Evidence of the Afterlife:
The Science of Near-Death Experiences
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It's finally here!  And thanks to the NDErs who made this possible, the book you've all been waiting for! 

Dr. Jeffrey Long, Jody Long, and Paul Perry have teamed up to write this blockbuster book that became an instant bestseller after Dr. Long's appearance on NBC's Today Show.

"Evidence of the Afterlife" is by far the largest scientific study of NDE ever presented, and is based on researching over 1300 NDEs shared with NDERF. This book is scientific in content, yet easy and a delight to read.  The people whose stories are presented span all age groups, races, and religious affiliations and come from all over the world, yet the similarities in their experiences are as awe-inspiring as they are inexplicable.  Using this treasure trove of data, Dr. Long explains how medical evidence fails to explain these reports and why there is only one plausible explanation'that people have survived death and traveled to another dimension.

"Evidence of the Afterlife" is so compelling that it will either validate your existing knowledge or it will heartily challenge your current belief system with nine lines of irrefutable evidence of the afterlife.  There are no explanations, medical or otherwise, that one can reasonably conclude after reading this book except that there is an afterlife!

Click the links below to go directly to interest area.  Otherwise, scroll down and enjoy reading everything!

Evidence of the Afterlife was released on January 19, 2010.  To order, please click on a link below:

AMAZON:  Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences by Jeffrey Long, MD with Paul Perry

Audio Format:  Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences by Jeffrey Long, MD with Paul Perry

INDIEBOUND.ORG:  Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences by Jeffrey Long, MD with Paul Perry

Endorsements:

"Dr. Jeff Long and journalist Paul Perry have done a phenomenal job in clarifying current events in the study of near-death experiences. Dr. Long's work is leading us closer to a rational solution of the afterlife mystery.' ' Raymond Moody, M.D., Ph.D., author of Life after Life

'This important book about near-death experiences provides compelling evidence that mind and consciousness cannot be reduced to brain activity.' ' Mario Beauregard, Ph.D., Neuroscientist at the University of Montreal and co-author of The Spiritual Brain

Media Events

NBC's Today Show (for book excerpt and NBC Today Show associated article Click here )

Book Reviews

BOOK REVIEW - by James Delmont, PhD
BOOK REVIEW - by Dr. Ken R. Vincent

BOOK REVIEW - by James Delmont, PhD, member, National Book Critics Circle, published on April 22, 2010 in the Omaha paper "Shout Weekly."

EVIDENCE OF THE AFTERLIFE: THE SCIENCE OF NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES 

By Jeffrey Long, MD (with Paul Perry) 

HarperOne, $25.99 

Dr. Jeffrey Long and his wife, Jody Long (Juris Doctor) have maintained a popular web site (NDERF) on NDEs (near-death experiences) for years and it makes fascinating reading. Jeffrey is an oncologist who encountered these strange reports in medical literature. Like other physicians before him (Raymond Moody, Melvin Morse,   Michael Sabom, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross and Jan Vandersande) he decided to do a book ' but in his case he had the thousands of reports sent to his website as additional material. The result is an engaging book, better than Dinesh D'Souza's recent study, Life After Death, which had only one chapter on NDEs. 

Dr. Long scanned 1300 cases in his files and based his book on about 600, using methods to filter out dishonest reports. Admittedly 'a man of science,' he became convinced that NDEs prove the existence of an afterlife. Like Moody, he discovered common elements in the NDE experience that suggest to him a reality: out-of-body feelings; a rapid ascent through a tunnel; a life review in which the person feels the impact of every word and deed on others; meeting deceased relatives or other spiritual beings; an encounter with a loving Being of Light; a return to 'finish' life's work, etc. 

Not every one of these elements appears in every case, but most of them do. Interestingly, Dr. Long leaves out unpleasant or hellish NDEs, which he says are about 10 per cent of his sample. While the pleasant or heavenly NDEs follow a pattern, the hellish ones do not. They seem tailored to the individual and differ wildly in content and experience ' and, in every reported case, the individual escaped from the hellish environment, either by calling on God or Jesus or by being restored to life by physicians. 

Strangely, only about ten per cent of people who flatline or otherwise enter a death zone have these NDE experiences, good or bad (Long says 10 to 20 per cent of heart attack victims). Why so few have NDEs is as mysterious as the NDEs themselves. To date, no convincing medical, parapsychological or psychiatric explanation for NDEs has been generally accepted.  

Dr. Long provides nine 'lines of evidence' to convince the reader that NDEs establish a factual  life after death and the reality of other dimensions in time and space. The tunnel reported by so many is intriguing ' something like a black hole? The NDE experiencer has a kind of spiritual body, rather like what the Apostle Paul described after his out-of-body experiences. The experiencer can 'see' in all directions at once, which is interesting from the point of view of physics ' and NDE experiencers universally report a cessation of time, or any concept of time. They also have immediate access to an immense and stunning knowledge of the universe, as though previously hindered by the limits of the human brain. They can travel instantly to any place and sometimes cruise the galaxy or universe for awhile before encountering the Being of Light. Many also report that the experience is like 'going home.' 

Best of all, the Being of Light (interpreted as God, Jesus, or an appropriate Buddhist or Hindu entity) floods the soul with love and warmth and acceptance beyond words. Survivors are haunted for decades by this aspect and often are depressed when brought back to this life by physicians. Most, but not all experiencers,  wish to stay with the light, but  mothers with babies  or small children often (and reluctantly) ask to return to earthly life. 

The NDEs follow the same pattern across cultures, geographic areas and religions. Many who were religious fundamentalists are surprised that they do not experience what they expected. By a wide margin, they become less religious but more spiritual. Often they give up 'type A' pursuits for service to mankind or for personal spiritual development. 

NDEs discourage suicide and those who attempt it are strongly warned that it displeases God, who has a purpose for every human being. In fact, the worth of every human life, however modest, is one of the ringing messages of the whole phenomenon. However, the cruelty of the universe (predator/prey) is never explained. 

Dr. Long hopes that future studies of healings and psychic abilities among NDE experiencers will help shed light on the subject.

BOOK REVIEW - by Dr. Ken R. Vincent 

EVIDENCE OF THE AFTERLIFE:  The Science of Near-Death Experiences by Jeffrey Long, M. D. with Paul Perry (New York:  HarperOne, 2010) 

EVIDENCE OF THE AFTERLIFE is a break-through book in the area of afterlife research in general and near-death studies in particular.  Not only is Jeffrey Long a careful scholar, but he and Jody Long have amassed the largest collection of near-death experiences (NDEs) ever.  Their collection also includes the largest group of non-English-speaking NDEs ever.  

When it comes to research, there is no substitute for data! My own near-death book, VISIONS OF GOD FROM THE NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE, is fairly typical with 75 of my own cases plus accounts from other sources.  Near-death books generally range from one case study to a little over 100 cases, but Dr. Long's book is based on over 1,300 cases from the www.nderf.org website.  His book especially focuses on 613 NDErs who completed the most current edition of the Near-Death Research Foundation survey, in addition to giving their personal account of their near-death experience.  Dr. Long's scale included questions to detect fraudulent accounts, but over the past 10 years, he reported less than 10 false accounts.  

Based on his research, Dr. Long concludes, 'NDEs provide such powerful scientific evidence that it is reasonable to accept the existence of an afterlife.'  He goes on to offer nine 'proofs' of afterlife, including 1) Lucid Death (NDErs report increased alertness and consciousness), 2) Out-of-Body Experiences (NDErs provide evidence from verifiable experiences), 3) Blind Sight (NDErs blind from birth report a form of 'vision' during their NDEs), 4) Impossibly Conscious (NDErs report experiences while under anesthesia), 5) Perfect Play-back (NDErs report life reviews that include experiencing the feelings of others), 6) Family Reunion (NDErs report seeing dead relatives, including people unknown to them who were identified to them later by viewing family photographs), 7) From the Mouths of Babes (NDErs who are children have every NDE element of older NDErs, and this is true whether the account is told during childhood or from an adult who had the experience in childhood), 8)  Worldwide Consistency (NDErs who are non-English-speakers from Dr. Long's database form the largest collection of cross-cultural NDEs and provide evidence that NDEs are the same all over the world), and 9) Changed Lives (NDErs report that their lives are changed as a result of their NDE, and the majority report a change for the better). 

Dr. Long concludes that the evidence convinces him that afterlife exists.  I think the general population will agree with him, but my personal opinion is that most skeptics will require proof from physics on how God communicates with us, how consciousness survives death, and where the dimension of reality that is afterlife is located.  Nevertheless, the evidence for afterlife is much stronger because of Dr. Long's massive amount of data and his analysis of it.  This book is a 'must-read' for all who are interested in the scientific study of afterlife.

The Nine Lines of Evidence from Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences:

1. Crystal-Clear Consciousness. The level of consciousness and alertness during near-death experiences (NDEs) is usually even greater than that experienced in everyday life even though NDEs generally occur when a person is unconscious or clinically dead. This high level of consciousness while physically unconscious is medically inexplicable. Additionally, the elements in NDEs generally follow the same consistent and logical order in all age groups and around the world, which refutes the possibility that NDEs have any relation to dreams or hallucinations.

2. Realistic Out-of-Body Experiences: Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) are one of the most common elements of NDEs. What NDErs see and hear of earthly events in the out-of-body state is almost always realistic. When the NDEr or others later seek to verify what was observed or heard during the NDE, the OBE observations are almost always confirmed as completely accurate. Even if the OBE observations during the NDE included events far from the physical body, and far from any possible sensory awareness of the NDEr, the OBE observations are still almost always confirmed as completely accurate. This fact alone rules out the possibility that near-death experiences are related to any known brain functioning or sensory awareness. This also refutes the possibility that NDEs are unrealistic fragments of memory from the brain.

3. Heightened Senses. Not only are heightened senses reported by most who have experienced NDEs, normal or supernormal vision has occurred in those with significantly impaired vision, and even legal blindness. Several people who have been totally blind since birth have reported highly visual near-death experiences. This is medically inexplicable.

4. Consciousness During Anesthesia. Many NDEs occur while under general anesthesia- at a time when any conscious experience should be impossible. While some skeptics claim that these NDEs may be the result of too little anesthesia, this ignores the fact that some NDEs result from anesthesia overdose. Additionally, the description of a NDE differs greatly from that of one who experiences 'anesthetic awareness.' The content of NDEs that occur under general anesthesia is essentially indistinguishable from NDEs that did not occur under general anesthesia. This is further strong evidence that NDEs are occurring completely independently from the functioning of the physical brain.

5. Perfect Playback. Life reviews in near-death experiences include real events that previously took place in the lives of those having the experience, even if the events were forgotten or happened before they were old enough to remember.

6. Family Reunions. During a NDE, the people encountered are virtually always deceased, and are usually relatives of the person having the experience- sometimes they are even relatives who died before the NDEr was born. Were the NDE only a product of memory fragments, they would almost certainly include far more living people, including those with whom they had more recently interacted.

7. Children's Experiences. The near-death experiences of children, including very young children who are too young to have developed concepts of death, religion, or near-death experiences, are essentially identical to those of older children and adults. This refutes the possibility that the content of NDEs is produced by preexisting beliefs or cultural conditioning.

8. Worldwide Consistency. Near-death experiences appear remarkably consistent around the world, and across many different religions and cultures. NDEs from non-Western countries are incredibly similar to those that occur in people in Western countries.

9. Aftereffects. It is common for people to experience major life changes after having near-death experiences. These aftereffects are often powerful, lasting, life-enhancing, and the changes generally follow a consistent pattern. As the NDErs themselves almost always believe- near-death experiences are, in a word, real.

Where to Order Your Copy:

Evidence of the Afterlife was released on January 19, 2010.  To order, please click on the a below:

AMAZON:  Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experience by Jeffrey Long, MD with Paul Perry

INDIEBOUND.ORG:  Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experience by Jeffrey Long, MD with Paul Perry

HARPERCOLLINS BROWSE INSIDE:  Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experience by Jeffrey Long, MD with Paul Perry 

Near Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF) Is the largest NDE Website in the world with over 1300 full-text published NDE accounts. www.nderf.org   

After Death Communication Research Foundation (ADCRF) Is the second largest ADC Website in the world with almost 900 full-text published ADC accounts. www.adcrf.org 

Out of Body Experience Research Foundation (OBERF) Is the largest website of its kind which includes all other consciousness experiences that are not an ADC or an NDE in the world with almost 1000 full-text published accounts. www.oberf.org