The most important link is with my mother.
My mother is an inspiration to me, at age 89 she has recited poetry at
the Knitting Factory in New York, and singing with jazz bands. She has
sung with Cecil Taylor, and the Jazz legend Sun Ra.
I got started
in near death studies because my Mom used to go to all these weirdo
conferences. She attended one on near death experiences, and heard
Bruce Greyson speak about them. After the lecture, she went up to him,
and said, "Your stories are nothing special. My son hears this sort of
story all the time from his patients. He's a pediatrician." At that
time, near death experiences had not been described in the medical
literature in children. Dr. Greyson called me up and asked if it was
true. He encouraged me to write up my first cases. Since I had never
heard of NDEs before, this was the first time that I understood how
fortunate I was to have heard so many from children.
Please check out
my mother's site at My Great Mom
THE BEST BOOK ON ANGELS:An Inquiry Into the
Existence of Guardian Angels (A Journalist's Investigative
Report)
This is the definitive book on angels, required reading
for anyone who wants to know if they are "real". Pierre Jovanovic was a
French reporter for magazines such as Match. He was more comfortable
attending press conferences by Bill Gates than thinking about spiritual
matters. Until his life was saved from a sniper's bullet, seemingly by
an angel.
Pierre had to know for his own peace of mind if angels
are real, or a cultural myth. This is the best book on angels I have
ever read. He concludes that angels are "real, powerful, and often
quite funny."
Betty and her publisher
visited me after "Embraced By the Light" was released by a small
California press. They said that they wanted my help in introducing
Betty's vision to a national market. She asked me to write the
introduction to the book. I felt strongly that Betty's message would
help thousands struggling to understand their own faith and personal
visions, and I was honored to help her.
It went on to be an
international best seller. Betty returned the favor by introducing my
book Parting Visions, and even sharing with my readers some
experiences she had not previously disclosed.
Not exactly my cup of tea, until I realized that Dr.
Weiss has an excellent reputation as a psychiatrist and was Chairman of
Psychiatry at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami. I met him
several times at various conferences and spent a few hours talking with
him. He comes across as a thoughtful and sincere man, often discussing
himself the absurdity of someone with his training doing past life
therapy. Regardless of what you think of past lives, it is clear he is
an extraordinary clinician and is a major force for GOOD.
A good
friend of mine, also a psychiatrist, told me a similar story. He said
that he thought psychiatrists who studied this sort of thing were
perhaps even unethical, until one of his patients disclosed to him an
alien abduction scenario. Once we understand that memory is stored out
of the body, and we can interact with a conscious universe, these sorts
of confusions over the "truth" of past lives and channeling will be
cleared up.
I love to give Raymond a hard time about his research
methods. He doesn't mind. He is the most unassuming and wonderful man
I have ever met. I am honored that Elizabeth Kubler Ross wrote the
forward to Life After Life for Raymond, and then he wrote the
forward for my book Closer to the Light.
Raymond
interviewed me after I published an article in the American Medical
Associations journal, on near death experiences. He flew to Seattle,
and I asked him to stay with me. He declined, not wanting to intrude,
and we thought he would be staying at some fancy hotel as he was so
famous.
When I picked him up at his hotel, I was horrified to
realize he was at one of the airport's most disreputable hotels.
Raymond had no idea, and was so deep in his thoughts, he didn't
notice.
I insisted he come home with me, and we spent the next
three days straight talking about near death experiences. I even went
to the emergency room for sick patients, and he came along, the two of
us non-stop talking. He called his agent from the lobby in the ER, and
arranged for me to write Closer to the Light
Bereavement
Chatrooms for everyone, from ones dealing with the death of a
spouse, a sibling, one for teenagers, hospice workers and more.
Americans for Better
Care of the Dying is a nonprofit organization dedicated to social,
professional, and policy reform with regards to the care of dying
patients.
Crisis, Grief and
Healing: Tom Golden, a Grief Counselor, runs this excellent site.
There are essays about grief, chat rooms, a message board, and how to
order his outstanding books on grief. Anyone struggling with grief
should visit this site.
THE HEALING
PLACE is a fascinating site that blends the healing of grief with
discussions of myth, magic, afterlife experiences, altered states of
consciousness and grief counseling.
VISIONS OF THE
BEREAVED: Kay Woods was inspired to study after death communications
after the death of her son. She did her Master's Thesis on these
visions of the bereaved, and then turned that research into a popular
book.If you want to support serious research which will result in real
change in our approach to death and dying, please buy her
book!
Roy's son Ben
committed suicide at Age 16. This site describes a beautiful
after death communication.
NDEWEB Leroy was told in
his NDE to teach LOVE. This site is about the meaning of NDEs. I loved
it.
AFTERLIFE SECRETS
REVEALED! A National Inquirerer style headline, with New York Times
caliber content. He was just featured as a top NDE site by Newsweek.
Kevin has excellent summary pages for the major researchers.
Bhakti Yoga and
NDEs This is a German language site. Far too often, when we think
of NDEs, we think of the Euro-American version, of floating out of a
tunnel, into a bright light. NDEs and Bhakti philosophy contain many
similar points, and Gaurahari feels that they are proof of the subtle
material body as described in the Vedas.
NEAR DEATH RESEARCH
FOUNDATION This is a very complete site. It has personal
experiences as well as a complete list of links to the major
sites.
Goran Grip is a Swedish Anesthesiologist who lectures
on near death experiences. He once told me the difference between
American and Swedish medicine. He nicked a patient's lung while
inserting a line into his heart. He felt terrible and sat a the
patient's bedside for the additional days the man had to stay because of
Grip's mistake. The man thanked him and told him what a wonderful
doctor he was. In America, he would have been sued.
This is a
Swedish language site. Goran speaks English, so you can email him in
English. He has translated Kubler-Ross's and my books into Swedish,
amoung others.
Phyllis writes fascinating books containing a lot of
information that cannot be found anywhere else. She is the daughter of
a policeman, and is thorough and meticulous in her collection of
stories. I am also interested in an article she wrote years ago in
which she describes crime victims as psychically anticipating their
crimes, in advance. This was years before Dean Radin's research at the
University of Las Vegas, and the best selling book "The Gift of Fear".
I wrote the introduction to one of her books and have endorsed others.
She is definately ahead of the curve.
Phyllis has had an NDE,
believes in reincarnation and is New Age all the way. My friend says
that Phyllis is his favorite near death researcher. He is an
investigative journalist and has interviewed them all. I have often
told him that I love Phyllis's books but can't really understand her a
lot of the time. He replied "Men are from Mars. Women from Venus.
Phyllus from Saturn. Normal that no man can understand her"
I wrote the forward to
DIANE MORRISSEY'S book Anyone Can See The Light.
It is a "how to" manual for having out-of-body experiences while
sleeping. Her techniques are very simple and only require a little
practice each night.
I first met Diane at a radio interview in LA.
I had never met her before, but the host told me that the station had
lined up someone who had had an NDE to be on the air with me. He asked
how I would know if she had an authentic NDE. I told him, "because she
won't be able to wear a watch without it breaking all the time". The
host's jaw dropped when he asked Diane and she told him that watches
don't work on her!
BRUCE
MOEN learned to access afterlife realities when he attended the
Monroe Institute in 1992. He has written several interesting books on
his experiences. He writes: "The perceptual skills required to explore
the Afterlife are so ridiculously simple the hardest part is believing
you’re doing it."
In volume 9 of the newsletter, I quote
Shamanism expert Timothy Green as saying virtually the same thing, that
it is far easier to have a non-near death experience than most people
realize. Moen has never had an NDE, but will show you how to have a
very similar experience.
LIGHT
HEARTS is the website and publishing company of Elisabeth Hallett.
She is a writer and mother devoted to understanding pre-birth
communications. These are the intuitions and perceptions that mothers
have about their growing child within the womb. Her book, Soul
Trek is about meeting our children on their way to birth.
She
also has an excellent section on the spectrum of post partum depression.
She is a Wise Woman of the Web, and describes herself as an artist, not
a scientific researcher.
Love and Light:
Natalie is a psychic and radio talk show host. I loved being on her
show and was very impressed with her interactions with her callers. She
had a near death experience which has resulted in her psychic
gifts.
Dr.
Hameroff is an Anesthesiologist at the University of Arizona. He
studies microtubules in the brain, protein skeleton networks which may
be our link with non-local reality.
Michael Brown is a London physicist with a strong
interest in understanding the neurophysiology of how the brain can
interact with non-local reality. His site is excellent in that he
explains the concept of non-local reality as physicist. He has great
links to other cutting edge science-consciousness sites.
CARLOS ALVARADO is a Puerto Rican parapsychologist who
has done some of the best research on out-of-body states. This site is
for serious scientists only. He used phrases such as "the results of
the anlysies of OBE frequency and OBE control seem consistent with
Blackmore's theoretical model of the OBE which assumes that practice in
the changing of the cognitive maps should affect the content of the
OBE". I think this means that the research shows that you are not
really floating out of your body, which of course makes me happy as that
is my finding as well.
The
Scientific and Medical Network is a cutting edge British
organization of mainstream scientists and physicians dedicated to
consciousness research. Their journal is the only one close to mine in
terms of range of subjects included in studying scientific aspects of
consciousness research. Their mission is to deepen understanding in
science and medicine by fostering both rational and intuitive insights.
They are roughly the British counterpart to the (American) Society of
Scientific Exploration. Be warned! Their journal is dense and richly
referenced.
THE NATIONAL
INSTITUTE OF DISCOVERY SCIENCE is dedicated to studying both UFOs
and the survival of consciousness after death. It is an eclectic
assortment of top scientists, politicians, and thinkers. Jim Whinnery's
research on pilots who have experimentally induced NDEs is on the site,
as well as an article by me on where consciousness research needs to go
next.
THE CENTER FOR INTEGRATED STUDIES OF PUERTO RICO is dedicated to the
study of consciousness and paranormal research. Carlos Alvarado is one
of the top researchers. He has written numerous scientific papers on
out of body experiences, lucid dreams, and a wide variety of
parapsychological topics in journals such as The American Society for
Psychical Research.
The British Psychological
Association takes a particular interest in survival and
transpersonal issues. Check out their transpersonal section. They also
have a psychologist on call just in case you are in a spiritual
emergency!
The Best Book on
Pediatric Massage is written by one of my patient's Mom Mary Fuhr,
and Kathy Drehobl. They discuss every aspect of massaging Pediatric
patients, including working with the child with special needs. Their
chapter on working with dying children, and how touch can help to break
down the barriers of isolation that often surround a terminal illness is
excellent. I am proud that they asked me to write the introduction to
it.
LISTENING RETREATS are run by the Pauline Oliveras Foundation.
They are dedicated to teaching Deep Listening, the connection with the
Universe of sound and learning to process what one hears. All sorts of
listening is encouraged, sounds, dreams, and silence. My Mom loves
these retreats. They are for the musically inclined.
