What happens when we die A groundbreaking study into the nature of life and death

Just what does happen when we die? That question has long begged an answer and has nagged at British near-death expert Parnia since his youth. It motivated him to become a physician and inspired him to begin conducting experiments that made the evening news even before he completed medical certification. One could say his entire life has been devoted to the pursuit of an answer to this question. The closest he has come to an answer lies in what he has learned from interviewing hundreds who have had near-death experiences and from exhaustive research on the character, origin, and extent of consciousness. The scope of his analysis has taken him through the realms of science, medicine, psychology, religion, and philosophy. If his research, findings, and conclusions to date don't offer conclusive answers to the age-old question, they do present enough up-to-the-minute data and theory to at least whet, if not satisfy, the appetite of more-than-mildly-curious readers. ((Reviewed January 1 & 15, 2006)) Copyright 2006 Booklist Reviews.

An emergency room doctor offers a review of the subject based on over one hundred published studies and suggests that the human mind and consciousness may continue to function at the end of life.

Dr. Sam Parnia faces death every day. Through his work as a critical-care doctor in a hospital emergency room, he became very interested in some of his patients’ accounts of the experiences that they had while clinically dead. He started to collect these stories and read all the latest research on the subject, and then he decided to conduct his own experiments. That work has culminated in this extraordinary book, which picks up where Raymond Moody’ &I/I> left off. Written in a scientific, balanced, and engaging style, this is powerful and compelling reading.This fascinating and controversial book will change the way you look at death and dying. . . .