A somewhat negative review of Moody´s "Life After Life", posted on the web in 2011. Today, I would be much more positive towards this and similar books!
"Life after life" is Raymond Moody's
classical book on near-death experiences (NDEs). It was originally published in
1975.
Unless I'm mistaken, the very term NDE was invented by Moody himself. I read the book during my most materialist-sceptical period, and was deeply intrigued by it, although I still came out as a non-believer in the end. I also read Sabom, Morse and Brinkley. How I reacted to the latter, you might as well imagine!
Today, Moody's book gives a strangely naïve impression. Yes, really! He seems to have been genuinely convinced that the phenomenon he was describing was something more or less unheard of before. In reality, of course, NDEs in one form or another have been reported throughout recorded history. Indeed, Moody did find similar experiences when reading ancient religious or philosophical literature, including the famous "Tibetan Book of the Dead" and the writings of Emmanuel Swedenborg. Visions of departed loved ones are even more common, and detailed in a later book by the author, "Reunions".
Another naïve trait of "Life after life" is the almost rational and logical way in which the author describes the near death experiences. In reality, many NDEs are (frankly) pretty weird, as the ones described by Moody's own assistant Brinkley in "Saved by the Light". Nor are all NDEs necessarily positive, although many of them are. For the darker side, see P.M.H. Atwater's "Beyond the Light".
Perhaps "Life after life" was written during a period when respectable society was still too secularized and materialist for the heavier stuff to be widely accepted? Even the author himself seems surprised by his findings. Yet, they simply confirm what "folk psychology" has always held true: for good or for worse, there is indeed life after life. ;-)
No comments:
Post a Comment