case was the headman of the village where Durga lived who said at the time of Durga's experience, another person by the same name had died in Agra about 30 km away; however, neither Durga nor his older sister were able to confirm this statement.

Chhajju Bania was interviewed in 1981, at which time he was about 40 years old. His near-death experience occurred some 6 years earlier. He became ill with a fever and his condition deteriorated until he was thought to have died, at which time his relatives began preparing his body for cremation. However, he revived, and he gave the following account of his experience as he remembered it afterward: 

Mangal Singh was interviewed in March, 1983, when he was 79 years old. He described his near-death experience, which occurred approximately 5 or 6 years earlier. Unlike most subjects who have near-death experiences, he was not ill at the time, or did not consider himself to be so. He gave the following description of his experience:

The area developed the appearance of a boil. Mangal showed it to a doctor who applied some ointment. The area healed within 3 days but left a residual mark on the left arm, which was examined.
 
In response to questions, Mangal said he thought he might have been sleeping at the time of the experience, but he was not sure of this. He was unable to describe the appearance of the persons figuring in the experience. It seemed to be less visual than auditory and tactile. He did remember the senior "official" picking up a lathi (a heavy Indian staff) with which he intended to beat the lesser "employees" before they ran away. Another person had died in the locality at or about the time he revived, but Mangal and his family made no inquires about the suddenness of this person's death and did not even learn his name.

The Hindu near-death experiences profiled here are typical of the cases studied in India by researchers Satwant Pasricha and Ian Stevenson. The subject does not view his or her physical body, as do many subjects of western near-death experience cases. Instead the subject is taken in hand by "messengers" and brought before a man or woman who is often described as having a book or papers that he or she consults. A mistake is discovered. The wrong person has been "sent for," and this person is then brought back by the messengers to his or her terrestrial life; or the subject is "pushed down" and revives. The error supposedly made is often a slight one, as a person of the same given name but a different caste, or someone living in a different but nearby village, should have died and been brought instead of the subject of the near-death experience. In six of their cases, the informants said that another "correct" person (corresponding to the subject's information from the "next world") did, in fact, die at about the time the subject revived; but the researchers did not verify those deaths.

In contrast, subjects of western near-death experiences usually give no reason (in psychological terms) for their recovery; if they do give one they may say that they revived because they decided to return of their own accord, often because of love for living members of their family. Sometimes they are "sent back" by deceased persons who tell them their "time has not yet come." Indian subjects sometimes report meeting relatives and friends in the "other realm" in which they find themselves, but these persons have nothing to do or say about the prematurity of the subject's death and a need for him or her to continue living. The idea of prematurity of death, or "your time has not yet come," occurs in the cases of both cultures; but the persons involved in sending the NDEr "back to life" differ.

All in all, researchers Pasricha and Stevenson uncovered 16 accounts of near-death experiences in India. Later research by Pasricha documented another 29 near-death experiences by people living in India.

A comparison of Hindu near-death experiences with western accounts reveals the following:

Near-death researchers, Karlis Osis and Erlendur Haraldsson, documented the first major accounts of near-death experiences in India. In their interviews with 704 people living in India about their near-death experiences, 64 accounts of near-death experiences came to the surface. The remaining accounts had to do with death-bed visions. They published their findings in their book entitled At the Hour of Death: A New Look at Evidence for Life After Death.