When it comes to spiritual matters, I am reasonably open-minded. I lack the scientific and medical training to dismiss supernatural claims with confidence. I am at the same time not a conventional believer.
The New Age field is a publishing phenomenon, with trade shows and houses that focus exclusively on related topics. Arguably the most successful titles are about claimed human experiences of the afterlife.
Here are five notable books about near-death experiences.
1.
The author is a writer and therapist who got curious about the afterlife. This is the story of her investigation into topics like near-death experiences (NDE), psychics, and seances. It is framed by the personal loss she faced at an impressionable age and her perspective from her work. I was especially captivated by her chapter on mediums, but I loved the whole project. Definitely the standout on this list.
2.
Mally Cox-Chapman is a Yale-educated journalist who once had a supernatural experience during a car accident. Her car was flipping, but she felt a preternatural calm from what felt like the God of her Protestant childhood. Later she became curious about whether you could objectively determine the likelihood of a spiritual realm like the Christian notion of “heaven.”
This is similar to the previous book with a slightly different conclusion. Her ultimate message is that eight-million documented accounts of medical near-death experiences do in fact make a case for heaven.
3.
The author is an MD who had an NDE after nearly drowning in a boating accident. Among other revelations from her experience, she learned that one of her children would die young. A few years later, when her son did in fact die in an accident, she found comfort in the memory.
At times I found this book uncomfortable to read. I felt empathy for her loss, but the notion of predestined death is a tough topic with so much tragedy in the world. There is also the mind-bending physical idea that accidents are not accidental. I was reminded of a famous X-Files episode in which a man grapples with all the improbabilities of a fated Richie Valens death. Could a coin toss be preordained?
4.
There are no shortage of memoirs about NDEs. They tend to be similar, recounting an accident or hospital incident which results in clinical death. After the flatline, the person floats above their body (often hearing conversations that are later confirmed) and travels through a tunnel of light, usually encountering a spiritual being.
Dannion Brinkley was struck by lightning, literally and figuratively. After getting hit by a bolt, he went to a realm. He came back a changed man, aware of the harm he had been causing after a “life review” while away, seeing the impact of his actions on others.
As far as justice goes, the idea that every person will be forced to see their impact on others is a nice one. I remember enjoying this book.
5.
Betty Eadie may be the best known NDEer, having appeared on Oprah and other TV shows. She is the one I have the hardest time not judging, simply because I find her kooky and offensive.
Eadie is an Indigenous mother of seven who was declared clinically dead in the Seventies. She says she travelled through a tunnel of light and met Jesus.
At one point, she asks him about gender roles. He shows her “the council of men,” a group sitting around a kidney-shaped table. She learns that women are particularly vulnerable to Satan’s temptation and are therefore excluded from leadership roles.
I have several problems with this book. Of the titles I have read, it is the most certain and particular in its theology. The fact that her experiences so closely mirror patriarchal religion is problematic to me. There is also the fact that an Indigenous-identified author is selling a religion with strong colonial roots. It wasn’t women who led the genocide of her people, a fact she completely ignores. And yet she goes pretty easy on the white man.
I first encountered this book while visiting a friend, and as I read excerpts to her, she looked at me quizzically and said, “Let’s hope this was just a weird dream.” I concur.
Books Smitten 