cover image Dying to Live

Dying to Live

Susan J. Blackmore. Prometheus Books, $33.98 (291pp) ISBN 978-0-87975-870-7

In 1975, James Moody's ground-breaking book Life after Life collected the anecdotes of people who had come close to death and described the experience as comforting and transforming. Since then, the parapsychological, medical and scientific investigations of these near-death claims have become a small industry. This comprehensive report, by the author of The Adventures of a Parapsychologist and a fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, collates theories about near-death experience, challenges the reality of spiritual claims and surveys historical and cross-cultural attitudes toward death. Blackmore concludes that the neurological ``Dying Brain Hypothesis'' better explains the evidence than the more paranormal ``Afterlife Hypothesis.'' This work is chiefly of interest to medical professionals; the mysteries of death remain. (Nov.)