The next book in my journey was Life After Life. Many of the books I was reading at the time cited Raymond Moody’s work, and they always spoke very highly of him as a person.
Raymond Moody documented cases of Near Death Experiences (NDEs). He sought out countless stories of people that died and then were brought back. Similar to Hello From Heaven!, this book shows that these experiences are more common than we realize.
I think this book inspired my thoughts about consciousness and creativity. I think one of the main reasons that studies like this are easily dismissed by skeptics is because we expect experiences should literally be the exact same between people for it to be ‘valid’. For instance, if someone went to ‘heaven’ and reported seeing a pearly white gate, it would only become a valid consideration by skeptics if everyone else that went to ‘heaven’ also passed through the same pearly white gate.
I think based on Raymond Moody’s study, he showed that the progression of a soul that undergoes a NDE goes through similar key steps. They often leave their body, they feel like they go through a tunnel, they see a being of light, they review their life, the see loved ones, and then they return. They often come back explaining that the other side seemed more ‘real’ than our own. No matter how much time passes, they can vividly recall what they saw and did.
While these elements appear to be in many of the stories, they do not ALL need to be there. Additionally, they do not need to be described the exact same way.
I think the commonality of the stories presented in the book is worth further consideration. Do I think that this is the book to change a skeptic’s mind on life after life? No, probably not. However, I think it presents some interesting things to consider.
