There are endless phrases and theories about what happens when we are on death's door. Your life "flashes before your eyes." You see a "bright light." The truth is, no one can say for sure what happens when we leave this world. This enlightening volume will keep readers turning pages with absorbing accounts that detail the claims of reincarnation and seeing visions of our past lives. Readers learn of near-death experiences that include seeing the future and speaking with dead loved ones. Readers can decide: is death the final destination or just one stop of many?

Many cultures accept that a person may die and then come back to life in another form, but Westerners have traditionally rejected the idea. Recently, however, surveys conducted in Europe indicate a substantial increase in the number of Europeans who believe in reincarnation, and numerous claims of reincarnation have been reported. This book examines particular cases in Europe that are suggestive of reincarnation. The first section provides a brief history of the belief in reincarnation among Europeans. The second section considers eight cases from the first third of the twentieth century that were not independently investigated, but were reported and sometimes published by the persons concerned. The third section covers 32 cases from the second half of the twentieth century that were investigated by the author. Many of these cases involved either children who exhibited unusual behavior attributed to a previous life, or adults who experienced recurrent or vivid dreams attributed to a previous life. In the fourth section, the author compares European cases suggestive of reincarnation with those of other countries and cultures.

What happens to consciousness during the act of dying? The most compelling answers come from people who almost die and later recall events that occurred while lifesaving resuscitation, emergency care, or surgery was performed. These events are now called near-death experiences (NDEs). As medical and surgical skills improve, innovative procedures can bring back patients who have traveled farther on the path to death than at any other time in history. Physicians and healthcare professionals must learn how to appropriately treat patients who report an NDE. It is estimated that more than 10 million people in the United States have experienced an NDE. Hagan and the contributors to this volume engage in evidence-based research on near-death experiences and include physicians who themselves have undergone a near-death experience. This book establishes a new paradigm for NDEs.

In The Next World, historian of religions Gregory Shushan explores the relationships between extraordinary experiences and beliefs in life after death. He first shows how throughout history and around the world, near-death experiences have influenced ideas about the afterlife. Shushan also takes a deep dive into the problem of similarities and differences between NDE accounts. Not only do they vary widely, but so does a culture's way of responding to them and integrating them into their belief systems. In this book Shushan also compares NDEs with accounts of shamanic spirit journeys to afterlife realms, intermission states between reincarnations from people who remember past lives, and descriptions of otherworlds by souls of the dead communicating through mediums. Accounts of all these phenomena bear striking similarities to NDEs, though also have important differences. Examining them each in relation to the other results in a kind of reciprocal illumination, in which each type of extraordinary experience sheds light on the other. Drawing on over two decades of research into cross-cultural afterlife beliefs and extraordinary experiences, The Next World presents not only an accessible overview of Shushan's work, but also takes a bold new step in psychical research. By combining ideas and methods from a variety of disciplines - archaeology, anthropology, sociology, and the study of religions - Shushan's unique take on the issues leads to new understandings of them. Unlike any of these disciplines, however, Shushan also crosses over into metaphysics, philosophy, and parapsychology, considering the implications of the cross-cultural data for the survival hypothesis: Are NDEs and other extraordinary experiences actually glimpses into another world and a taste of the true spiritual reality? If so, what could this afterlife actually be like in light of all the diversity of accounts?

If you are a Christian who is satisfied by the conventional views of heaven and hell, don't read this book. However, if you feel there are more possibilities for the afterlife than streets of gold and fiery infernos, Can Reincarnation and "Near Death Experiences" be Christian? just might include the answers you’ve been seeking. What if: • the Bible contains the possibility of an intermediate and temporary place, a tarrying place for continuing life? • the Bible shows that some human spirits have returned from that intermediate place throughout human history? • the "living soul" of Genesis, the one inspired by God's immortal "breath of life," is the spirit of consciousness that survives the body -- as some recent neuroscience research indicates? • the Bible and Christian believing already contain the possibility for a reprieve, for a purifying process -- a place where we meet and recognize other individuals? • the forgiveness of "seventy times seven" required by God is offered by God? Wouldn't that open the door to more opportunities, many stages of progress? After seven books chronicling her Christian walk with the living Savior, Patricia Hofer thought she was done writing. But the Lord apparently had a different plan. These "what ifs" are the focus of Hofer's eighth book and of her original and compelling research.

People have believed in the existence of life after death throughout human history and in all regions of the world. Mere belief, however, does not make it true. What is the empirical evidence for life after death? Has any significant research been conducted, and if so, what conclusions does it suggest? In fact there exists a large body of research on topics relevant to the question of life after death. This book objectively examines that research, drawing together the observations of social science regarding such phenomena as reincarnation, near-death experiences, deathbed visions, cases of possession by dead spirits, and apparitions of the deceased. It considers possibilities including survival of consciousness and survival of personality, and reflects on the logical problems inherent in any model of postmortem survival. An extensive bibliography lists hundreds of studies of life-after-death phenomena.