Contrary to popular belief, death is not a moment in time, such as when the heart stops beating, respiration ceases, or the brain stops functioning. Death, rather, is a process--a process that can be interrupted well after it has begun. Innovative techniques, such as drastically reducing the patient's body temperature, have proven to be effective in revitalizing both the body and mind, but studies show they are only employed in approximately half of the hospitals throughout the United States and Europe.

In Erasing Death, Dr. Sam Parnia presents cutting-edge research from the front line of critical care and resuscitation medicine that has enabled modern doctors to routinely reverse death, while also shedding light on the ultimate mystery: what happens to human consciousness during and after death. Parnia reveals how medical discoveries focused on saving lives have also inadvertently raised the possibility that some form of "afterlife" may be uniquely ours, as evidenced by the continuation of the human mind and psyche in the first few hours after death. Questions about the "self" and the "soul" that were once relegated to theology, philosophy, or even science fiction are now being examined afresh according to rigorous scientific research.

With physicians such as Parnia at the forefront, we are on the verge of discovering a new universal science of consciousness that reveals the nature of the mind and a future where death is not the final defeat, but is in fact reversible.

How many minutes can you now survive after cardiac arrest? What do new medical techniques teach us about consciousness? How will these change our views of who we are? In 2012, two football stars collapsed while playing. Both were technically dead yet, while Fabrice Muamba received hypothermia treatment and recovered, his counterpart in another country did not. In "The Lazarus Effect", Dr Sam Parnia, a critical care physician and one of the world's leading experts on the scientific study of death, uses fascinating stories, as well as the very latest research, to investigate what happens during cardiac arrest. He also explains how medical advances are revolutionising our chances of survival. Parnia shows how these developments have introduced a controversial 'grey zone' between heart failure and irreversible death, where death is not a single point but a process. What does that mean for our definition of death? And how can we account for the way the human mind continues to exist after death has begun? These questions come from the heart of a debate that has profound ethical, scientific and philosophical implications for us all, not least the fact that, soon, we will have more power over life and death than ever before.