The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences - by Bruce Greyson & Janice Holden & Debbie James (Hardcover)

About the Book

A team of international experts presents the history, recent developments, and controversies in the intriguing study of near-death experience.
Experts from around the world share the history and current state of near-death experience (NDE) knowledge. They explore controversies in the field, offer stories from their research, and express their hopes for the future of investigation into this fascinating phenomenon.

As modern medical techniques for resuscitation advance, NDEs are more frequently reported. These include more than the popular notions of moving through a tunnel or seeing a light. They also include people, once revived, knowing things their knowledge of which can't currently be explained. As The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences: Thirty Years of Investigation makes clear, great controversy exists in the medical and psychological fields concerning NDEs. Are they caused by physiological changes in the brain, or are they biological reactions to oxygen loss or impending death? Are they a product of changing states of consciousness? Or are they caused by something else altogether? All of these ideas and more are discussed in this unique and comprehensive volume.

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Book Synopsis

A team of international experts presents the history, recent developments, and controversies in the intriguing study of near-death experience.

Experts from around the world share the history and current state of near-death experience (NDE) knowledge. They explore controversies in the field, offer stories from their research, and express their hopes for the future of investigation into this fascinating phenomenon.

As modern medical techniques for resuscitation advance, NDEs are more frequently reported. These include more than the popular notions of moving through a tunnel or seeing a light. They also include people, once revived, knowing things their knowledge of which can't currently be explained. As The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences: Thirty Years of Investigation makes clear, great controversy exists in the medical and psychological fields concerning NDEs. Are they caused by physiological changes in the brain, or are they biological reactions to oxygen loss or impending death? Are they a product of changing states of consciousness? Or are they caused by something else altogether? All of these ideas and more are discussed in this unique and comprehensive volume.

Review Quotes

"Recommended." --Choice

"Practitioners and researchers specializing in near-death experiences review the scientific literature in and from the perspectives of their various disciplines, mostly mental health, but also other health care fields and the social sciences. Among the topics are pleasurable western adult near-death experiences and their after effect, western children and teens, a census of non-western experiences to 2005, world religions, veridical perceptions, explanatory models, and practical applications of the research. Most of the 11 studies are based on presentations at a fall 2006 conference in Houston, Texas." --Reference & Research Book News

About the Author

Janice Miner Holden, EdD, is professor of counseling and chair of the Department of Counseling and Higher Education at the University of North Texas, Denton, TX. She is current editor-in-chief of the Journal of Near-Death Studies.

Bruce Greyson, MD, is founder and longtime research director of the International Association for Near-Death Studies, Durham, NC. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and is the Chester R. Carlson Professor of Psychiatry & Neurobehavioral Sciences, in addition to director of the Division of Perceptual Studies, at the University of Virginia Medical School.

Debbie James, RN/MSN, is senior instructor in the Nursing Education Department at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX.