Lessons from the Light

August 3, 1998
Even if you never have a near-death experience (NDE) on the surgeon's table, in a car accident or during a heart attack, you can reap the spiritual benefits claimed by NDErs. Through meditation, study and mental exercises, you can tap into the healing energy of the loving, nonjudgmental Being of Light glimpsed by many at death's door. You can simulate a panoramic life-review of your entire existence, catapulting your values away from competitive materialism and toward love, service, cooperation; and you can integrate the insights commonly reported by NDErs into daily practical living. That's the message of this manual that, notwithstanding its aim of reaching out beyond the lucky privileged NDErs to the masses, mostly preaches to the converted. Veteran NDE researcher Ring (The Omega Project), here writing with Swiss NDE investigator Valarino, includes many previously unpublished NDE cases and distills techniques he has taught at workshops and university courses. In a book that reads like a New Age seminar, Ring presents intriguing evidence to support his belief that NDEs represent an authentic, objective experience, not a self-protective hallucination or a neurological artifact of a dying brain. This material includes reports of out-of-body experiences, children's NDEs, blind people gaining sight during NDE episodes, and NDErs whose brush with death apparently unleashed paranormal or healing abilities. Skeptics will relish punching holes in each of these phenomena, and a more rigorous approach would have been welcome for the already overcrowded NDE shelf.