About 30 percent of hospice patients report a "visitation" by someone who is not there, a phenomenon known in end-of-life care as a deathbed vision. These visions can be of dead friends or family members and occur on average three days before death. Strikingly, individuals from wildly diverse geographic regions and religions-from New York to Japan to Moldova to Papua New Guinea-report similar visions. Appearances of our dead during serious illness, crises, or bereavement are as old as the historical record. But in recent years, we have tended to explain them in either the fantastical terms of the supernatural or the reductive terms of neuroscience. This book is about how, when, and why our dead visit us. Allan Kellehear-a medical sociologist and expert on death, dying, and palliative care-has gathered data and conducted studies on these experiences across cultures. He also draws on the long-neglected work of early anthropologists who developed cultural explanations about why the dead visit. Deathbed visions conform to the rituals that underpin basic social relations and expectations-customs of greeting, support, exchange, gift-giving, and vigils-because the dead must communicate with us in a social language that we recognize. Kellehear emphasizes the personal consequences for those who encounter these visions, revealing their significance for how the dying person makes meaning of their experiences. Providing vital understanding of a widespread yet mysterious phenomenon, Visitors at the End of Life offers insights for palliative care professionals, researchers, and the bereaved.

When a massive pileup on an Arizona highway caused Valerie Paters and her Jeep to be entombed beneath a semi truck in a blinding snowstorm, it seemed certain that her life would soon end. Once extracted from the mangled metal, and suffering from massive injuries, Valerie was hospitalized and placed on life support while doctors waited to harvest her organs. But Valerie was more alive than she had ever been. As she stood in the radiant presence of Jesus. He wrapped her into Himself, assuring her of His love and of the promise that heaven is only a breath away. Heaven Is a Breath Away is a thrilling first hand account of the home that awaits Christians when they draw their last breath here on earth. With open arms, Christ welcomes to heaven those who belong to Him. Rarely has this vision been told in such exquisite detail. It will undoubtedly comfort those who have lost loved ones or are near death themselves. Heaven Is a Breath Away gives hope and encourages faith by sharing the heaven Jesus promised-a real place, magnificent in scope and beauty, permeated with iridescence, and alive with divine energy and love.

An examination of our consciousness's ability to pass between dimensions, both in life and after death, and how to communicate with spirits In this exploration of consciousness, after-death communication, and the validity of near-death and out-of-body experiences, Chris H. Hardy, Ph.D., a former researcher at Princeton's Psychophysical Research Laboratories, reveals that all beings exist simultaneously in the material dimension and in the soul hyperdimension. During life, we can access the soul hyperdimension through heightened states of consciousness and dreams. After death, we cease to physically exist, but our consciousness continues on in the hyperdimension as a living soul, a complete personality able to perceive and even affect the material world. Through rigorous scientific analysis of psi experiences and surveys, the author shows that the deceased keep contact with the living by visiting them as apparitions, protecting them from harm, and even interceding to solve family problems or resolve their own unfinished business. She details her own psi and spiritual experiences, such as interactions with a house spirit, clairvoyance in lucid dreams, and her decades of communication with the souls of the deceased, including her own parents and scientific geniuses, and provides empirical evidence to support their reality. Moreover, Hardy offers tested methods for gaining access to the soul dimension and explores what can be accomplished there, including communicating with those who exist beyond our own matter world. Sharing her breakthrough understanding of the soul dimension as a hyperdimension pervading the universe, where our consciousness lives on after physical death, Hardy shows that we are all transdimensional beings and that the living souls of the spirit dimension welcome our interaction.

Within this book are rituals, stories, traditions and experiences of magicians' scholars and artists who work with death. Some of the contributors such as Nema, Mogg Morgan, Louis Martine and Nevill Drury (to name but a few) have helped define contemporary transformative spirituality. Others are less well known but just as learned. As there should be in such a collection there is comedy, anger, confrontation and practicality. This anthology is about who we are, and where we come from. It is also about how we change. A Contemporary Western Book of the Dead contains voices and visions that acknowledge our past, feed our present and guide the direction of our future. "I was musing on Singapore in all its affluent glory still having shrines for the dead on every street corner during 'The Festival of the Hungry Ghosts'. Then I was musing on how the socially mobile of modern western society eschew death rites and grieving in the name of 'holding it together' and being progressive. I thought of which civilisations are falling and which are rising again, and wondered whether acknowledging death and the ancestors is a vital part of maintaining personal identity and our place in society. I remember how my grieving father mourned for all the information he had relied on his deceased wife remembering; information which was now lost. I recalled Michael Crichton's words 'If you don't know (your family's) history, then you don't know anything. You are a leaf that doesn't know it is part of a tree.' Then I thought maybe someone should write about the cults of the ancestors and death, perhaps an anthology, perhaps cross relate experiences of loss to personal spirituality and magick and history. I know that years of working with the dead in the name of art and spirituality, didn't prepare me for the death of my mother. What helped me was the advice of someone from a long tradition of working with the ancestors. I think that collecting the experiences of spiritual practitioners in their working with grief and death is part of a living and necessary tradition that will give respect to the dead and strength, identity and support to our own personal spirituality.' "

Science is confirming what ancient wisdom has always asserted--that reality is far more complex than we have imagined, and that our individual potential is far greater than we have believed. In this time of expanding consciousness, the new frontier--the gateway to spiritual growth and self-empowerment--is through the astral realm.

Astral Projection for Psychic Empowerment introduces you to the real-world benefits that come from exploring the astral plane. Learn controlled, self-induced astral projection and reach beyond physical limitations to new sources of knowledge. Live and love more fully than you have ever thought possible by tapping your immense unconscious powers and integrating them into your conscious experience. Delve into the pages of this fascinating book and learn to: Induce an out-of-body experience Safely visit astral realms Explore past lives Communicate with guides and entities Interpret the aura for health and healing Create powerful thought forms Practice astral sex Expand your psychic awareness Achieve your goals Understand psychokinesis and the power of your mind

This comprehensive guide includes true case studies of astral projection, scientific test results from laboratory studies, and a seven-day developmental program designed to unleash your highest potential.

This practical handbook provides a complete program of study and practice for every student to awaken consciousness in the Internal Worlds: those dimensions we all visit each night, but only faintly remember, if at all. "The aspirant tries to be conscious of his own dream; hence, he becomes a spectator and actor of a dream with the advantage of being able to abandon the scene at will in order to move freely in the Astral World. "Then the aspirant, free of the limitations of the flesh, outside the physical body, will have discarded his old familiar environment and penetrated a universe ruled by different laws. "The discipline of the dream state of Tantric Buddhists methodically leads us to the awakening of our consciousness." By the application of the techniques provided herein, any sincere person can achieve the awakening of the consciousness, and thereby come to know the truth of the mysteries that exist beyond the reach of our physical senses.

Deepen your understanding of quantum physics and expanded states of awareness with Quantum Consciousness, an enlightening guide that helps you pull science and spirituality closer together. This book invites you to tour alternate realities, parallel lives, interdimensional consciousness, and even the very fabric of the universe. Specially emphasized are four aspects of quantum consciousness: the Creator Effect, Intanglement, Everywhereness, and Holographic Healing. You ll also find a detailed exploration of the various realms of consciousness, including stored consciousness, alternate consciousness, parallel consciousness, and interdimensional consciousness. Quantum Consciousness helps you make life-changing discoveries and move past the limitations of your current mindset.

In 2008, Dr Eben Alexander's brain was severely damaged by a devastating case of bacterial meningitis, and he lapsed into a weeklong coma. It was almost certainly a death sentence, but Dr Alexander miraculously survived - and brought back with him an astounding story. During those seven days in coma, he was plunged into the deepest realms of consciousness, and came to understand profound truths about the universe we inhabit. What he learned changed everything he knew about the brain mind, and consciousness and drove him to ask a question confounding the entire scientific community: How do you explain the origins of consciousness if it is not a byproduct of the brain? In Living in a Mindful Universe, the New York Times bestselling author of Proof of Heaven and The Map of Heaven shares his insights into the true nature of consciousness. Embracing his radically new worldview, he began a committed program of personal exploration into non-local consciousness. Along the way, he met Karen Newell, who had spent most of her lifetime living the worldview he had only just discovered was possible. Her personal knowledge came from testing various techniques and theories as part of her daily routine. With Living in a Mindful Universe, they share techniques that can be used to tap into our greater mind and explore how the power of the heart can enhance healing, relationships, creativity, guidance and more. Using various modalities related to meditation and mindfulness described herein, you too can gain the power to access that infinite source of knowing so vital to us all.