Raymond Moody's 1975 dissertation-turned-bestseller, the book that introduced the term 'near-death experience' into English. Moody — then a philosopher with a medical degree — collected and analysed 150 cases of clinical death and resuscitation, identifying recurring features (out-of-body movement, the tunnel, the being of light, the life review, the border) that subsequent NDE research has worked from ever since.
First lines
What is it like to die? That is a question which humanity has been asking itself ever since there have been humans. Over the past few years, I have had the opportunity to raise this question before a sizable number of audiences.
Contents
The Phenomenon of Death
The Experience of Dying
Parallels
Questions
Explanations
Impressions
Reception
The founding text of the NDE field and the most-circulated single book on the subject — over 13 million copies. Bruce Greyson, Pim van Lommel and the IANDS researchers who built academic NDE studies all credit Moody as the field's origin. Skeptics including Susan Blackmore have argued the recurring features have neurological rather than transcendent explanations; Moody himself was always more cautious about ontological claims than his readers were. The 40th-anniversary edition includes Eben Alexander's foreword and reflects how thoroughly the conversation has shifted in the intervening decades.
Frequently asked
What is Life After Life by Raymond Moody about?
It is Raymond Moody's 1975 study of 150 people who reported experiences during clinical death and resuscitation. Moody — then a philosopher with a medical degree — identified the recurring features (out-of-body movement, the tunnel, the being of light, the life review, the border) that became the template for subsequent near-death-experience research. The book is also where the term 'near-death experience' entered English.
Did Moody claim he had proved life after death?
No. Moody explicitly states in the introduction that he is not trying to prove that there is life after death, and that he does not think such a proof is presently possible. The book is presented as a phenomenological catalogue of patient reports rather than as a metaphysical argument. Later readers and the publishing world have often pressed the material further than Moody himself did.
How influential has the book been on NDE research?
It is the founding text of the field. Over 13 million copies have sold, and Bruce Greyson, Pim van Lommel and the IANDS researchers who built academic near-death studies all credit Moody as the field's origin. The 40th-anniversary edition includes a foreword by Eben Alexander, author of Proof of Heaven.