''Life After Life'' is a 1975 book written by
psychiatrist Raymond Moody
Raymond A. Moody Jr. (born June 30, 1944) is an American philosopher, psychiatrist, physician and author, most widely known for his books about afterlife and near-death experiences (NDE), a term that he coined in 1975 in his best-selling book '' ...
. It is a report on a
qualitative study in which Moody interviewed 150 people who had undergone
near-death experience
A near-death experience (NDE) is a profound personal experience associated with death or impending death which researchers claim share similar characteristics. When positive, such experiences may encompass a variety of sensations including detac ...
s (NDEs). The book presents the author's composite account of what it is like to die, supplemented with individual accounts. On the basis of his collection of cases, Moody identified a common set of elements in NDEs:
[
]
*(a) an overwhelming feeling of peace and well-being, including freedom from pain.
*(b) the impression of being located outside one's physical body.
*(c) floating or drifting through darkness, sometimes described as a tunnel.
*(d) becoming aware of a golden light.
*(e) encountering and perhaps communicating with a "being of light".
*(f) having a rapid succession of visual images of one's past.
*(g) experiencing another world of much beauty.[Harvey J. Irwin and Caroline Watt]
An introduction to parapsychology
McFarland, 2007, p. 159.
''Life After Life'' sold more than 13 million copies, was translated into a dozen foreign languages and became an international best seller, which made the subject of NDEs popular and opened the way for many other studies.
Reception
Moody's alleged evidence for an afterlife was heavily criticized as flawed, both logically and empirically. The psychologist James Alcock
James E. Alcock (born 24 December 1942) is a Canadian educator. He has been a Professor of Psychology at York University (Canada) since 1973. Alcock is a noted critic of parapsychology and is a Fellow and Member of the Executive Council for the C ...
has noted that " oodyappears to ignore a great deal of the scientific literature dealing with hallucinatory experiences in general, just as he quickly glosses over the very real limitations of his research method."
The philosopher Paul Kurtz
Paul Kurtz (December 21, 1925 – October 20, 2012) was an American scientific skeptic and secular humanist. He has been called "the father of secular humanism". He was Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York at B ...
has written that Moody's evidence for the NDE is based on personal interviews and anecdotal accounts and there has been no statistical analyses of his data. According to Kurtz, "there is no reliable evidence that people who report such experiences have died and returned, or that consciousness exists separate from the brain or body."Paul Kurtz
Paul Kurtz (December 21, 1925 – October 20, 2012) was an American scientific skeptic and secular humanist. He has been called "the father of secular humanism". He was Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York at B ...
. (1991). ''Toward a New Enlightenment: The Philosophy of Paul Kurtz''. Transaction Publishers. p. 349.
References
External links
*
The Raymond Moody Institute
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1975 non-fiction books
Afterlife
Books about the paranormal
Books about near-death experiences