As a cardiologist, Pim van Lommel was struck by the number of his patients who claimed to have near-death experiences as a result of their heart attacks. As a scientist, this was difficult for him to accept: Wouldn't it be scientifically irresponsible of him to ignore the evidence of these stories? Faced with this dilemma, van Lommel decided to design a research study to investigate the phenomenon under the controlled environment of a cluster of hospitals with a medically trained staff.

For more than twenty years van Lommel systematically studied such near-death experiences in a wide variety of hospital patients who survived a cardiac arrest. In 2001, he and his fellow researchers published his study on near-death experiences in the renowned medical journal The Lancet. The article caused an international sensation as it was the first scientifically rigorous study of this phenomenon. Now available for the first time in English, van Lommel offers an in-depth presentation of his results and theories in this book that has already sold over 125,000 copies in Europe.

Van Lommel provides scientific evidence that the near-death phenomenon is an authentic experience that cannot be attributed to imagination, psychosis, or oxygen deprivation. He further reveals that after such a profound experience, most patients' personalities undergo a permanent change. In van Lommel's opinion, the current views on the relationship between the brain and consciousness held by most physicians, philosophers, and psychologists are too narrow for a proper understanding of the phenomenon. In Consciousness Beyond Life, van Lommel shows that our consciousness does not always coincide with brain functions and that, remarkably and significantly, consciousness can even be experienced separate from the body.

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.

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.' "

Most of us at the very least wonder about our own immortality and many people are convinced that there is something beyond death, beyond the blackness of the grave. In Western Judaeo-Christian culture we absorb from an early age the idea that virtue now has its own reward - later. We are taught that the universe is essentially moral and that there are absolute human values. But increasingly, science presents us with a picture of a much more mechanical universe in which there is no absolute morality and man has no purpose and no personal responsibility except to his culture and his biology. We no longer live in an age when faith is sufficient; we demand data, and we are driven by data. And it is data - data that apparently throws some light on our current concepts of Heaven and Hell - that the near-death experience seems to offer. The near-death experience (NDE) is intriguing for two major reasons. First, it is very common and secondly, it is cross-cultural. The results of one NOP survey in America suggest that over 1 million Americans have 'seen the light'. Any experience that is so common must have had some influence on the way we think about life and death. Indeed, it could be the very engine that drives our ideas of an afterlife. Many people believe that in the NDE we are given glimpses of Heaven (or Hell). But it is just as reasonable to assume that it is the NDE itself which may have shaped our very ideas about Heaven and Hell. The experiences described in this book are all first-hand accounts from people who wrote to me or to David Lorimer, chairman of the International Association of Near Death Studies (UK), after a television programme, radio broadcast or magazine or newspaper article made them aware of our interest in near-death experiences. We asked 500 of those who wrote to answer a detailed questionnaire about their experiences. Our aim was to gather in a standardised format as much detail as we could about the NDE, the people who have experienced it and the effect that the experience has had on their lives. It is from this database that the statistics quoted in this book have been drawn, and the accounts given to me by these people and by others who have written to me since then form the basis of the book. But their accounts provided much more than mere statistics. Each one was special in its own way, and provided a personal testimony which I found both moving and utterly sincere. It is very seldom that an author can so truthfully say that without others a book could not have been written - in this case, without these people there would, indeed, have been no book. I feel privileged to have been allowed to read their accounts, and I am grateful to everyone who, by being willing to share their experience with me, has helped in this search to find the truth in the light. Peter Fenwick London December 1994

Painting a vivid portrayal of life beyond the grave, "A Land Unknown" is an astonishing true story of one man's incredible journey to hell and back--a must-read for those curious about the near-death experience written from the Christian perspective.

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.

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.

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.