Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #416551 in Books
• Published on: 1998-12-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 340 pages

Customer Reviews

Marvellous book
This is one of the best books ever to have been written on this subject. There is no denying the reality of the experiences people have had, and in this book we go further by exploring the meaning of them and how our own lives can benefit from just reading about others. If we insist on clinging to old beliefs which just don't add up any more then we miss out on getting the knowledge of what our true nature is. Read this book and open yourself up to the Light!

A good experience to remind us that we are beings of light
I have read all Ken Ring's books. I heartily disagree with the contentious and disagreeable first review on this page. The research being mostly "phenomenological" is of course going to disturb the so-called scientific "purists" statistical nerds. The notion that the reporting of these experiences works as a virus and infects the reader is apt and not lunatic, people are reporting that the book has profoundly affectd them. The personal stories are riveting and interesting. Even if the experience of an NDE or OOBE happens because of the release of certain "molecules of the mind" so what? Whatever influences us poor peons to experience and understand our "bliss" is valuable. It is not lunatic fringe except to those who are scared of it.

Dr. Ring edges into the lunatic fringe
Sorry to disagree, folks, but I agree with an NDE researcher of equal merit, Dr. Sabom, who has expressed concern that Ring is incorporating his own "New Agey" beliefs into the NDE experience to create essentially an NDE "religion" or "theology." Even though Ring disavows this in several places in this book, it is clear that this is exactly what he is doing. What is it about the paranormal that causes so many formerly credible researchers (Raymond Moody, Budd Hopkins and Linda Moulton Howe come to mind) to eventually lose all perspective and enter the lunatic fringe? At most, NDEs are brief glimpses of the lowest level of the Other Side by people who are not, in fact, passing over. To Ring, however, they are direct encounters with God, and the messages that the "experiencers" bring back should cause us "non-experiencers" to jump on the bandwagon. As far as I can tell from this volume, Ring does not even medically verify that some of his most touted "experiencers" were, in fact, in a near-death state. What is happening with NDEs is SO similar to what has happened with UFO abductions, where the formerly leading researchers have become laughingstocks, the phenomenon has become so well-known that the ranks of "experiencers" are crowded with loonies and wanna-bes, and anyone trying to maintain a sane perspective is branded a non-believer. Ring and Moody appear to be leading the charge. There are MUCH better books on NDEs than this one. Unless NDEs are already your religion, I wouldn't bother with it.