Proof of life after life: 7 reasons to believe there is an afterlife

Physician Moody and documentary filmmaker Perry (coauthors, Glimpses of Eternity) continue to argue for the existence of an afterlife in this intriguing investigation of "shared death experiences," occurrences in which a person who is not near death "observe the other person's dying process... co-live that person's dying experience." The authors delineate seven types of such events, including instances in which bystanders have witnessed grey or pink "mist" leaving a dying person's body, and precognition, as when two siblings separated by thousands of miles simultaneously sensed a third's death. Elsewhere, accounts of "terminal lucidity" reveal how dying people--even those disabled by Alzheimer's or mental illness--can showcase impressive mental clarity in their final moments, such as a man who'd been incapable of speech for weeks after a stroke who fluidly recounted detailed memories from his time in WWII. Moody also cites his research into the practice of using a mirror or "reflective surface.... in a darkened room anticipating that deceased relatives or friends will appear in the reflection"; in one experiment all 10 of his subjects believed they'd seen and communicated with their departed loved ones. The authors amass an impressively broad and vivid array of firsthand accounts, though sometimes paper over alternate explanations or fail to probe gaps between events and bystanders' recollections (many of the accounts are related years after the shared death experience happened). Still, there's plenty of fodder for the curious to chew on. (Sept.)

Physician Moody and documentary filmmaker Perry (coauthors, Glimpses of Eternity) continue to argue for the existence of an afterlife in this intriguing investigation of "shared death experiences," occurrences in which a person who is not near death "observe the other person's dying process... co-live that person's dying experience." The authors delineate seven types of such events, including instances in which bystanders have witnessed grey or pink "mist" leaving a dying person's body, and precognition, as when two siblings separated by thousands of miles simultaneously sensed a third's death. Elsewhere, accounts of "terminal lucidity" reveal how dying people—even those disabled by Alzheimer's or mental illness—can showcase impressive mental clarity in their final moments, such as a man who'd been incapable of speech for weeks after a stroke who fluidly recounted detailed memories from his time in WWII. Moody also cites his research into the practice of using a mirror or "reflective surface.... in a darkened room anticipating that deceased relatives or friends will appear in the reflection"; in one experiment all 10 of his subjects believed they'd seen and communicated with their departed loved ones. The authors amass an impressively broad and vivid array of firsthand accounts, though sometimes paper over alternate explanations or fail to probe gaps between events and bystanders' recollections (many of the accounts are related years after the shared death experience happened). Still, there's plenty of fodder for the curious to chew on. (Sept.)